I spent years whining, swearing, and throwing my racket before I learned how to keep my cool.

My wake-up call came early in my career when an opponent publicly questioned my mental

discipline. He said, Roger will be the favorite for the first two hours, and I'll be the

favorite after that. I realized what he was saying. Everybody can play well in the first two hours.

You're fit. You're fast. You well in the first two hours. You're fit,

you're fast, you're clear. After two hours, your legs get wobbly, your mind starts wandering,

and your discipline starts to fade. It made me realize I had so much more work ahead of me.

My parents, my coaches, everyone had been calling me out, and now my rivals were doing it.

I am eternally grateful for what he did because it made me work harder and train harder,

a lot harder. That was an excerpt not from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today,

but actually from Roger Federer's commencement address that he gave at Dartmouth after he retired. And before I get into this incredible book that I read about Roger Federer, which is called The Master, the long run in the beautiful game of Roger Federer, written by Christopher Clary. I want to pull out a few quotes from Federer's excellent commencement address. And so Federer had three main ideas that he shared in the commencement address.

Number one, effortlessness is a myth.

Number two, it's only a point.

And number three, life is bigger than the court.

I want to jump to point number two.

This is my favorite part of the entire commencement address.

He says, perfection is impossible.

It is only a point. In the 1,526 single matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches. Now, I have a question for you. What percentage of 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.

You teach yourself to say, okay, I double faulted, it's only a point.

Okay, I came to the net and I got past again.

It's only a point.

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