The Pyramid of Success
John Wooden
25 blocks
"It is the engine that powers all blocks of the Pyramid. It is why I chose Industriousness and Enthusiasm as the cornerstones of my Pyramid of Success. It is where everything begins."
Block 3: Friendship
"Comes from mutual esteem, respect and devotion. Like marriage it must not be taken for granted but requires a joint effort."
Friendship is a huge part of success. Without friendship you be boring in your life. Friendship spark your enthusiasm and your motivation to keep on going. Friendly competition show the best in you making you in becoming better. You need friends to help pick you up when your down. They inspire you when your at your lowest. Friendship spark romance as well. Which is a big help in success.
Block 4: Loyalty
"To yourself and to all those depending upon you. Keep your self-respect."
Loyalty something any good person needs weather it being for friendship or a relationship loyalty is always needed. Knowing that someone has loyalty to you is something great but one little mess up and you could lose it and once you loss someone's loyalty you can pretty much never get it back fully. So if someone had given
their loyalty to you don't over do it because it's a great thing to have. Loyalty is a gift so enjoy it and don't overuse it because soon you won't be able to have it and people will have less self-respect for you.
Block 5: Cooperation
"With all levels of your co-workers. Listen if you want to be heard. Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way. "
Cooperation is the process of working together to the same end. Cooperation requires individuals to actively listen to one another, such as when someone in a relationship must understand the actions of their partner. Cooperation also involves recognizing strengths and weaknesses to improve overall result. Examples of cooperation is treating people equally and showing willingness to do more than expected. Cooperation is important because it allows people and groups to work together to achieve a common goal or derive mutual benefits." With all levels of your co-workers. Listen if you want to be heard. Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way"
Block 6: Ambition (For noble goals)
Ambition is a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work to achieve success. For example, lets say you want to be a Forensic Anthropologists when you're older, in order to become that you have to show passion as in study really hard and take classes required to be a Forensic Anthropologist and be determined to accomplish the goal. Another example is that since i want to be a professional goalie then I am going to do what it takes to get to that level and get noticed. I'm going to practice everyday to get better because I am ambition about what I want to do. "For noble goals"
Block 7: Self-Control
"Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgement and common sense are essential."
Self-Control is an aspect in inhibitory control, its to regulate ones emotions, thoughts and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. For example, lets say there is this bully that happens to bug you and you want to do something about it to end the situation but it can cause in chaos, so instead you take deep breaths and try to calm yourself down and just say to yourself that it isn't the right thing to do. Another example is that like a dog in order for him to earn a treat they put a treat on their nose and if they move just to eat it they aren't using self-control and if they don't eat it that's because they are controlling their behavior. "Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgement and common sense are essential."
Block 8: Alertness
"Be observing constantly. Stay open-minded. Be eager to learn and improve."
Alertness is the quality of being alert. In other words it means that you always have to be open minded and think outside the box. Think ahead of others. For example, in school you have to be alert that its not the time to be fooling around once you start going into your sophomore year because if you just don't care then you won t be having an easy future you're going to have to be struggling more than what you already have been struggling. Another example is that in some situations you have to be alert of some of the consequences you can get if you don'y pay attention.
Block 9: Initiative
"Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Do not be afraid of failure, but learn from it."
Initiative is the ability to assess and initiate things independently. In other words it also means the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do. For example, lets say you're going to do an interview in order to be initiative you have to have an initial presentation as in walk-in strong and confident and have your portfolios as in resume and references to show them how initiative you are. By being initiative you have to be alert for ways to make something better.Take it upon yourself, always think ahead so you can overcome obstacles like if they weren't there in the first place. "Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Do not be afraid of failure, but learn from it."
Block 10: Intentness
"Set a realistic goal. Concentrate on its achievement by resisting all temptations and being determined and persistent."
Block 10 of the pyramid of success is intentness, meaning wanting to reach a goal and being persistent and determined. When setting a goal, in order to reach the goal you have to want to reach it by being persistent and hardworking. You have to have that intent of reaching it. Its a very important step into the pyramid of success.
