At first, I thought this was going to be another dull motivational book that I would have to read for my Christian Leadership class. But after reading it, I discovered that Wooden was much more interesting.

John Wooden was UCLA’s basketball coach for 12 years. During that time, he produced teams that won 10 national championships, and seven in a row. The book is filled with stories from his life. Coach Wooden describes the lessons he learned as he encountered many obstacles.

John Wooden presents points of view that we do not tend to think about. One is that we cannot give a 110 percent effort in what we do. We only have 100 percent to give and all of that cannot go toward one activity – like basketball. We must dedicate our time to other things, too. For instance, I have to spread my effort between schoolwork, clubs, sports, and family.

John Wooden also provides his pyramid to success. It has 15 characteristics in a specific order to gain success. There are many other life lessons to learn from this book.

Wooden is more than a motivational book; it is actually a series of John Wooden’s life experiences. The author doesn’t ask readers to analyze their life in relation to the book, as some motivational books do, but these lessons can be applied to anyone’s life. My class connected the pyramid of success to our lives by creating our own pyramid. Wooden inspires his readers by example rather than simply asking questions about life.