Perhaps the least controversial sports honor in living memory was the selection of John Wooden as "Coach of the Century" by ESPN, honoring his ten NCAA basketball championships in a twelve-year stretch. His UCLA teams won with great centers and with small lineups, with superstars and with team effort, always with quickness, always with class. Wooden was a teacher first and foremost, and his lessons -- taught on the basketball court, but applicable throughout one's life -- are summarized in his famed Pyramid of Success.
Andrew Hill was one of the lucky young men who got to learn from Wooden in his favored classroom -- though that is hardly how Hill would have described it at the time. An all-city high school player in Los Angeles, Hill played -- a little -- on three national champions, from 1970 to 1972. Hill was left embittered by his experience at UCLA; he was upset at how unequally Wooden treated his starting players and his substitutes.
Hill went on to a successful career in television, rising to the presidency of CBS Productions, where he was responsible for the success of such popular series as Touched by an Angel and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Hill's job required him to manage many creative people, with the egos and insecurities that usually go along with such talents. And one day, some twenty-five years after he graduated, he was hit with the realization that everything he knew about getting the best out of people he had learned directly from Coach John Wooden.
With no small trepidation, Hill picked up the phone to call and thank his old coach and unexpected mentor. To his surprise, Wooden greeted him warmly and enthusiastically. A strong friendship, sealed in frequent visits and conversations, ensued, and endures.
Be Quick -- But Don't Hurry! tells the story of that friendship. But it also shares the lessons and secrets that Hill learned from Coach Wooden, which hold the key to managing creatively in the idea-driven economy of the twenty-first century. Among those lessons are:
The team with the best players almost always wins
Be quick, but don't hurry: there is never enough time to be sure (and if you are sure, you're probably too late), but you must always keep your balance
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail
The team that makes the most mistakes...wins!
Full of sound advice and warm reminiscence, Be Quick -- But Don't Hurry! is the management book of a lifetime.
John Wooden was named ESPN's Coach of the Century for the way he led his UCLA basketball team to the top of the sporting world in the 1960s and '70s. Andrew Hill was a rebellious and sparingly used reserve on the squad before becoming a successful television executive. While it's doubtful that either would have predicted it at the time, the lessons imparted on the court by Wooden eventually helped Hill reach the top of his profession. And in Be Quick--but Don't Hurry, named for one of the legendary coach's ubiquitous aphorisms, the now-grateful protégé translates that sage advice into 21 "secrets" that may help others realize similar accomplishments. Like the title, the counsel can usually be boiled down into short expressions that are deceptively simple. Examples include "Focus on effort, not winning," "Balance is EVERYTHING," "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail," and "The team with the best players almost always wins." To show their relevance and power, Hill fleshes them out with solid examples from the hardwood as well as the business world. And with the track record Wooden has compiled, who are we not to take them seriously? --Howard Rothman
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Be Quick But Don't Hurry:
This book was inspiring, I picked up the phone and called my college coach after 15 years. I learned how much I truly learned and how much I missed not keeping him in my life.
excllent primer on leadership:
Andy Hill does an excellent job of applying Coach Wooden's winning philosophies to business and personal life. Makes an excellent gift to first-time managers.
good but not great:
The book arrived in good condition. I was anticipating it to arrive sooner than it did as my daughter needed it for a class but aside from that, the purchase was a great value and served its purpose well for a college class.
What a great little book!:
I really enjoyed this book by Andy Hill. Not until he realized his own successes and failures did he fully see all that he learned from coach Wooden. The foundational principles taught by coach Wooden are one's that we can all admire. "Make each day your masterpiece." Buy this book, then give it to a friend.
