Three Useful Things Rafael Nadal can Teach us in Business and Life

It's that time of the year again. The Australian Open, one of the major tennis tournaments has just started and I, as a great fan of this sport, can't help but watching some of the matches or at least constantly checking the results (Australian time zone doesn't help). In important tournaments like this one, plenty of incredibly talented players, it is extremely challenging to identify the winner. However, it is inevitable to think that one of them could surely be the Spanish Rafael Nadal. Rafa, former No. 1 in the world for 209 weeks, has won 20 Grand Slam single titles, exactly like Roger Federer (the Grand Slam tournaments, also called majors, are the four most important annual tennis events: Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open). In case of winning, he would be the one with most Grand Slam titles under his belt, possibly with more to come, as he is only 34. Aside from that, his ability to perform at a top level for so many years in a row is for sure something astounding. What is the secret sauce for his continuous success? What can we learn in business and life from his incredible feats? I wanted to highlight three main elements that might help us (a little bit more human than him) in our job and, why not, in our daily life as well:

1. Build the Point (and play it as if your life depends on it)

Watching Rafa playing tennis is an incredible experience. He is different from all the others. He is not a serve-and-volley player, or someone who heavily relies on his backhand or forehand to win the point. Rafael is a combination of grit, determination and an iron mindset, aside from being a complete player on every aspect. His rallies might be longer than expected, well thought, measured and calibrated. Every point is different from the other. He doesn't hope for the opponent to play in a particular side of the court so he might use his forehand or backhand better. He just builds the point from the court baseline, shot after shot, acceleration after acceleration, like a chess player or an attentive engineer. And he doesn't give up. He sweats blood on every point no matter if he is winning 5-0 or losing 0-5. Every point is different and needs to be built, suffered and won differently from the previous one. He just cannot hope that his opponent will shoot the ball where he shot just some seconds before. He is prepared for everything that might happen on that very moment. And this can be applied to our life as well. Every day is a different day that might require a different skillsets for us to use. We might stumble upon some people that "win the point" with an easy serve and volley while we would need to patiently start from the baseline, shot after shot, and patiently "build our point" to finally win it and overcome the challenge that just presented itself before us. However, even though it might take longer than expected, we still can win the point and eventually the game through the power of perseverance, determination and mental strength, playing every point as it if our life would depend on it.

2. Be a constant learner (even if you are at the top of your craft)

Four years ago, in May 2017, during an interview, a young reporter asked Nadal what he was used to do every morning after waking up, probably hoping to decode the hidden secret behind his incredible and continuous success. However, his reply astonished all the participants: "every morning I wake up to improve" he said. Plain and simple. You might think that Rafa, former number one in the world and at this moment ranked number two after the Serbian Novak Djokovic, has no reason to improve. Yes, he can train every day just to stay in shape as he is an athlete. But he does much more than that, he doesn't simply train, he improves. Repeating his words from another interview: 'even if I have already peaked, I have to believe I can improve. I wake up every morning, and go to practice, with the illusion that I'm going to get better that day'. Rafa approaches every single training as if it was the Wimbledon final. He is trying his best to become the best version of himself, and for doing that, he needs to show up every day so to turn his weaknesses into strengths. For example, and the real tennis professionals can correct me if I am wrong, the serve was not his best shot. He was for sure well above average but it was simply not his best shot. He was excelling at many others: he had an incredible strength, an amazing forehand, an extraordinary grit, an enviable speed. However, he acknowledged that and showed up in the courts every day to improve it, so to serve with more strength and precision and increase the ace numbers in a match. Eventually, his serve improved incredibly much over the years, and many other shots followed accordingly. What is the key takeaway here for us? In our small way, we can wake up every day and decide to improve on a particular area or to strengthen some others that we might think we are already experts on. There is always something we can improve. In fact, even if we think we are the best version of ourselves, there is always something more we can do, to eventually end the day just 1% better than we were when we woke up.

3. Attitude is everything

If you regularly watch tennis matches, it might happen to see some players losing their cool and violently smashing their racket on the court, right in front of everyone. Maybe they have just lost an important point or they have missed an easy shot. This is surely not uncommon and many players took the bad decision to destroy their racket (even multiple times in a single match)! However, if you do your own research on platforms such as YouTube, you will really struggle to find a video of Rafael smashing a racket or losing his calm on court. Just to make an example, a few days ago, while Rafa was playing the second round of the Australian Tournament against Mmoh (he will eventually win in three straight sets), a visibly 'inebriated' woman from the stands gave him the middle finger, screaming and trying to disrupt the match (and possibly the concentration of the players). With no particular reasons, he was mad at Rafael and constantly yelling at him. After a while, she was finally forced to leave the court. During this bizarre moment, Nadal was successfully able to see the funny side of what just happened and kept on laughing, without giving too much weight to the insults, the distraction and the consequent interruption of the game. “No,” Nadal laughed after the match when asked if he knew the woman, “and honestly I don’t want to know.” What about us? How many times during the day something didn't go as planned? If we miss a "point" (something it didn't go as we wanted it to go, let's just think about a call with a client with a bad outcome), another opportunity will be right next to it. If we lose our calm or keep overthinking about the metaphorical "point" we just missed or maybe a rude person that just crossed our path, we won't be able to focus on the next one and we might end up losing the entire match. Like Rafael, we don't need to freak out after a missed point, as another one will be coming soon and we need to make sure to be well prepared. The right attitude, combined with a hard training and a growth-oriented mindset can do miracle for us and our career as one of the best tennis player in the world just taught us.