The Pyramid of Success

The Pyramid of Success

By. John Wooden

The 25 building blocks of the

Pyramid of Success

Block 1: Industriousness

"In plain and simple English this means hard work. Very hard work. There is no substitute for very hard word when it comes to success."

The first and probably one of the most important building blocks is industriousness. You will never be successful without hard work. Everything good in life comes from hard work. For example, if you want to become a successful doctor, first you must go through 8 years of school. Even after 8 year you still must study and practice for 5 years before getting board certified. Being successful takes years of study and work. Becoming a successful lawyer takes years of school and practice as well. Nothing good in life will ever come easily. You must work for what you want because in the end you'll be glad you did. You'll never regret the day you worked hard to become successful. 

Block 2: Enthusiasm
"It is the engine that powers all blocks of the pyramid. It is why i chose Industriousness as the cornerstones of my Pyramid of Success. It is where everything begins."

Enthusiasm is block 2 because industriousness and enthusiasm are the base of a successful life. You must be hard working and happy with whatever path you're taking in life. If you're not happy with what you're doing there's no point in doing it. Find whatever makes you happy and work hard on it and everything else will be easy. If you're not happy when doing something then that's not what you should be doing and you should look further for what really makes you happy.   


Block 3: Friendship
"Come from mutual esteem, respect and devotion. Like marriage it must not be taken for granted buy requires a joint effort."

Friendship is an essential block in the pyramid of success because the more friendships you have with people, the more opportunities show up and the more successful you will be. Having more friendships mean you have a good attitude and characters which is very important to living a successful life. Friendship also requires mutual likeness in order for it to work and to be defined as a friendship. 





Block 4: Loyalty
"To yourself and to all those depending upon you. Keep your self-respect."

Loyalty is an important trait to have when you're pursuing a successful life. You must have dignity and intergrity along with it. In order to reach a certain goal you must be loyal to it and keep at it no matter how hard the work must seem to reach that goal. Being loyal is very important to yourself and those depending on you because it proves you have self respect. When you have self respect, that means you have good characters. Always be loyal and keep your promises because otherwise you're not gonna get very far in your path to success. You always have the work hard and do the best you can. 

Block 5: Cooperation
"With all levels of your co-workers. Listen if you want to be heard. Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way."

Cooperation is very important in achieving success. You must work and cooperate with people in order to produce the best product. If you don't listen to peoples opinions and only care about yourself nobodys going to want to work with you. But if you work with others, you will all have great ideas that you can use and you will all come up with something amazing. Always hear other peoples opinions and ideas if you want to be your own to be heard. When working in group projects, always be interested in other peoples opinions and ideas So you can come up with the best project possible. If you did it yourself it wouldn't be as great as if you would have done it with other great ideas. Always be cooperative with others and their ideas because thats one of the very important ways to reach success.

Block 6: Ambition
For noble goals

Ambition is important when working towards success because it gives you motivation. It helps you keep going towards success without you wanting to give up. You have to ambitious about something in order to get the results you want. If you arent ambitious towards your goals then you'd see no point in it and you'd easily give up. Without ambition you'd never reach success because you don't like what you're doing and you would slack off or just full on give up. If you're not ambitious in something then try to be successful in something else. Ambition is a very important block in the pyramid of success because without you won't go very far in life. 

Block 7: Self-Control
"Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgement and good common sense are essential." 

Self control is essential in the path to success. Before you want to express emotion you have to judge whether it's an appropriate time or not. If you're angry at someone you can't just lash out on them, you have to calmly tell them what's wrong in a polite way. You also have to practice self-discipline because on the path to success you have to choose the right. You have the have self control because you have to ask yourself if what you're doing is important towards the path to success and if it's not you need to push it aside and finish what you need to do for that day.  You can't just do what you feel like doing because then you'd forget about your goals. 

Block 8:Alertness
"Be observing constantly. Stay open-minded. Be eager to learn and improve."

Block 9: Initiative
"Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Do not be afraid of failure. but learn from it."

Block 10: Intentness
"Set a realistic goal. Concentrate on its achievement by resisting all temptations. Be determined and persistent."


when being successful, you always want to set realistic goals for yourself. Realistic goals are important because you have to set goals that are reachable. For example, if you have bad grades in sophomore year of high school, but you want to go to a prestegious college, you have to set goals to work your way up. If you're failing english class you have to set a goal to get a d, then set a goal to go a c, and so one until you get the grade you're happy with. Thats how you work your way towards success. You have to work your way up to your long term goal with short term goals instead of going straight for the prize. You cannot quit if you want success.

