My friend Kelvin sent me a link to a neat little motivational movie called Finish Strong, from the Nightingale-Conant people. They always have some pretty good stuff, and I liked this one, and it's relatively short, so I wanted to share it with you.

There's a quote that goes "It's not how you start, but how you finish". No one is really sure who said it first, so I'm going with the oldest specific reference I can find, that being the great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

Coach Wooden was never a bad coach, but he wasn't really considered a great coach either. As a high school coach he went 218-42, which is very good, but it's high school. Then he went to coach at Indiana State University, where his teams went 47-14, once again very good, taking his team to the NAIB Championships both years, and then he went to UCLA.

His teams were always pretty good, winning Pac-10 Championships, but nothing more. From 1949 to 1963, he was known more as the coach who was "pretty good", but couldn't win the big one. He even had some teams that barely won more than they lost. However, it all changed in 1964, when his team won its first NCAA Basketball championship. After that, they won the championship 10 of 12 years, including seven in a row at one point, and he's the only coach in history to record four undefeated seasons. He is known as the greatest college basketball coach in history, the standard that all other coaches shoot for.

It takes great courage to persevere when things aren't going well, and sometimes, you'll even come out on top. Those wins always seem to be more satisfying than the ones you're expected to win. It's been proven over and over again that you always have another chance to do something better, even great. So, always strive for the best you can, and hopefully you'll finish strong.