Basket Coach John Wooden was born in 1910 in Indiana. After years of coaching, He led the Bruins of UCLA to 10 victories in 12 years in the NCAA, a record in College basketball victory, and —arguably the most successful coaching and recruiting project in college basketball history.

This was not an overnight success. As Coach Wooden said, “It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would have done it.”.

Wooden arrived at UCLA in 1948. He inherited a little-known program that was not famous . He left it in 1975 as a national powerhouse  with a 620–147 overall record.

Author Cameron C. Taylor mentioned “The power of the Fundamentals” as an attribute of great achiever. And he said Coach Wooden focused and on teaching and practicing the fundamentals”..

Wooden wrote, “i believed in the basics: attention to, and perfection of, tiny details that might commonly be overlooked. They may seem trivial, perhaps even laughable to those who don’t understand, but they aren’t. they are fundamental to your progress in basketball, business and life. They are the difference between champions and near champions… There are little details in everything you do, and if you get away from the little details, you’re not teaching the thing as a whole. for it is in the little things, which taken together, make the whole. Little things make the big things happen. In fact there are no big things, only an accumulation of little things things, done at a very high standard of performance.”.

Wooden died in 2010. He left a Seven Point Creed, given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:

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

I just watched this amazing, inspirational recording he left sharing his philosophical building blocks for winning at basketball and at life.

With profound simplicity, Coach Wooden redefines success and urges us all to pursue the best in ourselves. In this inspiring talk he shares the advice he gave his players at UCLA, quotes poetry and remembers his father’s wisdom.

God bless,

Roosevelt

This was my very first spiritual retreat. It was last May 8-10, 2015 at Morningstar Renewal Center in Miami. This retreat was led by Monsignor Chanel  Jeanty, from the archdiocese of Miami, and facilitated by Father Dumarsais Pierre-Louis, from West Palm Beach.

We were 27, mostly women, from Saint Malachy in Broward and Saint Philip Neri in Miami, to participate in this event.

I hesitated to go. It conflicted with May 8, my birthday, and a couple of other professional events and speaking engagements I had at the same moment.

I made arrangement to be there on Friday and Saturday. I have been following Monsignor Jeanty’s preaching, and leadership for the last 12 months, and wanted to be part of this event to be closer to him.

I left home early to avoid the Friday South Miami traffic. I used my cell phone google map and that lady’s voice called Sirius to direct me to the place very easily.

Monsignor was already there with Mahalia and Greta, two other saint Malachy parishioners, preparing the room, names tags, setting the sound and other things.

I helped to fix the room, putting the chairs in circle instead of theater style. Then, Monsignor was playing guitar, singing, and repeating the songs on the retreat’s agenda.

I stayed in silence. Then, I went outside.

Some of Saint Malachy parishioners were arriving. They told me how difficult it was to find the place. They looked tired and went directly to their rooms.

I moved away walking alone exploring the yard. I was thinking about nothing when a young lady came around with a bright smile sitting on a bench not far from me.

She laid down her backpack and asked me if the registration has started yet.

I replied positively and told her my name. She told me her name..

She knew her way around. She invited me to visit the adoration place at the nearby church Saint-Louis. I followed her.

This place was like a monastery. I opened a huge iron, decorated  gate,  got into the room where two ladies were quietly meditating. I sat and wrote my notes.

She covered her short hair with a piece of cloth and started her adoration. Then we left the place.

I asked her about the retreat and what to expect from it. “You get from a retreat what you expect. You have to ask God what you want”, she told me.

“Talk to God as a friend, open a relationship with Him, open your heart and He will come”, she continued.

“God does the same thing, He talks to you as a brother, as a father, as a baby”, she told me with a soft smiling voice.

“Why should I invite him when He’s already everywhere”, I asked her.

“He gave us a free will to accept Him or not. We have to make the choice to accept Him”, she said telling me to  “Just by talk to Him as you talk to a friend”.

Alamania went  back to the registration table at the center. I told her I look forward to continue our conversation.

She replied “Ok” nodding her head up and down with poise and calmness.

I turned off my phone, went to my room and left it behind, and walked back to the retreat gathering.

The young lady was around. I asked her about the purpose and the sense of meaning of her life.

She responded at the speed of thought: “to love, and to radiate love to everyone”.

“Love is self-gift, love is self-sacrificing, she said.

We got into the dining room to listen to Monsignor Jeanty and Cecile talking about the retreat process and to have some food.

Monsignor Jeanty said this will be a closed retreat in silence. And “Silence means you close your mouth”, he said.

It’s Friday, May 8, 2015. It’s 6:35pm.  Monsignor Jeanty said we are officially in retreat.

I will tell you more next time.

God bless,

Roosevelt

This book has been on my bed stand lamp for the last three months. Every week I add another book on top of it postponing its reading for “pretty soon”. After listening to a live leadership talk  from its New York Times Bestselling author Chris Brady about the story of Sir Sidney Smith and the siege of Acre against Napoleon Bonaparte, I took it back to the top of my pile to read “next”.

I picked it up this morning. I was moved by the introduction and the preface. It brought back all my souvenirs with sailing, boating, and canoeing: the seamen, the captains and their awkward lives. It reminds me my classes of navigation from the the Sea and Navigation Services of Haiti and above all my actual journey as a leadership student, leader, speaker, and  of the Life Leadership community which aims at bringing leadership lessons to the masses to help them break free from the historical, financial matrix.

But, Brady’s “Leadership lessons from the age of the fighting sail” is more than that. This is in depth lessons on the art side of leadership in 11 chapters through stories of what some scholars called the age of fighting sail from the end of the 16th century with the Spanish Armada to the beginning of the 19th century with the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

These are the stories of men (few women on this time were in this endeavor) who decided to break the rules with creativity and ingenuity to raise above challenges and to create greatness. They are  sea captains who command crew of diverse background people to build empires among religious clashes, wars, and storms. They have complete authority over others, and they demonstrate extensive knowledge of men, human nature, nature, weather, winds, currents, and machines.

The need for leadership was monumental in this historic era. Brady wrote: “It is when challenges are the greatest, when pressures are the highest, when risk is at its maximum, that the real mettle of leaders is revealed”.

Leadership can be taught as science and most of its essence should be caught as art. The science side is what the market place offers as leadership training which is a little more than instruction. The art side is self-discovery which is the most difficult component to describe. ” we know it when we see it”, said Brady.

The art side of the leadership formula is what separates the good leaders from the great. How to master this art? “Experience is a large ingredient”, Brady answered adding experience must be examined, studied, sifted, and understood in order to glean its lessons and receive its full value.

The art side of leadership gains its full extent with learning from the experience of others both contemporary and historical. But what really needs to learn from others is more metaphysical than their experience per SE.

The art side of leadership gets its play around lessons caught and captured from studying successful leaders’ thought processes, their reasons, their methods of emotional controls, their strategies in dealing with other people, their subtle touches.

I invite you to dig dipper in these 11 lessons Brady shared with us from this era:

1. The Lesson of the Ripple Effect
2. The Lesson of Hunger
3. The Lesson of Initiative
4. The Lesson of the Front
5. The Lesson of Discernment
6. The Lesson of Concentration
7. The Lesson of Decentralization
8. The Lesson of Culture
9. The Lesson of the Unfair Unload
10. The Lesson of the Battle
11. The Lesson of Legacy

I like Life Leadership. This is a machine producing content in leadership, but also a sharing platform to study, examine experiences of others.

Do yourself a favor, order The “leadership lessons fro the age of fighting sail” and read it.

God bless,

Roosevelt