Bob Knight

Not everyone cared for Bob Knight's demanding style, but he was an extremely successful coach and molded so many young men. He has over 900 career wins, won three national championships, and coached the Olympic team to a Gold Medal. Although he was known for that demanding style, we need more of that these days, and I would love to have Coach Knight coach my son. There are so many things that he taught that translate to business and life. He made sure everyone participated during practice and made sure that practices were harder than the game. I believe we can all use the "you play like you practice" mentality. If you don't practice your presentation or review your notes prior to a big meeting, you will not be successful. He very much focused on the mental elements and on eliminating mistakes and you would think that someone with his type of personality would be a micro manager. But he was not. I remember hearing one of his former players Dan Dakich talk about how Coach Knight let his players make their own decisions, which in turn created a level of respect.