Getting the "W"

You need 3 daily wins: pic.twitter.com/uIRu9p5Oek

— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) July 3, 2026

Part of success is celebrating small wins. Like what? 

• Finishing a project.
• Reading a book. 
• Navigating a tough workout. 

Some days provide opportunities in leadership, mentoring, or 'crisis management'. 

Remember Suvorov's advice ("The General Who Never Lost") - "Always forward." 
 

Communicate Better, Write Better

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Hemingway

Be clear, specific, and understood. Better writing starts with intent, commitment to the your craft.

Benjamin Franklin chose the nine-year printing apprenticeship for exposure to the writing of others. His "Silence Dogood Letters" are legendary. 

Stephen King shares his process in "On Writing" which belongs in your personal library on your desk. Use stronger verbs, fewer adverbs, and find critics (his wife is his harshest reviewer). 

Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) argues for "raising the stakes" and having a "ticking clock" adding tension. 

Salman Rushdie discusses the tyranny of the blank page and employing our "creative imagination" and our "critical imagination." Writing is rewriting. 

Anne Lamott says that "sh*tty first drafts" are part of the process. Get it down and then repair fix it. The 'delete' should wear out first on your keyboard. 

Good writers take assume risks, exposing private inner thoughts and inhabiting strange worlds. Find a muse. Ryan Holiday chose Robert Greene. Want my opinion? Holiday succeeded on his own. 

Writers share their "dos and don'ts." Very and really annoy me. Would you want a coach thinking "she's very, very good" or "she's exceptional?" Do you want Coach Scott Celli thinking believing, "She's really good" or "for her, the sky's the limit?" 

Bigger words don't equal better words ones. Hemingway wrote, “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” 

"Every story is about someone searching for something." In The Boys in the Boat, Daniel Brown wrote about excavates multiple searches - understanding the Great Depression, the rise of fascism in the 1930s, and chasing Olympic gold for Joe Rantz and the 1936 American crew team oarsmen. 

"But it's summer." Summer can be inform both vacation and opportunity. As James Clear (Atomic Habits) explains, "Habits are votes for the type of person you want to become." Special servers practice serving. Cooks exploit time and temperature variations to chase perfection. Writers write and revise. 

Read. Write. Revise. Repeat. 

Lagniappe. Stick to your standards. 

Eli Drinwkitz explains the difference between standards and expectations.

"Expectations are external, standards are internal."

"If we're worried about outside noise and expectations... that's a recipe for disappointment."

You don’t rise to expectations - you fall to your… pic.twitter.com/rWis45jJD7

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) July 2, 2026

Shape It - Three Lessons

Who are your female role models? Maybe it's your Mom, another relative, a teacher, or someone else.

Society has systematically undervalued women since the dawn of history as described by Harari in Sapiens.

Sara Blakely is one of my role models. She considered law, sold fax machines, and became an entrepreneur. She founded "Spanx" a leading shapewear brand.

Here are three anecdotes that I find memorable:

As a child, she ate Saturday family dinners and heard her father ask, "What have you failed at this week." Failure isn't final and it usually teaches more than success. "Don't fear failure." 

As a successful entrepreneur she went on an "Outward Bound" type excursion. One of the assignments (while tethered for safety) was to jump out over a cliff to a 'teammate' who would catch her. She is short and not athletic. She was one of the few who made it. She was asked how she did it. She said that she didn't jump to the catcher...she jumped toward a spot three feet above him. "Aim high." 

She developed a mantra for her product that emphasized quality. This works for school and sports. "Make it. Sell it. Build brand awareness."

You got this. 

Lagniappe. Habits. 

My favorite line from Atomic Habits has been living in my head rent-free:

“It doesn’t make sense to continue wanting something if you’re not willing to do what it takes to get it. If you don’t want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result…

— CooperBaggs 💰🍞 (@edgaralandough) June 27, 2026

Build Trust Every Day

You don’t build culture with plays.

You build it with people.
• It takes trust.
• It takes respect.
• It takes caring about others.

That’s what makes a real team👇 pic.twitter.com/rk3aY2iPNI

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) July 1, 2026

Trust gets you on the court. Trust keeps you on the court. It's more than overall performance.

You gain trust when you treat your parents and your peers well.

You gain trust when you work and succeed academically. 

You gain trust when you focus, show coachability, and perform in practice. 

You gain trust when your behavior "wins" outside the building. 