Block 11: Sincerity (keeps friends)
Sincerity means to be truthful in a way where you know you are not hurting people. Sincerity means to not be a hypocrite, you do not judge others based on looks or the way they act. I believe I am a very sincere person. Sincerity means to have a positive attitude and to be positive towards others. You are also very supportive when it is something good that your friends or people around you do. Sincerity is important because it helps build a high level of trust, sincere people are usually very easy to trust and very easy to talk to because they try to understand what a person is going through.
Block 12: Adaptability (to any situation)
To any situation. It is important more than ever to be flexible and agile, with plenty of resourcefulness and creativity to respond effectively to challenges and grab new opportunities. Adaptability means to be able to adapt to new challenges and to be able to succeed even when these challenges get in your way. As a student that wants to play a sport in college I have learned that many coaches sometimes not only look for skill and how good someone is, they also look for adaptability. When they the coaches look for adaptability they look for an athlete that will be able to manage the traveling a college athlete will do when in season. Coaches at how capable they would be when challenged to keep up with college level classes and the work it requires to pass them.
To set conditions for yourself is very important because you have to set boundaries for yourself and how far you are going to push yourself. In sports it is very important to set boundaries because you know your body best, if you get hurt and know absolutely that you can not play then speak up and say something. As a pitcher I am aware that my arm may be sore after pitching a game, if it is then I do not throw because I am aware that I may injure my arm and may never get to play softball again because of it. A person must make their conditions aware to other people, in our health class we learned that it is okay to say NO to another person. Set conditions for yourself, the people around you, and how you do your work. Condition is not only for setting limits it is also in what condition is the work you do. The condition you take care of things. Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Unsatisfactory, all these say things about you and that way you strive to succeed at something.
Block 14: Skill
"A knowledge of and the ability to properly and quickly execute the fundamentals. Be prepared and cover every little detail."
Skills are important, especially when applying for a job or internship. The people who will hire you look at not only look at how much commitment you have but also at your skills and what you can potentially offer to their work. People have different sets of skills personal and transferable. Transferable skills are skills that you have learned in a past place like school or from being a team, these skills may be able to be transferable to the new job you have to do. A personal skill is a skill that comes from you naturally that help you succeed in the job you have to do. Some examples of personal skills are Flexibility which means being able to move your schedule around without any problems, another skill is Motivation this means to be enthusiastic and to have a drive to finish what you are doing other than quitting also motivation can be how much you support the company you are working for, do you believe in what they believe.
Block 15: Team Spirit
"A genuine consideration for others. An eagerness to sacrifice personal interests of glory for the welfare of all."
People work together effectively to achieve a common target. Every individual must be involved in making the decisions of what to do in a certain project or tasks given. Team members should have listening skills so that they could listen to other member's ideas. Members should be respecting of each other in order to achieve teamwork. Team spirit means to want to work with others and to be willing collaborators and to be very optimistic when working with others.
Honesty has to be practiced everyday in everything you do. Honesty is important because it creates peace of mind and promotes relationships of trust. Being an honest can help you as a person in any aspect of your life. Being an honest person can make it easy for you to make friends because other people know they can trust you. Honesty can also make you responsible, you are able to tell the truth of when you have and have not done something. As honest person you know how to tell people the truth when you are trying to help them out because they have done something wrong. Being an Honest person is very good, but sometimes being an honest person can make people not like you. As an honest person you have to know to what extent you can tell the truth and sometimes there are certain ways you have to tell the truth and you have to know them. Because there are times when you cannot tell the truth.
Block 17: Resourcefulness (proper judgment)
“Make the most out of what you have.” (Anonymous)
"If you have a dream, if you have something you've always wanted to do, look within yourself because that is where resourcefulness resides; and go for it. (Jennifer Witterick)
Proper Judgement. Ability to find and use available resources to achieve goals. Being resourceful means to be able to achieve something with whatever is around you. People tend to use what they have around them to succeed. For example some people have connections after college and they use that to get jobs. That is why it is so good to put forward your best self, so that people may want to get to know you, and the more people you know the better. When putting yourself out there make sure you show them that you are responsible and trustworthy because those are two major qualities a person looks for. Make the most from what you have.
