It's Not Who You Know, It's Who You Are: Life Lessons from Winners

Pat Williams is senior vice president of the NBA's Orlando Magic.  He has more than fifty years of professional sports experience, has written dozens of books, including the popular Coach Wooden and Coach Wooden's Greatest Secret, and is one of America's most sought-after motivational speakers.  He lives in Florida.

Learn more at www.patwilliams.com.

We live in a culture obsessed with celebrity.

We love winners and we want to be winners.

But take it fro a man who knows more famous people than most of us will ever meet - it's not who you know that's important, it's who you are inside.

In this inspiring book, Pat Williams draws from over fifty years of brushing shoulders with the greats to help you discover what it really means to be a winner.  Through his short meditations on success, leadership, family and friends, impact and influence, and becoming a person of excellence, you'll meet.

• a young singer who messed up the national anthem and shot to stardom anyway
• a coach who sacrificed his time to give his players the edge
• a marathon runner who knew the secret to pacing youself
• a political outsider who confidently reached for an impossible goal
• a football player who wouldn't let a broken leg stop him from getting to the Super Bowl
• and many more ordinary people with extraordinary character like

Barry Manilow, Sandy Patti, John F. Kennedy, Michael Jordan, Walt Disney, RudyG
iuliani, Tommy Lasorda, Joe Namath, Phil Jackson, Coln Powell, Cal Ripken Jr., Laura Bush, John Maxwell, George W. Bush, Billy Graham, and many more.



My Thoughts:
The title of this book - It's Not Who You Know, It's Who You Are - really says it all.  Pat Williams has taken his life experiences with some pretty big names and shared those encounters with readers. The book is organized into five parts:  Success, Leadership, Family and Friends, Impact and Influence, Becoming a Person of Excellence.  
Typically, we learn that "it's who you know".  However, Williams shows through short readings the fallacy of that statement.  The "greats" showcased in this book understand that success and money and influence only carries a person so far in life.  The character of a person speaks louder than all the accolades the world...how you treat others on your way to the top tells onlookers what one is really all about.
I liked that this is the kind of book that you can leave laying out on a coffee or end table and enjoy throughout the year. Thank you Pat Williams for compiling a book that encourages and exhorts readers to remember what holds real value.

Happy Reading Ya'll,
Jennifer