A Whole New Mind - Daniel H. Pink

Continuing the learning from Rajesh's library this week, I read 'A Whole New Mind' (Marshall Cavendish Business, BR 9.99, 246 p) by Daniel H. Pink. The book comes with a tag line that says 'Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future' - which explains it all. Pink talks of the future and the emerging world where the almost forgotten right brainers - the supposedly creative ones and the arty ones - will have an advantage. Pink makes a case that rather elusive "creative", "instinctive" or "right brain" stuff can be "learned" and that it is best to balance and learn both sides of the brain for the best effect in one's career and life in the future. Or rather to be more prepared for how the world would shape up soon.

For those who (like me) are rather puzzled about the right brain and left brain, the funda of the two sides is such. The left brain is about logic, analytical, detail, small picture based, sequential, of specialisation, rational and so on. The right brain (previously ignored for being rather touchy feely) is about inventiveness, empathy, joy, meaning, non-linear and so on.

Pink says that the world will need right brainers as the three As - Asia, Automation and Abundance - will drive the world (or at least the western world that he lives in) to adopt the rigth brained to meet the future. Asia - because all left brained jobs can be outsourced there for much cheaper, Abundance - because now we no longer have to struggle for daily existence and can look for the higher levels in Maslow's scale and Automation - because it will also take over many clerical or lowly left brained jobs. So all you left brained people - learn some right brained stuff. The way forward, with all this happening, is towards high concept and high touch! Pink describes high concept as the ability to create artistic and emotional patterns, to detect patterns and opportunities, to write satisfying narrative and combining seemingly unconnected ideas into a  novel invention. High touch is about empathy, subtlety of human interaction, finding joy in one self, the pursuit of purpose and meaning.

The six senses that Pink suggests one develop and pay more attention to in the development of the right brain activity (which can be cultivated) are these - design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.

Design is about seeing design in everything - in business, in good design and bad design and in getting our mind to design new stuff aesthetically. Pink suggests we note down good and bad design, get used to design, get choosy about things we buy and start the process in our minds.

Story is the art of story telling which moves away from the bullet points culture to a rounded story which people remember more. Story telling can be learnt and be used in business as well (the most left brained activity as considered by people but the one that drives the money and jobs!). Pink talks of the classical story form - of departure, initiation and return of the protagonist - and the increasing use of story in healing and medicine. To develop these skills Pink asks us to write the 50 word story, to read about story writing, to write more stories and understand the storytelling business.

Symphony is of seeing relationships - as in music and painting, and understanding negative spaces. Music and painting can be learned and appreciated and Pink gives the examples of three types - the boundary crosser (one who jumps easily into seemingly unrelated areas), the metaphor maker (user of metaphors) and the inventor (again not one who is trained specifically in that area) - as the three major types that show up in this area. To appreciate symphony better, Pink suggests one takes art and music classes, listen and appreciate, celebrate amateurishness, seek solutions to problems and so on.  A classic example that he gives and also that Carol Dweck gives in her book 'Mindset' is that of a 'before' and 'after' self-sketch - the difference that a 5 day sketching course can do is unbelievable (seeing is believing so check the net for those before and after sketches).

Empathy is that quality that will turn out to be a big diffrentiator in the future in managerial skills, decision making skills, people skills - and one needs genuine empathy (can be measured as empathy quotient) as against lip service. (Empathy being "your pain in my heart".) Pink suggests we empathise more by putting ourselves in others shoes often and understanding the world from their point of view.

Play is that part where one needs to use games, play and humour to carry along the team and the self for higher productivity. There is a statistic where Pink says that physicians who played video games fo 3 hours or more every week made 37% fewer mistakes in laproscopic surgeries and performed the task in 27% lesser time than those physicians who did not play games. Humor, seen as the highest form of intelligence, is considered right brained, and the use of humour is considered excellent to carry teams across and to send messages across. To incorporate play and humour, one can start appreciating the use of both, by watching children, reading books, meeting people, having fun, playing and so on.

In the last of the five senses, Pink argues for the importance of Meaning in our lives. He quotes Victor Frankl, a holocoust survivor, and a psychiatrist who lost his family in the Nazi camps at Auschwitz - "man's main concern is not the pursuit of pleasure or avoiding pain, but to see meaning in life". Pink also quotes His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as saying that "the purpose of life is to seek happiness...as we are all seeking soemthing better."