Block 18: Poise
"Just being yourself. Being at ease in any situation."
Poise is the way you walk, the way you carry yourself, the thought you’ve put into your personal style. It makes people perceive you in a positive way. It shows people that you are confident in yourself, not cocky but confident. People with poise know how to keep themselves calm when under stress, people with poise are noticed what I mean by this is that they make themselves be known in a positive way when they are in a room full of people. Poise can also mean to have manners one part of poise that many people get noticed for is posture, having good posture can make everything easier, not having good posture is like saying you are carrying all your stress on your back. Lots of ballet dancers are known to have poise. When they are on sage in front of a big audience they have to make the little movements they do look big. They make themselves be known when they are on that stage.
Block 19: Confidence
"Thorough preparation breeds confidence" Gerald Bell in
"The Carolina Way"
"Respect without fear. May come from being prepared and keeping all things in proper perspective." Confidence is very important because without you do not believe in yourself and if you do not believe in yourself then you can not accomplish anything. In softball I have learned that you need to be confident in yourself or else you will not get better, you have to be positive about yourself and say I know I can do this. A confident sets goals for themselves and they make a list of how to achieve it, they not only set goals for themselves but they also challenge themselves and give them a certain amount of time to achieve some of them.
Block 20: Reliability (creates respect)
Reliability means to be reliable and to be reliable means that people can trust in you. When someone is reliable they're friends can trust in them and can sometimes even ask that person to do something for them. To be a reliable person you have to be trustworthy, responsible and honest. Reliability does not mean that you go and do something you know you are not supposed to be doing for a person. You only do good things for good people that are reliable to you.
Block 21: Fight (determined effort)
Fight does not necessarily mean to fight but it means to be strong and to be determined. It means to fight through all the way to the finish and not give up. Athletes must have the "fight" in them no matter if they are losing. If you want to reach success you have to have the fight in you. You want something so bad that no matter what it takes you will try to succeed. Bruce Lee says " Do not pray for the easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one". To me this means that you must be ready for whatever comes to you in life and be ready to fight through it all.
Block 22: Competitive Greatness
" Be at your best when your best is needed. Enjoyment of a difficult challenge."
Block 1: Industriousness
"There is no substitute for work. Worthwhile results come from hard work and careful planning."
This means that in order to succeed in this life, you will need to work hard. Success ain't going to come knocking on your front door. You have to work hard for that success. You will be able to accomplish more with hard work. Hard work pays off and you will notice it. Never give up that fire, that passion. Always work hard to succeed what you want in life. By working hard you will feel good about yourself. You will feel like no one can stop you, see keep on working hard.
Block 2: Enthusiasm
"It is the engine that powers all blocks of the Pyramid. It is why I chose Industriousness and Enthusiasm as the cornerstones of my Pyramid of Success. It is where everything begins."
This means in order to succeed in life you have to have enthusiasm. Without enthusiasm your life will be boring. You need enthusiasm as motivation to be successful in your life. You need enthusiasm to become in your career. Enthusiasm ignites your greatness and your call. People succeed in life when they really feel enthusiastic. Working hard with enthusiasm will pay off you will see.
Block 3: Friendship
"Comes from mutual esteem, respect and devotion. Like marriage it must not be taken for granted but requires a joint effort."
Friendship is a huge part of success. Without friendship you be boring in your life. Friendship spark your enthusiasm and your motivation to keep on going. Friendly competition show the best in you making you in becoming better. You need friends to help pick you up when your down. They inspire you when your at your lowest. Friendship spark romance as well. Which is a big help in success.
Block 4: Loyalty
"To yourself and to all those depending upon you. Keep your self-respect."
Loyalty something any good person needs weather it being for friendship or a relationship loyalty is always needed. Knowing that someone has loyalty to you is something great but one little mess up and you could lose it and once you loss someone's loyalty you can pretty much never get it back fully. So if someone had given their loyalty to you don't over do it because it's a great thing to have. Loyalty is a gift so enjoy it and don't overuse it because soon you won't be able to have it and people will have less self-respect for you.
