5 Things We Can Learn from Rafael Nadal About Excellence

By Deborah Shane November 15, 2010 17:11 GMT


The number 1 male tennis player in the world, Rafael Nadal (Rafa), became the seventh man to complete the career Grand Slam, and the youngest to accomplish the feat in the Open Era at 24 years of age!


"My goal is to finish the year better."

Well, he has definitely accomplished that and has proven he is coming into his 'peak performer' persona.

When asked what he thought were his greatest strengths, he said:

"I think the mentality, attitude on court was good for me. I am positive on court, and I fight all the time. Positive attitude is not only fight on court. I think I was able to listen to the coach and to have adjustments and to be ready to change things to be better and to improve. If we talk about the game, for sure for me I think the best thing I have is my intensity on court."

Here are five standards or benchmarks can we learn from the young champion Rafa about excellence:

1. Being mentally and physically fit.
2. Having and listening to mentors and coaches.
3. Open to change to make things better.
4. Daily focus, intensity and commitment.
5. Personal and professional integrity.

Being mentally and physically fit.

Rafa Nadal has surrounded himself with the right team of people who keep him physically and mentally healthy, continually improving his skills and character as a person.

Having and listening to mentors and coaches.

All great leaders, world class athletes and peak performing professionals and successful people all have a support system that they rely on, lean on and tap into for motivation, inspiration and guidance.

Open to change to make things better.

We live and work in a "relentlessly changing world" now. Just when you think you know something or get comfortable with something it changes. That's the way it is and is going to continue. Technology will continue to impact just about everything in our personal and professional loves. We can choose to manage it or be managed by it. When practices, habits and ideas stop working, we need to evaluate and re-think them. New ideas, approaches and mindset is critical to navigating the 'relentless.' Change is another beginning and can be an exciting adventure!

Daily focus, intensity and commitment.

The only way we get better at things is to PRACTICE and DO. Being consistent with our systems, habits and the delivery of them builds momentum and presence. Rafa's commitment to practicing his serve, volley, ground strokes, court sense, stamina, strategy all have translated into his championship status.

Personal and professional integrity.

There are way too many examples today of how fame and fortune are abused and used for personal celebrity and notoriety. How refreshing it is very public people, like Rafa, use their status to set an example of authenticity, values and service instead of recklessness to their peers.
I have been following Rafael Nadal and his career for several years. I have learned a lot from him about commitment, poise, integrity and humility. These are qualities we can all tap into and use to be successful in today's world.

Thanks Rafa for being such an awesome example at such a young age for all of us of what excellence really means.



Vamos! Entrepreneurs!

By Nandini Vaidyanathan ©Entrepreneur October 2010


As I watched Rafael Nadal (Rafa) lift the Cup at the U.S. Open on September 13, I couldn’t help thinking how he is the epitome of everything entrepreneurs should be. And I thought, well, that’s what I will write about in the column this month!

TENACITY

The game is not over till the last ball is slammed. In the 2008 Wimbledon finals, which has been described by many as the greatest ever final in the history of tennis, Rafa beat five-time champion Roger Federer. The match lasted for four hours and 48 minutes, and was interrupted twice by rain. Rafa won the first two sets, lost the third in a tie-break, lost the fourth by squandering two championship points and came back to win the fifth and the championship.

Lesson for entrepreneurs: As an entrepreneur, you never know when and where the tipping point would be. So wait for that moment when the tide will turn.

PRACTICE

After winning the U.S. Open this year, Rafa said, “I go to practice everyday not to practice; I go to practice everyday to try to learn something and to keep improving my level.” Look at the subtext here. It is not enough to just do the same thing over and over again and kid yourself that since you have been at it for so long, you can now do it better. Not necessarily. On the other hand, if after doing it each time you learn something new, a faster way of doing it, a smarter way of side-stepping errors, a unique way of solving the problem, then it’s worth it.

Lesson for entrepreneurs: I have said this in my previous columns, too—it is imperative that entrepreneurs do everything to make sure that their learning curve remains unapologetically north-bound.

