Lessons in Sports, Life & Business (Part 1)

In Be Quick – But Don’t Hurry: Finding Success in the Teachings of a Lifetime, another book on Edoc’c reading list, author Andrew Hill details some of the top lessons he learned from one of (UCLA) basketball’s most well-known coaches, Coach John Wooden.

Wooden’s philosophy can inform every entrepreneur on successful teamwork and self-discipline. Here are 4 concepts I took away from the book that are in alignment with Edoc’s culture.

1. Enjoy the entrepreneurial journey

One message that was loud and clear in the book is that whatever you’re doing, you have to make sure you’re enjoying the process. Do what it takes to ensure you are doing your best—but enjoy the ride.

To this point, Hill writes in the book that Wooden’s most satisfying season was not one that ended with a national title.

“More than fifty years after his first season at UCLA in 1948– 49, Coach still considers that first squad one of his most satisfying, despite the fact that they did not go on to postseason success.” That team was actually picked to finish last that year.

Instead, they won 22 games and a conference title.

No national title, but Wooden still regards it as one of his proudest achievements, and perhaps his favorite season of all. “Winning was a by-product of effort, not an end product,” Hill adds when describing Wooden’s thoughts on that season.

Just as sports is about more than just winning, business is about much more than profit or “success”—though no one where in the book are those words about business directly articulated. Instead, Hill and Wooden suggest that “winning must be about more than just winning and losing games.”

The same can be said for business: it’s about more than just the “game” of business and making a profit: it’s about the journey—one filled with purpose. Along the way, we should be growing as individuals, as a team, and as an organization.

2. Be quick, but don’t hurry

“Be quick, but don’t hurry” is a phrase that Wooden would say quite often with his players. But there was good reason: “It was Coach’s mantra,” says Hill. “Life, like basketball, must be played fast— but never out of control.”

This can resonate with many business leaders and entrepreneurs who some may say tend to be…well, impatient.

The idea is that is you hurry, you are likely to make mistakes. But, at the same time in business, if you are too slow to move, you simply won’t get things done. You won’t be responsive enough. You won’t adapt fast enough. You want be agile enough to respond as well as you could. “If an attorney isn’t a quick thinker, he could lose a case,” writes Hill. It’s a point that isn’t just about how individuals think and act, it’s also about how we work with others.

Hill argues that, “Nothing holds back progress and deflates morale more than the slow and never-ending ‘maybe.’” To his point, it’s true that the idea of “maybe” can be a bit stiffing and can hold back a team.

The larger message: be intentional with your responses and with how you communicate your decisions. You want to do whatever you can to empower others to move forward, not to deflate them or to hold them back from achievement.

Applying this concept to his own work, Hill says that in his many years in the TV industry, one of the best decisions he was able to make was the decision to respond as quickly as he could to creative materials. He recognized that “when a creative person has handed their work to you, they are on pins and needles until they hear if you like what they’ve done.” By getting them feedback in a timely manner, he was able to empower and help advance the work of those around him.

Check back in for part two.