MILL CREEK, WASH.
June 22, 2011
• Former NBA All-Star now coaches businesses to win
• ‘I learned the lesson about never being satisfied’
James Donaldson knows what it’s like to win – and lose – in the take-no-prisoners world of the National Basketball Association. A former player with the Seattle Supersonics, San Diego/L.A. Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks and Utah Jazz, Mr. Donaldson has now taken lessons learned on the basketball court into the world of business.
“I learned the lesson about never being satisfied,” Mr. Donaldson says, recalling a point in his basketball career at Washington State University when a coach gave him life-changing advice. “Don’t become complacent. You can enjoy success, but you also have to learn from the failures. Keep pushing yourself to be the very best you can be.”
(James Donaldson talks about applying NBA lessons to business and life in today’s CVBT Audio Interview via iPhone and Skype. Please left-click on the link below to listen now or right-click on the link to download the MP3 audio file for later listening.)
He’s put many of his ideas and experiences into a new book, “Standing above the Crowd: Success Strategies in Athletics, Business, Community and Life,” which was published in May.
“Success won’t come overnight. I wasn’t an overnight success by any means but I’ve been able to hang in there a long time to enjoy the joy in the morning that comes down the road,” says Mr. Donaldson. “One thing I learned in athletics is that it’s not always good to just play harder, you have to play smarter.”
A small business entrepreneur for over 20 years as president and owner of The Donaldson Clinic of Mill Creek, Wash., he says he sees that businesses go through natural cycles of ebbs and flows. What often separates the winners from the losers, he says, is the ability of the business owner to know when to call a timeout, change out the players and when to run another play.
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