We open up or close the gates on the road ahead or the road behind

“Don’t whine, don’t complain and don’t make excuses. Just get out there, and whatever you’re doing, do it to the best of your ability.”

How’s that for an intro… It’s a quote from one of my favorite TED talks…

If you have not yet been introduced to TED, please take the time to get acquainted some time this fall or winter. Take your time for it, there is no rush for once… “he” will still be there in a couple of weeks, months or even years. But he’s a great companion for some of the cold, rainy days that lay ahead… when it’s too cold and wet to go outside and for when you have some time to spare. Because when you take the time for TED you’ll be introduced to some rare pearls of wisdom, pure genious, motivational & inspiring thoughts. He’s got some for all people from all walks of life…

John Wooden was my ticket into the wonderful world of TED.com… I’m passionate about people, communication and sports and he offered me so much of his wisdom accumulated over many decades on these topics in less than 20 minutes. We’ve all shared the experience of patiently listening to older people sharing their thoughts. Usually by the time they’ve finished their first sentence we would have sent out 4 text messages, answered 1 whatsapp, befriended 2 more people at Facebook, retweeted 3 tweets and checked out 7 new instagram pics…. However forget about that during this talk. He might have been in his early nineties during this talk, but if you want to follow his train of thoughts during the next 20 minutes you better fasten your seatbelts and hold on tight…

John Wooden, aka “Coach” , is considered to be the most successful basketball coach, ESPN even named him the best coach ever in any sport. He coached and teached for 40 years (!) at UCLA  in the US and taught many generations about  the difference between winning and succeeding. Don’t forget to turn on the subtitles if he’s going to fast for you ;)

 

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