Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success

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Heider, whose book is based on Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, suggests that leaders practice becoming more open. "The wise leader is of service: receptive, yielding, following. The group member's vibration dominates the lead, while the leader follows. But soon it is the member's consciousness which is transformed, the member's vibration which is resolved." One thing I’ve learned as a coach is that you can’t force your will on people. If you want them to act differently, you need to inspire them to change themselves. If things follow the progression of Tolkien’s lore — which Rings of Power has not always done! — what happens next is a period of tense calm, as Sauron holes up in Mordor to gather his armies and forge the One Ring. In the books, that takes a decade, but with Rings of Power condensing Sauron’s manipulation of Celebrimbor into forging the elven Rings to a mere three weeks, we can probably expect it to happen faster. Here I was sitting in a limo at the ramp leading into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, waiting for my team to arrive, while an ecstatic crowd of ninety-five thousand plus fans, dressed in every possible combination of Lakers purple and gold, marched into the stadium. Women in tutus, men in Star Warsstorm-trooper costumes, toddlers waving “Kobe Diem” signs. Yet despite all the zaniness, there was something inspiring about this ancient ritual with a decidedly L.A. twist. As Jeff Weiss, a writer for LA Weekly, put it: “It was the closest any of us will ever know what it was like to watch the Roman Legions returning home after a tour of Gaul.” And yet as a coach, I know that being fixated on winning (or more likely, not losing) is counterproductive, especially when it causes you to lose control of your emotions. What’s more, obsessing about winning is a loser’s game: The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome. The ride is a lot more fun that way. Bill Russell, the Boston Celtics great who won more championship rings as a player than anyone else (eleven), revealed in his memoir, Second Wind, that he sometimes secretly rooted for the opposing team during big games because if they were doing well, it meant he would have a more heightened experience.

Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson (Book Summary) 11 Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson (Book Summary)

To him it means reaching that stage of deep camaraderie arising when a group commits to something greater than themselves, no matter the risks standing in the way. Thus it was,” The Silmarillion says, “that in two domains the bliss and beauty of the Elves remained still undiminished while that Age endured: in [Rivendell]; and in Lothlórien [...] where the trees bore flowers of gold and no Orc or evil thing dared ever come.” This was a strategy later also used by football coach Jose Marino, albeit the guy after starting with a bang later slipped into anonymity. Kobe Bryant: The First MindsetThe system also gave players a clear purpose as a group and established a high standard of performance for everyone.” During my junior year, I came into my own, averaging 21.8 points and 12.9 rebounds per game, and was named first team All-American. We won the conference title that year and made the small-college Final Four for the second year in a row, losing in a tight semifinal game to Southern Illinois. The next year I averaged 27.4 points and 14.4 rebounds and scored 50 points twice on the way to making the All-American first team again. In some alternate accounts, Círdan was the bearer of Narya from the beginning, with Gil-galad only possessing Vilya. Phil says that his approach with Kobe was to be as direct as possible and do so in front of everyone. There’s a Zen saying I often cite that goes, ‘Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.’ The point: Stay focused on the task at hand rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.”

Keepers of the Three Rings | The One Wiki to Rule Them All Keepers of the Three Rings | The One Wiki to Rule Them All

We did this in a fun way, but with a serious intent. The essence of coaching is to get the players to wholeheartedly agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team.A ring symbolizes love and unending connections - Native Americans considered the ring sacred and built their communities around the shape STAGE 5—a rare stage characterized by a sense of innocent wonder and the strong belief that “life is great.” (See Bulls, Chicago, 1995–98.) Jordan was not a natural leader, he was a natural doer who pushed the team with his will and with the high demands he placed on everyone around him.

Eleven Rings - Penguin Books UK

The three Elven rings had been crafted independently of Sauron by the Elf smith Celebrimbor; they were, however, crafted using skills taught by the Dark Lord, subjecting them to the power of the One Ring whilst it remained in Sauron's possession. In the One Ring's absence, after Sauron's first defeat, these rings were wielded by the Elves for purposes of good.Most players live in a state of constant anxiety, worrying about whether they’re going to be hurt or humiliated, cut or traded, or, worst of all, make a foolish mistake that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.”

Eleven Rings Quotes by Phil Jackson - Goodreads Eleven Rings Quotes by Phil Jackson - Goodreads

His approach of focusing on creating the conditions for success and then letting go of the outcome is also particularly inspiring (as opposed to a more “the result is all that matter” approach as in Extreme Ownership). Another aspect of Buddhist teachings that has influenced me is the emphasis on openness and freedom. The Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki likened the mind to a cow in a pasture. If you enclose the cow in a small yard, it will become nervous and frustrated and start eating the neighbor’s grass. But if you give it a large pasture to roam around in, it will be more content and less likely to break loose. For me, this approach to mental discipline has been enormously refreshing, compared to the restricted way of thinking ingrained in me as a child.

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We got off to a roaring start, winning twenty-one of our first twenty-five games, and by the time we faced the Celtics at home on Christmas, we were a far more spirited team than we’d been during the previous year’s playoffs. We were playing the game the way the “basketball gods” had ordained: reading defenses on the move and reacting in unison like a finely tuned jazz combo. These new Lakers beat the Celtics handily, 92–83, and then danced through the season to the best record in the Western Conference (65-17). Michael loved challenges. So I challenged him to imagine a new way of relating to his teammates. He expected his teammates to perform at his level, even though there were only a handful of players in the league who could meet that standard. I encouraged him to take a fresh look at his role on the team and try to envision ways he he could serve as a catalyst to get all the players to work together. I didn't dictate to him what I wanted; I simply pushed him to think about the problem in a different way, mostly by asking him questions about the impact that this or that strategy might have on the team. "How do you think Scottie or Horace would feel if you did this?" I would say. I treated him like a partner, and slowly he began to shift his way of thinking. When I let him solve the problem himself, he was more likely to buy into the solution and not repeat the same counterproductive behavior in the future.