Harvard Business Review Russia

Andre Agassi: Regardless of which account on the scoreboard, the main thing for the player is the next ball

Andre Agassi began a tennis career as a boy and completed at the age of 36, winning eight large helmet tournaments. He is married to an outstanding tennis player Steffi Graf, they have two children, and today Andre leads the educational fund and school in Las Vegas, where responsibility for the result is so important. There are no tennis courts at his school. “In our culture, there is no concept of winning due to the defeat of a comrade,” Andre explains.

HBR: In autobiography, you write that you hate tennis. Why did you play so long?

Agassi: I had no choice. As a child, I understood that only successes were expected from me. At 13, I was sent to the Nick Bolletieri Academy – there I also had to win. In the end, tennis becomes your life, others convince you that this is your happiness. I thought: when I become the first racket of the world, I will feel that here it is, the meaning of my life. But a feeling of emptiness awaited me.

But then you returned triumphantly.

I decided to become the master of my life. He talked more with different people and set himself a specific task daily. There was no ultimate goal. I was sure that I would never be the first racket of the world. But the second ascent to the top was my victory over myself. If he hadn’t, I think, I could not believe in myself as I believe today.