[0:00]It's the 2nd of June, 2010. The French Open is underway at the Roland Garros in Paris. Novak Djokovic was seeded No 3 in this tournament and on this day he was playing the quarter final against Jurgen Melzer, who was seeded 22. Djokovic was up two sets to love. In his career so far, Djokovic had been up two sets to love 49 times and had won all 49. But today was different. He lost. It remains the only time anyone has beaten Djokovic at a major from two sets to love down. His current record is that he has won 209 Grand Slam matches out of 210 where he has been up two sets to love. A few days after losing, Novak Djokovic told his coach, Marian Vajda, that he had decided to quit playing tennis. To know what happened next, listen to this story. I first read the story in Billy Oppenheimer's blog. Hi, welcome back to Stories at Work, a series where I share real stories from across the world that you can use when you want to drive home a business point. Our website, storyworks.in, already has over 100 stories and we are adding one every week. Let's start today's story.
[1:31]So when Novak Djokovic told his coach Marian Vajda that he had decided to quit playing tennis, Vajda asked him, "Why did you start playing this sport?" Djokovic was smart enough to immediately sense the problem. He realised that he was focusing on ranking, title and really external expectations. In a later interview, Djokovic said, "I was mentally in one very messed up place." Now as Djokovic thought about Vajda's question, he realised that many of his beautiful childhood memories included his most beloved toy, a mini tennis racket and a soft foam ball. After thinking for a while, Djokovic answered Vajda's question and said, "I started playing because I just loved holding that racket in my hand." "Do you still love holding a racket in your hand?" Vajda asked. Djokovic thought about it, and suddenly all those memories came back and he got very excited and said, "Yes, yes! I still do. I still love holding a racket in my hand, whether it is a Grand Slam final on Centre Court or just playing around in a public court. I like playing for the sake of playing." Vajda smiled and nodded, "That's your source," he said. "That's what you need to tap into. Put aside the ranking, what you want to achieve or what others think that you should achieve or whatever others are expecting of you." Djokovic agreed that he would do just that, and from that moment, there was just no looking back. The following season, Djokovic enjoyed one of the greatest seasons in sport history. He won 43 straight matches, including his first Wimbledon title, and he finished the year as the number one player in the world. In an interview he said, "I started playing freely. I became that kid that I was when I started playing." As on date, Novak Djokovic has won a total of 24 Grand Slam titles in his career. This ties him with Margaret Court for the all-time record of the most Grand Slam singles title won by a player in the history of tennis. Rafael Nadal, who has 22, has just announced recently that he will retire at the end of this year, 2024, and Federer with 20 titles has already retired. It's going to take an exceptional player in the future to beat the record set by someone who started his tennis journey with a mini tennis racket and a soft foam ball. What a story! Where in business can you use this story? Now many of us have been or are still in a mind space where the main thing that matters is just the designation, just the promotion, or just the salary. That is a recipe for sadness and frustration. This story can be used to remind such people that doing something for the sake of doing it gets us the most joy, and not only that, it is the pathway to tremendous success. When you are focusing on enjoying what you are doing and giving it your best, that designation, that promotion, that salary hike that you are looking for will surely follow. The other situation where this story can be used is to remind people that the journey of a job or a career isn't always hunky-dory. There will be miserable days when one can lose even when one is two sets up to love. There is going to be frustration and pain, but reminding oneself of the joys of doing the job well, you know, can help us get over the loss and start winning again. I hope you enjoyed that story and if you did, there are many, many more on our website storyworks.in. See you next week. Bye for now.
