I am writing this shortly after watching history being made at Roland Garros. For me, along with my tennis-playing son, both of us excited beyond belief at being at this mecca of tennis excellence, it was the experience of a lifetime. Rafael Nadal won the French Open tournament a record eighth time and has written his name indelibly into the history books. Watching him defeat in straight sets David Ferrer, a man who up until then had not dropped a set in this entire tournament, is a lesson in many things to me as a professional and entrepreneur just as much as to any athlete.
First Nadal’s winning mental attitude. Here is a man who refuses to be defeated, and who believes in winning above all else. Competition for him is an addiction. For him sitting out of competitive tennis for seven months to let his knees heal was a punishment worse than death. And it is not just winning the match that is the goal, it is the subgoal of winning each point, each game, putting together the bigger win by stringing together the smaller ones. Time and again Ferrer was up 30-15 and each time Nadal unleashed a burst of energy that raised his game to the higher level necessary to win the point and shake his competition from a comfortable situation to one where suddenly the pressure equation has switched to the other side of the net. In entrepreneurship, how often does that moment come when it seems like the odds are too strong and unbeatable, and where such a burst of energy is necessary.
This same attitude also translates into a refusal to lose. Once in an earlier tournament (the Chennai Open in 2008) I saw him play a monumental semifinal against his senior compatriot Carlos Moya, who had won this tournament several times before and was the darling of the crowd. In the face of Moya’s determined onslaught, Nadal refused to buckle, but matched him stroke for stroke until he final wrested victory from the jaws of defeat.
Then his willingness to suffer: In an earlier post-match interview, after defeating Djokovic in the semifinal Nadal said he does not mind suffering if that is the necessary price of victory – and this is
something every entrepreneur identifies with. No entrepreneurial journey is complete without its share of suffering, and in a world where the corporate nipple beckons invitingly as an alternative, many cave at every turn. Not so in professional tennis. It is an arduous gruelling journey that begins at a young age and doesn’t let up. In the past, I have seen Nadal unwrapping his bloodstained and blistered feet at the end of a long match, only to plough onward to the next round, blisters and all. No pain, no gain,is a life lesson that is intensely learnt by competitive athletes and entrepreneurs as well.
Time and again I learn from my son and his tennis coaches, things that help me in my work. I have learnt to treat a long workday (Saturday is typically our busiest day) as a five set match and to pace myself with regular
Stretch breaks, snacks and hydration to keep me functioning as optimally at the end of the day as at the beginning (easier said than done!) I have also learnt to recognize when my attention is flagging and to perform measures to restore full concentration . And to anticipate an acceleration in the pace of work in the form of a spike and to use cue words to generate the heightened intensity necessary to cope with the increased workload.
Roland Garros is a historic place – the central plaza has the statues of the famous La Mousquetaire or the 4 French musketeers, Lacoste, Cochet, Borotra and Brugnon, who kept the French tennis flag flying high in the 1920’s and 30s, winning Grand slam after slam. It is the repository of an exceptional sporting history, that inspires greater effort, and one returns from there to work committed to try and be the best one possibly can at what one does.