My Summer

THE PYRAMID OF SUCCESS

JOHN WOODEN

INDUSTRIOUSNESS: "There is no substitute for work. Worthwhile results come from hard work and careful planning." Being industrious is a very useful and powerful asset one can have, being industrious builds character and human development. In shows determination and hard work. Suppose that you are the opposite of industrious you would be a slacker and your work if done will always be sluggish because there is not time nor effort put into it to categorize it as work done by someone who in industrious. Being industrious you are always on time, your work in always on the right path, and it done with full effort. “If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.”

ENTHUSIASM: "It is the engine that powers all blocks of the Pyramid. It is why I chose Industriousness and Enthusiasm as the cornerstones of my Pyramid of Success. It is where everything begins." It is important to always show enthusiasm in anything you do because you demonstrate that you want to be there doing what ever it is your doing. Having enthusiasm means that you have the right attitude towards things and you have energy, people who are not enthusiastic about things often are bitter and negative about things because they are not there doing what they're doing because they want to or enjoy, instead they force themselves and their attitudes are not on the same page as everyone else. To be enthusiastic is showing a high level of interest,enjoyment, or approval of something, having this quality allows you to perform well and high. "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."
FRIENDSHIP: "Comes from mutual esteem, respect and devotion. Like marriage it must not be taken for granted but requires a joint effort." friendships are important because they create a sense of motivations and dertermination as well as a sense of competion. When you create friendships it creates networks and links to reach the level of success that you wish to reach. Of course there is a certain status of friendships you should build around, and those friednships should consist of people who have the same goals, wants, success agendas as you. If you make friendships with people with people that are toxic or in the way of you reaching you success than you should steer clear away from them because they will only be in the way.  “Good friends help you to find important things when you have lost them…your smile, your hope, and your courage.”

LOYALTY: "To yourself and to all those depending upon you, Keep your self-respected." I strongly believe that loyalty is important, being loyal you are true to yourself and to others, you never try to cheat, do wrong, or work around the system. Your true to yourself and your work. Loyalty applies to all aspects of life, especially when you are in a relationship with someone and even married. You are loyal to the person and you will be by that person's side through anything and you will not cheat on that person. Your character is strongly based on your loyalty, it makes others feel good about you. When you are not loyal often times many people will have negative outlooks on your character because they cannot trust you. So stay loyal to yourself, your work and to others. "Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence."
COOPERATION: "With all levels of your co-workers. Listen if you want to be heard. Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way."  It is important that your go by your daily life cooperating, not just with the law and such things but also the people you associate and converse with. Cooperate with them in a positive tone and never with bad intentions. Cooperate with the rules, be polite and courteous and respect the rules and laws in play. Being cooperative shows that you understand well and you will bid by follwing these rules. It builds your character when you are very cooperative people will see you as a person that they will not have a hard time with nor any issues. So always remain cooperative and proceed with building your character for your betternent."Through mutual understanding, sincerity and goodwill, and with great wisdom and broad views, the leaders on both sides should jointly initiate new opportunities for peace, stability, cooperation and mutual benefit."
AMBITION: I believe it is extremely important to have ambition, it is the one thing that will continue to motivate you and drive you to do what you do. It's what leads to success, ambition keeps you hungry for more and to never settle for just the limit or what is expected. It makes you want more and to do more, ambition is the desire to achieve what you want. Without ambition you would not strive for more, you'd be ok not doing or just doing mediocre work. Its not coming with a drive to do it, instead you're forced. When you possess the qualities of ambition you do things that in the long run benefit you, such as you plan ahead, you perform beyond what's expected, you're next late or unprepared, and you are always ahead of the game. So in the long run toward reaching success, ambition is one skill and quality to always have to make it far in life. "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
SELF-CONTROL: "Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgement and common sense are essential." It is important that you keep your self control very steady. Often times we let our self control get the best of us and we act upon our emotions rather than logically. Having self control means that you keep your feelings, thoughts, actions and expressions under a certain fine line that keeps you together. When people do not have their self control they do things without thinking and it can result to a great deal of troubles and consequences. This is where criminals come from and bad people come from. So in order to keep your mind right and on the track to success than it is important to keep your self under control and priortize what's important and beneficial to yourself and your growth. Keep your life in balance and always stay ahead of the game with full determination and wit. "I have learned that I really do have discipline, self-control, and patience. But they were given to me as a seed, and it's up to me to choose to develop them."
ALERTNESS: "Be obserrving comstantly. Stay open minded. Be eager to learn and improve." This is an important skill to possess because when you are alert you are aware of what is important and of what you need to focus and prioritize on. You are always on top of what needs to get done and you never fall back. When you are not alert you fall back often times and you steer away from the right path. You stumble on obstacles that you do no see because your sense of alertness isn't on point. An example, of being alert would be having a D in geometry and you become alert that your grade in that class is low, your sense of alertness is high and now you are aware of a test coming up that can boost your grade. Now that you are alert you being to study ahead of time to prep up. "“Opportunity does not waste time with those who are unprepared.” 
INITIATIVE: "Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Do not be afraid of failure, but learn from it." I think it is extremely important to take initiative in the most postive and beneficial ways possible for yourself. Being able to take charge of your own life to help your pathway to success is important. Often times many people are too dependent on others to make decisions and carry them that once they are on their own they are lost. They are able to do things for themselves. Only you can control your own life so do not be the person to fall on others. "So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality, nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit."

