You might have noticed a category called "Investing Words of Wisdom" in the right sidebar on the homepage of my blog (see homepage here). I change the quotations used about once a month. Normally, the quotations are from legendary investors (such as Buffett, Templeton, etc.). But today I chose a quotation from John Wooden: "It’s the little details that are vital.
Little things make big things happen.". So you might ask, "Why a quote from John Wooden on an investing blog?"
John Wooden is not a legendary investor. But many consider him the greatest basketball coach of all time. During a twelve year period, his UCLA team won an unprecedented ten national championships. But he prided himself more as a teacher than a coach. His "Pyramid of Success" was his method of teaching his players to succeed not only in basketball, but more importantly to him, in their life.
Playing basketball was my greatest passion for a decade beginning when I was about 8 years old. My first exposure to Coach Wooden happened during the summer after my sophomore year in high school when I attended the
week-long Pocono Mountain Basketball Camp in Pennsylvania. The
highlight of that experience was the appearance of Coach Wooden after
dinner Friday night and the talk he gave to us on his ‘Pyramid of
Success’. He developed his own definition of success: “Success is peace of
mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made
the effort to do the best of which you are capable." He explained the
Pyramid to us in some detail that evening; and yes, he described how it
related to playing basketball. But the primary focus of the pyramid
really had little to do with basketball, but everything to do with how
to live our lives. Even to this day, I have a framed ‘Pyramid of
Success’ which is signed by ‘John Wooden’ hanging in front of
me above my computer desk.
"It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things
happen."--John Wooden. So how does this relate to investing success? My own Investing Pyramid of Success (read about it here)
was inspired from Coach Wooden's
Pyramid of Success. His quotation reminds me of the twelve
"edges" (analogous to the "little details" in his quote) that we can
use to achieve Covered Calls investing success (read my "Exploiting Our Covered Calls Investing "Edges" article here).
Finally, I encourage you to spend some time reading at this link dedicated to Coach Wooden. I especially recommend you spend time in
the links to "The Pyramid of Success" and also "Favorite Maxims"
(especially his Seven Point Creed).
Best Wishes and Godspeed,
Jeff
