Do you know the the choice you make quote is NOT by John Wooden?
I am talking about this popular quotation:
“There is a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end the choice you make makes you.”
This quote found in John Wooden’s books is certainly NOT by John Wooden.
Interestingly, many quotation websites and published books credited this quotation to the late UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.
The Choice You Make Quote Not By John Wooden
This quote is published on page i of “My Personal Best: Life Lessons From An All-American Journey” (McGraw Hill Professional, 2004)
The attribution clearly stated as “Anonymous” in white text on a black page.
This epigraph is also found on page 43 of the book “Wooden On Leadership: How To Create A Winning Organization” (McGraw Hill Professional, 2005).
Again the attribution is stated as “Anon” (Anonymous)
You can see the quote from the free e-book HERE.
The third book which has this quote is printed on page 5, titled “Coach Wooden’s Leadership Game Plan For Success: 12 Lessons For Extraordinary Performance And Personal Excellence” By John Wooden And Steve Jamison (McGraw Hill Professional, 2009).
This time there is NO attribution to it.
I believe the absence of ascription meant that the authors considered the phrase to be anonymous, or it was accidentally left out.
Finally this quote is on page 43 of “Wooden’s Complete Guide to Leadership (EBOOK BUNDLE)” (McGraw Hill Professional, 2012)
Again, it is ascribed to “Anon“. (Anonymous)
From my simple findings, you can deduce that this quote:
“There is a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end the choice you make makes you.” is definitely NOT by John Wooden or the “Wizard of Westwood”.
As you can see, out of his four books, three of them plainly stated that this epigraph is attributed to “Anonymous“.
Besides all those quotations websites, this wrongly credited quote can also be found in John C. Maxwell’s books.
This is really a surprise to me.
Since this famous author-speaker Maxwell is fond of using quotations in his books, I am pretty sure he would have engaged a professional fact-checker.
Anyway, here is a great list of John Calvin Maxwell quotations with full citations, that linked back to all his books.
Quotationize has verified these John C. Maxwell quotes as authentic.
Note: At the time of publishing this post, I found there are three FREE John Wooden e-books readily available from Google search, by typing in the book title followed with the word pdf.
They are: The Essential Wooden pdf, My Personal Best: Life Lessons From an All-American Journey pdf and Wooden on Leadership pdf.