One major thing that he stressed was ego. "Ego is the biggest killer of greatness," he said. "Ego stands for edging greatness out." For Coach Pitino, humility, as opposed to ego, is a key to leadership. When he left UK to go to the Celtics, he said, he claimed it was for the $50 million. But, in reality, his ego pushed him to Boston; he wanted the status of "NBA coach." He went for the wrong reasons, he said, but he ended up learning a great lesson: humility is key.
Coach also stressed the importance of listening: "you should listen four times more than you speak." To emphasize his point, he shared with us two instances where he was trying to recruit players for the UK basketball team. In the first instance, Coach Pitino focused on selling the UK basketball program. He mentioned everything from the weight room to the jets. When he followed up with the young man, UK was not on his list of top five schools. Coach Pitino knew immediately what he had done wrong: he had done too much talking and not enough listening. "I failed to form a bond with him," he said. In the second instance he recounted, Coach Pitino revised his strategy. This time when he went out to recruit another athlete, Coach Pitino did nothing but ask the young man and his family questions. He did very little talking and a lot of listening. It turns out that the young man visited the University of Kentucky the weekend following his conversation with Coach Pitino and signed on with the team. Coach's new strategy had worked.
Finally, Coach Pitino shared with us a conversation he had had with a close friend who worked on Wall Street. Coach asked him, "what kind of people do you look to hire? Wharton grads? University of Chicago? Harvard business school?" His friend, Mario Gabelli, replied, "I couldn't care less where they went to school. I look for PHDs." Coach Pitino was puzzled; why did Mario need Ph.Ds on Wall Street? Mario clarified: "I recruit Poor, Hungry, and Driven people." Coach Pitino translated this conversation into a lesson for his players: you have to be passionate and positive about what you do, stay hungry for success, and be driven and motivated to reach your goals.
Needless to say, we left our meeting with Coach Pitino not only with some valuable leadership lessons, but also valuable life lessons. Coach Rick Pitino proved to be yet another reason why I am proud to be a Louisville Cardinal.