JOHN WOODEN'S PYRAMID OF SUCCESS

I adopted John Wooden's  Pyramid of Success and his leadership philosophy  during my attendance at UCLA more than thirty years ago and starting in June 1975.   For me,  John Wooden's Pyramid of Success laid out a solid foundation for my leadership philosophy during my twenty-six years of military service.  I continue to refer to the Pyramid of Success to improve myself through lifelong learning.  While attending Los Angeles City College in preparation for UCLA, John Wooden's Pyramid of Success contains his original definition of success given as follows:

"SUCCESS is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

Although not always successful, I tried to follow this philosophy throughout my career and life.

Because I am a huge fan of John Wooden, I have most of his books and some can be found at my webpage by clicking here to locate his book on Leadership.  The book is relatively new and is now my favorite book on John Wooden's Pyramid of Success. 

As early as 1989 while attending Air Command and Staff College that is equivalent to training for senior management, I planned to write about John Wooden's Pyramid of Success and how it applies to leadership. 

Although I never had the opportunity to meet with John Wooden, I did write to him during my tour at Eglin AFB in 1994.    I wrote a short letter  just to thank him for developing the Pyramid of Success and how it helped me while serving in the Air Force.  I also wrote how I used the John Wooden's Pyramid of Success as a teaching tool about leadership while I was stationed at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) as well as after my assignment at USAFA.  I also used John Wooden's Pyramid of Success as a graduation gift.

Since I did not expect him to write back because of his busy schedule.  To my surprise, he wrote back with a  short note as shown below and  currently framed in my home office.  

What is even more surprising is that he wrote it on his birthday...his 84th birthday.  This act of kindness is just one indication of how humble this gentlemen is and we need more people like him.    During the summer of 2007, I wrote him again to get permission to present selected online  videos to talk about the various blocks found in John Wooden's Pyramid of Success and using selected video clips with John Wooden talking the Pyramid's blocks.  I put together a presentation based on his DVD, the Pyramid of Success.  I am currently awaiting his staff's response. 

I had another opportunity to write a book about John Wooden's Pyramid of Success during the mid 1995-96 while attending the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (equivalent to executive training for a CEO of a large organization).  As before, I wanted to again write about  the leadership style  and how I used John Wooden's Pyramid of Success during my career,  but Coach Wooden beat me to it.  And that's ok, because I would rather have the master of leadership do it anyway and talk about his Pyramid of Success as a leadership tool.    Although this may be wishful thinking on my part, maybe somehow I planted a seed to John Wooden to write a book about leadership back in 1994.   In addition, Coach John Wooden is also an admirer and avid reader about Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa...fans of mine also.

Since my retirement of the Air Force in July 2003, I have been an invited speaker for a number of community events, including Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.    In one of my speaking engagements,  I had an opportunity to present John Wooden's Pyramid of Success.  Before presenting John Wooden's Pyramid of Success, I presented the following slide show at Peterson AFB and at Fort Carson as described below:

Other items you may be interested:

•    Asian-Pacific Americans - a powerpoint slide show in Acrobat pdf format based on the above video.
•    Leadership, Diversity, and Unity,  - a powerpoint and multimedia presentation given at Fort Carson and Peterson Air Force Base (in Acrobat pdf format).
•   John Wooden's Pyramid of Success on Leadership (see image below and pdf format)
•   Link to the Official Website of Coach John Wooden.
•   Link to Quotes from John Wooden

Complete and powerpoint version of the Pyramid of Success based on John Wooden's original Pyramid of Success.  You can modify the Pyramid by putting a name at the top and use it for example as a graduation gift.