Block 11: Sincerity
Keeps friends

Sincerity is a very important block of success. It's important because more friends gives you more opportunities to be successful. It also makes it easier to work with the people around you. Bein sincere is also good for different types of jobs. For example, if you want to do a job tht involves being around kids a lot it's important to be sincere towards them. Then people will see how good you are at your job and want to give you better opportunities. If you arent sincere then it will be hard to keep a job.

Block 12: Adaptability
To any situation

In order to be successful, you need to learn to adapt to certain circumstances. It's very important in the path to success because not everything is going to be the way you want it to, and you have to accept that. You have to be able to adapt to certain situations in order to do your work successfully. If you don't want to adapt, then you will fail and have a lost opportunity. Change is a commin thing in life, it's better to accept it and deal with it rather than complaining and not doing anything because of it. Learn to adapt and your life will be a lot easier, rather than rejecting it and making your life a lot harder. To be successful sometimes you have to get used to things changing constantly. Nothing is going to be the same forever.

Block 13: Condition
"Mental-Moral-Physical. Rest exercise and diet must be considered. Moderation must be practiced. Dissipation must be eliminated."

To be successful you also have to think about your own health. You can't just think about work, money and success. You have to think about taking care of yourself, too. If you don't take care of yourself there might not even be a successful future. you have to make sure you're physically healthy, but mental health is just as important. If you're not mentally healthy then you are not successful. Success isn't just about wealth or reaching your goals. Success first starts with you and how you are, not if you have a lot of money. Always put yourself first and make sure you're okay and then you can work to reach your goals. 

Block 14: Skill
"A knowledge of and the ability to properly and quickly execute the fundamentals. Be preapred and cover every little detail."

If you want to be successful in something, you need to have skill. The more skill you have the more successful you will be. Employers always want to hire someone who knows how to do more than they're supposed to know. It's always a good idea to know how to do basic things, for example, how to work a computer. If you know how to use a certain software thats a good skill to have at a job. Even in any other jobs such as a surgeon, you need to have great skills to be able to operate on babies. Practice is a great way to learn a skill. Employers also look for language skills because those are very important. If you have the opportunity, try and learn new skills because they will always be useful no matter where you are. 

Block 15: Team Spirit
"A genuine consideration for others. An eagerness to sacrifice person interests of glory for the welfare of all."

Team spirit is very important to have in order to be successful. You can't just think about yourself if you want to reach your goals. Sometimes you might even have to sacrifice something if your own to make someone else successful. A selfish life is an unsuccessful life because when you've reached your goal you're not going to have anyone to share the glory with. You need to always think of others who have helped you on your goals journey. You have to work well with others if you want to reach your goals. If you're isolated and alone it would be very hard to reach your goals because theres not going to be anyone there to help you along the way. 

Block 16: Honesty
In thought and action


Honesty should be someones top priority. It is very vital for having good character. Without honesty there is no success. A successful person does not lie, cheat steal, or be dishonest in general. Successful people earn their success through years of hard work. They do not gain success through cheating. If your success was achieved by being dishonest then what's was the point? You also have to be honest to the people around you and to yourself. There is no success if there is no honesty because dishonest people are not good people. You always have to be honest to yourself and to other people because doing good things makes you feel good and you should feel good everyday. Always be honest in your thoughts and actions because they both matter just as much.

Block 17: Resourcefulness
proper judgement

It's good to be resouceful when you're on the path to success. You should you all the resources available to you to be the best you can be. It's also very good to have proper judgement of things because you don't want to do anything you'll regret later. Using the resources available to you to your full advantage is very important on the path to success. You need to be resourceful because you need to know what information is out there. You can't just find one things and rely on that. You need to find all the information that's useful to you and use it. Having different resources will alwayshelp you. For example, if you want to learn a new language you need to have several resources. You can't just rely on one book to help you fully understand what you're learning. You would need to find all the good grammar and vocabulary books to help you to fluency. Always use the resources you have to your full advantage because it'll always help you. 

Block 18: Poise
"Just being yourself. Being at ease in any situation."
Graceful and elegant bearing in a person.

Poise is a very good quality to have while on the path to the success. If you're stressed all the time it's very hard to focus on what you're doing. If you're yourself and at ease doing your work is going to be very easy. Poise is a good block because it teaches to be yourself. You shouldn't pretend to b someone you're not becaise you would have to keep up a facade all yousr life and you would never be happy with yourself. 