Block 5: Cooperation
"With all levels of your co-workers. Listen if you want to be heard. Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way. "
Block 6: Ambition (For noble goals)
Ambition is a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work to achieve success. For example, lets say you want to be a Forensic Anthropologists when you're older, in order to become that you have to show passion as in study really hard and take classes required to be a Forensic Anthropologist and be determined to accomplish the goal. Another example is that since i want to be a professional goalie then I am going to do what it takes to get to that level and get noticed. I'm going to practice everyday to get better because I am ambition about what I want to do. "For noble goals"
Block 7: Self-Control
"Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgement and common sense are essential."
Self-Control is an aspect in inhibitory control, its to regulate ones emotions, thoughts and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. For example, lets say there is this bully that happens to bug you and you want to do something about it to end the situation but it can cause in chaos, so instead you take deep breaths and try to calm yourself down and just say to yourself that it isn't the right thing to do. Another example is that like a dog in order for him to earn a treat they put a treat on their nose and if they move just to eat it they aren't using self-control and if they don't eat it that's because they are controlling their behavior. "Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgement and common sense are essential."Block 8: Alertness
"Be observing constantly. Stay open-minded. Be eager to learn and improve."
Alertness is the quality of being alert. In other words it means that you always have to be open minded and think outside the box. Think ahead of others. For example, in school you have to be alert that its not the time to be fooling around once you start going into your sophomore year because if you just don't care then you won t be having an easy future you're going to have to be struggling more than what you already have been struggling. Another example is that in some situations you have to be alert of some of the consequences you can get if you don'y pay attention.
Block 9: Initiative
"Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Do not be afraid of failure, but learn from it."
Initiative is the ability to assess and initiate things independently. In other words it also means the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do. For example, lets say you're going to do an interview in order to be initiative you have to have an initial presentation as in walk-in strong and confident and have your portfolios as in resume and references to show them how initiative you are. By being initiative you have to be alert for ways to make something better.Take it upon yourself, always think ahead so you can overcome obstacles like if they weren't there in the first place. "Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Do not be afraid of failure, but learn from it."Block 10: Intentness
"Set a realistic goal. Concentrate on its achievement by resisting all temptations and being determined and persistent."Block 10 of the pyramid of success is intentness, meaning wanting to reach a goal and being persistent and determined. When setting a goal, in order to reach the goal you have to want to reach it by being persistent and hardworking. You have to have that intent of reaching it. Its a very important step into the pyramid of success.
Block 11: Sincerity (keeps friends)
Sincerity means to be truthful in a way where you know you are not hurting people. Sincerity means to not be a hypocrite, you do not judge others based on looks or the way they act. I believe I am a very sincere person. Sincerity means to have a positive attitude and to be positive towards others. You are also very supportive when it is something good that your friends or people around you do. Sincerity is important because it helps build a high level of trust, sincere people are usually very easy to trust and very easy to talk to because they try to understand what a person is going through.Block 12: Adaptability (to any situation)
To any situation. It is important more than ever to be flexible and agile, with plenty of resourcefulness and creativity to respond effectively to challenges and grab new opportunities. Adaptability means to be able to adapt to new challenges and to be able to succeed even when these challenges get in your way. As a student that wants to play a sport in college I have learned that many coaches sometimes not only look for skill and how good someone is, they also look for adaptability. When they the coaches look for adaptability they look for an athlete that will be able to manage the traveling a college athlete will do when in season. Coaches at how capable they would be when challenged to keep up with college level classes and the work it requires to pass them.
Block 13: Condition
"Mental-Moral-Physical. Rest, exercise and diet must be considered. Moderation must be practiced. Dissipation must be eliminated."
To set conditions for yourself is very important because you have to set boundaries for yourself and how far you are going to push yourself. In sports it is very important to set boundaries because you know your body best, if you get hurt and know absolutely that you can not play then speak up and say something. As a pitcher I am aware that my arm may be sore after pitching a game, if it is then I do not throw because I am aware that I may injure my arm and may never get to play softball again because of it. A person must make their conditions aware to other people, in our health class we learned that it is okay to say NO to another person. Set conditions for yourself, the people around you, and how you do your work. Condition is not only for setting limits it is also in what condition is the work you do. The condition you take care of things. Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Unsatisfactory, all these say things about you and that way you strive to succeed at something.Block 14: Skill
"A knowledge of and the ability to properly and quickly execute the fundamentals. Be prepared and cover every little detail."
