SUCCESS STORY

Mike Krzyzewski and Special Opportunities

By Hunter Kingland | Business Major

Dozens of boys ran around the basketball court located just near West Cortez Street. in Chicago, Illinois. At first glance all of them appeared to be the same, just a bunch of kids growing up in a hardworking Polish neighborhood. After further examination, a particular seventh grader sticks out from the rest. He is no taller than the any of them and not particularly a stand-out athlete on the court. The difference is that this boy is not only playing for his team, but coaching them with great organization and discipline as well (O’Neil).

Mike Krzyzewski was this boy, and now has become the all-time winningest coach in college basketball history, to go along with five NCAA National Championships. The head coach at Duke didn’t become successful all on his own. Coach K. had help achieving success by fulfilling Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers theories that success cannot be obtained without cultural advantages, special opportunities, and the 10,000 hour rule.

Finding work in 1930’s New York was next to impossible to find. The Great Depression was lurking, and that made jobs scarce. Getting a job was even harder for people who were Jewish or were different than the normal American. Joe Flom fit into this category. He was overweight, very poor, and Jewish. All of the odds were stacked against Flom, and there is no feasible reason why he would become head of one of the most successful firms in all of New York. It would be very American to think that Flom was able to overcome all of these odds and rise to success on his own. “We tell rags-to-riches stories because we find something captivating in the idea of a lone hero battling overwhelming odds.” Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers counters this idea that anyone can rise from nothing and become a success (Gladwell, 120). Somehow, Flom took advantage of his cultural legacies and turned them into a tool for success.

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tries to prove the point that being at a disadvantage can actually become an advantage. In Flom’s case, being Jewish actually was a major advantage he had over all of his competitors. People like Flom were not hired at the major firms such as Mudge Rose. Companies like Rose only hired individuals who fit their model and were not culturally different. Because of this, young men such as Flom were forced to look for work in other places. This rejection became an opportunity for Flom that he took advantage of. Flom joined Marshall Skadden, Leslie Arps, and John Slate, and together they formed Skadden, Arps. “Arps has nearly two thousand attorneys in twenty-three offices around the world and earns well over $1 billion a year, making it one of the largest and most powerful law firms in the world” (Gladwell, 119). Joe Flom became a product of his time; he did not become successful solely on hard work. That helped, but he had cultural advantages that pushed him to the next level.

Like Joe Flom, Mike Krzyzewski took advantage of his humble beginnings. Growing up, Krzyzewski and his peers couldn’t rely on coaches or his parents to help organize and aid their athletics in any way.

Their parents didn’t have time for such frivolity. They were too busy working — like William Krzyzewski, Mike’s dad, who spent nearly 25 years as an elevator operator before trying his hand at owning a bar, and his wife, Emily, who each night headed to the corner of Damen Ave. and West Augusta Boulevard, where she’d catch a downtown bus to her job cleaning at the Chicago Athletic Club (O’Neil).

While Krzyzewski’s parents worked hard, Mike and his friends plead to their local school administration to help them join a Youth Catholic basketball league. After being rejected, Krzyzewski took it upon himself to organize a team and coach it. (O’Neil). Even at a young age, Krzyzewski demonstrated leadership qualities that he later developed and mastered as an adult.

Discrimination affected Mike’s family in multiple ways. His own father William Krzyzewski used the name Bill Kross to avoid discrimination in the working world. This type of environment made Mike’s father like most of the other fathers in the neighborhood, which was strict, firm, and distant (O’Neil). Some of these attitudes that Will Krzyzewski’s father displayed are implemented in his son’s coaching styles. Mike has strict and firm grasp of his team, but he is anything but distant from his players.

Despite growing up in a humble Polish neighborhood with no basketball program or athletic guidance, like many other success stories before him, Krzyzewski found a way to turn these disadvantages in his culture, to his cultural advantages that helped propel him to success.

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell also brings forth the idea that individuals who are successful are given a special opportunity or a series of opportunities that allow the individual to rise above the rest in his or her field. Gladwell talks about specific special opportunities or lucky breaks such as the dates of birth of hockey players. In a study known as the Matthew Effect, it was noticed that the dates of births of many successful hockey players were in the months of January, February, and March. “It’s simply that in Canada the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1. A boy who turns ten on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesn’t turn ten until the end of the year” (Gladwell, 14). Obviously, this physical maturity that the older player has is a huge advantage, which result in the older player getting more attention, and then being placed in the elite hockey groups. The gap between the older and younger player keeps getting larger as the players get older due to coaching and competition.

These future hockey stars cannot control when they are born. Their date of birth is just a special opportunity that they received that many other children did not, which allowed them to rise above the rest of their competitive field. (14)

The concept of special opportunities and lucky breaks did not pass over Mike Krzyzewski. After having a great high school career, Mike was looking to play basketball at the college level. The most significant special opportunity that Mike received occurred when a young aspiring coach from Army came to his doorstep on a recruiting visit. The coach introduced himself as Bob Knight (Myslenski). It was impossible to know at the time, but Bob Knight would go on to also become one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time by winning three championships at Indiana University.