DO THE IMPOSSIBLE

It is said that Rafa’s forehand top-spin is ‘a freak of physics’. How can anyone put so much rotation in it? On hard courts, he has learned to flatten out his ground-strokes so deep that they almost defy geometry. Gee, that infamous forehand; who in his right mind would play them? Worse, who in his right mind taught them to him? And the backhand? It’s more an act of defiance heavenward than a stroke. And let’s not even talk about the serve; it isn’t elegant like Federer’s, it isn’t fluid like Sampras’, and it certainly isn’t as powerful as Ivanosevic’s. It is just so Rafa!

Lesson for entrepreneurs: Nothing in life is ideal. But if you have the right attitude, ‘unconventional’ just may become your value proposition.

ADAPT YOURSELF

Just as playing on grass came naturally to Federer, playing on clay came naturally to Rafa. But after losing to Federer twice at Wimbledon, he realized that he needed to make some adjustments in his game, especially add speed and proficiency to his service. He did, in 2008, and went on to win Wimbledon after defeating Federer.

In Australia, Rafa adapted by learning to play from the baseline, to greet the ball as it rose, to play those impossibly flattened strokes that gave unpredictable trajectories to the ball. And this year, at the U.S. Open, he adapted with the new slice backhand and an additional speed of 10 mph over his otherwise 130 mph serve. By adapting his game to different surfaces, he has mastered playing on grass, clay and hard court.
But his biggest adaptation of all was this: as one of the best defensive players in the game, he has sharpened his offenses!

Lesson for entrepreneurs: Either adapt or perish!

LOVE YOUR NAY-SAYERS

When Rafa won the French Open in 2005, the very first time he played on it, different people said different things. Some said he was a one-trick pony; till date, he has won nine Grand Slam titles. Some others said there was no way Rafa could beat Federer on grass; he beat him in 2008 and 2010. Still others said that no one has won three consecutive titles in the same year, except Rod Laver 41 years ago. Rafa did it this year—three consecutive titles in three months in the same year!

Lesson for entrepreneurs: The more people say you can’t do it or your idea won’t work, the better for you. You can show them how you can and how it will.


CELEBRATE YOUR MILESTONES

When you set out to conquer Mt. Everest, you don’t only celebrate after you’ve hoisted the flag atop the mountain. You celebrate every step that you take, every peak that you conquer during the climb. In six years, between 2004 and 2010, Rafa won nine Grand Slam Singles titles, the 2008 Olympic Gold, and many more. And now, at 24 years of age, with the U.S. Open, he’s won the career Golden Slam, the only one after Agassi to do so. The swift six-year journey was meant to seek logical culmination in the Golden Slam, no doubt, but you won’t catch Rafa saying that other titles were less important and that winning the U.S. Open was the only thing that mattered.

Lesson for entrepreneurs: Every step that you take brings you closer to your vision and is as important as your vision.


BE A GOOD HUMAN BEING

In Melbourne in 2009, after an epic battle in the finals against Rafa, Federer lost. He broke down uncontrollably in his runner-up acceptance speech. As the world watched Federer stealing Rafa’s moment of glory, Rafa did an incredible thing. Instead of chest-thumping his victory, he smiled apologetically and walked to Federer, put his arm around him, and held him till he composed himself.

Legends abound about Rafa’s humility, his graciousness, and his incredible manners on and off court. The multimillionaire remains grounded, throws no airs, carries his own luggage, stays with his family in their family mansion, and Uncle Tony makes sure that even to this day he wears shoes only after unlacing them.


Lesson for entrepreneurs: Good upbringing tells—in sport, in business, in life.

My favorite story regarding Rafa is this: Del Potro beat him in straight sets in the 2009 U.S. Open semi-final. Rafa was asked why he lost the match. Rafa said that he found it difficult to play Del Potro because the ball rose very high and then, in his quaint and extremely charming English, he concluded: “He has so much altitude.” (Del Potro is 6.6 feet tall).


NANDINI VAIDYANATHAN teaches entrepreneurship at biz schools around the world and has co-founded two companies, Startups (forstartups.blogspot.com) and CARMa (http://www.carmagroup.in), both of which mentor entrepreneurs.