Skills are important, especially when applying for a job or internship. The people who will hire you look at not only look at how much commitment you have but also at your skills and what you can potentially offer to their work. People have different sets of skills personal and transferable. Transferable skills are skills that you have learned in a past place like school or from being a team, these skills may be able to be transferable to the new job you have to do. A personal skill is a skill that comes from you naturally that help you succeed in the job you have to do. Some examples of personal skills are Flexibility which means being able to move your schedule around without any problems, another skill is Motivation this means to be enthusiastic and to have a drive to finish what you are doing other than quitting also motivation can be how much you support the company you are working for, do you believe in what they believe."A genuine consideration for others. An eagerness to sacrifice personal interests of glory for the welfare of all."
People work together effectively to achieve a common target. Every individual must be involved in making the decisions of what to do in a certain project or tasks given. Team members should have listening skills so that they could listen to other member's ideas. Members should be respecting of each other in order to achieve teamwork. Team spirit means to want to work with others and to be willing collaborators and to be very optimistic when working with others.
Block 16: Honesty (in thought and action)
"Honesty is the best policy." (Ben Franklin)
"Honesty is the best policy." (Ben Franklin)
Honesty has to be practiced everyday in everything you do. Honesty is important because it creates peace of mind and promotes relationships of trust. Being an honest can help you as a person in any aspect of your life. Being an honest person can make it easy for you to make friends because other people know they can trust you. Honesty can also make you responsible, you are able to tell the truth of when you have and have not done something. As honest person you know how to tell people the truth when you are trying to help them out because they have done something wrong. Being an Honest person is very good, but sometimes being an honest person can make people not like you. As an honest person you have to know to what extent you can tell the truth and sometimes there are certain ways you have to tell the truth and you have to know them. Because there are times when you cannot tell the truth.Block 17: Resourcefulness (proper judgment)
“Make the most out of what you have.” (Anonymous)
"If you have a dream, if you have something you've always wanted to do, look within yourself because that is where resourcefulness resides; and go for it. (Jennifer Witterick)
Proper Judgement. Ability to find and use available resources to achieve goals. Being resourceful means to be able to achieve something with whatever is around you. People tend to use what they have around them to succeed. For example some people have connections after college and they use that to get jobs. That is why it is so good to put forward your best self, so that people may want to get to know you, and the more people you know the better. When putting yourself out there make sure you show them that you are responsible and trustworthy because those are two major qualities a person looks for. Make the most from what you have.Block 18: Poise
"Just being yourself. Being at ease in any situation."
Block 19: Confidence
"Thorough preparation breeds confidence" Gerald Bell in
"The Carolina Way"
"Respect without fear. May come from being prepared and keeping all things in proper perspective." Confidence is very important because without you do not believe in yourself and if you do not believe in yourself then you can not accomplish anything. In softball I have learned that you need to be confident in yourself or else you will not get better, you have to be positive about yourself and say I know I can do this. A confident sets goals for themselves and they make a list of how to achieve it, they not only set goals for themselves but they also challenge themselves and give them a certain amount of time to achieve some of them.Block 20: Reliability (creates respect)
Reliability means to be reliable and to be reliable means that people can trust in you. When someone is reliable they're friends can trust in them and can sometimes even ask that person to do something for them. To be a reliable person you have to be trustworthy, responsible and honest. Reliability does not mean that you go and do something you know you are not supposed to be doing for a person. You only do good things for good people that are reliable to you.Block 21: Fight (determined effort)
Block 22: Competitive Greatness
" Be at your best when your best is needed. Enjoyment of a difficult challenge."
