"What I've Learned" by John Wooden from Esquire

The Jan 2011 iteration of Esquire is it's annual "Meaning of Life" / "What I've Learned" issue and features a number of solid pieces by notable figures imparting their wisdom to the masses (at least the Esquire-reading masses).



What stood out to me above the rest was Coach John Wooden's missives from the "In Memoriam" section. The interview was done by Cal Fussman in 2000, published in this form July 2010 and then shortened a bit for this issue of Esquire.

Shortening even further, below are my favorite statements from this piece by Wooden...

- "You can do more good by being good than any other way."

- "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation."

- "If I am through learning, I am through."

- "Don't let making a living prevent you from making a life."

True, this blog is more frequently about great writing in longer form, but if these aren't great words written down, I don't know what is.

Kennedy Writing from Esquire

Really enjoyed the cover story from the Feb 2010 issue of Esquire Magazine.



This was Esquire's annual "Meaning of Life" issue with many different short pieces of (mostly) public figures giving their views of what things matter. For this particular iteration of the series, Esquire chose to have a large piece with various quotes and thoughts from Ted, JFK and Bobby Kennedy.

The piece is titled "The Kennedys: What I've Learned" and truth be told, would be a bit of a slog to get through online with it being done as a 78 page slideshow. I did find, though, linked on the Esquire site the excellent one-page "Ted Kennedy: What I've Learned" from 2003.

These pieces combined with the Sept '09 Ted Kennedy pieces from Time Magazine that I linked to in this blog made me interested in Kennedy... and in (eventually) reading his book "True Compass".