Pat Williams

Biography

Pat Williams is the senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. The author of over 40 books, he is also one of America’s top motivational, inspirational, and humorous speakers, he has addressed employees from many of the Fortune 500 companies and the Million Dollar Round Table. He has been a featured speaker at two Billy Graham Crusades and two Peter Lowe Success Seminars. He has also spoken on many university campuses.

After serving for seven years in the United States Army, Pat spent seven years in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, two as a minor league catcher and five in the front office. He then spent three years in the Minnesota Twins organization before moving to the National Basketball Association. Since 1968, he has been affiliated with teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, including the 1983 World Champion 76ers, and now the Orlando Magic which he co-founded in 1987 and helped lead to the NBA finals in 1995. Twenty-three of his teams have gone to the NBA play-offs and five of them have made the NBA finals. In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by a national publication.

In his NBA career, he has traded Pete Maravich, traded for Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Penny Hardaway, and won four NBA draft lotteries, including back-to-back winners in 1992 and 1993 and most recently in 2004. He also drafted Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney and Darryl Dawkins and signed Billy Cunningham, Chuck Daly, and Matt Guokas to their first professional coaching contracts. Twelve of his former players have become NBA Head Coaches and seventeen have become assistant coaches.

Pat and his wife Ruth are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations, ranging in age from 19 to 33. For one year, 16 of his children were all teenagers at the same time. Pat and his family have been featured in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, The Wall Street Journal, Focus on the Family, New Man Magazine, plus all of the major television networks, The Maury Povich Show and Dr. Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power.

Pat helps teach an adult Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of Orlando and hosts a nationally syndicated sports radio show and a weekly Christian radio show. In the last ten years he has completed 38 marathons, including the Boston Marathon 10 times, and also climbed Mt. Rainier.

Pat was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, earned his bachelors degree at Wake Forest University, and his master’s degree at Indiana University. He has a doctorate in Humane Letters from Flagler University. He is a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame after catching for the Deacons baseball team, including the 1962 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship team. He is also a member of the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.

Publications

Who Wants To Be A Champion

Titles

Character Counts—Combating the Crisis of Character
In his realistic approach, Pat teaches how you can achieve great success while maintaining your values and integrity. An entertaining yet earnest account, Pat discusses the importance of developing core values and leading by example. This speech will leave you with meaningful solutions, a sense of purpose, and specific material to reinforce your leadership role.

Finding the Will to Win
How have “The Greats” achieved such extraordinary success? How can you achieve the same results? In this speech, Pat discusses the qualities that the winners in life possess. Based on over 40 years in professional sports studying successful athletes and coaches who have produced great triumphs, Pat will teach you the secrets to being a more focused person, finding passion in your work and succeeding in the face of defeat. After hearing this speech, you will feel like you can conquer the world!

How to Be Like Mike!
Being the “Michael Jordan” of your industry is synonymous with being the best, and Pat’s position in sports has offered him never-before-heard stories and insights into Michael’s world. In this fascinating speech based on the qualities of Michael Jordan, Pat offers the practical steps that can transform any person into a champion. As one of Pat’s most requested talks, this speech has enhanced the focus, passion and work ethic of thousands of people.

How to Be Like Women of Influence
Every woman should dare to achieve what she desires in life. In this talk, built around the traits of women such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, and Oprah Winfrey, Pat details how twenty amazing women pressed forward the boundaries of race, religion, culture and business to make their own contributions to the world. Offering insights and encouragement, this seminar speaks to women who are role models.

How to Build a Ladder to Your Dreams
In this perceptive and practical speech, Pat presents the key steps needed to go from dreaming to achieving. Whether it is being a fantastic father or the top sales associate for the entire eastern seaboard, this personal development speech provides the blueprint for individuals to take an inventory of their lives make their aspirations a reality. While each step is a small adjustment to daily living, you will see big changes in the results you seek.

Marketing Your Dreams
In the world of sales, passion and creativity are what separate the good from the great. This inspiring speech is developed around the remarkable traits of Bill Veeck, baseball’s marketing genius. This speech will encourage everyone to go after their dreams and to enjoy every day of their life. Pat provides guidelines for working and living a life full of passion, energy, imagination and creativity. From executives to entry-level employees, this speech will increase your success and happiness, both personally and professionally.

The Magic of Teamwork
As his 1983 World Championship confirms, Pat is a master at building successful teams. Based on what he has learned from his experience in building sports teams for over 40 years, Pat offers proven principles for building a winning team in your business or organization. After implementing the techniques presented in this speech, you can expect an organization that produces better results while working more cohesively.

The Paradox of Power: The Seven Keys to Leadership in the 21st Century
Pat gives managers practical and proven techniques for immediately increasing your productivity in a leadership capacity. In this thought-provoking speech, Pat details the seven keys to leadership and teaches how you can be a more effective leader. Learn how to create a personal strategy, communicate effectively with your employees and make profitable decisions. Pat’s humorous anecdotes and unique leadership philosophy make this one of his most highly-regarded speeches.

The Ten Keys to Quality
Successful people know how important it is to have excellence in the workplace. In a seminar based upon his personal principles, Pat provides the ingredients of his recipe for quality. This fast-moving series of methods, ideas and techniques offer the keys to personal effectiveness, maximum achievement and unlimited success in your field These keys to quality can be used by anyone to enhance not only their work life, but their personal life as well.

Go for the Magic: Walt Disney’s Five Secrets to Success
To sell more, faster and easier than ever before, it helps to look at those who have had the most success. Through relevant and amusing anecdotes, Pat reviews the qualities that helped Walt Disney become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in American history. Walt’s Five Secrets highlight a magical, miraculous way of life and offer pragmatic principles for meeting one’s personal potential.

Champions Under Construction—How to Build Successful Teenagers
As the father to 19 children, Pat has plenty of experience and insights into being involved as both a friend and a mentor in your teenager’s life. In this invigorating speech, Williams gears his speaking style towards frustrated parents and those having difficulties dealing with their children. Intimate and insightful, powerful and practical, this talk offers encouragement and instruction to fostering the relationship you desire with your children.