Block 19: Confidence
"respect without fear. may come from being prepared and keepong all things in proper perspective"

Confidence is very helpful on the path to success. If you're stuttering and shy it's going to look like you're very unprepared. It's good to be confident because it looks like you know what you're doing. People want to hire someone that's confident in what they do because if you're always second guessing yourself it shows you don't trust yourself. If you want to become a doctor you need to know what you're doing. If you need to take care of a patient you can't not be sure about what you think is their best treatment plan. You need to know how you're going to make them better. You need to trust yourself in what you think is better for the patient. Confidence is important because you people would rather trust someone that knows what they're doing rather than someone who isn't sure what they're doing. 

Block 20: Reliability 
Creates respect

If you want to earn respect from other people, you must be a reliable person. It shows people they can count on you and trust you. If someone relies on you to do something, such as an assignment, you have to do it. It shows that they can trust you with something you said you would do. It's important to be reliable because it's a good impression on people. If someone needs a reliable person for a big project, they can reccomend you because you've taught people that you're a reliable person. People don't want to give things to people that are unreliable. Reliablility can lead to work promotions and more friendships. Soem people take reliable people for granted, but you must not let those people ruin you and make you become unreliable. Their are tons of people that appreciate reliable people so you should not let a few bad people ruin who you are. 

Block 21: Fight
Determined Effort

Determination is a very big block on the path to success. If you want something you have to fight for it. You can't just sit around and wait all day to get what you want. You need to get what you want through hard work and determination. Nothing good in life is easy. Hard work is an essential part of success. If at first you don't succeed, then you have to fight harder for what you want. Determined effort will get you wherever you want to go. Whether you want to be a scientist, doctor, or lawyer, fighting will help you succeed. 

Block 22: Competitive Greatness
"Be at your best when your best is needed. Enjoyment of a difficult challenge."

Competitiveness will awlays be a part of the path to success. There will always be people competing against you so it's good to always be at your best. Be at your best and focus on yourself, because when you focus on yourself you will be great. When you focus on others you will spend more time focusing on them rather than focusing on winning. Winners focusing on winning and losers focus on winners. Always challenge yourself so you know what you're capable of instead of always taking the easy path. When you're competing against other don't worry about what they're doing or how far along they are. Put all your effort on your work and you definitely be great. Be your best when you need to be. always take on difficult challenges. These things will help you go far on the path to success. Never underestimate yourself and beat yourself down because you think you can't do something. If you say you can do it, then you can difinitely do it.

Block 23: Integrity
Purity of intention

Integrity is a trait that every single person should have. It shows strong character and trustworthiness. People should be able to count on you when they need you. You should always be an honest person no matter what because that means you're doing the right thing. Having strong morals is good because it means you're living life with a great experience. Lying and doing baf things isn't going to lead you towards success. It would lead you further away from it. For example, if you lie or cheat on a test, you're not learning anything which means you're cheating yourself. You won't go far in life when theres no one there to help you. You always need to do stuff on your own because you're the only one that's going to be with you all the time. Always be hoenst with everyone but mostly with yourself. Do what makes you happy; do something that doesn't feel like you're doing it because you have to, but because you want to. don't do something only because you want money, do it for your own enjoyment because sooner or later the money won't matter. 

Block 24: Faith
Believe and Achieve

Believing in yourself is very important when you want to achieve success. You always have to keep faith in yourself especially when you feel like you're not good enough. When you feel like failing and giving up always believe in yourself. You can do whatever you set your mind on doing. Even if you're the only one that believes in you, thats all that matters because in the end it's going to be your success. At the end of the day it's only your opinion about yourself that matter. If anybody tries to bring you down, don't let them. Because when you've achieved your goal and you're successful, you'll be glad you kept faith in yourself and didn't care about negative opinions. If you believe in yourself you can achieve anything. Never let anyone make you lose faith in yourself because you're the only one that's gonna be with you till the end. 

Block 25: Patience
Good things take time

If you're working hard towards success then you must definitely have patience.Success doesn't happen overnight. It takes years for success to happen. If you feel like you aren't succeeding, you shouldn't give uo just because you're frustrated. You should figure out what you're doing wrong and have patience while doing it right. Successful people don't just suddenyl succeed. They work hard and have patience in what they're doing because they know it'll take time. If you're impatient while reaching for success then you'll never be successful because you'd just end up giving up because you feel like it's taking too long. Success is a long and hard process and you should be willing and ready to make the commitment to succeed. Good things take time and patience; you won't always get what you want from not working hard.