Men’s Head Basketball Coach at Duke
Duke University, 2016
Choose people. Good people will make you better.
Tomorrow you’re going to meet new people. You’re going to get on a different journey. And the bus that you drive, make sure it’s the right one. Make sure you let only good people on it. … Good people will make you better.
Here is an excerpt from Duke Today: https://today.duke.edu/2016/05/commence16story
“Coach K often mixed humor with personal anecdotes to layout the successful formula he’s followed in his life. He spoke about his mother who advised him on the day before he started high school to get on the right bus. He told her he knew how to get to school, but she responded, “Tomorrow you’re going to meet new people. You’re going to get on a different journey. And the bus that you drive, make sure it’s the right one. Make sure you let only good people on it. … Good people will make you better.”
As an extension of that advice, Krzyzewski said he has no rules for his basketball teams, only standards, which include “communication, we’re going to look each other in the eye, we’re going to tell each other the truth, we’re going to have each other’s back, … we’re going to be enthusiastic, we’re going to win and lose together.”
He reminded the graduates that they will be knocked down from time to time, “but failure or any kind of setback is not a destination. … There was something good about being knocked down as long as it wasn’t your destination.
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