"Reach for the Summit" by Pat Summitt

I was absolutely thrilled when my mom came home from the bookstore one day and told me that Pat Summitt's first book "Reach for the Summit" was now out in paperback. In preparation for my cross country move, I decided to buy the book and put it away for the five hour airplane ride. I had been waiting for what seemed like forever for it to come out in paperback, because I can't justify myself to spend the money on any hardback edition of a book. I bought it three days before I left, and tried dutifully to put it away for my trip. Okay, I thought, it's won't hurt to read just one page early. I read the entire first chapter. Then I buried it at the bottom of my suitcase, where I would be a fool to try to unpack it again to read any earlier (I don't travel light. I'm one of those who has to sit on her suitcase to get it to zip.) I waited in agony until the day I was to leave, not because I was sad to move, but because I wanted to finish the book.

The book opens with Pat Summitt asking herself "Could I play for me?" then going on to say "The answer's not always yes". She relates when she first began coaching at Tennessee, her a twenty-two year old, and several players twenty-one. Her entire novel is basked on what she calls the "Definite Dozen".

-Respect yourself and others

-Take full responsibility

-Develop and demonstrate loyalty

-Learn to be a great communicator

-Discipline yourself so no one else has to

-Make hard work your passion

-Don't just work hard, work smart

-Put the team before yourself

-Make winning an attitude

-Be a competitor

-Change is a must

-Handel success like you handle failure

My personal favorite is make winning an attitude. Each chapter takes one of these points and through stories about her childhood, coaching career, motherhood, and being a wife, she relates how you can apply this to your own life. Pat tells about the birth of her Son, Abby Conklin's first Drink, doing a 360 in her car in the snow, her son Tyler's first soccer match, and other stories and somehow, without the reader even noticing, relates them back to one of her "Definite Dozen".

The book, although aimed at business people, gives great insight as how to deal with the people around you, whether you are at school, work, or just have a lot of kids at home. You learn that in order to gain respect and loyalty, you have to give it first. Pat Summitt wants you to understand that no matter what position you are in, you can be in control of who you are, and what other people think of you, and the way you treat others, even if you are not in control of what is going on around you. If you are the assistant, be the best assistant you can be.

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