While playing for four years under Knight, Krzyzewski learned hard work, discipline, and most importantly, that there is a difference between succeeding and winning. Both Krzyzewski and Knight mimicked some of their coaching methods from the great John Wooden. “Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable” -John Wooden (Wooden Ted Talks). “I’ve never been interested in winning a national championship. What I’ve been interested in is a team playing as well as it can” -Bob Knight (Myslenski). “My motivation is pursuit of excellence. Performance, consistency of performance. I`d rather do a good job every game out rather than have peaks and valleys. I hate that” -Mike Krzyzewski (Myslenski). All three of these great coaches had similar mindsets geared toward success, which made them great and learning this from Knight is an opportunity that is irreplaceable. If Krzyzewski had never played for or been an assistant of Knight’s at Indiana, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think that he wouldn’t have been considered for the Duke coaching job.

There were many other special opportunities presented to Mike throughout his career, but playing and coaching with a hall of fame coach is what had the biggest impact in becoming the coach he is today, and he would not have become this successful without special opportunities in his life.

The 10,000 hour rule is another Gladwellian idea that needs to be fulfilled in order to be successful. This concept revolves around the idea that in order to achieve expertise, an individual will need to practice at his or her craft for 10,000 hours. Gladwell argues that the role of shear natural talent in becoming successful is not as big as everyone makes it out to be (Gladwell 38).

In Outliers, Gladwell argues that many individuals do not become successful in their craft because they simply are not willing to put that amount of work in. Gladwell references a study done by K. Anders Ericsson for support in his thesis. “There are no shortcuts. It will take you at least a decade to achieve expertise, and you will need to invest that time wisely, by engaging in “deliberate” practice — practice that focuses on tasks beyond your current lever of competence and comfort” (116). If someone practices 10,000 hours that doesn’t necessarily mean they will become a master of their craft. The individual will need to put in hours that are meaningful, with a knowledgeable coach that will know how to push the individual to their limits (116).

In Mike Krzyzewski’s case, he easily surpassed the 10,000 hours of practice in his coaching career. As a player, Mike Krzyzewski played basketball from the time he was a young boy, all the way through a senior in college. High school basketball does require many hours of time and practice and this workload only increases at the college level, especially when Bob Knight is the coach. Coach K. also started off his coaching career at an early age. After Krzyzewski graduated from West Point, he served in the military from 1969 to 1974. During his service, Mike coached for two years at the U.S. Military Academy Prep School in Virginia. Mike then moved on and in 1974 coached as a graduate assistant on Bob Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers, which was one of the most dominant teams in college basketball history. From 1975 to 1979 Krzyzewski coached at his former college of West Point. Coach K. went on to accept the Duke coaching job in 1980. At Duke, success did not come immediately. It took four seasons for Mike to achieve a winning record and he didn’t win his first championship until he was in his tenth year (Krzyzewski Biography). By that time, Mike had easily surpassed 10,000 hours of practice and he elevated to another level because of this.

The 10,000 hour rule alone does not guarantee success. It will greatly improve a person’s skill at their craft and it is a necessity to become successful. However, this rule is a necessity to become successful, along with other Gladwellian ideas.

Debbie Krzyzewski sheepishly approached her father Mike and asked if she could have a boy over for dinner. Mike was prepared to forbid her to see him before his wife warned him that doing this would drive the two closer. Instead, have him over to show Debbie how he won’t fit in. Heeding to his wife’s advice, Mike granted his permission for the boy to come over, but under one condition. He was not allowed to sit on any of the furniture. Debbie immediately burst into tears and the boy never came over (O’Neil ESPN.com).

This segment of Mike’s life shows him not being a well composed basketball mastermind, but rather an ordinary father dealing with problems that happen to all fathers with daughters. Mike Krzyzewski is just an ordinary guy. The only differences between him and other coaches are that he put in 10,000 hours of work into his craft. He also took had the special opportunity to play for Bob Knight and to learn from his tactics. Lastly, Mike had the cultural advantage of not having organized sports teams, which allowed him to be a player/coach growing up. By meeting these requirements for success presented by Gladwell in Outliers, Krzyzewski has been able to achieve his goals and become a living legend.

Works Cited

Ericsson, K. Prietula, Michael, and Cokely, Edward. The Making of an Expert: Harvard Publishing Newsletter, 2009. Print. An in depth study and observation of how individuals can succeed.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Print.

“Mike Krzyzewski Biography.” Academy of Achievement. 7 Apr. 2015. Web. 11 May. 2015.

Myslenski, Skip. “Coach K’s, Mentor and Former Pupil, Have Plenty In Common.” Tribunedigital-chicagotribune. 31 Mar. 1992. Web. 10 May 2015.

O’Neil, Dana. “Do You Know Mike Krzyzewski?” ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures. 22 Jan. 2015. Web. 7 Mar. 2015.

Wooden, John. “The Difference Between Winning and Succeeding.” TED Talks. UCLA Campus, Los Angeles. February 2001. Lecture.