50 maxims on leadership

I came across a book by John Wooden and there's a chapter on leadership maxims,50 altogether as follows:

Ability may get you to the top,but it takes character to stay there.
When you are through learning,you‘re through.
The journey is better than the inn.
If you're not making mistakes,you are not doing anything.
Do not let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do.

Failure to act is often the biggest failure of all.
Little things make big things happen
The best way to improve the team is to improve yourself.
You are not a failure until you start blaming others for your mistakes.
The force of character is cumulative.

The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team
Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
Don’t mistake activity for achievement.
Discipline yourself and others won’t need to.
Love is the greatest word in English. Balance is the second-greatest word.

A leader has one team, not starters and substitutes.
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
If you have done your job in preparing the team,the team is prepared to do its job in playing the game. So let them.
Be quick,but don’t hurry.
No written word nor spoken plea can teach your team what it should be.

Perfection of relevant details is silly to some,but’s it’s not funny to me.
The infection of success is often fatal.
More often than we ever suspect, the lives of others we do affect.
Define normal as abnormally high.
Play to win,but play fair.

The will to win means nothing without the will to work.
You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.
Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Happiness begins where selfishness ends.
Fear is short term; pride lasts.


There is no such a thing as an overachiever.
Do not be vulnerable to praise or criticism from outsiders.
If you don’t have time to do it right,when will you have time to do it over ?
I will get ready,and then perhaps,my chance will come.
Be more interested in finding the best way, not in having it your way.

Make sure those under your supervision feel they are working with you,not for you.
Goals achieved with little effort are seldom worthwhile or long-lasting
Time spent getting even is best spent getting ahead.
There is nothing stronger than gentleness.
Be slow to criticize. Be quick to commend.

Much more can be accomplished when no one is concerned about who gets the credit.
Agree to disagree without being disagreeable.
You must earn the right to be proud and confident.
Give credit to those who do little jobs in a big way.
You can’t make up for poor effort today by working harder tomorrow.

Heed this observation : “ Others, too, have brains.”
Don’t measure yourself by what you’ve accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your abilities.
Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.
The smallest good deed is better than the biggest intention.
A leader must have courage, including the courage to change.

Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.