Competitive greatness is important because if you are not competitive then somebody else will always be ahead of you. You have to be willing to fight for what you want and be able to make it to the end. Competitive greatness means to always be great and always do your best no matter what. A teacher once told me that once you stop doing your best someone will always be there to get ahead of you. Continuing to do your best will make you better. Like one of my teachers once quoted Good, Better, Best, Never Ever Rest Until your Good is Better and your Better is Best. You must do your best 100% of the time because if you do not you are not getting better you are just staying at the same level. A person who had competitive greatness strives for the best in themselves. They also challenge themselves.
Block 23: Integrity (purity of intention)
Integrity means to have strong moral principles and the quality of being honest. Integrity is to be trustworthy, people know that they are able to trust you with personal things. People who have integrity always tell the truth no matter what. If you know you have done something wrong you always tell the truth and you take responsibility for what you have done. You also take responsibility for telling the truth about others when you know it is necessary. At the end of the day a person with integrity is a honest person. A person who takes responsibility and is very truthful. Integrity is important to have when you want to be a leader and when you want to be leader, it is a trait you would like to show to other people that way they can learn from you as well.
Block 24: Faith (through prayer)
Believe and Achieve. Positive belief.
Block 23: Integrity (purity of intention)
Integrity means to have strong moral principles and the quality of being honest. Integrity is to be trustworthy, people know that they are able to trust you with personal things. People who have integrity always tell the truth no matter what. If you know you have done something wrong you always tell the truth and you take responsibility for what you have done. You also take responsibility for telling the truth about others when you know it is necessary. At the end of the day a person with integrity is a honest person. A person who takes responsibility and is very truthful. Integrity is important to have when you want to be a leader and when you want to be leader, it is a trait you would like to show to other people that way they can learn from you as well.Block 24: Faith (through prayer)
Believe and Achieve. Positive belief.
Many people believe that having faith means to have faith in god. In my point of view faith means to to believe in yourself nobody else will believe in you. It means to trust yourself. Have confidence when trying to achieve your goals and know that the only way you will get to them is by hard work and only hard work. Faith to me means to have confidence in not only myself, I also have faith that the people and things that surround me and hope or know that these things or people will benefit me for the better. If I do not have faith in choosing the people who surround me then no good will come out of them and neither will they support me or have faith in me a real friend should have towards another true friend. Faith has to be bigger than fear. When you are fearful of something you automatically lose that power you had when you are not afraid. Do not be afraid to follow your gut sometimes, sometimes it may good but you also have to know how to have faith that
you are making the correct decision.
Block 25: Patience (good things take time)
Patience is a key to success because without it you will not have discipline towards your actions. A person has to know how to wait because if not then sometimes nothing good will come out of it. With patience you avoid making quick and unsure decisions. Patience also helps you with other people, it helps you be empathetic. Patience makes you a healthier person, it helps take away stress and anger that results from a person not being patient. Patience also helps when a person is trying to become better at something, without patience a person will give up right away. Getting better at something takes time so you need patience if you want to succeed. Almost every aspect of your life needs patience especially the part of yourself, you can never give up on yourself.
FINAL REFLECTION:
Block 25: Patience (good things take time)
Patience is a key to success because without it you will not have discipline towards your actions. A person has to know how to wait because if not then sometimes nothing good will come out of it. With patience you avoid making quick and unsure decisions. Patience also helps you with other people, it helps you be empathetic. Patience makes you a healthier person, it helps take away stress and anger that results from a person not being patient. Patience also helps when a person is trying to become better at something, without patience a person will give up right away. Getting better at something takes time so you need patience if you want to succeed. Almost every aspect of your life needs patience especially the part of yourself, you can never give up on yourself.FINAL REFLECTION:
The building blocks of this pyramid of success benefit me because they are teaching me ways on how to be successful. This pyramid of success shows me things like the importance of loyalty, taking initiative, cooperation etc. These 3 blocks that I mentioned were the ones that stood out to me the most, loyalty stood out to me in order to be successful you have to be loyal to other people like your boss and the most important person you have to be loyal to is to yourself. The second that stood out to me was taking initiative, this means to take a stand and be a leader. The third that stood out to me was cooperation, cooperation is important because in a team you have to work together everybody has to cooperate, even by yourself you have to be cooperative which means to be able to do what someone tells you and for your work to be at a good level. Those are the 3 building block of success that stood out to me the most.