INTENTNESS: "Set a realistic goal. Concentrate on its achievements by resisting all tempations and being determined and persistent." You have the intent to be the best. Its like in basketball you have to think you're the best to be the best. In an interview with Lebron James and Kevin Durant they say are the two best players in the league. One player that is average at said on record he would be as good as Kevin Durant if given the opportunity. That player is known as Michael Beasley " I'm your favorite players favorite player". I thought that was funny because he's not even a borderline all star. Although he's not the best player he has to think that because he needs the intentness of the mentally of being great. You have to have the intentness in order to reach your goals. I need to strive and start applying that quality to my life. I need to have intentness so I can become the best me.  For example, if my goal is gain muscle, I would need to go the gym everyday of the week. I would need to do exercises that will help build muscle. Intentness is important because it keeps you on track with your goals and your aspiration. Once you set you mind on something your intentness will be to accomplish and meet that goal." We can have no progress without change, whether it be basketball or anything else." 
SINCERITY: Being sincere is a great quality because it allows you to make friends easier. It's easy to make friends because you will be honest and truthful. People that are honest and truthful tend to be well like around others. I always try to be sincere because it shows people your characteristics and values you have. It's also goes for when making friends. You want to surround yourself with people that are also sincere. For example, if you have friends that aren't trustworthy and aren't responsible, then you want to associate yourself with them. But if there are trustworthy and responsible you are going to associate yourself with them. Once you find friends that are sincere then you can ask for favors because they are responsible. People that are sincere are more likely yo get jobs. They are more likely to make more money because of their acquaintances. Sincerity just provides many opportunities.  
ADAPTABILITY: Adaptability is a concept that many should follow when is comes to reality. This is being adapted to many things, for example, home, work, school, and your surroundings. It is great to understand the fact of being adapted to an environment. Many get use to it and that is being an adaptability person. Adaptability is a key challenge for leaders and organizations, and ethical leadership is an important tool for ''switching on.'' It's the ability to surviving an aspect or environment. Not many adapt to certain things and sometimes, it's really hard to do so. Understanding that fact of being adapted to something. The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. 

CONDITION: "Mental-Moral-Physical. Rest, exercise and diet must be considered. Moderation must be practiced. Dissipation must be eliminated." You need to condition your mind and your body to be successful. Some ways to condition your mind is by reading an hour a day. Another way to condition your mind is by studying/ practicing to get better. To condition your body is by exercising regular and live a healthy life. Alsoeating healthy helps you to be focus throughout the day. By conditioning your mental, moral and physical health is creates equilibrium in your life.  For example, athletes have routines that help them stay focus. I have an everyday routine it consist of a hour nap, than going to play some basketball and after all that finish my homework. This routine helps me condition my mental health by taking a nap. It also helps my physical health by playing basketball. I condition my moral health by going to church school on Sunday's. These are all benefits of conditioning my Mental, Moral, and Physical Health.
SKILL: 

 "A knowledge of and the ability to properly and quickly execute the fundamentals. Be prepared and cover every little detail." Having skills plays a huge role in all of the blocks in the pyramid. Skill isn't always something you were born with but can be something you develop over time. When you have good skills, you will be more productive. An example of developing skills can be like being a mechanic. You will not start off by fixing everything about cars. Over time with working with them, you will become more skillful and be able to fix more things. Also, skills are important to the blocks because without skills, you will not be able to accomplish any goals you are trying to achieve. Skills can sometimes be natural to someone but they can still improve it by working more on it. When someone isn't skillful and does not attempt to improve on it, they will not accomplish any progress. Another example of progressing in your life can be like our daily goal journal. Those are skills we are developing so we can plan out our desired future. This will help us become successful because we are using planning skills to know what we need to accomplish to achieve our dream goals and personal goals. This will motivate us to achieve more goals when we mark a check beside our accomplished goal. 

