3 sporting values that are crucial for success in any profession

Persistence - Pravin Tambe

With the competition so high in the burgeoning super-sport that is cricket in India, getting selected in even your state Ranji team and kickstarting your domestic career must mean that you’re a good enough player. A very tiny percentage of those players then eventually graduate into the national team. Amongst those, only a handful might go on to become greats or legends, playing for their country for more than a decade.

That is why Pravin Tambe’s story is so fascinating! Despite never having played for India in the international arena, Pravin has become a cult hero for all those amongst us who have had to face continuous failures and had found (or are still finding) it almost impossible to break the door open. All of us must have endured the unfortunate experience of having to redefine our goals at some stage because we can only test ourselves so many times before time knocks on our doors.

Someone who used to play club cricket till the age of 41 before making his debut in the Indian Premier League and excelling for a number of years at that level. Imagine the amount of self-belief and stubborn will it must take to continue striving towards your dream at an age when most elite athletes either retire or are in the last mile of their career. Through Pravin’s remarkable story, it becomes clearly visible to all of us that sport is very little about winning titles or about worshipping superstars, and very much about trying your hardest to get the most out of what you’ve been given. Sport, in its essence, is a way to learn more about life and not just a measure of players’ greatness.

Fail Better - Stanislas Wawrinka

Pravin’s story also leads me to think about the career trajectory of Tennis player Stanislas Wawrinka. Personally, I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from his journey. Wawrinka’s achievements, statistically and without context, are nothing compared to the greatest of the lot. Not under the common unit of measurement we use to rank ‘greatness’. But his story, the sheer graft in his path, the undying fight in him - all these and more - have the power to propel someone up from the darkest pits of depression. And that is something above records or titles or medals.?

Tennis for most of the last two decades has been mostly all about 3 geniuses - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic - overpowering their mortal opponents to collect an astonishing 61 Grand Slam titles between them. The bar had been set so high that even winning a set against the trio would have been something to be proud of for those trying to compete with them. For the first 10 years of his career, Stan Wawrinka was one of the many too and might have even thought if he had chosen the wrong career. For 10 years he did not find a way, did not manage to win a single set against Nadal in 12 attempts, and was on a 14-match losing streak against Djokovic. Should have been dispiriting right??

In 2013, Wawrinka’s attitude was defined by the tattoo he had etched on his arm - ‘Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better’. In my opinion, this quote by Samuel Beckett is one of the most authentic quotes I have read about sport and life. At the US Open that year, a decade after making his grand slam debut, Wawrinka reached his first-ever semi-final and also ended in the top 10 men’s ranking for the first time ever. If you look at it in isolation (and without context, of course), 10 years and 1 grand slam semi-final is not defined as 'success'. But that little breakthrough was all Wawrinka needed. At the Australian Open next year, the season's first major, Wawrinka won his first grand slam title, vanquishing both his nemesis (and the top two seeds, respectively) - Djokovic in the quarterfinal and Nadal in the finale.

He won two more grand slams, overcoming once again the then No.1 Djokovic in both 2015’s French Open and 2016’s US Open. Fail better, everyone! Endure!

Courage - Ashleigh Barty

In contrast, there is the case of Ashleigh Barty, winner of three grand slam titles and ranked no.1 in the world until her recent retirement at the age of just 25! Her journey is in stark contrast from Wawrinka or Pravin but a very important one for the kind of honesty, bravado, and mental strength she displayed to go against the norm and walk away from a profession she excelled in.

Barty’s words were as honest as they get - “I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want, and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top of the level anymore. I am spent."

I learnt later that she had walked away from the sport of Tennis early in her career as well; when she was just 18 years old and had already reached three grand slam finals (women’s doubles) in 2013.?

It speaks volumes about the kind of mentorship and guidance she would have received, for her to re-figure what she wants and redefine what makes her happy at such a young age. And both the times, instead of struggling to make an impact and going through the grind, she was actually on top of her game. Hers is not a back against the wall success story of an underdog. It is the story of a champion who tested herself against the best, excelled very quickly, and walked away from the safety of a glorious sporting career when it became more exhausting than enjoyable. She wasn’t forced into submission by ‘failures’; she made her choice when she was at the top. Most of us only choose to be courageous when we have no other option left. Most of us are not Ash Barty!