September 12, 2025 • 43 mins
Lou Pelliccioni Jr. joins us today, bringing a treasure trove of wisdom from over six decades in coaching, finance, and real estate. With a remarkable track record that includes leading basketball teams to state championships and mentoring future NBA players, Lou has mastered the art of success in diverse fields. He shares invaluable insights on integrity, hard work, and the importance of having mentors—because let’s face it, we can’t all figure it out on our own! He also dives into the idea that success is more than just winning; it’s about continual growth and self-improvement. So, whether you’re a budding athlete or just someone looking to level up your life, Lou’s stories and advice will inspire you to get out there and be the best version of yourself every single day!
In this episode, we explore the fascinating life of Lou Pelliccioni Jr., a man who has worn many hats over his 76 years. From being a high school basketball coach to a nationally recognized financial advisor, Lou shares the valuable lessons learned along the way. His coaching career is particularly notable, with an impressive winning percentage and the development of players who went on to play at higher levels, including the NBA. However, what truly stood out was his emphasis on the importance of integrity and mentorship, which he believes are essential for success. Lou's engaging storytelling and witty humor make this conversation not only insightful but also entertaining, as he reflects on the mentors who shaped his life and how he aims to give back to the next generation.
Takeaways:
- Lou Pelliccioni Jr.emphasizes that success is rooted in integrity, hard work, and continuous personal growth, which he learned from his parents and mentors.
- He believes that being obsessed with your career is key to success, illustrating this with his own experiences in coaching and finance.
- Mentorship is highlighted as crucial for achieving goals, with Lou mentioning a 95% success rate for those who maintain a mentor relationship.
- One of Lou's core messages is to improve a little each day, stressing that lifelong learning is essential, regardless of age.
- He shares that connections and relationships are vital for success, advising young people to engage in various activities to build their network.
- Lou's book, "Success is More Than Winning," encourages readers to focus on personal development, setting goals, and the importance of a positive mindset.
Links referenced in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
My guest Today, Louis PalatzJr. Is a dynamic professional and
a diverse career spanningmultiple industries. With over six
decades of experience incoaching, finance, real estate and
business ownership, Lou bringsa wealth of knowledge and a proven
track record of success toevery endeavor in sports. Lou made
a lasting impact as abasketball coach at both the middle
(00:21):
and high school levels,leading teams to two state championships
and maintaining an impressivewinning percentage of over 80%. Lou
was also an assistant coach atmultiple universities including West
Virginia University. Duringhis tenure at wvu, they won a couple
of conference championshipsand had a winning percentage of 69%.
Lewis worked with multiple allconference players who went on to
(00:44):
play after college atdifferent levels including the NBA.
In finance, Lewis spent over40 years as a financial advisor earning
national recognition. Louearned upper echelon status as a
prestigious firms likePrudential Service Securities, Wachovia
Securities, Wells FargoAdvisors and Lou, now with his son
(01:06):
Bryce, manages an independentfinancial advisory firm where they
continue to serve clients withexpertise and integrity. As a real
estate professional, Lou hasbeen involved in multiple homes,
single rentals, multiple unitrentals, retail, commercial properties
for more than 55 years. Inaddition, Lou has been a successful
(01:26):
entrepreneur, having owned andoperated a variety of businesses
across different sectors. Asan author, Lou has written and co
authored four different books,two of which were self published
about basketball. Two werenationally published about success
and handling stress. We're nowadvising clients or mentoring other
people. Luke continues toinspire others with a commitment
(01:47):
to success and and integrity.We welcome Lou to the podcast. We
welcome Lou to the pod. Well,Lou, welcome to the podcast. How
you doing today?
I'm doing wonderful.
I'm glad to talk to you. Thishas been exciting conversation. This
is my second coach that I'vetalked to on my podcast.
Oh boy, you're in trouble. Thebiggest problem is to shut up is
(02:10):
the biggest problem you havewith a coach.
No problem. Looking forward to it.
So.
But we're going to start outwith my favorite question. What's
the best piece of advice youever received?
Well, can I give you two or three?
Sure, that'd be great.
I was seven or eight yearsold. I was outside playing and my
mother came out. I said, son,where did you get those army men?
(02:33):
And I said, well, I got themfrom Johnny up street. She said,
did he give them to you? And Isaid, well, he's got lots of them.
She grabbed me by my hand. Shesaid, take the army men. Walked me
up the street, didn't say aword. Went to Johnny's house. We
knocked on the door.Pleasantries and she looked at me
(02:54):
and I handed the army men backover to Johnny. And you know, the.
Johnny's mother was there,didn't understand, says, oh, no,
Johnny has hundreds of these.Doesn't matter. He was not given
these. And that's not right.So we started back down the street.
(03:15):
My mother gave me a greatlesson in values and integrity and
honesty, and I remember it tothis day. Integrity is very, very
important part of any successand anything that I've done because
I would never do anything justto win. That's a lot of the title
of my book, Success is Morethan Winning. Then when I was 12
(03:37):
years old, I was working for.For my father in a shop. He had an
electrical shop. And he saysto me, he said, son, he said, I'm
going to start paying you bythe hour. Because he was just paying
me some money and so forth.And so one day he says, you know,
I'm going to pay you by thejob. And I didn't understand you.
(04:00):
I was 12 years old. I wasplaying around too much. And so the
first paycheck, I didn't getas much money. And I said, well,
there's something wrong. I'msupposed to get this much per hour.
He said, no, remember, wechanged it to how much you got done
in the hour. Oh, okay, well,that's not fair. And I said, why?
And, you know, and we had anice conversation. He said, son,
(04:22):
never forget this, and I neverhave. You don't get paid for spending
time during the hour. You getpaid for the value you bring to the
hour. And I've never forgotthat. In fact, I actually use that
when we hire people and letthem know this is what they're getting
paid for and whatever they cando. And those were wonderful lessons.
(04:47):
And then I was very fortunate.My parents believed in God and taught
me the respect of God and. Andso forth. And I've tried. I've tried
to live my life with thosethree principles.
What would it be like if mostpeople live by that second one? I'm
(05:08):
just curious how the jobculture would look if people were
taught that you get paid bywhat you do in the hour, not just
by the hour.
You know. You know what'sfunny, Keith? Actually, people have
said, I've never heard thatbefore when. When I talked to them,
and I said, well, there'ssomething wrong with that. You've
never heard it. And. Andthat's the problem. We just think
(05:28):
that we put in time, right?And I've tried to teach both of my
sons this and they are bothhard workers. And I'm always very
proud that when I go to wherethey work, the managers say, oh my
gosh, I'd take a hundred ofyour kid. And that makes me feel
(05:49):
very good that I've taught himsome things about hard work and what
you owe someone that's payingyou money.
I love that. As you thinkabout your life, Lou, who were some
people for you that werementors for you or maybe even an
inspiration on your journey?
Well, besides my mother anddad, which were extremely. I was
(06:10):
just so lucky. Neither mymother or my dad were educated, but
they were very intelligent,wholesome, good people. And as I
get older, and as I've gottenolder, I've realized, boy, how lucky.
In fact, I'm not so sure.Keith. I've done as well as I should
have to have had as good aparents as I. As I had when I realized
(06:31):
that a lot of people weren'tthat blessed. And so that that helped
start everything becauseeverything goes back to those lessons.
But one of the things researchproves to us, it's kind of interesting
that if you have a mentor orsomeone that you looked up to that
gives you great advice and soforth, you have a 65% better chance
(06:54):
of being successful on yourgoals. If you are continuous with
that coaching or mentor, youhave a 95% chance because somebody
else is telling you what youdo wrong. So anytime, in fact, there's
a chapter in the book aboutthe importance of mentors and coaches.
And when I was a. I was. Iwas. Well, I was really 19 when I
(07:18):
started coaching. I wascoaching in junior high and my first
job, I was 21 and I wascoaching in a high school. First
place I went was to my idol,John Wooden. I went out, watched
the UCLA practice and learnedthe four mindsets of success and
watched him do it. And theyhow lucky at 21 years old. And I've
(07:44):
pretty much followed all hisprinciples from his definition of
success and the idea ofstaying even keel. Now we're talking
50 years ago when I wascoaching high school, more than 50
and I everybody was a screamerand a yeller except me. I was not
I, because of John Wooden,keep everything even keel. And. And
(08:09):
I've been that way most of thetime. I very seldom lose my cool.
