Unless you are a big sports fan, you may have missed the passing this past weekend of John Wooden.  Who was he?

Only the most revered basketball mind to ever play or coach the game. He was inducted into the basketball hall of fame once as a player and once as a coach.  Known as the Wizard of Westwood, he coached the UCLA Bruins Men’s Basketball team to 10 national championships. He went 88 consecutive games without a loss, and had four perfect 30 – 0 seasons.

But, to say that John Wooden was an outstanding basketball coach would only be scratching the surface.

No one gets to Coach Wooden’s level of success without learning – and teaching – many valuable lessons.  He didn’t just ‘luck’ into a good program and enjoy the benefits.  His work ethic, determination and wisdom led to his success.

Those lessons translate very well off the hardwood.  Wooden was a much sought-after speaker for universities, corporations and many other groups.

And, I believe that what he had to teach works well for woodworkers.

How many times do we go to our shops looking to build the ‘perfect’ project.  One with absolutely no flaws, no mistakes, a perfect grain match and perfect finish. Or, maybe you are looking to build a commissioned project that will improve your bottom line and allow you to buy more tools.

In other words, you want to be a ‘success’ at woodworking.  But, what the heck is success?  How will you know it when you see it?

According to Wooden, success is the peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are possible.  In other words, success is not measured in perfect projects, smiling recipients or the sale of a project.  It’s in knowing you have done the best you are capable of.

So, how do you get there?  To climb to this zen-like state, Wooden set out a pyramid of success with each block building on the last ones.  Sure, it may look like some BS graphic created by an MBA student looking to get an A in a class, but one thing Coach Wooden did was live this, leading to the success his teams enjoyed.

At the top of the pyramid is competitive greatness – the ability to perform at your best when your best is required.  But, how do you get there?  You need to have poise (the ability to not be shaken when things go against you) and confidence (You have to believe in your abilities).  The only way to get poise and confidence is to condition yourself (get your mind right to achieve the task), develop your skills and enjoy team spirit.

Yeah, team spirit.  An ability to learn from others and share your expertise freely. The ability to work with your family to ensure everyone stays happy so there’s less friction when it comes to working in the shop.  The pyramid goes on from there…

Since I saw Coach Wooden’s pyramid of success, I have printed it out and placed it in my shop.  It’s a subtle reminder to me that I have come far with woodworking, but I still have much to learn and do to truly achieve success.

Thanks, Coach, for what you have done for sport and for life. I’ll keep putting 100% effort into improving myself, just as you taught others.

Sweet redemption.

How many times has it happened to you?  You are cutting a part for a project and something goes wrong.  Maybe you get a little splintering on one edge.  Instead of a crisp edge, you round it over.  There. No need to throw it away.

How about that board you cut too short?  Easy.  Just cut another piece and start over.  Issue resolved.

Maybe something else goes wrong… well, that’s just a design feature.

In fact, in many cases, anything that does go wrong can be gracefully recovered from with minimal fuss. The projects look great, and no one is the wiser.

But, there are projects that could be declared dead on arrival after a big boneheaded move.  Unfortunately, I had one of those last week. Remember that beautiful box I had milled the parts for weeks ago and had glued up on my triumphant return to the shop?  Yeah, the one with sapele sides and the sweet elm burl veneer lid? I had that sucker looking good, and I had even gotten to where I had routed dovetail slots on the corners to take some beautiful maple splines.  It was on its way to being a sweet little piece.

Well, I made a big time mistake.  The veneered panel was wider than the grooves I had milled for it. So, I had to rabbet the panel about 1/8″ in order to make it fit. Now, when I designed the box, my plan was to put the rabbet face up, shortening the distance between the top of the lid panel and the top edge of the box.  Of course, I glued it rabbet down.

Part of the construction process is to build the box and later cut the top off to make a lid.  I carefully marked where the bottom of the groove was located and was sure that I cleared the bottom of the groove in order to carefully free the lid.

Of course, you can see how with the new internal measurements this wasn’t going to work.  Please, feel free to laugh.

Yeah, that’s pretty ugly.  My first thought was to see how this could be saved.  How could I possibly fix this mess and make things better?  My wife had a few suggestions, including routing out the inside of the lid and gluing in a mirror or making it a picture frame.  Interesting, but something I would be thinking about whenever it was opened.

No, friends, this one looks pretty doggone dead.  A fatal flaw in my execution.  I can just say that I am fortunate that there was only a small amount of material involved.  It doesn’t happen frequently – even in my shop.  But, when it happens, it happens in a bad way.

Oh, well, at least I still have all ten fingers.