#43 - Notes on Tennis, Ice Cream and Memoirs
Education Coffee is a weekly newsletter on people, ideas and culture.
In each edition of this newsletter, I will share some inspiring web resources that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox. In upcoming editions, I will focus on sharing insights, notes and realizations that I gather from people, ideas, books, films and podcasts. I will continue to write about education and learning as well and hope to be more consistent with the publication of this newsletter this year. Please subscribe to this newsletter if you enjoyed reading this edition.
1. Learning from People
I grew up watching Roger Federer play tennis. He won his first grand slam in 2001 and played over 1500 matches in his tennis career. He won 103 singles titles on the ATP Tour, the second most of all time, including 20 major men's singles titles. I recently saw him deliver a commencement speech at Dartmouth University in June 2024. Here are some of the lessons he shared from his career as a tennis legend in this speech:
Effortless is a Myth - “People would say my play was effortless. Most of the time, they meant it as a complimen…The truth is, I had to work very hard... to make it look easy…I got that reputation because my warm-ups at the tournaments were so casual that people didn’t think I had been training hard. But I had been working hard... before the tournament, when nobody was watching.”
It is only a point - “In tennis, perfection is impossible... In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches... Now, I have a question for all of you... what percentage of the POINTS do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%. In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot. When you’re playing a point, it is the most important thing in the world.
But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you... This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point… and the next one after that… with intensity, clarity and focus.”
Life is bigger than the court - But even when I was in the top five... it was important to me to have a life... a rewarding life, full of travel, culture, friendships, and especially family... I never abandoned my roots, and I never forgot where I came from... but I also never lost my appetite to see this very big world.
Tennis... like life... is a team sport - Yes, you stand alone on your side of the net. But your success depends on your team. Your coaches, your teammates, even your rivals... all these influences help to make you who you are.
After watching this speech, I saw a documentary on the last 12 days of his career by Asif Kapadia titled, Federer: Twelve Final Days. I highly recommend this sports documentary to see this sports legend implement the above lessons in his 20 year career. He was a great sportsperson but also a good human being. That is what matters in the end!
2. Learning from Ideas
Where did ice cream come from? Where was ice cream first made? Who had access to this delicacy? Find answers to these questions and more in this fascinating TED-Ed video.
3. Learning from Books, Websites and Blogs
Amartya Kumar Sen is an Indian economist and philosopher. Sen has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States since 1972. In 1998, Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics. He published a memoir about his career in 2022 titled, Home in the World. I really enjoyed reading this memoir because he discussed his experiences in great detail and shared lots of stories. He spoke about his childhood at Shantininiketan, his college days in Delhi, his fight with cancer and what motivated him to study economics in the long run. I share a review of the book in this short video from my channel. You can also follow that up with his lecture on the book from the Google Talks series.
4. Learning from Films, Videos and Shows
Ben Stokes is an English cricketer. In 2019-2020, he won the Cricket World Cup in 2019 and was probably one of the best players in the world. In 2019-2020, he also lost his father, got arrested and went through a severe bout of depression. This documentary goes into the mental and physical side of being a top athlete. It helped me build a new found sense of respect for Ben Stokes and his career as a cricketer. It also showed me how sports can teach you several important lessons about life like accepting failure, being disciplined, playing as a team and supporting each other in hard times.
5. Learning from Podcasts and Music
Shantanu Deshpande from the Bombay Shaving Company, interviews entrepreneurs and demystifies the entrepreneurship myth in his audio and video podcast called the Barbershop with Shantanu. In this episode he chats with Kiran Shan who takes us through his journey from his family business and expansion of Apsara Ice creams, to creating Go Zero – a fully vegan ice cream brand. I love the Guava Chilli flavour at Apsara Ice Creams and they have a unique way of making this treat as well that you can read about in their brand story page. They chat about finding market gaps, building brands and creating product market fit through the Apsara and Go Zero story.
Thank you for reading this edition of #EducationCoffee. I look forward to writing weekly editions of this newsletter this year. I hope to continue to share resources that will add value to your life. Thank you for subscribing to Education Coffee. You can also review the archive of Education Coffee for free at this link (42 past newsletters).
Please do send me your thoughts and resources on any edition of this newsletter through email at abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com, Linkedin or on twitter @AbhishekShetty_. You can find my work online at https://abhishekshetty.carrd.co/. If you would like to read pieces in the future please do consider subscribing to this newsletter by clicking the button below.
I love taking these discussions forward on those platforms and look forward to hearing your feedback.
Abhishek Shetty