And every once in a while ithappens. The devil winters in and
says, how are we going to dothis to you? But yeah. And then in
finance, I was reading WarrenBuffett When I was 18, 17, I bought
my stocks at 7, my first stockat 17. I had such a great respect
(08:33):
for him. What a man to followin the finance world. So I've always
had mentors. I believe inmentors. Give you a quick story.
My son who now runs my oldestson, Bryce, who runs my finance business.
We were talking one day and Isaid, son, you need a coach. And
he said, dad, I've got you.And I said, son, I've helped you
(08:57):
as much as I can and where youwant to take the business, I've not
been there. You need to findsomebody else. And he brought in
somebody else that's helpedhim immensely to do the things that
he wants to do. And so bigbeliever that mentors and how important
they are, in fact, that's oneof the keys to success as far as
(09:18):
I'm concerned. Find somebodythat does what you want to do better
than you or the best.
I'm curious. Mentors arereally important. Are there some
things you want to look for ina mentor? Because we can get mentors
who are not helpful for us.But what are some things you want
to look for when you'relooking for a mentor?
Well, let me. Keith, you'lllove this. As I said, I went out
(09:42):
to UCLA to watch a practicewith John Wooden and I was there
for a couple days. Guess whereI stopped on the way back? Now you
talk about one extreme fromthe other. It was amazing. But I
still picked up something fromBobby Knight. I used his passing
(10:02):
game offense that helped me inhigh school to win some. Help to
win some state championships.And so even somebody you can always
found find something fromeverybody that's been successful,
even if you don't agree with alot of the things that they do. And
I didn't necessarily agree,especially the way he treated players
(10:27):
and stuff like that and, andversus how John Wooden did. So you
can always find something.
Yeah, definitely. I'm curious,as you think about the different
careers you've gone on, whatwere the pivotal moments in each
of those decisions that youhad to undertake as you change careers?
(10:49):
Well, I was lucky. There'sthree types of people in the world.
There's people that areinterested, there's people that are
committed, and there's peoplethat are obsessed. You want to find
a career that you're obsessed.And that's one of the main. And I've
(11:11):
been so fortunate. My firstcareer, which was coaching and teaching,
I coached at the junior highlevel, the high school level, the
small college level, and themajor college level. I was obsessed
with teaching. And so I wasvery lucky. Well, when I decided
because of all the time I tellcollege coaches today, Keith, I tell
(11:34):
them, you guys are lucky. Theysaid, you got all these breaks and
all this stuff. When I wascoaching, you could recruit 365 days
a year. And guess what? I wasout there most of the time because
you could recruit. In fact,one of my. One of the rules that
the head coach had when I wasat West Virginia was you had. I had
(11:55):
to call him before I was ableto come back. And I'd be out sometimes
30 days, 40 days on the road,going to games, going to see people,
going to see an opponent,because I also did all the scouting.
Well, now they've got rules.Thank God that they've got rules
where you can only recruit somany days off campus and stuff like
(12:16):
that so you can have a life.That's what I told the coaches. I
said, you know, you guys areable to have a life. It was probably
some of the reason when I hadkids, it was time to look at something
else because I. And I. And Ijust didn't see myself going on.
I'd gone as far. And I meanthat I wanted to do that. And then
(12:39):
my hobby was the stock market.We'd go on trips when we were on
away trips, and I'd be readingBarron's in the Wall Street Journal
and everybody else was readingSports Illustrated. And it was just
a thing that I really enjoyed.Again, obsessed. And I'm still working
(13:00):
at 76, going on 77 and loveit. Still come, can't wait to get.
Get to work.
I love it. We all lovewinners. How did you maintain such
a high winning percentage as a coach?
Well, I think when you look atfactors of success, number one, I
(13:25):
was obsessed. I mean, I couldliterally work 18 hours a day, seven
days a week. I didn't, becauseI believe in priorities in life.
And it was, you know, therewere hard because I was just so driven,
because I loved it. I loved itso much. But so being obsessed, you
want to find a career whereyou're obsessed. It's very. If you're
(13:47):
just interested, then you'rejust showing up. Now if you're committed,
it's almost like committed ispretty good. I mean, if you're committed
to something, but it's thatextra little bit that. That wins,
you know, more games and stufflike that. I also believe it was
because of the mentors that Ihad that I wasn't afraid to go out
(14:08):
and look at the best of thebest. And also that as I learned
later in life how importantgood players were I used to think
maybe I had something to dowith it. Heck, I did. I think it
was just the players. When Ilooked, I was watching the films
the other day, the couplestate state championships we won
(14:29):
when I was in high school. AndI looked at that and I'm saying,
how in the heck did we win? Imean, my golly, I mean the, the,
the, the strategy was just sobasic. I was very basic. But there's
no question, as I look back onit, Keith, I was very lucky to understand
(14:52):
that it took growth of yourbody, your mind and your skills.
And that's what I was.Unbelievable. In fact, I wrote two
books on basketball. One wason body development for basketball
and the other one was on theskills of basketball. And I would
actually give the skills tothe players in a book form and they
(15:13):
would be graded not only onyour knowledge how to do the skill,
but to be able to perform it.And learned a lot of these things
again from Wooden. Woodenwouldn't let you in a ball game do
anything that you couldn't dowell in practice. It wasn't even
a thought. He took that choicetotally out. Now you're not allowed
(15:34):
to shoot the ball except 3ftor you're only allowed to shoot from
10ft. But you can't shoot it.They didn't have the three pointer.
But you can't shoot it fromlong until you can do it. And there's
no question, that's the wholepremise of my book. It's about getting
better every day at somethingand it deals with all the different
(15:55):
skills. Whatever career you'rein, you figure out, just like I did
here were all the things itwas going to take to win in basketball.
You had to have the body. Likewe increased jumping ability an average
of 8 inches on kids. Nowthat's a lot. I mean that is a lot.
That's a lot different. It canmake a difference. Back then also,
(16:18):
Keith, there were a lot ofjump balls. So it made a difference.
Yes.
And so it was just developmentof skills for whatever it was. And
for this it was basketball.And I actually, you know, I still
remember the course it wasknow that I took that talked about
how you have to understand askill to do it, to do it well. And
(16:43):
it doesn't mean you slow downto think about it, but just when
you're working on it so thatyou're working on the right things.
That's all.
Love that. So what inspiredyou to write the book Success is
more than Winning.
Oh, wow. Wow. Well, I thinkit's pretty simple as I got. Later
in my career, one of thethings I've wanted to do is always
(17:04):
give back. Loved my days inhigh school, and I wanted to go and
talk to high school. I mean,I'm just an average guy. I. I don't
have a big name like JohnWooden or anything like that, but
I think I have a lot of goodthings to share with young people.
And somebody said, lou, if youhad a book, makes it easier. And
(17:29):
it has, it has. I have nowabout 25 talks. In fact, next Tuesday,
I'm down in Florida. I'm downin Naples right now in Naples, Florida,
and I'm giving a talk to about160 football players. They have a
football day. Football ispretty important in Florida.
Yeah.
And, you know, they'rebringing the top five or six kids
(17:50):
from the 18 high schools inLee County, Florida, and I get to
talk to him about what. Whatwe're talking about. And I'm really
excited about it. And. AndI've got some other ones up in. Where
I also live in West Virginia,and I've got talks there in Pennsylvania
and Maryland. And so, yeah,that's what I want. And because of
(18:10):
the book, it's made it easier.I can send a book to a principal,
say, I'd like to come talk.You know, they always ask me, what's
it going to cost? I said,nothing. And they said, are you sure?
I said, yeah. I said, youknow, I'm just trying. I'm trying
to give back, that's all.
So pouring into young peopleis so important. What message do
you want or do you hope tocommunicate to young people more
(18:33):
often than not?
Well, that's a good question,Keith. It's the idea of how I've
lived my life because oflistening to successful people. I'm
trying to just. I mean, I'mnot the originator. I'm not gonna
sit here and say I am. I justwas a good follower. I. I've really
(18:55):
been a good follower. I'velistened, in fact, listen to this
research. Before I get intoit, there's research out there that
proves that kids, the kidsthat listen to their parents, that
listen to their teachers andtheir coaches are more successful.
Mean, it's like common sense.Yeah, but we had to do research to
(19:16):
prove that. And so I'm goingto tell all these kids this. Okay.