TEAM SPIRIT: "A genuine consideration for others. An eagerness to sacrafice personal interest of glory for the welfare of all." Being a team spirit is very important because it makes you more involved with others.Team spirit is great because if you have great team spirit then others will fed off of your spirit. When you have team spirit it usually means that it is important what you are doing. Having team spirit is a leadership quality that needs to be strengthened. You need team spirit to keep everyone motivated and ready to work. Team spirit builds chemistry through the rough times. If you do not have team spirit what usually happens is that the team loses focus. For example, let's say I am the leader of kids that are learning how to play soccer. The most important thing is condition. Now I can do it by making run laps with no team bonding or I can make them do relays and race each other. This is a great way to get them conditioned because they will be talking in the lines and having that team spirit. This shows that team spirit is used in any scenario in life from kids to adults. Team spirit everyone has to have that drive to want to succeed.
HONESTY: (In thought and action) "Honesty is the best policy." Honesty is a great characteristic because it allows you to gain trust from honesty. People who are honesty aren't always better, but at least you'll know they will tell the truth. For example, you do not want someone that will lie and not always tell the truth. I stop lying a long time ago because its not the right thing to do. Also it takes a toll because one lie always leads to another, and eventually you will forget why you lied in the first place. It never good to lie because the truth always comes out. Ben Franklin say it best "honesty is the best policy". People who are honest are more approachable. I try to be honest on everything and if I don't know something Ill just say I do not know instead of saying I think. Honesty is a great quality as well because more people will wan to be around you. Honesty is the foundation of relationships. Sometimes it is important to be honest with yourself and other because it build character and it build trust and dependability.
RESOURCFULNESS: (proper judgment) "Make the most out of what you have." It is important to be resourcful because you make a good and positive use of the tools and connections around you. Having the ability to have a quality like resourcefulness is great. People that have this trait find clever ways to overcome distractions. They are also very straight to the point and go for things instead of waiting. People that are resourcefulness have very good work ethics. Like in sports and education where the great players are separated from the good ones. I really like this quality and i will try have resourcefulness. I feel that you find crafty ways to accomplish things. In basket there is a player that not be the athletic but he is very smart with high IQ and craftiness to him. Chris Paul is someone that reminds of resourcefulness. Since he is not the tallest or has incredible athleticism, so he uses clever ways to get to the rim. He uses dribbles to get through the defenses and although he isn't very tall he works hard to be good at defense. 
POISE: "Just being yourself. Being at ease in any situation" Having poise is a great quality because it shows that you are mature. Being poise is like showing others that you have manners. People who are poise are often calm and are natural leaders. When I think about having poise I think of Karl Antony Towns. I think about Karl because when he was interviewed coming out of college he was so calm answering questions. He was also a great player from the begin of the season and was the consensus Rookie of the year. Just like Karl I try to in-cooperate poise in my everyday life. For example when I had a question for my soccer coach so I waiting until he stop talking with the other coaches because of my manners and I didn't want to interrupt for an abrupt question. He ask me why I didn't speak and I said I have manners. He then said that was very poise of me. Poise is also just going with the flow and being yourself. It also means that you can get out of situation easier.  
CONFIDENCE: "Thorough preparation breeds confidence" I feel confidence is an important thing to develop and a have within yourself. Confidence the very foundation that allows you to branch out and do things that allow you to grow and succeed. Confidence does not make you second guess or shy you away from opportunites, instead it allows you to go through life trusting yourself and your knowledge. You see, if you don't have confidencce you're very likely to be timid and shy away from certain things because of self doubt and overthinking. It's always good to have confidence. Confidence shows you have a great demeanor to yourself. Confidence is a quality you strive to have. When i think of confidence I think about Kobe because he had the utter most confidence to take the last shot at the end of games. He has a mentality of you miss all the shots you don't take. If Kobe misses 10 shots and it's the end of the game you still knew where the ball going, in his hands then the basket. Do you why he makes these shots? He makes them because he has the confidence to take the last shot. I always try to be confident because when you are confident in what you are doing you do it at the best of your capability. Confidence shows that you are very expressive. It also shows that you are bold. Confidence is a key to success.
