In “Win Forever: Live, Work, and Play Like a Champion” Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll explains his philosophy of
winning, which took Carroll more than a decade to develop and fine tune.
Carroll traces the
origins of his “Win Forever” philosophy to 2000, after he was fired from his
first NFL head coaching job. Getting fired prompted Carroll to re-think his
coaching philosophy. During this period he read a book by legendary college
basketball coach John Wooden, and was taken aback when he realized it took
Coach Wooden 16 years to develop his coaching philosophy. What’s more, Carroll
was intrigued to realize once Wooden got his system figured it out, his teams
were nearly unstoppable, winning 10 of the next 12 national championships.
After that epiphany,
Carroll decided to develop his own coaching philosophy and design a detailed
plan to implement it. Carroll hoped putting together his own comprehensive plan
for winning would propel him toward Wooden-like success, with his teams being successful,
year after year after year.
Carroll started by first writing out phrases and
bullet points about his coaching vision and what he wanted his next football
program to look like. Eventually he distilled the core of his philosophy down
to “always compete” – which Carroll says is more about always doing your best
rather than beating your opponent.
Carroll got the chance to try out his new Win
Forever program when he was hired as USC’s head football coach – and the
results were excellent: winning record of 97-19 (adjusted to 83-19 by the NCAA),
two BCS championship game
appearances, and six BCS bowl appearances.
Carroll is quick to point out his “Win Forever”
principles aren’t just for teams to succeed in athletic competition; Win
Forever can be used to maximize your potential in every aspect of life.
I like this quote from page 85: “My opponents are
not my enemies. My opponents are the people who offer me the opportunity to
succeed. The tougher my opponents, the more they present me with the
opportunity to live to my full potential and play my best.”
One
short-coming of this book: if you’re looking for insights or self-reflection
about Carroll’s problems at USC (recruiting violations involving Reggie Bush and
NCAA sanctions), you’ll be disappointed since the book completely skips over
Carroll’s USC problems.
To buy this book, click the button below.
