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The Leadership Game
Washington Business Journal
October 2003
Preparation: The Not-Too-Secret Secret to Success
By Mariah Burton Nelson
When Michelle Wie shot a 72 the first day and a 68 the next at the PGA's Sony Open in Hawaii last month [editor's note: January 2004], missing the cut by just one stroke and earning the respect of millions of TV-watching fans, not to mention the 47 male pros she beat, everyone marveled at her age (14,) her gender (few grown women or men drive the ball more than 300 yards,) her height (six feet,) her flawless swing ("perfect," says pro Tom Lehman) and her guts (unlike Annika Sorenstam, who proclaimed her appearance at the PGA's Bank of America Colonial last May a one-time event, Michelle plans to compete on both the LPGA and the PGA tours when she grows up and turns pro.)
Here's something else to notice, and to learn from: Michelle Wie practices for up to four hours a day after school, and seven or eight hours a day on weekends. Before the Sony Open, she practiced for more than 100 hours on that very course, the Waialae Country Club, which is only 15 minutes from Michelle's home in southeast Honolulu. Starting in November, Michelle played nine holes there after school three times a week – plus eighteen holes on Saturday and another full round on Sunday. By tournament time, Michelle knew every sand trap, every palm tree. She felt relaxed and ready, as if she belonged – which, apparently, she did.
Even child prodigies have a secret to their success. It's something most people don't fully understand or apply to their own lives: practice.
A stand-up comic I know wants to appear on "Leno" or "Letterman." For him, as for most comics, this is a "long shot," but he fervently believes that if he can just get this big break, the national exposure will pay off big time, "making" his career.
He's probably right that such an appearance would open doors. But if he spends more time preparing promotional packets for Leno and Letterman than practicing his routines, he's misguided.
Success happens as a result of continuous effort and commitment, not as a result of long shots. Success happens because we have done the simple things right, over and over again. Through hard work and discipline, those simple things add up to achievements of which we can be proud.
"I've been playing trumpet for almost 40 years, and I still practice the simple things every day," says Chris Gekker, one of the world's greatest classical trumpet players. A professor at the University of Maryland, Gekker gives solo performances in Carnegie Hall. Composers write music just for him. Yet he still works on "the simple things" every day because that's precisely where greatness comes from.
John Wooden used to preach careful preparation. I coached at his basketball camps in southern California in the late seventies, when I was a Stanford basketball player. By then, Wooden had amassed ten national championships at UCLA, a record that is still unbroken. He had won 88 consecutive games – another unbroken record. When he spoke, people listened.
On the first day of camp, with hundreds of young campers and coaches perched on bleachers, the great John Wooden would sit on the gym floor and take off his basketball shoes and socks. Then he'd slip on two white socks per foot, showing us how to avoid blisters by meticulously smoothing out the wrinkles in each sock. "Even the smallest, most routine preparation counts," he'd explain. "Do the right thing, over and over, every day."
The first time I saw this incredibly successful man sit on the floor, humbly dressing himself, I was amazed. So this is how you win championships? With good sock technique?
Once fully dressed, Wooden described his "pyramid of success," which features such qualities as industriousness, loyalty, friendship, self-control, skill, poise, and competitive greatness. He shared his definition of success: "Peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."
As I witnessed this lecture/demonstration over and over again, on the first day of each week of camp, it was the image of John Wooden sitting on the floor and smoothing out his socks that stayed with me. Eventually I realized he's right. Indeed this is how you win championships, or contracts, or job offers, or awards: by doing the right thing, over and over.
Michelle Wie has only been practicing golf for about ten years, since she was four. That year, using children's clubs, she started hitting balls 100 yards. Last year, she made the cut in six of the seven LPGA events she entered, with one top-ten finish. It boggles the mind to imagine how good she can become after another ten, twenty, or thirty years of driving, pitching, and putting.
But what's important for the rest of us to realize is this: Preparation is more important than age, gender, strength, physical gifts, or even guts. Preparation is what's largely responsible for the superb presentation, the aced job interview, the successfully negotiated deal. It seems obvious: When you practice, you improve. Yet your competitors won't necessarily practice with the same commitment that you can. Preparation requires time, it requires the humility, it requires attention to detail. But it's the secret to success. When I need reminders, I think back to John Wooden sitting on the floor, carefully smoothing the wrinkles out of his socks.
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Mariah Burton Nelson, M.P.H., is a former Stanford and pro basketball player and author who gives inspiring, practical keynotes about leadership, excellence, and physical intelligence. www.MariahBurtonNelson.com.
To contact Mariah about her writing or presentations, call 703/276-8323 or write to her at Mariah@MariahBurtonNelson.com
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