Failure as Fertilizer | Rick Pitino

0:00Courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom. Hold my hand. You hold my hand.

0:05Rick Pitino:Learn about adopting a teen from foster care at AdoptUSKids.org. You can't imagine the reward. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes, and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:27You know, we all have our way of coaching. I'm a running, pressing coach. But to me, it's all about getting the most out of someone's abilities. That's the way I recruit. I don't go after necessarily top 10 basketball players. I learned a long time ago, Mario Gabelli, a financial investor in New York City. I went to him to try and invest Jamal Mashburn, one of my players' money. Helen Mashburn asked me to find somebody to manage his money. I visited Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch at the time, and Mario Gabelli, Gabelli Assis was the last person I visited in Rye, New York. And I tried to sound intelligent.

1:02I was young back then as the Kentucky coach. And I said, where do you get your talent from? University of Chicago, Harvard Business School, Wharton School. He said, no, not really. He took me to a back room where everybody sat. He said, I look for PhDs. I said, that's strange to look for PhDs in your business. He said, look, I look for poor, hungry, and driven people. I don't care where they go to school. And so I changed it to passionate, hungry, and driven people. I like that. And I go after passionate, hungry, and driven athletes who really want to pay the price to get somewhere. And then I put the team together.

1:32How do you find that PhD? How do you find that within someone? Like, is it something they say? Is it the way they look at you? Is it the hunger they have? Or what is... Well, when I bring them in recruiting-wise, I want them to watch us practice. We go really hard. Some players right away, you can tell they don't want to work that hard. If it's not exciting to them, they're out. They don't want to work that hard. You can tell. You can check what other schools are interested in as well. And they watch practice. What do you think? It's, boy, you guys go really hard. When they say that, you know they're not for you.

2:02When they say, boy, I really, really like that intensity, you know they're for you. Interesting. You create an environment for them so they can experience something. Then you ask them a couple of questions to see how they're going to respond. Very much so. Now, what if they seem hungry and then two weeks in, a month in, they start to realize, wow, this is a lot more than I thought. Like, I thought I wanted this drive, but you're putting me through a ringer, Coach, and I'm dead here. How do you get people to buy into a system or a belief of the whole season as opposed to, you know, one game where you're going to score a bunch?

2:34How do you instill that belief in people? Well, a lot of them want to transfer right away. You know, if they're not starting right away. They're not getting the playing time. And it comes today, believe it or not, from the parents. The parents really, they call and say, how come he's not playing? And a perfect example is this young man I coached, Russ Smith. I called him Rusticulus. Didn't play as a freshman. He knew he wasn't going to play as a freshman because I told him. He wanted to transfer right away. I said, well, I told you you weren't going to play as a freshman. There are better people ahead of you.

3:03And the dad, fortunately, knew me real well. I was the Knick coach. He said, Russ, you're not transferring. And he asked me, is he going to play next year? I said, well, he's going to have to change. of his practice habits if he wants to play, he changed. Now, nobody recruited him out of high school, no big-time schools. Well, he ended up a first-team college All-American, wins a national championship, goes to China and scores 61 a game. So he had a fantastic career, played in two Final Fours and won a national championship, but he wanted to leave as a freshman. I think you have to understand the journey you're about to take.

3:34The last stop is where you want to get to, but you're going to have to work along the way. What's the greatest lesson you've learned through losing? Failure is fertilizer. You know, there's no question about it to help other things grow. You understand the steps, where you make your mistakes, and what not to do going down the road. Give you a prime example. I coach this young man, Bill Cartwright, with the Knicks. Seven foot center. Great guy. And we had to have him for this game. We're on a huge winning streak with the Knicks. And I called him. He missed walkthrough. He said, Coach, I'm sick.

4:06I've got to stay in bed. I'm hoping to make the game. I said, hey, Bill, you've got to make this game. We need you. And he said, coach, I just need to relax. I said, okay. Then all of a sudden I told the trainer, I said, look, we need to get him in, get a shot from the doctor to stop his stomach problems. Get him in early in, get him in. And Bill wanted rest. I now sent the trainer to go to him, get him into the city. He's got to travel from New Jersey into the city, 45 minute drive. He wasn't up to it. He wanted to stay in bed. He gets him in. And my whole thing was to see the doctor, get the right medication to help him feel better for the game.

4:40Give him a chance to play the game. Bill took it as I didn't believe him that he was sick because I wasn't my own messenger. I sent to Traynor. Traynor now relays the message. Hey, Bill, coach wants you in the city right away to see the doctor. He didn't say why we needed him. I needed you, big Bill, to play the game the whole bit. So now he gets it. He's upset. And I couldn't figure out why. Two games go by. I said, Bill, what's the problem? We're not on the same page here. He said, you didn't believe that I was sick. Of course I believe that. I had to have the doctor to see you right away so you could play in this game.

5:13He said, well, that's not the way I took it. I took it to you didn't believe I was sick and you wanted me to go see the doctor because you didn't believe it. So you have to be your own messenger. And especially in the pros, you have a problem. You can't let it fester. You deal with it right away. Wow. And you don't understand the communication. You got to let them talk. You have to be a great listener to be a pro coach. Really? You have to. He's not playing and he wants to know why he's not playing. You've got to be a listener and you got to explain it to him. How have you learned to let go what other people think about you, whether you're winning or losing?

5:44You've got to have blinders on. You can't lose focus as a coach. Your job is to motivate the team, put them in the best situation where they have a chance of winning. Give them everything you can from analytics to scouting to preparation to player development. Give them everything you can. And you can't lose focus. You have to have blinders on. If you pay attention to the internet, if you pay attention to what the media is saying, it opens up Pandora's box and it's a big negative. You have to have blinders on and focus on the game at hand, which is winning. The next game, player development. If you don't have that, if you suck getting distracted like that, you lose your ability to win.

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7:56Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.

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