Achieving Greatness by Association

By Don Yaeger, Guest Author

Don Yaeger is a New York Times bestselling author and former Sports Illustrated Associate Editor. Using rich, personal accounts gathered from more than 20 years of interviews with many of today’s greatest sports legends, Don has distilled Sixteen Consistent Characteristics of Greatness that he will share as a featured keynote speaker at this year’s AACPM Professional Development Conference in Orlando, Florida.

In my 20-plus years as a writer for Sports Illustrated and author of 16 books, I have been blessed to spend hours interviewing great winners Michael Jordan, Walter Payton and Michael Phelps. Some of the best lessons I have learned, however, have come from the greatest winner of them all -- former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden who won an unprecedented 10 NCAA championships.

Recently, I was in Los Angeles to talk with Wooden about greatness and the traits of those who have achieved it. One characteristic is that the truly “great” understand the value of association. They know they can only become great if they surround themselves with others headed in that direction.

Wooden got a twinkle in his eyes and told me he had a story to share:

“Many people, when they ask me about coaching great players, always ask about my two most famous centers, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and Bill Walton,” Coach said, “But one of the greatest I have ever coached is a player many wouldn’t suspect - Swen Nader.”

I think Coach enjoyed the look of surprise on my face. I remembered Nader, but just barely. He was cut from his high school basketball team because, even at 6-foot-11, he was too clumsy to offer the team any value. He didn’t give up, though. He made a community college team and by graduation, his talent earned him several university scholarship offers.

At the time, UCLA and Wooden were in the middle of one of the most spectacular runs in all of sports, winning seven of eight national championships. That season Wooden had a new center, Walton, that everyone recognized would be a star.

Nader’s community college coach asked Wooden to consider his player. “I was told he could, at the very least, be a great practice opponent for Walton,” Wooden recalled. “So I spoke with Swen. I was honest. I told him he could go to a small school and play all the minutes he wanted. Or he could come to UCLA, where he would seldom play, but where he could practice against the best center in America.”

Nader didn’t flinch. He accepted the opportunity and, as Wooden had promised, he didn’t start a single game at UCLA.

“Swen understood that to become the best, he needed to associate himself with the best he could find,” Wooden said. “There was none better than Bill Walton.”

Or John Wooden.

When his three years at UCLA were complete, Nader had earned three championship rings playing as Walton’s backup.

Nader then made history when he became the first player selected in the first round of the NBA draft without ever starting a senior college game. He played 12 years professionally and now is vice president for COSTCO. His career, Nader told me “is absolutely and directly the result of having made the decision to associate myself with folks who were the very best. I learned that you are who you associate yourself with.”

Like Swen Nader, each of us should identify those in our professions who we can learn from, those who share our passion for greatness. While attending CPM events like the upcoming conference, introduce yourself, spend time asking and learning what other professionals do that makes them successful. Those lessons are often transferable.

Take the lessons home with you. Make your aspirations known to your staff and your colleagues because they want to associate themselves with greatness, too. You’ll be amazed how you and your organization will grow as you surround yourselves with those headed in the same direction.

At each of these steps, you’ll understand why John Wooden agreed that understanding the value of association is one of the most significant traits of greatness.

For more information on Don Yaeger, visit his website at www.donyaeger.com.

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