“If you improve 1% a day, then in 100 days, guess what? You’re 100% better.”

~ Coach Carter

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

“Success, in my view, is the willingness to strive for something you really want. The person not reaching the top is no less a success than the one who achieved it, if they both sweated blood, sweat and tears and overcame obstacles and fears. The failure to be perfect does not mean you’re not a success”

- Fran Tarkenton

“The man who can drive himself further when the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”

- Roger Bannister

“Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.”

- Henry Ford

“Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait, the grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.”

- Henry Ford

“People don’t understand that when I grew up, I was never the most talented. I was never the biggest. I was never the fastest. I certainly was never the strongest. The only thing I had was my work ethic, and that’s been what has gotten me this far.”

- Tiger Woods

“If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we’re gonna be winners. “

- Coach Norman Dale (Hoosiers)

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

- Abraham Lincoln

“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. ”

- Booker T. Washington

“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”

- Buddha

“I didn’t have anything against anyone. I just wasn’t good enough, so I had to work harder to get where I wanted to be. In my junior year during basketball season, I was up at 4:30am driving to work out for football, then going to school all day, then going to basketball practice, and I just had to get ready for the one-day camp at Notre Dame I had in the spring that led to a scholarship offer”

Tyler Eifert (Notre Dame TE)

*2013 winner of the John Mackey Award as the Outstanding Tight End in College Football

“To give yourself the best possible chance of playing to your potential, you must prepare for every eventuality. That means practice”

- Seve Ballesteros

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him. ”

- David Brinkley

“You can’t always control circumstances. However, you can always control your attitude, approach, and response. Your options are to complain or to look ahead and figure out how to make the situation better.”

― Tony Dungy

“An obstacle is often an unrecognized opportunity.”

Coach Mike Krzyzewski

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”

- Napolean Hill

“When I was a child my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll be the pope.’ Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.”

― Pablo Picasso

“I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.”

- Stephen Grellet (1773-1855)

“The guys who take shortcuts, who aren’t ready, they fail when their opportunity comes.”

- Tom Thibodeau

“People will try to tell you that all of the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours. ”

- Ken Hakuta

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

- Confucius

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”

- Nelson Mandella

“Fundamental preparation is always effective. Work on those parts of your game that are fundamentally weak.”

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“The key to staying on top of things is treat everything like it’s your first project, like it’s your first day, like back when you were an intern, that’s how you have to treat things, just stay hungry.”

- P.Diddy

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

- Barack Obama

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”

- Sam Ewing (former professional basketball player)

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.” Is the welfare of OTHERS a concern in your life? WE were not created to live isolated, selfish lives. It is important to love yourself. It is equally important to love OTHERS more. Here are some thoughts of how to be a man built for OTHERS:

1. Continual Education

   A person needs to continually feed his spirit and grow his heart.  The best way to do this is to be aware of the issues and concerns of your community, your state, your nation and your world. Participate. The education of a human being never ends until he returns to the ground. Never stop learning how to become a better you.

2. Listen

   Possibly the most difficult character trait a person can master. How to just simply listen to what another person is trying to tell you. In our world today, we have many talkers and planners. Everyone has the right idea. Nobody is listening. Nothing gets done this way. So we wind up with bad ideas and an angry populace. This is common on both sides of the aisle. Do you listen? When your wife is trying to convey a deep concern she has, do you hear her? So many conflicts, so many divorces, could so easily be avoided by the simple solution of truly listening.

3. The Buck Stops Here

   Harry Truman’s famous words. This is a man who had to make the dreadful decision to use the only atomic weapon ever used in battle. He knew a thing or two about personal responsibility. Do you own your mistakes and failures? Are you a stand-up guy? Rarely admonished is the man who humbly admits he is to blame.  Do not pass blame on failures that were of your doing. Those actions work to destroy others. The buck stops with you.

4. A Man Of Joy

   Is your smile infectious? There are millions of products that will help you have a movie star smile. The key ingredient, however, is free to everyone. Joy. If you heart is filled with joy, it will reflect on your pearly whites and bounce right off of everyone around you. Mom always said to look on the bright side of things. Mom is never wrong. A warm smile and a pat on the back will never fail to encourage even the most downtrodden of souls.

