Customer Reviews

Beyond Success - The 15 Secrets to Effective Leadership and Life Based on Legendary Coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success

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Coach John Wooden of UCLA will always be remembered for the quality of the character he helped build, as well as the quality of the team play that emerged. Most NBA teams today would have trouble emulating the team effectiveness of Coach Wooden's basketball squads. This book does a superb job of capturing the philosophy and practices behind Coach Wooden's success, and translating it into what can be done in other spheres of life, such as work. Anyone can learn or be reminded of important lessons from this book that will provide much personal satisfaction and accomplishment.

Coach Wooden's philosophy started with something his father taught him at a young age. "Never compare yourself to others." From that, he learned to appreciate that there is a victory in making the most out of your talents when they are small, as well as when you achieve a victory in competition over another person or team.

He translated this idea into helping each player feel successful. This was an inner feeling from the "self-satisfaction of knowing we'd given our best to become the best of what we were capable." It was a long time before Coach Wooden's philosophy and skills developed to the point that he routinely produced championship teams on the court. But his players always had the joy of winning from having developed themselves in the context of the team.

This approach also works well in establishing high-level performance because of the Pygmalion effect -- "the transformative power of expectation." Experiments have shown that if teachers think that a child is bright, the child will perform like a bright child. By treating everyone as though they have high potential, you will usually find they have great, untapped potential. "There are no overachievers; we all have an almost infinite supply of potential."

Coach Wooden's personal creed is an important part of being a successful leader: (1) Be true to yourself (2) Make friendship a fine art (3) Make each day your masterpiece (4) Build a shelter against a rainy day (5) Help others (6) Drink deeply from good books (7) Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Here are the 15 collaborative elements of Coach Wooden's approach. Just reading the list will not get the points across. You need the discussions of what these terms mean and how to apply them that are in the book. Also, Mr. Biro has done a nice job of rounding out the basketball experiences with many examples from other areas of endeavor and life.

#1 Industriousness (this should complement and not detract from a sense of balance in life)

#2 Enthusiasm (needs to be combined with industriousness to permit "strict attention to little details")

#3 Friendship

#4 Loyalty

#5 Cooperation

#6 Self-Control ("dedication to repetition" was a feature of his practices)

#7 Alertness (opportunities come at unexpected times)

#8 Initiative

#9 Intentness (how can I contribute so my effort will work for the team?)

#10 Condition (physical, mental, moral, and emotional)

#11 Skill (flexible visualization)

#12 Team spirit

#13 Poise (very critical in the final 5 minutes of a game)

#14 Confidence (look for ways to win, even when things look dark)

#15 Competitive Greatness (rising to the occasion by focusing on what you want, as great relay teams have often done).

I hope you will read and enjoy this book, share it with others, and apply it to your life, your family, and your work. You will find no better role model of a team coach than this one.

If you are likely to be in a position of coaching children in the future, you may also want to read Ken Blanchard's new book, High Five! It will give you some other useful insights into helping youngsters.

May you always be justly filled with that internal feeling of self-satisfaction described here!

I have read literally hundreds of books on topics like leadership, team building, motivation and the like. Beyond Success is clearly one of the best. It is packed full of extremely useful and practical leadership and coaching skills. If more people used Brian's tactics and strategies for building a stronger team in the workplace and a stronger family at home, our lives would be much better balanced...and we would be better people because of it. I've attended Brian's seminars before and the impact he has on people is truly remarkable, and that is because his message has both passion and practicality. One without the other will not move anyone to action, but this book has both in great abundance. If you read this book, you will understand specific actions you need to take to significantly boost your productivity in all facets of your life. I can't recommend it enough.

I've always admired John Wooden's work as a leader of men. I have his Pyramid of Success on my office wall. Mr. Biro's work has brought the building bricks of the pyramid into focus for me. This a well written work that reaches far beyond the "self help" genre. It was very well organized, inspirational and motivating.

Throughout the history of athletic competition, John Wooden is among the greatest coaches. According to those with whom he has had extensive personal contact, he is a great human being. Upon first glance, his "Pyramid of Success" seems so simple-minded, so obvious. (At least that was my first reaction when he sent a copy to me many years ago.) Live and learn. Nonetheless, ours is a society in constant search of "secrets" to success. "Keys" to unlock "doors" of opportunity. Short-cuts. "Faster" and "easier" ways to get wherever...to accomplish whatever. In this immensely readable as well as valuable book, Biro skillfully correlates John Wooden's personality and character with his career as a basketball coach and life since retirement. Coach Wooden found neither "secrets" nor "short-cuts" to success at U.C.L.A. On the contrary, his teams began to win a series of national championships only after several mediocre seasons. What is especially noteworthy is that the values on which Coach Wooden's "Pyramid of Success" are based are essentially the same values he had as a school and college player...and the same values by which he was guided when he began to coach high school teams in Indiana. How relevant are these values today? Examine your own life. You'll find the answer there.

