Of Basketball, of John Wooden and of Life

I played basketball when I was young, I played a lot of basketball, at a competitive league, in school - elementary, middle school, JV, varsity; I spent hours on a daily basis on a basketball court. I don't play anymore, in fact I haven't played competitive basketball (other than pick-up games) since I turned 18 years old (I went to a Division I university, one with a pretty good basketball program - not that I would've had a chance in Division III anyway).

I always look back and think about what that time investment gave me... and today I believe it gave me a lot. Beyond the physical exercise and the camaraderie, competitive/organized basketball provides a lot of very good things for later in life. It taught me to be unselfish, to understand how far true teamwork can take you, it gave me enough experiences to understand that sharing success with others is better than sharing success by yourself.   It teaches you the meaning of competition - that feeling of having an opponent yet knowing that their excellence is nothing more than a goal/target for yourself to improve; and for when that success is reached it then means so much more.   It teaches you that actions have reactions- both in the good sense and the in the bad sense; the unwritten code of behaviour that says that everything we do is not in a vacuum and that it has consequences.  Lastly, among so many other things, it teaches you that hard work gets you closer to any goal you may have, there is no such thing as a free lunch, hard work is as necessary in life as it is on a basketball court.


I could write for hours of the many things that basketball gives players or coaches...but, I want to get to John Wooden, the legendary UCLA coach who yesterday died four months before his 100th birthday. While I never met him and never saw him coach (I was born the day before he coached his last game at UCLA - winning the national championship against Kentucky on 3/31/75), I've read about him and followed him for quite some time. I always struck me how a nice and humble person had been so successful, in fact the most successful college basketball coach (arguably on any sport) of all time. Just scratching the surface of his thoughts provides a lot of insight as to how this man was so successful in trade and in life - I would say as successful in LIFE as anyone can be, here are some of his quotes:

• Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.
• Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
• If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.
• It isn't what you do, but how you do it.
• Never mistake activity for achievement.
• Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
• Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
• Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
• The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.
• You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
• Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.

He also shared thoughts from his father: "The Seven Point Creed"

• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

He wrote various books, which will become more popular now... and perhaps his main one was based on something he instilled on his UCLA players: the Pyramid of Success (which also has an application for life) - the attributes required to be a winner on the court and in life.
 
I have no doubt John Wooden would have been successful in anything he set out to do - he was successful as a husband, father, grandfather, friend, basketball coach, author, lecturer, among others.... in the same way he would have been successful as a CEO or even as a politician (maybe not, he was too nice , :)). 
 
May he rest in peace and may his teachings and examples which are applicable on the court as off the court (for basketball as in life) serve various generations in the future.

A special point about doing business or the creation of wealth

There are a lot of "exchanges" in society that can potentialy create value, but, they not always happen due to miopic thinking by one of the parties.

The first point in a business exchange should always be about creating value - can we combine our assets/strengths in a way that we can create value for a third party? If value is created, then it should be shared between those creating it - the problem is that necessarily the question about splitting the value comes up and it ususally leads to conflicts that then eliminate the possibility for an exchange.

Its the same between employees and owners, debtholders and equityholders, or even between rich and poor in society.

Having an understanding of the concept of fairness and transparency helps the negotiating parties to pie-enhancing situations in a way that both parties are better off doing the transaction than not doing it. Of course, different views of fairness or of relative contributions could also hamper the value creating initiatives.

On religions, nationalism

I used to be a very nationalistic person growing up, and my feelings towards that happen to be the same as they are today about religion.

I feel that there are simply two routes to tolerance and peaceful living for human beings:

1) Preferred but impractical (hard to believe everyone can achieve this and even a minority not achieving it can create problems): go beyond our borders to learn about other people's culture and/or religion, and understand them as we do our own. Only doing that will we grow to respect them and enrich our own views.
2) The only practical solution in today's world (because of the inability to do the above): Leave culture and religion in a second degree to a secular/global vision of the world (probably following a liberal mindset) where we put our commonalities ahead of our differences and we see ourselves as citizens of the world (and not of a particular country or members of a particular religion).

Second Life: A good introspection into society...

