Winning

John Robert Wooden, a retired American basketball player and coach, attained achievements in American sport most would dream of. He is the first person to be a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame both as a player (class of 1961) and as a coach (class of 1973). As a coach, he won 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years at UCLA, a feat unmatched by any other college basketball coach. But his legacy will be best remembered he gave an amazing lucid speech on true success in life on his 91st birthday.

Valerie Chia described Leonard Yap, the winning captain from Raffles Junior College, falling to his knees in front of his father after the final whistle of the schools A Division Rugby final, and then weeping in his father's Henry shoulder. He said, "we wanted to win so badly as we'd never made it to a final in our six years together since Secondary 1". At the same time, she described the ACS(I) players, who were tear stained and devoid of smiles during the prize presentation. These are students from our elite schools, who will go on to taste both success and failure in life.

I quote John Wooden.

"My definition of success is peace of mind, in the self satisfaction of knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable...... Never mention winning. You can lose when you outscore somebody in a game. And you can win when you are outscored...... When a game is over, and when you see somebody who did not know the outcome of the game, I hope they could not tell from your actions, whether you outscored the opponent or whether the opponent outscored you. And that is what really matters."

Quality advice from a winning coach and a successful man who was reknowned throughout his life for developing individuals - not simply "winning" teams.