Applying John Wooden's advice to daily life or business is like swapping out binoculars for a mirror. Instead of obsessing over competitors, you’d zero in on your systems, habits, and choices. Are you the best version of you today? If not, why worry about someone else’s pace? Most of us waste energy chasing illusions—"winning" at things that don't matter. Imagine focusing all that energy on refining your craft, your relationships, and your business systems. You’d build something unbeatable—not because you crushed others, but because you outgrew them. "While other coaches also stressed some of those principles, I differed greatly from them in what I didn't stress; namely, I never talked about winning or beating an opponent. In fact, I rarely mentioned the opponent's name. (One player joked that just before games our manager would go to the lobby and buy a program in order to know who the team was playing that day.) "Let them worry about us," was my philosophy. My job, and the team's job, was to get us as close to being as good as we could get. The final score would be a by-product of that effort. Dad's advice was at the core of my coaching: "Don't try to be better than someone else, but never cease trying to be the best you can be. You have control over that. The other you don't." As the years passed, I was determined not to let those things I couldn't control detract from those things under my control." My Personal Best John Wooden, Steve Jamison