What does that tell you? Ittells you if you listen to people
that have done something, it'sgoing to help you in life. And. And
I'm hoping that I can makethem understand the Overall goal
from the whole book is bebetter every day than you were yesterday
(19:41):
in something. How do you doit? There's all kind of ways you
can. I try to work out in themornings, so I've already worked
on my body. I try to read 20pages at least and learn some new
concept or some new thing. Itdoesn't take that long right away.
So by the time I get startedto work, I've already done what my
(20:03):
overall goal is, and that isto improve myself some way. And if
you do that over many years,you get better. And, and then it's
also just evaluating whateverit is you're going to do. I mean,
and what's it going to take?Just like in basketball, what, what
I did, I analyzed every skillin our offense that we needed. I
(20:28):
broke it down. I made surethey could understand it, that they
could. They, they. That theycould teach it, they could teach
that skill. Well, if you canteach it, you understand it. All
you got to do now is practiceit. And that's one of the reasons
that I, I know looking back,that our, Our teams got better and
we were very successful. Andit's just I was so lucky at an early
(20:54):
age to listen to some goodpeople. And I didn't say, well, I
don't know if that's going towork. I don't know this well, you
know what I mean? Maybe thisguy, like John Wooden is. Won seven
straight championships in arow. In a row and 10 total. He does
know something.
He might know something, right?
Yeah, he might. And, you know,I can't tell you this, Keith. I don't
(21:16):
know why. I don't. I listened.I don't know why. A good friend of
mine, Tony for Gale, who wasinvolved in some of my books, my
basketball books, is passedaway. Great. Just a great guy and
great coach. And he said, youknow, Lou, you were the most mature
high school kid I've everknown. And I said, really? I said,
(21:38):
I didn't think. I, I was. Isaid I was a little naive. I thought.
He said, no, you might havebeen naive, but you listened to people
that were successful. And thennow we have research that proves
it, for God's sake, that ifyou listen to people that have been
successful, you have a goodchance of being successful.
That's awesome. How do youdefine success? We just talked about
(21:59):
success is more than winning.But I think that term success is
very elusive today becauseit's not about money, it's not about
power or influence. But how doyou define success?
Again, I'm 19 years old andI'm reading a book by John Wooden
and right here it is. Successis peace of mind, which is a direct
(22:20):
result in the selfsatisfaction in knowing you did the
best to become the best you'recapable of. That's my definition.
I never talked about winningwith my teams. It was always do your
best that you know how you goin with your hands.
Yeah.
All it was was do your best.That's all you can ever be. You can't
be more than that. Now someonesaid, but what happens if you lose?
(22:45):
I said, well, that's a goodpoint. But it tells you the things
you have to work on, that'sall. Tells you things that you're
not good enough here. And oneof the things that I always did again,
learned at an early age, firstyear in coaching, I'm 21. We go 20
and one. We go to the statetournament, we lose in the semifinals,
(23:05):
lose to a team that's wasn'tas good as us, but they played a
better schedule. And so thenext year I had some people to talk
and I talked to some people incollege and they said, lou, play
better teams, it'll. It'llprepare you. You're going to lose
some. And we did, but we wonour first state championship the
(23:28):
second year. And one of theteams we played, it was almost like
the Hoosier story. They had2400 kids, we had 200 in our school.
We beat them. And it was justan in it, but it helped us, it gave
us closer games, toughergames. And so in the state tournament,
when it got tough, we've beenthere. And so yeah, it makes sense.
(23:54):
You have 99 tips to up yourgame. If you had to pick maybe your
top five up your game tips,what would you say those are?
Oh my, oh my. I. In fact, I'mgetting ready to actually do this
at the football, you know, thefootball day down in Lee County.
(24:17):
And so when you look at thetop tips, there's no question. There
was a study done in 2004 andwhat that it tried to look at the
most important things forsuccess. And it came. The number
one trait that came out ofeverything was it wasn't intelligence,
(24:38):
it wasn't iq, even though thathelps, I can tell you that. But it
was grit and grit. And there'sactually a book out written by this
lady, Angela Duckworth.Duckworth is her name. Great book.
I recommend to everybody toread it. And it talks about finding
your passion, your spark, andthen with, with that comes perseverance
(25:03):
because you, you have to beable to preserve because you're going
to have moments when it'stough and if you don't love what
you're doing, you, you can bein trouble. So that's the, the first
one. And then I was watching apodcast, Keith, and they had Warren
(25:24):
Buffett and Steve Jobs on andthey were talking about success.
That's why I was watching it.And they were all kind of different
areas and stuff. So finallythe announcer says, okay, give me
your number one, withoutquestion, the most important trait
or fact or attitude, whateverthat you think takes to be successful.
(25:45):
He said, I don't want you tosay it. Gave them both tablets. I
want you to each write itdown. So they take some time. They
write, they write down theiranswer. They said, okay, turn them
over. They turned them over.They had both written the same word.
And the, the, the word wasfocus. It's able to focus on what?
(26:11):
And, and boy, that's. Itsounds, it's a very simple word,
but man, does it involve a lotof things. It's getting rid of all
of the things around you, allthe things that deter you. Those
are the kinds of things to besuccessful that you have to do. And
so, you know, there's twothings now. One of the most important
(26:35):
things you can do in life ifyou want to be successful, there
was a hundred year study. Ihave a lot of studies in the book
by the way too. I have like 75studies, 90 stories patterned after
Chicken Soup for the Soul. Soit wasn't my idea. I'm a great copier.
I'm a great copier of peopleof whatever it is, it's successful.
(26:57):
And so all the differentthings that it comes down in this
study and it studied what'sthe most important for happiness,
success and longevity. 100year study, they kept replicate it
and finding things came downto your connections, your connections
in life. So as young people, Itell young people in high school,
(27:22):
get involved in every club. Idon't care if you're a football player,
a basketball player, go dodrama class, do different things.
You're going to make yourselfmuch more versatile. You're going
to meet different people thatyou never know down the road how
important those connectionsare. And it's kind of interesting.
(27:42):
You'll love this story. I wasfortunate enough in my first year
in finance. I won a nationalaward. I was rookie broker of the
year in the whole country.That's out of Morgantown, West Virginia,
a little small town. And I'dbeaten people in la, New York Chicago,
I thought I was pretty good. Isaid, man, I must be really good,
(28:03):
you know? Well, I think about25 years later I read this study,
and I said, you know what? Idon't think I was that good. I think
it was just all myconnections, because I went to school
in that town. I coached onestate championships, then I coached
at the university in the sametown. I knew thousands of people.
(28:26):
So the reason I won the award,I wasn't the best. I just had the
best connections, right? But,you know, so I can say that now.
I thought I was pretty good,but no, I guess I was okay. I've
been in the business 41 years,and I don't have anybody burning
my house or anything likethat. I must do a decent job. But
(28:47):
it. I mean, it's funny, backthen, Keith, the way you were successful
in this business, they toldyou you had to make cold calls. When
I went to New York, they said,you make 100 cold calls a day. You'll
be successful. And I. Afterthey're getting everybody ready,
and everyone's starting tomake their cold calls, and I'm just
kind of sitting there, andteacher comes over. He says, lou,
(29:09):
what's wrong? And I said,well, I don't make cold calls. And
he said, what? I said, I makecozy calls. And he said, what the
heck is a cozy call? And I'msaying, well, a cozy call is when
you call somebody that youalready know or because of everything
you're involved in, they knowyou. That's a cozy call. He says,
(29:31):
well, I don't know about that,but, you know, he said, I love that
idea. But he said. He said, doyou know that many people? I said,
yeah, I kind of do. You know,I just. I've been involved in everything.
I've been in clubs inMorgantown. I was in Rotary Club.
I ran a Rotary Club. I wasMorgantown Touchdown Club. I was
the president of MorgantownTouchdown Club. I knew a lot of people.
(29:54):
That's why I'm saying, Keith,when I say, you know, how to look
at all this, I think I shouldhave actually done better than I
did, you know, I mean, withall the connections I had when I
found out all this. So, yeah,so connections are important. Oh,
my gosh, when I think of thetop five, there's again, research
that says, you are. You becomeor you are what your reference group
(30:16):
is, and that's your friends.And very it. There's. There's actually
nothing. Nothing that's moreimportant, especially in the teenage
years, because we know whatcan happen if you get in with the
wrong people and stuff likethat. It's not good. And it's hard
to break those kind of things.And so friends and who your reference
(30:39):
group is, I mean, when youlook at all the successful people,
it's amazing. Their referencegroup, right. They're all, they're
all right there. And so, youknow, I know how important that is.