There was an article in NYT on Second Life, the online digital world and I thought it was pretty significant how much (just thinking about it) expands our thinking horizons. It essentially allows for a better understanding of our own world ( in my mind). As people log-in, societies are born. At some point they will also start to look for ways to organize - socially and economically. The exchange of goods and services take root, money is born, markets are born. Perhaps people would like to establish rules that would regulate their lives, and entrust the making (and enforcing) of those rules on some people in particular, and governments are born... and perhaps citizenships are granted... we get the message, I think it is fascinating to think about the possibilities within that digital world - it takes me back to 2000, when while in El Sitio, a 3D world was created (I thought about this endless world of possilbities), but with dial-up internet in LatAm, it was far ahead of its time:

Excerpts from the article:
When people are given the opportunity to create a fantasy world, they can and do defy the laws of gravity (you can fly in Second Life), but not of economics or human nature. Players in this digital, global game don’t have to work, but many do. They don’t need to change clothes, fix
their hair, or buy and furnish a home, but many do. They don’t need to have drinks in their hands at the virtual bar, but they buy cocktails anyway, just to look right, to feel comfortable.


"What does Second Life say about us, that we trade our consumerist-oriented culture for one that’s even worse?"


Second Life, a three-dimensional world built by hundreds of thousands of users over the Internet, is also being used for education, meetings, marketing and more obvious game playing.


Many residents have lived the American dream in Second Life, and built Linden-dollar fortunes through entrepreneurship.

You use a credit card to buy Lindens, and Lindens earned during the game can be converted back into dollars via online currency exchanges
Nobody can go hungry, there is no actual need for warmer clothes or shelter, and there is much to do without buying Lindens.


Big corporations like Toyota have set up islands in Second Life for marketing. Calvin Klein came up with a virtual perfume. Kraft set up a grocery store featuring its new products. But those destinations are not popular.
"These brands that have this real-world cachet are meaningless in Second Life, so most are ignored


But the more mundane items are what really drive the economy: clothes, gadgetry, night life, real estate. "People buy these huge McMansions in Second Life that are just as ugly as any McMansions in real life, because to them that is what’s status-y," Mr. Wallace said. "It’s not as easy as we think to let our imaginations run wild, in Second Life or in real life."

Land is the biggest-ticket item in Second Life, with Linden Lab selling islands for $1,675, plus a $295-a-month maintenance charge.)


"The money is in the real-looking stuff: making skins with red lips and smoky eyes, and stiletto boots," said Ms. Hawkins, the Second Life fashion writer. First comes something popular, then the knockoffs. Soon everyone has one. "People go for similar looks and similar things," she said.


you think in Linden dollars. When something is expensive, even though it comes out to a few dollars, a lot of people don’t want to spend that much money."


Although Linden dollars can be bought with a credit card, there is evidence that the in-world economy is self-sustaining, with many players compelled to earn a living in-world and live on a budget.
Surprisingly, many take on low-paying jobs. They work as nightclub bouncers, hostesses, sales clerks and exotic dancers for typical wages of 50 to 150 Linden dollars an hour, the equivalent of 19 to 56 cents. A recent classified ad stated: "I am looking for a good job in SL. I am sick of working off just tips." This job seeker listed potential occupations as landscaper, personal assistant, actor, waitress and talent scout.
Second Life players are evidently discovering what inheritors have struggled with for generations: It’s not as much fun to spend money you haven’t earned. Apparently, despite the common lottery-winning fantasies, all play and no work is a dull game, after all.
"People don’t take jobs just for the money," said Dan Siciliano, who teaches finance at Stanford Law School and has studied the economies of virtual worlds. "They do it to feel important and be rewarded."


It’s not just vanity that drives people to dress up in Second Life. It’s also seen as good for business. Ms. Fitzpatrick, the landlady, says she doesn’t really care about how her avatar looks. But she cares about what prospective tenants think. "I felt I had to go, finally, and buy the hair and the suit," she said, "or my customers might think I’m too weird."



THE stock exchanges and banks in SL are imposing, but they are unregulated and unmonitored. Investors fed Linden dollars into savings accounts at Ginko Financial bank, hoping to earn the promised double-digit interest. Some did, but in July there was a run on the bank and panic spread as Ginko A.T.M.’s eventually stopped giving depositors their money back. The bank has since vanished. With no official law and order in Second Life, investors have little recourse.



Some Second Life residents are calling for in-world regulatory agencies — the user-run Second Life Exchange Commission has just begun operating — and some expect real-world institutions to become involved as the Second Life population and economy expands. "It’s a horse race as to whether the I.R.S. or S.E.C. will start noticing first," Mr. Duranske said. ■