Reach for the Summit: The Definite Dozen System for Succeeding at Whatever You Do

"I'm someone who will push you beyond all reasonable limits.  Someone who will ask you not to just fulfill your potential but to exceed it.  Someone who will expect more from you than you may believe you are capable of.  So if you aren't ready to go to work, shut this book."
--Pat Summitt

Pat Summitt, head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, is a phenomenon in women's basketball.  Her ferociously competitive teams won the NCAA championship in 1996 and 1997, and they've won five times in the last ten years.  After twenty-four years as head coach at Tennessee, Summitt is well on her way to becoming the winningest coach in NCAA Division 1 women's history.

Now Summitt has written the first motivational book by a high-achieving female coach.  In Reach for the Summit, she presents her formula for success, which she calls the "Definite Dozen System."  In each of the book's twelve chapters, Summitt talks about one of the system's principles--such as responsibility, discipline, and loyalty--and shows you how to apply it to your own situation.

Pat Summitt uses her own remarkable story as a vehicle for explaining how anyone can transform herself through ambition.  Through many amusing anecdotes and a few very painful memories, she reveals her mistakes and triumphs as a beginning basketball player, as an Olympic athlete, as a Division 1 coach, and as a mother.  Although Summitt was not born to the easy life--she was born into a hard-working farm family in a remote corner of Tennessee--she has become one of the most successful and highest-paid coaches in the country.  She candidly talks about how she turned her losses into wins and then shows you how you can do the same.  Setting the example, she challenges you to embrace change while reaching for the brass ring.

Wonderfully entertaining and brilliantly instructive, Reach for the Summit discloses the winning secret to building a principled system and making it to the top at whatever you do.  Pat Summitt will motivate you to achieve in sports, business, and the most important game of all--life.

Pat Summitt became head coach of women's basketball at Tennessee in 1974; since then she has achieved an astounding .813 average and won more national championships than any coach, man or woman, since the legendary John Wooden.  As the team's co-captain, she led the U.S. women's squad to a silver medal in the 1976 Olympics, and in the 1984 Olympics--this time as coach--her team brought home the gold medal.  Summitt is a sought-after motivational speaker and has spoken to such companies as Proctor & Gamble, Kodak, and ALCOA.  In 1997, she was voted one of the 25 Most Influential Working Mothers by Working Mother magazine.  A native of Tennessee, she lives in Knoxville with her husband, R.B., and their son, Tyler.

Sally Jenkins is the author of Men Will Be Boys.  A veteran sports reporter whose work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, she has worked for the Washington Post and Sports Illustrated and is now at Cond´ Nast's Sports for Women.