You gain trust when you make the team better and the players around you better. 

Lagniappe. When it's dusk, who are you?    

The best competitors don't rise to the occasion. They've already been there.

Cori Close calls it the LION mindset. 🔥

When everyone else tightens up, they lock in. When the moment gets big, they get bigger.

Watch. Share. Bookmark. pic.twitter.com/nw4WPFs7G8

— Greg Berge (@GregBerge) July 1, 2026

Match Your Work to Your Goals

Earn your voice 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/4k7LsccE1S

— Duke Women’s Basketball (@DukeWBB) June 29, 2026

Neither youth nor age is a prerequisite for success.

Remember the "Holy Triad" for players - playing time, role, and recognition.

Everyone should want them. Only six get to walk onto the court at Hawkes Field House in Reading on September 8th. As of today, nobody - not Coach Scott Celli, his assistants, the captains, or other players knows who those players will be. 

That's good. Why? Because certainty and complacency can travel together. Dream big...and do the work. 

Equations - More Relevant Than You Think*

*Adapted from my basketball blog.                                                                             

Part of education is "memorizing" equations and concepts like the Pythagorean Theorem. What equations might work for basketball and life? 

The Achievement Equation

Achievement = Performance x Time 

Great careers inform a "standard of performance" over an extended time. Sometimes a performance is so noteworthy, like Roger Bannister's eclipsing the four-minute mile barrier that a single event becomes iconic. The record evolved from years of performance and training. 

The Outcome Equation

E + R = O

The event plus the response equals the outcome. 

Urban Meyer promoted the Outcome Equation in his Above the Line. Whatever our opinion of Coach Meyer and his struggles, his book is excellent. Preparation drives response. 

The Compounding Equation

Here’s the expanded 365-day compounding graph with both curves.

What the math says

• 1% better each day:

  $${1.01}^{365}\approx 37.8$$

  → Nearly 38× improvement over a year.

Leverage the benefits of incremental gains. Tiny improvements over extended periods have powerful consequences. 

Gladwell's Achievement Equation

ACHIEVEMENT = TALENT + PREPARATION

"The magic is in the work." 

Thomas Keller's Cooking Equation

Cooking = Time + Temperature

Time is self-explanatory. Temperature is intensity. Have the discipline to bring intensity to our arena. As Coach Dave Smart says, "Excellent teams play harder for longer. There's also a "cook through" effect, as some 'cooking' continues after the dish is removed from the heat. 

Escape Velocity

Coaches seldom come with a physics background. However, the "escape velocity" equation has relevance.

Excellence requires attaining escape velocity from the distractions that defeat us. And escape requires direction and fuel. Think about MASS and DISTANCE. Mass increases escape velocity and DISTANCE reduces it. 

Examine three players who applied this formula to achieve greatness.

Michael Jordan told North Carolina assistant coach Roy Williams that he would work as hard as any player ever had to be the best Tarheel ever. Williams responded that he had to work HARDER than anyone had to become the best. 

Bill Walton was a free spirit at UCLA. But Coach John Wooden explained that Walton never tired of repeating what was necessary to achieve elite footwork that propelled him to a magnificent college career. 

A banker's son, Bill Bradley wasn't the most elite athlete. But at age twelve he embarked on full time training, three hours daily and eight hours on Saturday to hone his basketball skills. The Princeton phenom led his team to the Final Four, set a scoring record in the NCAA consolation game, won two NBA Championship with the Knicks, and became a Rhodes Scholar and US Senator. 

Lagniappe. Mastery

Lagniappe 2. Coaching analogies are everywhere. Coaches don't treat everyone equally and need to treat everyone fairly. Players see everything. 

The Miami Marlins had “Bring Your Pup to the Park” day and one dog got caught on TV casually enjoying a hot dog, while the dog behind him stared like he was witnessing the greatest injustice of his life pic.twitter.com/81nnVaWZBM

— Dudes Posting Their W’s (@DudespostingWs) June 23, 2026

Lagniappe 3. Pep talks. 

 

Your Commonplace Book

Everyone should keep a commonplace book, a notebook of everyday wisdom to apply to your life. It might even be humor or sarcasm. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pure Athlete (@pureathleteinc)

Believe or not, your teachers, friends, and even you may come up with something profound. 

More often, some old man or woman will drop knowledge on you:

It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.

Charlie Munger

It could be anything. Lincoln said, "I learn from everybody, even if it's what not to do."