In a career spanning over a thousand wins, Coach K had also experienced devastating losses — blown leads, upset defeats, seasons that ended in heartbreak. He told the graduates that every one of those losses had taught him something, but only because he refused to let failure become a final resting place. The key phrase was 'as long as it wasn't your destination.' Failure becomes destructive only when you stop there — when you let a setback define you instead of instruct you. Coach K told the graduates they would inevitably 'get knocked on your butt,' but the measure of their character would be whether they got back up and kept moving. In basketball, as in life, the game doesn't end when you fall down. It ends when you decide to stay down.