And if I would, if I wouldthink there's no. The last thing
(31:00):
I would put there. And I knowwhat it's done for me, and that is
successful people areplanners, they're goal oriented.
And again, research backs thisup. There was a study done. They
took, I forget how manyhundreds of kids and when they graduated
from college, and only 5% ofthe kids had written goals. 5%, rest
(31:24):
of them, yeah, I kind of knowwhat I want to do or I want to do
that. But only 5% had writtengoals. They looked at them 10 years
later. The kids that wrotedown their goals looked at them every
year. They were doing 10 timesbetter than the other kids. And so
(31:45):
how important is that? I mean,it's one of those things. Hey, guys,
here's a study that tells youthis. And you're going to write your
goals down. If you. Do youwant to make more money? Do you want
to be. Become wealthy? It'sjust, it's so, so important. You're
planning your routines. Youknow, in fact, I'm putting together
a workbook now that has goalsvision boards, where you can do a
(32:10):
vision board. You do yourgoals, your vision boards. And then
there's another study that wasjust done. The top 100 productivity
tools in the last hundredyears. Number one on the list, box
planning. And what. Boxplanning. Every hour of the day is
(32:33):
planned. Now that sounds like,oh my God, you gotta be. That's.
No, it's time management. Itdoesn't mean it can't change. It
doesn't mean there isn't funthings in there, but you put them
in there. And if, if every dayyou save five minutes or 10 minutes
and you get something elsedone. As you know, every morning
(32:56):
that every single person wakesup, we've got 86,400 seconds. It
doesn't matter how old youare, doesn't matter, whatever. It
doesn't matter how smart youare. Everybody has the same amount
of time. It's who uses it thebest. And it's the number one productivity
(33:17):
tool. I do my planning everysingle night. It takes me about 10
minutes now. I took a while,you know, was, I was learning and
10 minutes. I can fill out awhole day. And here's, here's the
thing. Let's say that you're,you've got a meeting from 1 to 2.
(33:38):
You have nothing between 2 and2:30. Then you have another meeting
at 2:30. What do you do that30 minutes? Are you getting ready
for the next one or are youmaking a couple phone calls in there?
Most people waste time whenthey have a small amount of time
where I try to get like, I'lluse the example today I was getting
ready for your appointment andI was making some calls because I
(34:00):
already had everything ready.I was making some calls on, on business.
Now, I could have sat thereand worried and was, you know, worried
about what I was going to sayand all that, but I'd already prepared,
as you said. I already had allmy sheets done. I filled out all
the questions and got myself ready.
I love it. That's really,really, really insightful. Lou, as
(34:23):
you think about this book,what do you hope, especially young
people, because you reallywrote for young people. What do you
hope they pick up this bookand walk away from. Walk away with?
Well, it's pretty simple, butit's. The idea of the book was to
make people understand thatyou need to improve your attitudes,
(34:47):
your skills, your attributesto be successful, and you need to
improve every single day. Ilistened to a podcast one day and
it talked about how with howwe grow and learn in public education
and how we grow and learn insports, and they said, there's no
question sports is betterbecause sports never stops the learning.
(35:11):
I'm still working on myselfand I'm going to be 77 years old,
and I just wrote a book. Youknow, it's not like I'm sitting here
saying, oh, well, it's overnow. I got to do this. No, I'm improving,
and it's what I learned fromsports. And it's just, I want people
to understand you got to growevery day and you've got to evaluate
(35:32):
what your job is. So whateveryour job is, whatever you're doing
in life that you love to do,break it down, analyze it like I
did basketball. And I improvedand worked on things every day. And
that's the whole thing. Getbetter every day. It's something
that deals with somethingthat's going to help you to be more
(35:53):
successful in your career,whatever it is. I mean, I've given
talks outside of coal mines inWest Virginia. Yeah. About different
things, and we've talked aboutsome different things. And, you know,
everybody can improvethemselves, but we stop. A lot of
people get the idea that onceyou graduate from college or a doctor's
degree, you're done learning.You're just getting started, you
(36:14):
know, Just getting started. Sothat's the key that I keep putting
in everything, is howimportant it is to grow every day,
Keith, just. You've got toimprove yourself every day.
I love it. I love to ask myguests this question. Lou, what do
you want your legacy to be?
Oh, wow. That was the one Ihad the hardest time with. Because
(36:39):
I don't really think of legacymyself. I mean, I, I, I, I, I, I
think that. All right, now I'mthinking of something I. It's in
the book. And hold on. I gottaget. If I can find it real quick.
I don't know if I can whileI'm thinking of it. Give me that.
(37:07):
But I put in here, I put atombstone. I've got my tombstone.
That's kind of what you'retalking about. And, and what basically
I put on my tombstone is Iwant to be known as a good person.
I want to be known as a givingperson. I want to be known that I
(37:30):
was a good father, a goodspouse, and that I lived life to
the fullest. That's what Iwant my legacy to be. And I want
to give back. I got that asthe last. I want to give back and
try to help people to do thesame kind of things that I've been
(37:50):
taught.
So this is something new. Istarted, Lou, for season six of becoming
bridge builders. I have myguests pick a number between one
and three to get a surprisequestion that you did not get ahead
of time. Oh, God.
Oh, no, that's. Wait a minutehere. That's not fair. You're going
to make me do anextemporaneous. That's right.
(38:12):
Exactly.
You're going to pay for it.No, go ahead.
So pick a number between oneand three.
Number one. I like number one.
All right, so your questionis. Oh, here's a good one. What would
be the worst movie sequel ever made?
Oh, my gosh. Okay. The worstmovie sequel ever made, meaning that
(38:41):
there's already a movie out?
Yes.
Do I have to name what thatmovie was?
Well, if you want. If you'rebrave. Yeah.
No, I better not do that. Theworst movie sequel ever would be
something to me. You, you cantell from talking to me, Keith. I'm.
(39:04):
I'm just so. I'm so obsessedwith, you know, doing the right thing
and successful. Well, no, Ialready know what it is. Now I'm.
I'VE got to think about it for30 seconds. Would be a movie that
taught young people that it'seasy and there's only one way. I
(39:29):
mean, in fact, I, I pick upbooks. I'm an avid reader. That's
the other thing that I wouldadd. You know, that was the thing
that I forgot of the last onewas reading how important reading
is. But it would it. And oneof these things makes it sound like
there's only one thing ittakes to be successful. Well, let
me tell you, there's no secretsauce to success.
(39:49):
Right.
And you're lying to people ifyou tell them that because it takes
a lot of different things.That's like there are, you know,
you can work hard and stillnot be very successful.
Right.
You know, I mean, if you're inthe wrong area or, or you don't have
good people around you or youdon't have good talent around you
(40:10):
and all those kind of things.Things. So yeah, the, the worst sequel
I could ever see. Andunfortunately there have been some
movies like that that give youthis idea that there's some great.
Because I'm a great moviewatcher. I watch movies every. Almost
every night. You know, I'mjust. That's my way of getting away.
And I love movies and, andmost of them really give you good
(40:31):
things to. To think about. Butit would be a movie that tried to
make it sound easy.
Right? Be like Hoosiers toowould be another one.
There. There we go. Yes, yes,yes. I like it, Keith. That's exactly.
I like it. I like it.
(40:54):
So, Lou, where can people findyour book? The success is more than
winning and connect with youon social media. Somebody wants to
have you come out and talk totheir young people. How can you connect
with you?
I. And you know what's funny?I've had some podcasts and I've actually
had some people get a hold ofprincipals in different states. And
I said I'll go just aboutanywhere because I love to travel
(41:15):
and I'll make some kind oftrip out of it, you know, and. And
so forth. So the best place isto get a hold of me is on my web
page was yes, you cansucceed.org yes, you can succeed.org
and you can buy my book onAmazon. The books on Amazon and Barnes
(41:37):
and Noble. A lot of the Barnesand Nobles have it. I'm, you know,
unfortunately, I'm not a wellknown. You know, I'm not like. I
mean, talk about luck. My. Mybook comes out and the same week
John Mitchell comes out withhis 25th book. Yeah. I mean, it's
like, oh, boy, nice guy tohave to try to follow. And I think
(42:01):
he's already got, like, youknow, 500 reviews on his book, and
I've got 22, and. But they'reall good.
