John Wooden's pyramid of success: what it is and what it proposes

John Wooden's pyramid of success is a model in which we talk about the values ​​necessary for us to achieve everything we set out to do.. It was originally used for the sports world, with great success, which is why it spread to the business field and even in personal life.

This model has been so famous thanks to the fact that its creator, a coach of college basketball teams, achieved many victories on the court by applying his pyramid that, more than telling us what we have to do to achieve what we want, proposes us the philosophy to follow if we want to be successful in our lives.

Today we are going to delve into this pyramid of success and what are the values ​​that make it up, determining how successful a person is with everything that is proposed.

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What is the John Wooden Pyramid of Success?

John Wooden's Pyramid of Success is a role model created to improve the performance of basketball players. With the passage of time, this pyramid crossed the playing fields,

becoming not only a very useful model in other sports but also applied to other areas, especially the business sector and personal life. It is considered one of the best tools to achieve goals, both individual and group.

It is named after its inventor, John Robert Wooden (1910-2010), a basketball team coach at the prestigious University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Under his direction, the university team won 10 of the 12 titles that were contested. Wooden did not go down in history for those triumphs, but for the philosophy behind the successes of the varsity basketball team, synthesized in the pyramid of success.

This model is not a simple guide to what to do to be successful, but rather a recommendation of what values ​​we must develop and internalize in our lives to achieve what we set out to do. For this reason it is not only applicable to the field of sports, but to many others since it marked a way of understanding life and achieving goals, whatever they may be.

John Wooden conceived of success as an iceberg, and so we can see it in his model.

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Parts and structure of the pyramid

In John Wooden's pyramid of success, there are usually five levels, although if we include the values According to their degree of importance, we can distinguish three main sectors: the base, the body and the vertex. Each one of them encompasses fundamental values ​​to be worked on if you want to achieve any objective, be it sports, work, academic, social or vital.

The base of the pyramid

At the base of the pyramid of success, also known as level 5, we find 5 components that are considered to support the rest of the structure. These are:

1. Industriousness

The way to be successful in anything is work. It is necessary to invest effort in what we want to achieve. Industry is a fundamental value, the first that should be acquired and applied if it is to be successful. Constant work is a requirement to achieve everything we set out to do.

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2. Enthusiasm

The conviction and desire to do what is done they are fundamental aspects to be successful in what we have proposed. These two elements are components of what is called enthusiasm in John Wooden's pyramid of success model.

3. Friendship

No matter how our achievements are, there have always been other people who have helped us achieve them. Friendship is something that facilitates the achievement of any goal and purpose, even in the most formal settings such as work. Having friends increases enthusiasm, effort and perseverance towards the goal you want to achieve.

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4. Loyalty

Loyalty must be, first, with oneself, and then with other people and goals. Loyalty can be understood in this model as consistency with what you want to achieve.

5. Cooperation

Cooperation is another aspect that serves as the basis for being successful in what you want. It involves helping others and being helped. When each person becomes a powerful stimulus for others to be constant and, in turn, gets more motivation and desire to continue with what that person was doing, the goal is more likely to be reached final.

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The body of the pyramid

The second major sector in John Wooden's pyramid of success is the body. Here we would find the values ​​that help the purpose that one proposes to be maintained over time. Here we find the following 7 values, corresponding to levels 4 and 3 in most of the infographics on this pyramid:

6. Initiative

You have to have initiative, go for what you want and don't wait for it to magically come to us. Decisions must be made and an active role taken to move forward. You should never be afraid of failure, but see it as an opportunity to learn and do better next time. Those who do not try lose more than those who try and fail, because the second something takes away in the form of learning and experiences.

7. Purpose or intention

Purposefully refers to the planning necessary to achieve the goal. It would be the conscious and more or less meticulous roadmap that one must follow to achieve what has been proposed. This does not mean that it is immovable and inflexible, since the context can change and make it necessary to incorporate certain modifications to that roadmap.

8. Self-control

Self-control can be understood with make a consistent effort to maintain balance in difficult times. There will be ups and downs along the way, but if you control yourself and avoid falling into the temptation of laziness, reluctance and surrender, you will achieve much of what you set out to do.

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9. Alert

With the alert one avoids falling in the excess of confidence. It is necessary to be aware of any changes that may occur, especially when this alters our plans. Goals are not achieved until they have actually been achieved. By this we mean that no matter how close we are to it, even if we only have one step left, if we don't take it we will never be able to say that we have achieved what we had set out to do.

10. Condition

You have to prepare, learn, develop skills and alleviate weaknesses. It is essential to stay in good physical, psychological and mental shape, regardless of what the proposed goal is.

For example, if some soccer players want to win the next game, in addition to training they must control their emotions on the day of the game, prepare yourself psychologically so that despair and nerves do not play tricks on you the day you are in the game. country.

Another would be to pass the university exams. Studying you will have to study, but if you take care of your physical health, control your diet, play sports and learn to manage your emotions you will have a better chance of succeeding in the future evaluations.

11. Dexterity and ability

Every essential task for the achievement of our final goal must be practiced as if our lives were in it. Skill is the ally of success and, therefore, the tasks related to our objective should be repeated and practiced until we do them without fail, quickly and skillfully.

12. Team spirit or collaboration

Although the goal we have set ourselves is individual, the help of others will always be needed. It must be thought collectively, have team spirit and understand that the best purposes are those that benefit many other people.

The vertex of the pyramid

At the vertex, all the values ​​that we have seen up to this point converge, resulting in three features that are fundamental to achieve everything we set out to do. It corresponds to level 2 of some infographics, and contains the following values:

13. Character

In John Wooden's pyramid of success, character is understood as the strength of maintain all the values ​​of the previous sectors, in addition to cultivating and increasing them. It is also the ability to be authentic in all situations.

14. Trust

Trust is that each person must believe in their own capacities. If you do, it will be a matter of time before you also gain the trust of others, and you should never fall into pedantry.

15. Competitiveness

We can understand competitiveness by knowing how to compete, learning from moments of greatest difficulty and responding with courage and determination to challenges. The more difficult the path, the sweeter the final success.

The success

Success is the last level of the pyramid, represented graphically as the tip of the pyramid. For John Wooden, this success is summed up in the following sentence:

"Success is the peace of mind that comes as a natural result of the intimate satisfaction that comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best you are capable of being."

This success can only be judged by oneself, because each person will know if he has achieved it or not and what feelings the fact of having achieved it arouses in him.

We can glean a lot from John Wooden's pyramid of success. Among them, that you cannot reach the goal alone, that other people will always be needed, no matter how individual the goal we have set out to achieve. Cooperation with other people and team spirit are very high values ​​and useful in achieving whatever we have set out to do.

What's more, we must show enthusiasm all the way, not lose sight of the original roadmap, have a firm character and trust ourselvesThese and many other values ​​are the key to success. You should never be afraid of failing, because you always learn something from failure.