On social media today, many entrepreneurs share snapshots of themselves living the dream while working on a tropical island. It's a glossy view of success.
The painful truth is success in almost every field involves many steps forward and backward.
Just look at the career of Andre Agassi, which he describes in his autobiography Open.
Although he found success on the tennis court and later in the charity sector, his mental strategies are useful for conscientious business people and aspiring entrepreneurs too.
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Success is often built on the backs of other people.
As a boy and teenager, Agassi trained for hours with his father. Later, he relied on fitness trainer Gil Reyes to become a better athlete.
He met Reyes at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and described his training.
"Many nights we’re in the gym until four in the morning, Gil searching for new ways to build up my mind, my confidence, along with my body."
Reyes encouraged Agassi to improve his nutrition and training regime. He also helped the aspiring champion set goals and improve his mental strategies on the court.
You might not hold aspirations to win the U.S. Open, but a third-party expert, like a business coach, could transform you into a better entrepreneur.
For example, a career coach could help you identify weaknesses in your resume and put a plan in place to address them. Similarly, a business coach could help you identify the right metrics to track in your business.
Failure Is OK... Once You Learn From It
Agassi and fellow U.S. player Pete Sampras enjoyed one of tennis's greatest rivalries during the 1990s and early 2000s. They played 34 matches against each other, with Sampras winning 20.
Agassi writes about many painful losses to his rival, notably at the U.S. Open in 1995 and Wimbledon in 1999. However, Agassi believes his defeats transformed him into a better player and person.
Losing to Pete has caused me enormous pain, but in the long run it’s also made me more resilient. If I’d beaten Pete more often, or if he’d come along in a different generation, I’d have a better record, and I might go down as a better player, but I’d be less.
Business, like tennis, often involves painful failures, missed targets, failed product launches or unhappy customers.
Ask Elon Musk. Analysts have written off his Tesla many times. Most recently, Musk announced he was taking the car company private only to pullback on this controversial Twitter statement weeks later. YYet Musk perseveres.
If you launch a product that nobody buys, perhaps this failure can help you improve your approach to research, development or marketing.
Or if you spent several years building a career but failed to advance to the C-level, a lateral move to another industry may be more instructive.
Accept What You Can And Can't Control
In Open, Agassi explains how he obsessively organized his tennis bag. He regarded his bag as his briefcase and insisted it contain eight particular types of rackets, stacked chronologically.
He wrote:
Given all that lies beyond my control, I obsess about the few things I can control, and racket tension is one such thing.
An entrepreneur can control how many leads they contact or products they launch this year. However, he or she can't control what their competitors are doing or changes Google might make to its search algorithm that affects website traffic.
Similarly, most executives can't directly affect their company's revenue or share price. However, they can control what they do each day to achieve their goals.
Agassi found both success and failure on the tennis court.
Today, Agassi coaches other players, most recently Novak Djokovic. He also applies the many mental strategies he strengthened on the court to develop the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education in Las Vegas.
Agassi's unvarnished recounting of his journey is instructional for anyone who aspires to succeed in sports or business.
