Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm - Churchill.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Edison.
It is not how many times you fall but how many times you get up (and fight again.)
Storyline: Wimbledon Memories (Persistence Pays, Part 3)
On the coming weekend, the prestigious Wimbledon Tennis Tournament in London will crown its winners for the year 2007. For me, this event always brings back fond memories.
In the late 80s, Andre Agassi, the son of an Iranian immigrant to USA, was the hottest teenage star on the world tennis circuit. By the age of 19, he had reached the semifinals of the French Open once and the US open twice. A favorite of fans worldwide, he was considered the future grand slam winner (i.e. the player who wins all four major tennis championships: Australian, French, Wimbledon, US).
So it was no surprise when in 1990, he was considered heavy favorite to win French and US Opens when he reached the finals of those tournaments; and particularly on the surfaces which favored his style of baseline tennis. But he lost both those events: French to Andres Gomez and US to Pete Sampras. The next year he reached French Open finals again, and despite being a favorite to win, he lost against Jim Courier.
It was a devastating blow, the humiliation on the world stage for someone so young. The audience could feel his pain when he sat on the players’ chair after the games were finished, his eyes filled with tears and face gazing at the infinite sky. And one could notice the tears in the eyes of the audience as well.
Many would have gone into seclusion after such defeats and given up. But the true winners in life do otherwise. The next year (1992), to the tennis world’s surprise, he reached the finals of Wimbledon; its grass surface considered unfavorable to his style of baseline tennis. Andre Agassi defeated hard serving and favored Goran Ivanisevic and became the champion.
As he sat in the players’ chair, one could see the tears rolling down his eyes; and again the world audience shared their tears with him; only this time they were the tears of joy; each tear telling the story of Persistence, Perseverance and not giving up on his Passion in life: the game of tennis.
Since then, Andre has won seven more Grand Slam titles, received the world’s #1 ranking in tennis for several years, and won Olympic gold medal. He is one of only five male players to have won all four Grand Slam singles events.
Agassi said goodbye to tennis in 2006. He is heavily involved in the Andre Agassi charitable foundation that provides education and medical facilities to abused and neglected children, as well as handicapped and the ones in need of medical treatment.
Reflection:
A beautiful and profound quote (source unknown) that Agassi shared at the end of one of his training tapes in early 90s has stayed with me forever: “What you are is God’s gift to you; what you become is your gift to God.”