success or failure?
Your passion started a successful endeavor and it is on the right path. Your efforts are being realized in a positive way – only to take a steep downward turn. All the risk you’ve put into building a successful venture is on the verge of collapse.
Early in my coaching career I coached a junior tennis player who had achieved a #2 ranking in the National 12&U’s. In our first lesson, after returning from a National Indoor tournament in Chicago, I confronted David with what I had observed in his behavior during his match play.
“David, I noticed a pattern emerging on your line calls. When the ball was good,but close to the line, on game and set points, you called them out. Was that on purpose?”
David replied,”My dad said that was okay and told me to do it.
What to do:
- Pinpoint the problem – in this case, David’s dad, a prominent successful lawyer.
- Get to the source of the problem – I made a lunch appointment with David’s dad to discuss his decision to tell David it was okay to call balls out, that were in, on key points.
- Work out a solution – in my case, David’s dad would not give in. I gave him a month, then informed him I could no longer coach David. I believed strongly that David was accepting less than what he could achieve by not cheating.
David went to another coach. He made the Junior David Cup squad and got a full ride to Pepperdine. At an international 18&U tennis tournament, in Repentigny, Quebec, I sat beside the court where David was playing the #1 seed from Italy. David was up 6-3 in the first set tiebreak and serving. Upon serving, the #2 seed’s return ‘kissed’ the back of the line on David’s side-David called it out-was over ruled by the chair umpire-lost the tie break 8-6 and the next set 6-0.
I couldn’t correct my ‘deck of cards’ when it started to fall. Have you encountered a similar failure or success? Were these steps helpful in your process? Please share in the comments.