That's good. They're all good.
They're all good. And, youknow, people are really. The people
that have given me the reviewshave given me really nice reviews.
I've been very fortunate, but.And then, like I said, I'm on Facebook
(42:24):
and LinkedIn by my name. Allyou gotta do is look my name up,
and I accept everybody.
That's so great. Well, Lou,thanks so much for taking the time
to pour into my audience andhopefully pour into young people
with the idea of what it takesto kind of press through the noise
and find that unique passionof theirs that makes them successful
(42:46):
in their life and in their journey.
Keith, thank you very much.It's been a pleasure and very easy
conversation. If you ever needme back on again, all you got to
do is call me.
Well, you're welcome anytime,my friend. Thank you.
Thank you.
My guest Today, Louis PalatzJr. Is a dynamic professional and
a diverse career spanningmultiple industries. With over six
decades of experience incoaching, finance, real estate and
business ownership, Lou bringsa wealth of knowledge and a proven
track record of success toevery endeavor in sports. Lou made
a lasting impact as abasketball coach at both the middle
(00:21):
and high school levels,leading teams to two state championships
and maintaining an impressivewinning percentage of over 80%. Lou
was also an assistant coach atmultiple universities including West
Virginia University. Duringhis tenure at wvu, they won a couple
of conference championshipsand had a winning percentage of 69%.
Lewis worked with multiple allconference players who went on to
(00:44):
play after college atdifferent levels including the NBA.
In finance, Lewis spent over40 years as a financial advisor earning
national recognition. Louearned upper echelon status as a
prestigious firms likePrudential Service Securities, Wachovia
Securities, Wells FargoAdvisors and Lou, now with his son
(01:06):
Bryce, manages an independentfinancial advisory firm where they
continue to serve clients withexpertise and integrity. As a real
estate professional, Lou hasbeen involved in multiple homes,
single rentals, multiple unitrentals, retail, commercial properties
for more than 55 years. Inaddition, Lou has been a successful
(01:26):
entrepreneur, having owned andoperated a variety of businesses
across different sectors. Asan author, Lou has written and co
authored four different books,two of which were self published
about basketball. Two werenationally published about success
and handling stress. We're nowadvising clients or mentoring other
people. Luke continues toinspire others with a commitment
(01:47):
to success and and integrity.We welcome Lou to the podcast. We
welcome Lou to the pod. Well,Lou, welcome to the podcast. How
you doing today?
I'm doing wonderful.
I'm glad to talk to you. Thishas been exciting conversation. This
is my second coach that I'vetalked to on my podcast.
Oh boy, you're in trouble. Thebiggest problem is to shut up is
(02:10):
the biggest problem you havewith a coach.
No problem. Looking forward to it.
So.
But we're going to start outwith my favorite question. What's
the best piece of advice youever received?
Well, can I give you two or three?
Sure, that'd be great.
I was seven or eight yearsold. I was outside playing and my
mother came out. I said, son,where did you get those army men?
(02:33):
And I said, well, I got themfrom Johnny up street. She said,
did he give them to you? And Isaid, well, he's got lots of them.
She grabbed me by my hand. Shesaid, take the army men. Walked me
up the street, didn't say aword. Went to Johnny's house. We
knocked on the door.Pleasantries and she looked at me
(02:54):
and I handed the army men backover to Johnny. And you know, the.
Johnny's mother was there,didn't understand, says, oh, no,
Johnny has hundreds of these.Doesn't matter. He was not given
these. And that's not right.So we started back down the street.
(03:15):
My mother gave me a greatlesson in values and integrity and
honesty, and I remember it tothis day. Integrity is very, very
important part of any successand anything that I've done because
I would never do anything justto win. That's a lot of the title
of my book, Success is Morethan Winning. Then when I was 12
(03:37):
years old, I was working for.For my father in a shop. He had an
electrical shop. And he saysto me, he said, son, he said, I'm
going to start paying you bythe hour. Because he was just paying
me some money and so forth.And so one day he says, you know,
I'm going to pay you by thejob. And I didn't understand you.
(04:00):
I was 12 years old. I wasplaying around too much. And so the
first paycheck, I didn't getas much money. And I said, well,
there's something wrong. I'msupposed to get this much per hour.
He said, no, remember, wechanged it to how much you got done
in the hour. Oh, okay, well,that's not fair. And I said, why?
And, you know, and we had anice conversation. He said, son,
(04:22):
never forget this, and I neverhave. You don't get paid for spending
time during the hour. You getpaid for the value you bring to the
hour. And I've never forgotthat. In fact, I actually use that
when we hire people and letthem know this is what they're getting
paid for and whatever they cando. And those were wonderful lessons.
(04:47):
And then I was very fortunate.My parents believed in God and taught
me the respect of God and. Andso forth. And I've tried. I've tried
to live my life with thosethree principles.
What would it be like if mostpeople live by that second one? I'm
(05:08):
just curious how the jobculture would look if people were
taught that you get paid bywhat you do in the hour, not just
by the hour.
You know. You know what'sfunny, Keith? Actually, people have
said, I've never heard thatbefore when. When I talked to them,
and I said, well, there'ssomething wrong with that. You've
never heard it. And. Andthat's the problem. We just think
(05:28):
that we put in time, right?And I've tried to teach both of my
sons this and they are bothhard workers. And I'm always very
proud that when I go to wherethey work, the managers say, oh my
gosh, I'd take a hundred ofyour kid. And that makes me feel
(05:49):
very good that I've taught himsome things about hard work and what
you owe someone that's payingyou money.
I love that. As you thinkabout your life, Lou, who were some
people for you that werementors for you or maybe even an
inspiration on your journey?
Well, besides my mother anddad, which were extremely. I was
(06:10):
just so lucky. Neither mymother or my dad were educated, but
they were very intelligent,wholesome, good people. And as I
get older, and as I've gottenolder, I've realized, boy, how lucky.
In fact, I'm not so sure.Keith. I've done as well as I should
have to have had as good aparents as I. As I had when I realized
(06:31):
that a lot of people weren'tthat blessed. And so that that helped
start everything becauseeverything goes back to those lessons.
But one of the things researchproves to us, it's kind of interesting
that if you have a mentor orsomeone that you looked up to that
gives you great advice and soforth, you have a 65% better chance
(06:54):
of being successful on yourgoals. If you are continuous with
that coaching or mentor, youhave a 95% chance because somebody
else is telling you what youdo wrong. So anytime, in fact, there's
a chapter in the book aboutthe importance of mentors and coaches.
And when I was a. I was. Iwas. Well, I was really 19 when I
(07:18):
started coaching. I wascoaching in junior high and my first
job, I was 21 and I wascoaching in a high school. First
place I went was to my idol,John Wooden. I went out, watched
the UCLA practice and learnedthe four mindsets of success and
watched him do it. And theyhow lucky at 21 years old. And I've
(07:44):
pretty much followed all hisprinciples from his definition of
success and the idea ofstaying even keel. Now we're talking
50 years ago when I wascoaching high school, more than 50
and I everybody was a screamerand a yeller except me. I was not
I, because of John Wooden,keep everything even keel. And. And
(08:09):
I've been that way most of thetime. I very seldom lose my cool.
And every once in a while ithappens. The devil winters in and
says, how are we going to dothis to you? But yeah. And then in
finance, I was reading WarrenBuffett When I was 18, 17, I bought
my stocks at 7, my first stockat 17. I had such a great respect
(08:33):
for him. What a man to followin the finance world. So I've always
had mentors. I believe inmentors. Give you a quick story.
My son who now runs my oldestson, Bryce, who runs my finance business.
We were talking one day and Isaid, son, you need a coach. And
he said, dad, I've got you.And I said, son, I've helped you
(08:57):
as much as I can and where youwant to take the business, I've not
been there. You need to findsomebody else. And he brought in
somebody else that's helpedhim immensely to do the things that
he wants to do. And so bigbeliever that mentors and how important
they are, in fact, that's oneof the keys to success as far as
(09:18):
I'm concerned. Find somebodythat does what you want to do better
than you or the best.
