“Be prepared and be honest.”
- John Wooden (1910 – 2010), legendary college basketball coach and shaper of young men
Wooden, known for making Bill Walton shave and get a haircut (and for winning 10 NCAA championships, 88 games in a row, and yadda yadda yadda), is perhaps one of the best leaders of the last two centuries.
A great coach, he had a system, a coordinated series of beliefs, two cornerstones of which are in bold italic above. Heston’s Rule #1 and #4. In harmony with the three others:
- Be reliable; prepared and ready to work!
- Be positive!
- Treat the company’s resources as if they were your own. They are.
- Be honest. Completely, transparently honest. No half-truths, no cat and mouse. Honest, candid, forthright.
- “Let’s don’t do stupid stuff.” (Thank you Bill Clay!)
Reliable? I don’t watch the clock, but I expect to know where you are and how I can help you.
Positive? It’s easy to point out all the wrong things, or stuff we’d do better if we were the boss. Get. Over. Ourselves. There are 10,000,000 people on Earth for every one who would trade places with us. Suckitup, Buttercup. Be positive.
Spend it like it’s yours, because on some level, it is. Will the burger, beer, and ballgame go just as far as the steak, lobster, and 2002 Bordeaux? Probably. Unless the deal calls for the splurge. Corollary to this one: use good judgment.
Be honest. Completely. There is no mistake so big it can’t be forgiven. There is no lie so small that it can be. Trust is trust is trust, and excellent business relationships are built on trust.
I get some crap for Rule #5, because some folks think I’m calling them stupid. I am not. Smart people do stupid things all the time. We want to be the ones that work out in advance, whether doing “X” will be brilliant or whether it will be a Rule #5 violation. Let’s avoid the latter.
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