5. Exploit Your Talents

   We have all been blessed with certain gifts. How we choose to use them are up to us. The design is to create a harmonious world that runs like the engine of a Ferrari. If the talent of one person is negating the impact of another, then the engine fails to run at maximum potential. Use your gifts for the benefit of not only yourself but for those around you. Personal success is worth nothing on your death bed. Bill Gates is a good example here. One of the wealthiest men in all of human history. His talent changed the entire world as we know it. Now he is using those same gifts in dedication for the betterment of mankind. Discover your purpose and do your part.

6. The Mentor Leader

   Coach Dungy’s latest book. He is quite possibly the most famous mentor in America today. His inspiration and example serve to change lives every single day. Do you give back or do you hoard the rewards of success? Coach Dungy had Peyton Manning and a strong team. Personal success and historical fame were at the taking for many more years. His heart called elsewhere. To serve his fellow man. To help lift them to the same heights he had already reached. When perhaps the most despised man in modern sports was released from prison, Coach Dungy offered a lift up. His golden reputation meant nothing if it only served to his own gain. That is a mentor. That is a leader. The real kind that God calls us to be. Heroes are men who won’t rest until the very last person is safe. Be that person.

7. Walking In Their Shoes

   How can you condemn without understanding? “Walk a mile in my shoes” so the saying goes. Do just that. Stereotyping is considered a vile action simply because the stereotype is based on general traits and shallow surface group think. When one breaks through the stereotype he always finds a completely different picture. An entire collection of unique individuals ranging from amazing to tragic. This is true in every human situation across the globe.  Make a constant effort to walk in the shoes of those different from yourself. To understand their perspective and human condition. A guy with a 9 mil pistol tucked under his shirt might seem like a wild killer in your eyes. In his mind, he’s just trying to get home from work without being assaulted. Reality is rarely what we perceive it to be outside of our experience base. Truly understanding is the first step to true healing of mankind.

8. R-E-S-P-E-C-T

   No one likes to feel inferior. It is one of the worst feelings on earth. Sucking the life right out of your heart. Do you talk down to people you consider beneath you? For some people it helps quench a thirst for a feeling of power they need to have over others. The smaller they make another feel, the more of a giant they feel themselves to be. Quite sad for everyone involved. Respect is a simple action to give. It requires little effort. Yet the results are enormous. In some cases life saving. The man who is about to take his own life might reconsider. He might be saved by just one person sincerely giving him the feeling that his existence does indeed matter,  No man is better than another. But for the grace of God go I.

9. Compassion

   Little hope can be had for humankind if compassion ceases to exist. All around us we are taught examples of how to be selfish, spoiled and downright mean. Some invisible force seems to be trying its best to ruin our souls. Rebel against that force. Gain a true compassion in your heart for all life. I am always amazed how a human being can watch video of war around the globe and not be affected. It’s like a blood sport to some. Never mind that limbs are being blown off. Children become orphans in a matter of seconds. Life taken without even a blink of an eye from the viewer. That is the soul of a person blackened on the inside. Wake yourself up from that dark stupor. Our hearts are meant to be filled with a deep desire for peace. When others hurt it should hurt you as well. Be an instrument for peace in even the smallest of conflicts.

10. Giving

    Sure it’s great to get a cool present. But does it feel half as good as it does when you give? Not even close. Giving is probably the most positive of all actions. Everyone feels great. That is when you give with sincerity and humbleness. When a person knows you took the time to really think about who they are. Or when a little child of meager means is given a bag of outgrown clothes..clothes that she only dreams of having when seeing them at a mall. Faces light up. Hearts soar. Give till you can’t give another drop. Of yourself, of your possessions and to the goal of living a life built for others.

“The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.”

- Mark Caine

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

- Nelson Mandela

“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”

- Brian Tracy

“The first step toward creating an improved future is developing the ability to envision it. VISION will ignite the fire of passion that fuels our commitment to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to achieve excellence. Only VISION allows us to transform dreams of greatness into the reality of achievement through human action. VISION has no boundaries and knows no limits. Our VISION is what we become in life. ”

― Tony Dungy

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is the knack of getting along with people.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt

“In my mind, I’m always the best. If I walk out on the court & I think the next person is better, I’ve already lost.”

- Venus Williams

“Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It’s being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way you’re going to get respect from the players.”

Larry Bird

“It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.”

