Business, Sports & Gaming
How to Embrace Both Success and Failure
Lesson time 14:55 min
In this lesson, Geno shares ways that leaders can work on enjoying the journey, whether the outcome is a win or a loss.
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Topics include: Fix Your Flawed Quest for Perfection • Learn to Enjoy the Journey • How to Separate Failing from Being a Failure • How to Celebrate When Your Team Is Struggling • Find Joy by Contributing to the Team
Teaches Leading Winning Teams
Legendary basketball coach Geno Auriemma teaches you how to lead any kind of team, inspire others to new heights, and build sustainable success.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] - Now we're going to talk about how to strike a balance between perfectionism and being human, and how to enjoy the journey because in the end, that's where the joy is. [MUSIC PLAYING] I have many faults. I try to hide them as best I can. One major fault, a major flaw in my character is that I'm not happy unless things are done perfectly, unless we achieve perfection, even while knowing it's not possible. The part about enjoying the journey, I got to work on that. I need to watch a MasterClass on enjoying the journey so I can learn about that. In the beginning of my career, I invented ways to win games because I knew we were not very good. So I would conjure up these things and say, if we do this, this, this, and this, we're going to win, convinced that we could beat better teams. As the years have passed and we become the favorite in every game we play, I make up reasons why we're going to lose because it's like, nobody can win this much. We have to lose at some point. So what ends up happening is, you spend the whole season experiencing two things on a constant basis-- misery when you lose, beyond your comprehension, misery, and just utter relief when you win. And it's no way to live. Enjoying the journey, to me, would be a growth process that I would love to achieve. And sometimes, I actually do live in that space. This year, I think I lived in that space, where I enjoyed winning, I enjoyed the process, and I wasn't as miserable after we lost. We lost twice. So maybe there's hope. [MUSIC PLAYING] There's a difference between enjoying the journey with your team and not being happy with what's happening on the court, even though you're-- everybody tells you your team look great tonight. So one of my ways is to make sure that whenever we travel and we go-- you know, we travel to some great towns, you know, in the Big East, you know, Chicago and Washington DC and Philadelphia and New York, Milwaukee. You know, it's great places. So I want to make sure that when we get there, there's a great place for us to go to eat and all of us can sit around together and staff, support staff, and take a minute away from the intensity and the pressures of the game itself. And I want to show them, this is part of the journey, that you work hard, you guys sacrifice, you deal with me, you put up with a lot, which is not easy going to college and being a, you know, basketball player and the demands. Let's just have a fun night out, and let's go eat. And I've been doing that for 35 years. That hasn't changed one bit. I don't think there's anything I enjoy more than that. And what my players have told me is that when they leave UConn, they continue that tradition when they go to play in the WNBA and that when they travel, they hook up with their teammates from UConn, wherever, and they go out to dinner. And it makes me smile to think about that because they're enjoying it. They're enjoy...
About the Instructor
With 11 national college basketball championships and two Olympic gold medals, Geno Auriemma has coached some of basketball’s most iconic teams. Now he’s showing you how to build and lead any kind of team—at home, work, or in your community—and achieve sustainable success. Learn strategies for being an empathetic, resilient leader so you can inspire others to push past their own barriers and reach their highest potential.
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Geno Auriemma
Legendary basketball coach Geno Auriemma teaches you how to lead any kind of team, inspire others to new heights, and build sustainable success.
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