Leadership Lessons From A Movie : Coach Carter

Inspirational, entertaining and gripping, Coach Carter  is the great movie of 2005.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. You playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”.

The movie is based  on a real life of Ken Carter, who was the coach of Richmond High School in 1999. He cancelled all of his undefeated basketball team’s games and practices for 8 days, forfeiting 2 games and this was because 15 team members had unacceptably poor academic results.

This was then called as a lock out and everybody – the school, players, the community, schools his team was scheduled to play and media commentators; criticized his actions.

Carter maintained that his athletes must study seriously as good academic performance will give an entry to college and other opportunities in life. The public opinion eventually changed and he was praised for his determined emphasis on prioritizing good values for his team. The story of this 1999 basketball season is the basis for this film – Coach Carter.

Great messages and lessons from the movie written by Linda Camurato.

Resilience:
Resilience and bouncing back no matter what life throws at you. They do not live in rich neighborhoods, they don’t have the same opportunities than others and they don’t believe they can achieve anything in their life at first but look at what they are able to accomplish with the help of a leader! They wake up to their potential and realize that whatever their circumstances, they can follow their heart’s desire and make their dream happen.

Discipline:
The players have to show up on time for practice every day, that they tired or not, that they have to do homework or not, that they have problems with their family or not! They learn to never give up until the goal is reached.

Teamwork and responsibility:
If one fails, everyone fails. if one doesn’t show up to train, then everyone suffers. They are repsonsible for each other and this makes them understand that teamwork makes it easier and quicker to reach the goal, that they cannot reach that goal by trying on their own. The more they connect, the closer they get, the more powerful they become as a team. The results are incredible as they win games after games.

Do share with us what did you learn from the movie. What has inspired you?