- Zig Ziglar

“I have always struggled to achieve excellence. One thing that cycling has taught me is that if you can achieve something without a struggle it’s not going to be satisfying.”

- Greg LeMond

“We all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we’ve been given.”

- Mary Lou Retton

“You can do more. You can always do more.”

- Dan Marino

article courtsey of: friendsforyouth.org

We often equate volunteering with “giving” our time. We talk about “providing for the needy” and “giving back.” We want to be selfless, and our implicit logic is that being giving is being generous, and being generous is being selfless. Sometimes though, I think such logic is confused and unhelpful. The idea that volunteering is “giving back” infers that volunteers aren’t receiving anything, or, at least, that they aren’t receiving as much as they are investing.

While giving back is good, it’s an assumption that dilutes a more vivid understanding of the benefits of volunteering. In my experience with volunteer mentors at Friends for Youth, the trade off between giving and receiving is at least equal, and more often than not it is the adult volunteer who gets the most out of the experience of mentoring.

So instead of listing the things you might give as a volunteer mentor, we want to highlight the top six things you’ll get:

6. Community. As a mentor you become friends with somebody you most likely would never have met otherwise. By becoming friends you are exposed to their community and they are exposed to yours. Like trees that grow bigger as their roots spread, the more connections we create the stronger our community becomes.

5. Oh, the things you’ll learn! Has an 8 year old ever beat you at skee-ball? As a mentor this could easily happen. When you’re a mentor you might get beat at a lot of things, and that’s your opportunity to learn from your mentee. It’s consistently impressive to see what youth are able to teach adults.

4. Oh, the things you’ll forget! The adult world is unfortunately not nearly so fantastical, wonderful or hysterical as the world of youth. As a mentor you get to be removed, at least for a few hours per week, from some of the drudgery of adulthood.

3. Oh, the things you’ll remember! Hanging out with a kid means remembering what it was like to be a kid. Upon revisiting your inner kid, you might find things haven’t changed much.

2. Oh, the places you’ll go! Mentoring with Friends for Youth is all about having fun. We help you do that in many ways, from providing you with support materials like our unique mentoring journal, to giving out free tickets to events like 49ers and SF Giants games.

1. Friendship. Let us know if you discover anything more important in life than true Friendship. At Friends for Youth we’ve done Friendship for more than 34 years, and we do it very well. We hope you’ll join us.

Making a difference in the loss of perspective and “winning at all costs” attitudes so prevalent at many levels of sports. Come see what “The Athlete’s Experience” is all about!!!

Let me start by stating that I am no expert on basketball. Sure, I can tell you when a team is pressing or when a player may be stronger on their right side when compared to their left…but that is about the extent of it.

I wouldn’t know the difference between a motion offense, zone offense or spread offense. I wouldn’t be able to watch a game and tell you when a team is running a single stack, double stack, or high post…two-three out. And, by the way, I had to look all that up on the internet.

What I do have some expertise in is what it takes on the inside to do well in sports, the work ethic and focus it takes to reach one’s potential, the heart that one must bring to the competitive floor (particularly when tough circumstances occur) if one wants to achieve excellence. Attributes that, when faced with adverse conditions, can carry an athlete and/or team over the threshold…beyond where most can see.

And these characteristics that come from within, they are relative to any sport. Whether in basketball, soccer, tennis, wrestling, volleyball, or whatever, doesn’t really matter. What really matters is what the athlete/team has on the inside; and if they are willing to bring the “right” stuff (what is within them) to the table when it is most needed…especially when difficulties arise and the “game” is on the line.

Such was the case with Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals as they defeated #2 Duke on their way to the NCAA Final Four. Sure Louisville is the #1 seed; however, it was not their ranking that carried them through this game, not from my perspective anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, it was easily noticed (even by a basketball novice like myself) that this is a very well prepared and coached team. From where I sat, their impeccable training really stood out.

They looked physically well-conditioned, remarkably skilled and fundamentally sound, and they never give up…not for an instant. Tenacious is a word that comes to mind when I reflect on their on-court demeanor after watching them play Sunday. Very little went uncontested as Duke faced a well-oiled machine, relentless in their pursuit of the ball on defense, and to score on offense. Quick, fast, and motivated was this team from Louisville, but that only tells a small part of their story in this game.

