Thursday, November 04, 2004


Here is the first cornerstone of the Pyramid of Succes, John Wooden called it Industriousness
I call it a good old fashioned Midwestern "work-ethic."

NOUN: Steady attention and effort, as to one's occupation: application, assiduity, assiduousness, diligence, industry, sedulousness.

The virtue of industriousness means working hard, and taking pride in one's work.

"There is no substitute for work. Worthwhile results come from hard work and careful planning." ~John Wooden

The success ratio looks like this: E/A=S

That means your Effort, divided by your Ability, produces Success.

You can have a denominator of 100, but if the numerator is only in the single digits, the product (sum?) will be a fraction. Conversely, even if your talent level is fairly low, if you have a high effort number, the results will be powerful.

10 divided by 100 is 0.1

but 100 divided by 5 is 20!

The point is, you can have all the talent in the world, but if you aren't willing to work hard, it will get you nowhere.

I've had cheerleaders that were born gymnasts/dancers/etc. that squandered their abilities. Likewise I've had girls who struggled with coordination, rhythm, volume, and confidence, but they were willing to learn and committed to improving. Those are the kids that made the best team mates.

What does this have to do with Cheerleading? For one thing, the crowd can easily tell if you're just "going through the motions." For another, if you don't give 100% in practice, how do you expect to give 100% at a game?

Almost every year cheerleaders ask me if we can take our squad to competition. Sometimes I ask them if they're willing to practice 4 hours a day, or practice twice a day, or practice on Saturdays, or practice year-round. I haven't had a cheerleader, let a lone an entire squad that was ready to make that kind of sacrifice.

That's Okay, cheerleading doesn't have to be about competitions, but it's important to know how much you're willing to work. Walt Disney once said, "All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them."

"People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to." ~George Allen

"Each of us has been put on earth with the ability to do something well. We cheat ourselves and the world if we don't use that ability as best we can." ~George Allen

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