RELIABILITY: Reliability is a great trait because it shows that you are responsible. When you are responsible and asked to do something then others will believe that you are reliable. It also bridges that gap of not knowing someone and it creates a mutual respect for one another. For example, In my school we have to bring breakfast up to the classroom ,so you have to have someone that is early and reliable. Reliability is also in basketball. For example, when its a last second situation you have to have someone reliable to take and make the last shot. This gets you respect and now other teams will start to defend you differently. I always try to be reliable like when someone ask me to do something I do it right away because it shows that I care. It also warrants me trust. People will realize that I am trustworthy and you can ask him anything. This shows that you guys will have a respect. It shows that you are hardworking and determined. 
FIGHT: I like the word fight as described determined. Fight tells me that you try your very best in anything. I see fight mostly in sports because no team wants to lose. When they get to the point of defeat they show that grit and fight to get through obstacles. For example, when a team is down like the Patriots in the Super Bowl vs the Falcons. The Patriots showed  us that determined effort to win and not let a little adversity beat them. When I am playing a sport like soccer I always try my best so if my team loses then at least I know I tried my best of effort. This gives me a little more confidence if my teammates work a little harder then we will win the next game.  People that have fight in them are more determine to win, This also shows that they want to win. Fight also determines which team wants it more like running for them 50/50 balls, sliding on the floor for the ball. I really like this quote that is so true "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work as hard".  
COMPETITIVE GREATNESS: "Be at your best when your best is needed. Enjoyment of a difficult challenge" Having Competitive greatness is a great quality because it shows that you will show up in the biggest moments. For example, the Toronto Raptors have a history of playing well in the regular season, but once the play offs start they choke. While on the other hand, teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers that don't do as well step up in the play offs and have that competitive greatness to live up greatness in big moments. I like to think that I have competitive greatness because in my football team when the team needed me to guard the other teams best player I did. Not only is it having competitive greatness its also having confidence. Confidence in shooting a penalty, game winning shot or home run.  People that have competitive greatness look for these big moments. They want to win the game for the team. Competitive greatness also works in school. When studying for finals you try harder then ever because you want the grade. This shows that you have an extra gear to better yourself. Striving for the best and nothing less.
INTEGRITY: Integrity is having great moral and having pure intentions. Integrity is a great quality because it shows that you are honest and have great morals. Everyone can have integrity, but only a very few use it on a daily basis. People that have integrity are loyal and honest. And people with integrity get more jobs. For example, If i am interviewing two men to be the manager of my company. One of the two men meets all the requirements, but he is not always honest and tell a fib. On the other hand, you have a person who doesn't meet all the requirement, but he has integrity. Ill rather hire the guy who isn't as qualified but won't tell me any lies. Also when you donate money to someone. You give it to them with the purest of intention. Not because in church they say could be Jesus asking for money. Integrity in its simplest form is purity of intention. It’s keeping a clean conscience. But it is also a composite of some of the other mortar qualities in the pyramid. To some extent, integrity contains a bit of reliability, a healthy helping of honesty and a portion of sincerity. However, I believe that the component of purity of in[;fg..;.hklsejfkjsdfjsdkflsdlf;s;tention is important enough to give integrity the status of mortar in its own right.
FAITH: Having faith is great because it provides hope. Hope gives you this satisfaction that you'll get through anything. Having faith in yourself gives you confidence that you'll pull through and succeed. Believe in yourself and you will accomplish anything. Always having that positive mentally which gives others a positive mentally.Faith can also mean believing in a religion. For example, in basketball games coaches give the ball to the one they have most faith in. For example, yesterday the Cavs coach gave the ball to Lebron James in the final 3 seconds. Why? Well  because he has the utter most faith in him to make the shot. Guess what happen, Lebron made the shot. This is just having faith in his go to scorer.
PATIENCE: Having patience is a great quality because its shows you can be calm and collective in any situation. People who have patience are more likely going to a better job because they will take their time in finishing. Patience shows that you can be a leader because you won't get irritated while people are talking all at the same time. Like leaders of teams have to deal with others messing around and put them to work. Another good example of patience are Moms. Moms have to deal with kids and have patience with them. I always try to have patience. It's always come natural to me. Another example of patience are coaches when they have to deal with players. For example, when a player says he wants to start, but isn't as good as he says he is. This causes conflict which then the coach has to come in a settle everyone down. Patience is a quality that everyone show learn.