Austin Alexander

"All year, we've been saying, 'Talent is our floor, but our character will determine our ceiling,' and I'm just so confident in their character. That's what determined how they played today." Excellence isn’t just about the destination. It’s also about who you become along the way. I love the UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team and I love coach Cori Close. She embodies so much of what I write about in "The Way of Excellence." She is a fierce competitor and wants to win badly. She also understands that the reward isn’t just the trophy, it’s the experience you gain, the lessons you learn, and the relationships you forge in the process. All of this can be true at once. Today, UCLA beat South Carolina 79-51 in the national championship. They outscored the Gamecocks 25-9 in the third quarter—the largest margin in any quarter of any championship game ever. Every single one of UCLA’s points was scored by one of their six seniors. It’s a remarkable testament to staying power. The road wasn’t easy. Last year UCLA lost in the Final Four to UConn. Afterward, Close told her team: "They handed it to us. We got to learn from this and be better the next time." They came back this season, went 37-1, and won 31 straight games to close the year. In interview after interview the Bruins players shared the same sentiment: We did this for each other, we did this for our teammates. In sport—and in life—we play finite and infinite games. Finite games have beginning and ends. The point is to win. Infinite games are ongoing. The point is to keep playing. Cori Close’s entire coaching philosophy shows that we can play both at the same time. There is this myth that in order to be great you need to be ruthless always and only care about winning. That’s bullshit. You can develop athletes and win. While at the same time developing people. The best coaches do both. When ESPN's Holly Rowe told Close after the game, "You've got someone special wanting to see you," Close fought back tears and said: "C'mon, Mom!" Her mother Patti—known as "Mother Bruin"—came out and stood beside her during the interview. It was awesome. Excellence is love. The win itself is only as fulfilling as the work you put in to get there. Psychologists call it the arrival fallacy: the fact that human nature isn’t meant to be content, it’s meant to strive. Whatever joy you find comes in the process as much as the result. “It's meaningful because of the people I've gotten to share it with,” says Close. “It's all about the heart. It would be shallow without the amazing village and the incredible people that have poured into me my whole life." Excellence is not a destination; it is a process of becoming. The real reward isn’t a championship, a bigger deadlift, a faster marathon, the promotion, or a sturdier table. The real reward is that you become a better version of yourself. “Banners hang in gyms and rings collect dust. But who you become and who you impact you get to keep forever.” —Coach Cori Close.