Not too long into the first half, Kevin Ware jumped off the floor in order to contest a shot by opponent Tyler Thornton right in front of the Louisville bench. However, what happened next…no one was prepared for. Not Pitino, not Ware’s teammates, and especially not Ware himself.

On landing, Ware’s lower right leg buckled, snapping in half as his body collapsed to the floor. It looked almost as if his lower leg had formed a second knee joint between his actual knee and his ankle. He had incurred a devastating injury, a compound fracture of his lower leg.  It was a heart wrenching scene to watch as it played out live on television…simply awful.

As a former gymnast, and coach of that sport, I have seen compound fractures before. And let me tell you, they are even worse when witnessed in person. Definitely not something you would wish on anyone, even your enemy. That type of injury, well…it can really turn your stomach.

This was most certainly evident based on the reaction from Ware’s teammates, both on the bench and still on the competitive floor. They grimaced in horror at the site of what had happened to their fallen comrade as players in the game actually fell to the floor in apparent agony.

Emotions ran high as tears filled many an eye…Coach Pitino’s as well. It was difficult for me to watch, even as a spectator from my couch. I have chills just writing about it as I play that scene out in my mind.

In fact, severe circumstances like this can truly derail a team’s focus…put them mentally off track, make it almost impossible to play at or near their potential as they genuinely get sucked into the emotions that surround such a distressing event. Seriously, who would have blamed them…right?

But that is not what happened…not by a long shot. Pitino’s team pushed themselves beyond the emotions…beyond the normal drop in play one might expect. Whether it was Ware’s statement to his teammates to not worry about him and to go out and win the game that helped motivate them, or just the fact that this team sure seems to be made of the “right” stuff, Louisville proceeded to lay the hammer down putting it all out there on the floor.

Playing as if possessed, they left nothing to chance. I was in awe of their performance, of their willingness to make things happen, of their ability to take a situation of adversity and turn it into such an advantage that others would have trouble competing at the same level.

As I said at the beginning of this piece, I don’t know all that much about basketball. However, what I do know is this…I know when a team has heart. And Coach Pitino…your team has plenty to spare, and then some.

If they bring that kind of inner will and determination to the table the rest of the tournament, they will be more than just a force to be reckoned with. They will be a team nearly impossible to beat as they themselves will create their own destiny.

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

- Zig Ziglar

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.”

Napoleon Hill

“There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”

- Ronald Reagan

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

- Benjamin Franklin

“For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.”

- Emmitt Smith

”Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

- Calvin Coolidge

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”

- Colin Powell

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for the things which he has.”

- Epictetus

“No one has ever made himself great by showing how small someone else is.”

- Irvin Himmel

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”

- Vince Lombardi

“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.”

- William James

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”

- Jim Rohn

“The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.”

- Bill Russell

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

- Dale Carnegie

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”

- Charles Kettering

“What you get by achieving your goals is as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

- Henry David Thoreau

“You don’t do things right sometimes; you do them right all the time. This builds character.”

- Joe Paterno

- Jim Rohn

“Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”

- Jim Rohn

“Goals help you channel your energy into action.”

~ Les Brown

“He who has why to live can bear almost any how.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”

- Aristotle

“It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”

– W. Somerset Maugham

“Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”

– Michael Jordan

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

- Albert Schweitzer

“You’ve got to learn to survive a defeat. That’s when you develop character.”

- Richard Nixon

“Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.”

- Robert Half

“I figured something out.  And it is no secret what I figured out.  Whatever the majority of people were doing, I found myself doing the opposite.  I wanted to chase something great.”

- Ray Lewis 

“I prepare so no one can take what is mine, no one can replace my mind, my heart.”

- Ray Lewis 

“The greatest opportunity in the world is found here today… We already know what yesterday has got for us. It’s already gone. Tomorrow, too far away. What about right now!”

- Ray Lewis

“You’ve got to go out and show them that I’m a different creature now, then I was five minutes ago, cause I’m pissed off for greatness. Cause if you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that just means you’re okay with being mediocre.”

- Ray Lewis

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

- Mark Twain

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”

- Henry Ford

“Persistence is probably the single most common quality of high achievers. They simply refuse to give up. The longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will happen in your favor. No matter how hard it seems, the longer you persist the more likely your success.”

— Jack Canfield

“Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.”

- Dwight D. Eisenhower 

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

- Larry Elder 

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

- Aristotle

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”

– Carl Bard