I have always respected the tremendous success of John Wooden and his Pyramid of Success. The UCLA basketball coach who won 10 NCAA Championships in twelve years demonstrated his successful system not by winning basketball games, but by inspiring and directing his players to perform at their highest level and achieve greatness by doing their best.

Brian Biro's book is based on Wooden's Pyramid of Success. In his book, Biro effectively describes and identifies each building block, starting with the key foundations of industriousness and enthusiasm. Biro then illustrates these qualities with entertaining anecdotes of his work as a swimming coach, businessperson, and "life coach."

While Biro's name does not have the prestige of Wooden, he is able to write an entertaining and informative description of Wooden's principles. Moreover, Biro provides the reader with a few useful tips and exercises to help us realize our potential.
In addition to quoting from Wooden, Biro also seems to rely on the work of Tony Robbins as well.

Most readers will appreciate this book. While nothing in here is groundbreaking or revolutionary, it encapsulates the keys to success in any endeavor. You will enjoy it.

What a great book! Brian has PASSION for helping and motivating people to success. His style is both warm and uplifting. I love the stories in this book. Brian teaches you how to find meaningful motivation. A must read!

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated

I have always been a sceptic of the books located in the "self help" section of bookstores. But a friend bought me Brian Biro's book Beyond Success for my birthday and told me i HAD to read it. I didn't plan on it but one day i was lying in bed, and i looked over on my nightstand, and i saw the book there. I decided to give it a try. By the first chapter of this amazing book, i was hooked. Brian Biro is one of the most talented and inspirational author out there today. I HIGHLY recommend this book all people. Parents should read it to their children, teenagers should read it, everone should!!This author if not yet, will definetly become a bestselling author in the near future.

An incredible man I was lucky enough to see and meet at my Passion Party convention! Fabulous book!

I attended one of Brian Biro's 'Beyond Success' seminars back in the late 90's and the content of that seminar is simliar to what is in his book. Brian is a master storyteller, and the book is loaded with true stories of how he became a better leader. The Wooden examples are excellent, content is logically organized, and it flows very well, making it an easy read. This is a highly inspirational, but also very practical, book. After reading it, I adopted what I learned and applied it to managing people, youth sports coaching, and even personal relationships. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in improving as a leader or understanding the keys to successful leadership.

I've always been a big fan of basketball coach John Wooden . . . not
only because of the winning record he amassed at UCLA, but also
because of the way he both coached and taught.

So over the years, I've tried to read as much as much about him
as I could find . . . yet somehow I had missed Brian D. Biro's book,
BEYOND SUCCESS; i.e., until
just recently when I had the pleasure of personally meeting with
the author and he most graciously gave me a copy.

What a gift!

Biro, one of the nation's foremost speakers on leadership and
team-building, actually had access to Wooden . . . he got to
interview him and then based what he wrote on Wooden's Pyramid
of Success.

Yet what made this such a winner for me was the fact that
Biro also brought his own examples and activities, including
this one that really caught my attention:

* The Personal Victory Exercise

1. Write a brief description of five to ten of your greatest personal
victories.

2. Create your own personal victory anchor.

3. Visualize the event as if it were actually happening right now.

4. Meet with a friend and share your personal victories with
this person.

5. Try firing your personal victory anchor when you're in a neutral
frame of mind and notice the emotional impact.

6. Add at least one personal victory to your list each day for
thirty days and repeat steps 1 through 5.

I also like how he constantly incorporated Wooden's own
philosophies and words; e.g.:

* It's amazing how much can be accomplished when no one
cares who gets the credit.

In addition, Biro introduced me to individuals and stories I had
never read about in the many other motivational books I've read
in my life . . . you'll be inspired by the tales about Elzea
Bufier and Yves LaForest and, also, the thrilling account of how
an underdog US. swimming relay team beat West Germany
in the Olympics.

Lastly, I learned an important key to visualization that I had
never seen before:

* The fifth and final fundamental of effective visualization is not one
I have read in books or heard in seminars. Instead, it is something
I have observed in others and felt within myself. We give our visualizations
their greatest strength when we fill them with people we love and care
about. This is the single most powerful way to enliven your visualizations
with emotional clout.

Don't negate BEYOND SUCCESS because you think it is only about
basketball . . . though the sport is often mentioned, this fine book
has applications to business, education and just about any other
field you can name . . . I look forward to sharing it with my students,
as well as with my daughter and future son-in-law.