I'm curious. Mentors arereally important. Are there some
things you want to look for ina mentor? Because we can get mentors
who are not helpful for us.But what are some things you want
to look for when you'relooking for a mentor?
Well, let me. Keith, you'lllove this. As I said, I went out
(09:42):
to UCLA to watch a practicewith John Wooden and I was there
for a couple days. Guess whereI stopped on the way back? Now you
talk about one extreme fromthe other. It was amazing. But I
still picked up something fromBobby Knight. I used his passing
(10:02):
game offense that helped me inhigh school to win some. Help to
win some state championships.And so even somebody you can always
found find something fromeverybody that's been successful,
even if you don't agree with alot of the things that they do. And
I didn't necessarily agree,especially the way he treated players
(10:27):
and stuff like that and, andversus how John Wooden did. So you
can always find something.
Yeah, definitely. I'm curious,as you think about the different
careers you've gone on, whatwere the pivotal moments in each
of those decisions that youhad to undertake as you change careers?
(10:49):
Well, I was lucky. There'sthree types of people in the world.
There's people that areinterested, there's people that are
committed, and there's peoplethat are obsessed. You want to find
a career that you're obsessed.And that's one of the main. And I've
(11:11):
been so fortunate. My firstcareer, which was coaching and teaching,
I coached at the junior highlevel, the high school level, the
small college level, and themajor college level. I was obsessed
with teaching. And so I wasvery lucky. Well, when I decided
because of all the time I tellcollege coaches today, Keith, I tell
(11:34):
them, you guys are lucky. Theysaid, you got all these breaks and
all this stuff. When I wascoaching, you could recruit 365 days
a year. And guess what? I wasout there most of the time because
you could recruit. In fact,one of my. One of the rules that
the head coach had when I wasat West Virginia was you had. I had
(11:55):
to call him before I was ableto come back. And I'd be out sometimes
30 days, 40 days on the road,going to games, going to see people,
going to see an opponent,because I also did all the scouting.
Well, now they've got rules.Thank God that they've got rules
where you can only recruit somany days off campus and stuff like
(12:16):
that so you can have a life.That's what I told the coaches. I
said, you know, you guys areable to have a life. It was probably
some of the reason when I hadkids, it was time to look at something
else because I. And I. And Ijust didn't see myself going on.
I'd gone as far. And I meanthat I wanted to do that. And then
(12:39):
my hobby was the stock market.We'd go on trips when we were on
away trips, and I'd be readingBarron's in the Wall Street Journal
and everybody else was readingSports Illustrated. And it was just
a thing that I really enjoyed.Again, obsessed. And I'm still working
(13:00):
at 76, going on 77 and loveit. Still come, can't wait to get.
Get to work.
I love it. We all lovewinners. How did you maintain such
a high winning percentage as a coach?
Well, I think when you look atfactors of success, number one, I
(13:25):
was obsessed. I mean, I couldliterally work 18 hours a day, seven
days a week. I didn't, becauseI believe in priorities in life.
And it was, you know, therewere hard because I was just so driven,
because I loved it. I loved itso much. But so being obsessed, you
want to find a career whereyou're obsessed. It's very. If you're
(13:47):
just interested, then you'rejust showing up. Now if you're committed,
it's almost like committed ispretty good. I mean, if you're committed
to something, but it's thatextra little bit that. That wins,
you know, more games and stufflike that. I also believe it was
because of the mentors that Ihad that I wasn't afraid to go out
(14:08):
and look at the best of thebest. And also that as I learned
later in life how importantgood players were I used to think
maybe I had something to dowith it. Heck, I did. I think it
was just the players. When Ilooked, I was watching the films
the other day, the couplestate state championships we won
(14:29):
when I was in high school. AndI looked at that and I'm saying,
how in the heck did we win? Imean, my golly, I mean the, the,
the, the strategy was just sobasic. I was very basic. But there's
no question, as I look back onit, Keith, I was very lucky to understand
(14:52):
that it took growth of yourbody, your mind and your skills.
And that's what I was.Unbelievable. In fact, I wrote two
books on basketball. One wason body development for basketball
and the other one was on theskills of basketball. And I would
actually give the skills tothe players in a book form and they
(15:13):
would be graded not only onyour knowledge how to do the skill,
but to be able to perform it.And learned a lot of these things
again from Wooden. Woodenwouldn't let you in a ball game do
anything that you couldn't dowell in practice. It wasn't even
a thought. He took that choicetotally out. Now you're not allowed
(15:34):
to shoot the ball except 3ftor you're only allowed to shoot from
10ft. But you can't shoot it.They didn't have the three pointer.
But you can't shoot it fromlong until you can do it. And there's
no question, that's the wholepremise of my book. It's about getting
better every day at somethingand it deals with all the different
(15:55):
skills. Whatever career you'rein, you figure out, just like I did
here were all the things itwas going to take to win in basketball.
You had to have the body. Likewe increased jumping ability an average
of 8 inches on kids. Nowthat's a lot. I mean that is a lot.
That's a lot different. It canmake a difference. Back then also,
(16:18):
Keith, there were a lot ofjump balls. So it made a difference.
Yes.
And so it was just developmentof skills for whatever it was. And
for this it was basketball.And I actually, you know, I still
remember the course it wasknow that I took that talked about
how you have to understand askill to do it, to do it well. And
(16:43):
it doesn't mean you slow downto think about it, but just when
you're working on it so thatyou're working on the right things.
That's all.
Love that. So what inspiredyou to write the book Success is
more than Winning.
Oh, wow. Wow. Well, I thinkit's pretty simple as I got. Later
in my career, one of thethings I've wanted to do is always
(17:04):
give back. Loved my days inhigh school, and I wanted to go and
talk to high school. I mean,I'm just an average guy. I. I don't
have a big name like JohnWooden or anything like that, but
I think I have a lot of goodthings to share with young people.
And somebody said, lou, if youhad a book, makes it easier. And
(17:29):
it has, it has. I have nowabout 25 talks. In fact, next Tuesday,
I'm down in Florida. I'm downin Naples right now in Naples, Florida,
and I'm giving a talk to about160 football players. They have a
football day. Football ispretty important in Florida.
Yeah.
And, you know, they'rebringing the top five or six kids
(17:50):
from the 18 high schools inLee County, Florida, and I get to
talk to him about what. Whatwe're talking about. And I'm really
excited about it. And. AndI've got some other ones up in. Where
I also live in West Virginia,and I've got talks there in Pennsylvania
and Maryland. And so, yeah,that's what I want. And because of
(18:10):
the book, it's made it easier.I can send a book to a principal,
say, I'd like to come talk.You know, they always ask me, what's
it going to cost? I said,nothing. And they said, are you sure?
I said, yeah. I said, youknow, I'm just trying. I'm trying
to give back, that's all.
So pouring into young peopleis so important. What message do
you want or do you hope tocommunicate to young people more
(18:33):
often than not?
Well, that's a good question,Keith. It's the idea of how I've
lived my life because oflistening to successful people. I'm
trying to just. I mean, I'mnot the originator. I'm not gonna
sit here and say I am. I justwas a good follower. I. I've really
(18:55):
been a good follower. I'velistened, in fact, listen to this
research. Before I get intoit, there's research out there that
proves that kids, the kidsthat listen to their parents, that
listen to their teachers andtheir coaches are more successful.
Mean, it's like common sense.Yeah, but we had to do research to
(19:16):
prove that. And so I'm goingto tell all these kids this. Okay.
What does that tell you? Ittells you if you listen to people
that have done something, it'sgoing to help you in life. And. And
I'm hoping that I can makethem understand the Overall goal
from the whole book is bebetter every day than you were yesterday
(19:41):
in something. How do you doit? There's all kind of ways you
can. I try to work out in themornings, so I've already worked
on my body. I try to read 20pages at least and learn some new
concept or some new thing. Itdoesn't take that long right away.
So by the time I get startedto work, I've already done what my
(20:03):
overall goal is, and that isto improve myself some way. And if
you do that over many years,you get better. And, and then it's
also just evaluating whateverit is you're going to do. I mean,
and what's it going to take?Just like in basketball, what, what
I did, I analyzed every skillin our offense that we needed. I
(20:28):
broke it down. I made surethey could understand it, that they
could. They, they. That theycould teach it, they could teach
that skill. Well, if you canteach it, you understand it. All
you got to do now is practiceit. And that's one of the reasons
that I, I know looking back,that our, Our teams got better and
we were very successful. Andit's just I was so lucky at an early
(20:54):
age to listen to some goodpeople. And I didn't say, well, I
don't know if that's going towork. I don't know this well, you
know what I mean? Maybe thisguy, like John Wooden is. Won seven
straight championships in arow. In a row and 10 total. He does
know something.
