Bill Walsh Quotes

“A resolute and resourceful leader understands that there are a multitude of means to increase the probability of success. And that's what it all comes down to, namely, intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing in a competitive environment. When you do that, the score will take care of itself.”

“Good talent with bad attitude equals bad talent.”

“I've observed that if individuals who prevail in a highly competitive environment have any one thing in common besides success, it is failure –and their ability to overcome it.”

“Clear thinking and overly charged emotions are usually antithetical.”

“Here's a good question to write on a Post-it Note and put on your desk. What assets do we have right now that we're not taking advantage of?”

“Find a great mentor who believes in you, your life will change forever!”

“The absolute bottom line in coaching is organization and preparing for practice.”

“Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, the process rather than the prize.”

“Your path and purpose will become crystal clear when you begin to trust your vision.”

“Innovation involves anticipation. It is having a broad base of knowledge on your subject and an ability to see where the end game is headed. Use all your knowledge to get there first. Set the trend and make the competition counter you.”

“If your why is strong enough you will figure out how!”

“To a winner, complacency and overconfidence can be destructive. To losers, desperation and despondency are just as harmful.”

“The little improvements that lead to impressive achievements come not from a week's work or a month's practice, but from a series of months and years until your organization knows what you are teaching inside and out.”

“I think all of the successful teams have a required number of truly great players. In football, it would be five to seven. With the 49ers we had Montana, Lott and Rice, plus another handful of excellent players and a very strong complementary cast of players. And then, when you get that core, it's a continual evolution, a reframing of your personnel.”

“I believe that every organization has a cultural consciousness that it carries forward year after year. That ethos may be good or bad, productive or unproductive, but it exists, and it is guiding ongoing personnel and informing new arrivals as they come on board.”

“Today's effort becomes tomorrow's results. The quality of those efforts becomes the quality of your work. One day is connected to the following day and the following month to the following years. Your own standard of performance becomes who and what you are.”

“Talent, functional intelligence, experience, maturity, effort, dedication, and practice may not be perfect, but they will get you so close to perfection that most people will think you achieved it. And the results will show it.”

“Scripting was a most effective leadership tool in fair and foul weather. In a very calculated way, I began calling the plays for the game before the game was played.”

“I think all of the successful teams have a required number of truly great players. In football, it would be five to seven. And then, when you get that core, it's a continual evolution, a reframing of your personnel.”