I'm trying to think of a funny line where I go "The bane of many third grade
spelling bee contestants anyone oughta spell his name
Anyone else know how to spell his name?
K-R-...I think. I should learn that.
That's good bar knowledge to be able to pull that out
Welcome to today's 7 Super Tips!
I'm your host Erik Qualman
A lot of you know me as Equalman
I couldn't be more excited for today's guest
It's Coach K. That's right! Mike Krzyzewski, the coach of Duke Basketball
He's also the coach of the U.S. Olympic team. He's won two gold
medals, he has five national titles, he's the winningest coach in college
basketball history. And fun fact, my last game at Michigan State University we
unfortunately lost to Duke in March Madness in the second round.
Grant Hill was too much to overcome. We almost upset them but we lost to Coach K.
So we do have that connection there. So without further ado, here are 7 Super Tips
from the winningest basketball coach of all time.
The very first thing is that in order to get better you change limits and when you change limits
you're gonna look bad and you're gonna fail and at Westpoint I learned that
failure was never a destination in other words when you are not back you know
figure out why and in then change the other thing is that you're not going to
get there alone you know be on a team you know surround yourself with good
people and learn how to listen you know you know don't you're not going to learn
with you just talking and when you do talk converse don't make excuses you
know figure out the solution and you don't have to figure it out yourself
and you know to me that's what we've tried to build our program on for the 40
42 years now that I've been a coach first of all I don't yell as much as I
did when I was a younger coach but I I never really yell with the with the
national team in LeBrons case it will Bron and I have a great relationship
well how do we get that we get that from being honest from the get-go in that
particular situation it was look at me we need to have eye to eye contact you
know in my younger days sir for some I said what the hell are you doing you
know it would be a huge confrontation and we tried but they're not accustomed
to looking at everybody all the time and so it actually became one of our
standards there are 14 standards that our US Olympic team had it's the way you
live the way you expect other people to live we have no rules but we have
standards you can't wait for great things you know a long time ago
president Brodhead mentioned about my mom my mom Emily never went to high
school shaker at eighth grade she what they prayed twice I asked their mom
twice what happened the teacher loved me Mike
just loved me but she was wise before going to high school I went to grew up
in the inner city of Chicago went to Catholic school Catholic boys school and
you take buses city buses the night before I'm going to high school you know
start in high school my mom sits me down I'm a like a wise punk you know the 14
year old kid who knows everything and my mom says to me Michael sit down I said
what do you want mom come on and I got go with my guys
it's just tomorrow I want to make sure you get on the right bus I said come on
ma and thement Armitage Armitage there I can go division a grand I know the city
and she says Michael that's not what I'm talking about tomorrow you're gonna meet
new people you're gonna get on a different journey and
the bus that you drive make sure that it's the right one make sure that you
only let good people on it and if you get on someone else's bus make sure it's
with someone who's good it's really the main thing that I've done my whole life
I've sought good people and that's why I'm at Duke for 36 years how can you be
better yeah how can you be better and so as you move forward you know choose your
occupation and all that but choose people good people will make you better
believe me good people will make you better I here should love the gym
you should love the gym yeah you should want to be in here a lot
what's the thing that gets you out of it what's one of the things that gets you
out of it are tired tired okay and when you're tired
what do you start thinking about you ma'am tired even your home and say mom
I'm tired and you expect some sympathy or oh baby you know don't be tired don't
be tired my mother god bless sir I never I never saw my mom sick the
other words when I grew up I woke up every day my mom was there I took her
took it for granted she's never tired never sorry she never
showed it you know these toughest your mother's
they show up all all the time there were a couple players that had to speak
otherwise the unit they they wouldn't conform I don't think two of the four
guys I met with were LeBron James and Kobe Bryant individually and Jason Kidd
who is the oldest and would get it and Dwyane Wade who is a great player but he
gets it too and the reason for that is that the other players are gonna want to
hear what Kobe if he's in you know what do you have to say and they're gonna
want to hear it will bra because they're those two are like kind of the alpha
dogs what I did in my individual meetings they a couple of them wanted to
say something I said don't say anything right now you know think about it
I don't I wanted to come out and I didn't want to be orchestrated but then
I said if and if you don't want to don't do it but I would like for you to do it
so I was trying to create a bond they're like will they do something for me that
they may not normally do and in the meeting all four of them said something
and Jason being the first one and because he knew that he had to as the
point guard and whatever to get get it going and then Kobe used it where he he
said if we play defense and rebound will kill everyone and he knew because he's
the scoring champ he was smart enough to let his teammates know I'm gonna be
rebounding and playing deep that was his way of doing it and then a very last
person who spoke I didn't know if I'd get everybody was LeBron and he gave us
really what proved to be our first standard and that was no excuses and we
had a picture of the gold medal up all the time so we saw our goal and he said
I've dreamed of winning that gold medal and I've dreamed about playing with all
of you guys what it would be to play with Carmelo and Kobe and whatever and
we're the best and we need you know become the best and we will be
the best if we don't make any excuses so these are amazing things really that got
this thing started and then that became the foundation of the culture that we we
developed and continued to have for a 10-year period and it produced three
Olympic gold medals and two World Championships and in those five previous
competitions before just so people think well you always win the US was one in
four so by having no culture just talent we were one and four by developing a
culture and getting everyone together we're five and all we've created a
culture we all have of excellence of self service of wanting to represent
your country and and building our thing on standards like how are we going to
live together and you know the guys have been accepted to that I mean NBA players
are those guys are good guys they're they're are top-notch professionals you
have to relate to them in the way that they deserve to be related to in an
honest open professional fashion but where they also know this is bigger than
them you know what we're doing is bigger than any one individual and therefore
every individual is really important in order for us to be as big as we need to
be to represent the United States I just like to work hard every day and I love
what I do and and make every day like it's my first day but with the
experience of 42 years and that I thought I was hungry every day and I
gave everybody my best shot and I include I I always wanted to be a part
of a team and I'm obviously I wanted to lead that team and you know what a what
an interesting life it is to be a leader
That's it for today's 7 Super Tips from Coach K the winningest basketball coach of all time.
He also has the most impossible last name to spell. Go ahead and try that.
But my hope is that his tips we're simple to digest and they help
unlock and unleash your inner superpower because that's what this show is all about.
We're trying to grab the top thought leaders, the top thinkers, the top
coaches, the top athletes. The best of the best in the world and try to
distill down what makes them tick so that we can give it to you and hopefully
unlock that super power within you. So hit that subscribe button below and
remember until next time it's not what we take from the world it's what we leave behind.
Thank you for joining us for today's 7 Super Tips from coach Mike Krzyzewski
Understand the concept of digital leadership it's like walking
backwards you don't know where you're going.
well my hope is that his tips we're simple to...
I 've have worse. I've had worse ideas.
you