He might know something, right?
Yeah, he might. And, you know,I can't tell you this, Keith. I don't
(21:16):
know why. I don't. I listened.I don't know why. A good friend of
mine, Tony for Gale, who wasinvolved in some of my books, my
basketball books, is passedaway. Great. Just a great guy and
great coach. And he said, youknow, Lou, you were the most mature
high school kid I've everknown. And I said, really? I said,
(21:38):
I didn't think. I, I was. Isaid I was a little naive. I thought.
He said, no, you might havebeen naive, but you listened to people
that were successful. And thennow we have research that proves
it, for God's sake, that ifyou listen to people that have been
successful, you have a goodchance of being successful.
That's awesome. How do youdefine success? We just talked about
(21:59):
success is more than winning.But I think that term success is
very elusive today becauseit's not about money, it's not about
power or influence. But how doyou define success?
Again, I'm 19 years old andI'm reading a book by John Wooden
and right here it is. Successis peace of mind, which is a direct
(22:20):
result in the selfsatisfaction in knowing you did the
best to become the best you'recapable of. That's my definition.
I never talked about winningwith my teams. It was always do your
best that you know how you goin with your hands.
Yeah.
All it was was do your best.That's all you can ever be. You can't
be more than that. Now someonesaid, but what happens if you lose?
(22:45):
I said, well, that's a goodpoint. But it tells you the things
you have to work on, that'sall. Tells you things that you're
not good enough here. And oneof the things that I always did again,
learned at an early age, firstyear in coaching, I'm 21. We go 20
and one. We go to the statetournament, we lose in the semifinals,
(23:05):
lose to a team that's wasn'tas good as us, but they played a
better schedule. And so thenext year I had some people to talk
and I talked to some people incollege and they said, lou, play
better teams, it'll. It'llprepare you. You're going to lose
some. And we did, but we wonour first state championship the
(23:28):
second year. And one of theteams we played, it was almost like
the Hoosier story. They had2400 kids, we had 200 in our school.
We beat them. And it was justan in it, but it helped us, it gave
us closer games, toughergames. And so in the state tournament,
when it got tough, we've beenthere. And so yeah, it makes sense.
(23:54):
You have 99 tips to up yourgame. If you had to pick maybe your
top five up your game tips,what would you say those are?
Oh my, oh my. I. In fact, I'mgetting ready to actually do this
at the football, you know, thefootball day down in Lee County.
(24:17):
And so when you look at thetop tips, there's no question. There
was a study done in 2004 andwhat that it tried to look at the
most important things forsuccess. And it came. The number
one trait that came out ofeverything was it wasn't intelligence,
(24:38):
it wasn't iq, even though thathelps, I can tell you that. But it
was grit and grit. And there'sactually a book out written by this
lady, Angela Duckworth.Duckworth is her name. Great book.
I recommend to everybody toread it. And it talks about finding
your passion, your spark, andthen with, with that comes perseverance
(25:03):
because you, you have to beable to preserve because you're going
to have moments when it'stough and if you don't love what
you're doing, you, you can bein trouble. So that's the, the first
one. And then I was watching apodcast, Keith, and they had Warren
(25:24):
Buffett and Steve Jobs on andthey were talking about success.
That's why I was watching it.And they were all kind of different
areas and stuff. So finallythe announcer says, okay, give me
your number one, withoutquestion, the most important trait
or fact or attitude, whateverthat you think takes to be successful.
(25:45):
He said, I don't want you tosay it. Gave them both tablets. I
want you to each write itdown. So they take some time. They
write, they write down theiranswer. They said, okay, turn them
over. They turned them over.They had both written the same word.
And the, the, the word wasfocus. It's able to focus on what?
(26:11):
And, and boy, that's. Itsounds, it's a very simple word,
but man, does it involve a lotof things. It's getting rid of all
of the things around you, allthe things that deter you. Those
are the kinds of things to besuccessful that you have to do. And
so, you know, there's twothings now. One of the most important
(26:35):
things you can do in life ifyou want to be successful, there
was a hundred year study. Ihave a lot of studies in the book
by the way too. I have like 75studies, 90 stories patterned after
Chicken Soup for the Soul. Soit wasn't my idea. I'm a great copier.
I'm a great copier of peopleof whatever it is, it's successful.
(26:57):
And so all the differentthings that it comes down in this
study and it studied what'sthe most important for happiness,
success and longevity. 100year study, they kept replicate it
and finding things came downto your connections, your connections
in life. So as young people, Itell young people in high school,
(27:22):
get involved in every club. Idon't care if you're a football player,
a basketball player, go dodrama class, do different things.
You're going to make yourselfmuch more versatile. You're going
to meet different people thatyou never know down the road how
important those connectionsare. And it's kind of interesting.
(27:42):
You'll love this story. I wasfortunate enough in my first year
in finance. I won a nationalaward. I was rookie broker of the
year in the whole country.That's out of Morgantown, West Virginia,
a little small town. And I'dbeaten people in la, New York Chicago,
I thought I was pretty good. Isaid, man, I must be really good,
(28:03):
you know? Well, I think about25 years later I read this study,
and I said, you know what? Idon't think I was that good. I think
it was just all myconnections, because I went to school
in that town. I coached onestate championships, then I coached
at the university in the sametown. I knew thousands of people.
(28:26):
So the reason I won the award,I wasn't the best. I just had the
best connections, right? But,you know, so I can say that now.
I thought I was pretty good,but no, I guess I was okay. I've
been in the business 41 years,and I don't have anybody burning
my house or anything likethat. I must do a decent job. But
(28:47):
it. I mean, it's funny, backthen, Keith, the way you were successful
in this business, they toldyou you had to make cold calls. When
I went to New York, they said,you make 100 cold calls a day. You'll
be successful. And I. Afterthey're getting everybody ready,
and everyone's starting tomake their cold calls, and I'm just
kind of sitting there, andteacher comes over. He says, lou,
(29:09):
what's wrong? And I said,well, I don't make cold calls. And
he said, what? I said, I makecozy calls. And he said, what the
heck is a cozy call? And I'msaying, well, a cozy call is when
you call somebody that youalready know or because of everything
you're involved in, they knowyou. That's a cozy call. He says,
(29:31):
well, I don't know about that,but, you know, he said, I love that
idea. But he said. He said, doyou know that many people? I said,
yeah, I kind of do. You know,I just. I've been involved in everything.
I've been in clubs inMorgantown. I was in Rotary Club.
I ran a Rotary Club. I wasMorgantown Touchdown Club. I was
the president of MorgantownTouchdown Club. I knew a lot of people.
(29:54):
That's why I'm saying, Keith,when I say, you know, how to look
at all this, I think I shouldhave actually done better than I
did, you know, I mean, withall the connections I had when I
found out all this. So, yeah,so connections are important. Oh,
my gosh, when I think of thetop five, there's again, research
that says, you are. You becomeor you are what your reference group
(30:16):
is, and that's your friends.And very it. There's. There's actually
nothing. Nothing that's moreimportant, especially in the teenage
years, because we know whatcan happen if you get in with the
wrong people and stuff likethat. It's not good. And it's hard
to break those kind of things.And so friends and who your reference
(30:39):
group is, I mean, when youlook at all the successful people,
it's amazing. Their referencegroup, right. They're all, they're
all right there. And so, youknow, I know how important that is.
And if I would, if I wouldthink there's no. The last thing
(31:00):
I would put there. And I knowwhat it's done for me, and that is
successful people areplanners, they're goal oriented.
And again, research backs thisup. There was a study done. They
took, I forget how manyhundreds of kids and when they graduated
from college, and only 5% ofthe kids had written goals. 5%, rest
(31:24):
of them, yeah, I kind of knowwhat I want to do or I want to do
that. But only 5% had writtengoals. They looked at them 10 years
later. The kids that wrotedown their goals looked at them every
year. They were doing 10 timesbetter than the other kids. And so
(31:45):
how important is that? I mean,it's one of those things. Hey, guys,
here's a study that tells youthis. And you're going to write your
goals down. If you. Do youwant to make more money? Do you want
to be. Become wealthy? It'sjust, it's so, so important. You're
planning your routines. Youknow, in fact, I'm putting together
a workbook now that has goalsvision boards, where you can do a
(32:10):
vision board. You do yourgoals, your vision boards. And then
there's another study that wasjust done. The top 100 productivity
tools in the last hundredyears. Number one on the list, box
planning. And what. Boxplanning. Every hour of the day is
(32:33):
planned. Now that sounds like,oh my God, you gotta be. That's.
No, it's time management. Itdoesn't mean it can't change. It
doesn't mean there isn't funthings in there, but you put them
in there. And if, if every dayyou save five minutes or 10 minutes
and you get something elsedone. As you know, every morning
(32:56):
that every single person wakesup, we've got 86,400 seconds. It
doesn't matter how old youare, doesn't matter, whatever. It
doesn't matter how smart youare. Everybody has the same amount
of time. It's who uses it thebest. And it's the number one productivity
(33:17):
tool. I do my planning everysingle night. It takes me about 10
minutes now. I took a while,you know, was, I was learning and
10 minutes. I can fill out awhole day. And here's, here's the
thing. Let's say that you're,you've got a meeting from 1 to 2.
(33:38):
You have nothing between 2 and2:30. Then you have another meeting
at 2:30. What do you do that30 minutes? Are you getting ready
for the next one or are youmaking a couple phone calls in there?
Most people waste time whenthey have a small amount of time
where I try to get like, I'lluse the example today I was getting
ready for your appointment andI was making some calls because I
(34:00):
already had everything ready.I was making some calls on, on business.
Now, I could have sat thereand worried and was, you know, worried
about what I was going to sayand all that, but I'd already prepared,
as you said. I already had allmy sheets done. I filled out all
the questions and got myself ready.
I love it. That's really,really, really insightful. Lou, as
(34:23):
you think about this book,what do you hope, especially young
people, because you reallywrote for young people. What do you
hope they pick up this bookand walk away from. Walk away with?
Well, it's pretty simple, butit's. The idea of the book was to
make people understand thatyou need to improve your attitudes,
(34:47):
your skills, your attributesto be successful, and you need to
improve every single day. Ilistened to a podcast one day and
it talked about how with howwe grow and learn in public education
and how we grow and learn insports, and they said, there's no
question sports is betterbecause sports never stops the learning.
(35:11):
I'm still working on myselfand I'm going to be 77 years old,
and I just wrote a book. Youknow, it's not like I'm sitting here
saying, oh, well, it's overnow. I got to do this. No, I'm improving,
and it's what I learned fromsports. And it's just, I want people
to understand you got to growevery day and you've got to evaluate
(35:32):
what your job is. So whateveryour job is, whatever you're doing
in life that you love to do,break it down, analyze it like I
did basketball. And I improvedand worked on things every day. And
that's the whole thing. Getbetter every day. It's something
that deals with somethingthat's going to help you to be more
(35:53):
successful in your career,whatever it is. I mean, I've given
talks outside of coal mines inWest Virginia. Yeah. About different
things, and we've talked aboutsome different things. And, you know,
everybody can improvethemselves, but we stop. A lot of
people get the idea that onceyou graduate from college or a doctor's
degree, you're done learning.You're just getting started, you
(36:14):
know, Just getting started. Sothat's the key that I keep putting
in everything, is howimportant it is to grow every day,
Keith, just. You've got toimprove yourself every day.
I love it. I love to ask myguests this question. Lou, what do
you want your legacy to be?
Oh, wow. That was the one Ihad the hardest time with. Because
(36:39):
I don't really think of legacymyself. I mean, I, I, I, I, I, I
think that. All right, now I'mthinking of something I. It's in
the book. And hold on. I gottaget. If I can find it real quick.
I don't know if I can whileI'm thinking of it. Give me that.
(37:07):
But I put in here, I put atombstone. I've got my tombstone.
That's kind of what you'retalking about. And, and what basically
I put on my tombstone is Iwant to be known as a good person.
I want to be known as a givingperson. I want to be known that I
(37:30):
was a good father, a goodspouse, and that I lived life to
the fullest. That's what Iwant my legacy to be. And I want
to give back. I got that asthe last. I want to give back and
try to help people to do thesame kind of things that I've been
(37:50):
taught.
So this is something new. Istarted, Lou, for season six of becoming
bridge builders. I have myguests pick a number between one
and three to get a surprisequestion that you did not get ahead
of time. Oh, God.
Oh, no, that's. Wait a minutehere. That's not fair. You're going
to make me do anextemporaneous. That's right.
(38:12):
Exactly.
You're going to pay for it.No, go ahead.
So pick a number between oneand three.
Number one. I like number one.
All right, so your questionis. Oh, here's a good one. What would
be the worst movie sequel ever made?
Oh, my gosh. Okay. The worstmovie sequel ever made, meaning that
(38:41):
there's already a movie out?
Yes.
Do I have to name what thatmovie was?
Well, if you want. If you'rebrave. Yeah.
No, I better not do that. Theworst movie sequel ever would be
something to me. You, you cantell from talking to me, Keith. I'm.
(39:04):
I'm just so. I'm so obsessedwith, you know, doing the right thing
and successful. Well, no, Ialready know what it is. Now I'm.
I'VE got to think about it for30 seconds. Would be a movie that
taught young people that it'seasy and there's only one way. I
(39:29):
mean, in fact, I, I pick upbooks. I'm an avid reader. That's
the other thing that I wouldadd. You know, that was the thing
that I forgot of the last onewas reading how important reading
is. But it would it. And oneof these things makes it sound like
there's only one thing ittakes to be successful. Well, let
me tell you, there's no secretsauce to success.
(39:49):
Right.
And you're lying to people ifyou tell them that because it takes
a lot of different things.That's like there are, you know,
you can work hard and stillnot be very successful.
Right.
You know, I mean, if you're inthe wrong area or, or you don't have
good people around you or youdon't have good talent around you
(40:10):
and all those kind of things.Things. So yeah, the, the worst sequel
I could ever see. Andunfortunately there have been some
movies like that that give youthis idea that there's some great.
Because I'm a great moviewatcher. I watch movies every. Almost
every night. You know, I'mjust. That's my way of getting away.
And I love movies and, andmost of them really give you good
(40:31):
things to. To think about. Butit would be a movie that tried to
make it sound easy.
Right? Be like Hoosiers toowould be another one.
There. There we go. Yes, yes,yes. I like it, Keith. That's exactly.
I like it. I like it.
(40:54):
So, Lou, where can people findyour book? The success is more than
winning and connect with youon social media. Somebody wants to
have you come out and talk totheir young people. How can you connect
with you?
I. And you know what's funny?I've had some podcasts and I've actually
had some people get a hold ofprincipals in different states. And
I said I'll go just aboutanywhere because I love to travel
(41:15):
and I'll make some kind oftrip out of it, you know, and. And
so forth. So the best place isto get a hold of me is on my web
page was yes, you cansucceed.org yes, you can succeed.org
and you can buy my book onAmazon. The books on Amazon and Barnes
(41:37):
and Noble. A lot of the Barnesand Nobles have it. I'm, you know,
unfortunately, I'm not a wellknown. You know, I'm not like. I
mean, talk about luck. My. Mybook comes out and the same week
John Mitchell comes out withhis 25th book. Yeah. I mean, it's
like, oh, boy, nice guy tohave to try to follow. And I think
(42:01):
he's already got, like, youknow, 500 reviews on his book, and
I've got 22, and. But they'reall good.
That's good. They're all good.
They're all good. And, youknow, people are really. The people
that have given me the reviewshave given me really nice reviews.
I've been very fortunate, but.And then, like I said, I'm on Facebook
(42:24):
and LinkedIn by my name. Allyou gotta do is look my name up,
and I accept everybody.
That's so great. Well, Lou,thanks so much for taking the time
to pour into my audience andhopefully pour into young people
with the idea of what it takesto kind of press through the noise
and find that unique passionof theirs that makes them successful
(42:46):
in their life and in their journey.
Keith, thank you very much.It's been a pleasure and very easy
conversation. If you ever needme back on again, all you got to
do is call me.
Well, you're welcome anytime,my friend. Thank you.
Thank you.
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