After every chapter, Pink gives a portfolio or exercises to do, references and tests to take, books to read, websites to visit and so on to practice the six senses. It is a fine insight, of this whole new mind, and one that I agree with. But its not new in the sense that the more evolved leaders or people of all time were the ones who always had a healthy balance of the big picture and the detail, the vision and the tactic, the need for discipline and empathy, the eye on team victory and on individual growth, the maintaining of morale through happiness and the imparting of responsibility through trust. In short, the use of both the left and right brain were always emphasised at higher levels of leadership. It has always been the case that the two parts of the brain need to be balanced and developed well, and one cannot stay stuck, saying that one belongs only of one side and not the other. Studies have proved that both can be developed and one need not fall into one label or anorher - all it needs is some work! To bring play, creativity, humour, joy, empathy, spirituality and meaning into our lives is a huge step forward for mankind and I totally endorse Pink's ideas and views and hope that people embrace these ideas not so much for progressing in careers as for being fuller and more complete and joyful  people. 'A Whole New Mind' is a nice easy read and one that is enjoyable and informative as well. Recommended read for its nice and interesting perspective that is well preserved.

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Mindset, A New Psychology of Success - Carol S. Dweck

The debate between whether talent works best or hard work with a growth mindset works is finally over. 'Mindset - The New Psychology of Success' (Ballantine Books, USD 16, 246 p) addresses these issues precisely and presents convincingly the case in favour of hard work and the growth mindset. Another good one from Rajesh's collection, Carol Dweck's book 'Mindset' is an interesting and engrossing book that focuses on the two governing mindsets that rule our lives and how one mindset can help us grow to our potential and how the other may not. The well-known Stanford psychologist has researched enough to know what she is talking about and she gives examples from sports, schools, colleges, business, relationships, teaching, coaching and it is fascinating to see the fine differences and conclusions she presents. The book primarily is about the two mindsets - fixed mindset and the growth mindset - on which she dwells in detail.

The book states that anything can be learned and that hard work and growth-oriented learning is more likely to take you closer to full potential than simply relying on 'talent'. The author brings out the basic differences between learners and non-learners and states that learners are the ones who are likely to fully achieve their potential. But the two mindsets - fixed and growth - seem paradoxical and appear to be the opposite. For example the fixed mindset makes a person want to always succeed (so they do not try anything new for fear of failure), so they do the same things again and again, because "smart people always succeed". The growth mindset person sees success in stretching themselves and in learning, and thereby becomes smarter in the long run. Most people who believe that talent can see them through without the need to work hard and constantly learn, fall into the fixed mindset.

Primarily what the book says gives hope to everyone and pushes them to do better because it is a question of learning constantly. Intelligence is not fixed. One failure or success does not define you. The more you use your intelligence the better it gets. So the person who is constantly challenging oneself, who does not worry about hiding shortcomings and who is playing with bigger and older people is constantly bettering himself. Challenge and interest go hand in hand for the one with the growth mindset. And the harder the challenge the harder they work. Clearly the Fixed Mindset gives short term results while Growth Mindset is for long term.

In sports, where the concept of the 'natural' is most common, the book pretty much proves that there are no such thing as naturals. Talent is the starting point but there is an enormous amount of hard work required. The case of Wilma Rudolph, the fastest female sprinter on the earth in 1960, winning 3 Olympic golds is one such case (she had braces on her legs till she was 12 and was not expected to survive her illness or even walk). Apart from some (like McEnroe who has not had the growth mindset and a few others) the author talks of James Marshall, an American football star, who scored an own goal in a big match but quickly got out of the mindset and made his team win by scoring two goals after recovering from the horrendous mistake he made. She cites Mohammed Ali who was not built like a boxer but trained on his strengths, and Michael Jordan who worked twice as hard as any, as cases of sportsmen who put in lots of hard work to get where they did. It is really about understanding that talent is not everything, and hard work and growth orientation is the key. People with talent as their main weapon stopped working hard.

While on how these mindsets affect the fortunes of companies, the book cites companies that did well, those that did not and those that did well and sustained it. The leaders of companies that did well - leaders with the growth mindset - were not larger than life, were not ego oozing, not highly talented but self effacing people who asked questions and confronted the most brutal answers, looked failure in the face and maintained faith they would succeed in the end surely. They did not try to prove that they were better than the others, surrounded themselves with able people, looked at mistakes and deficiencies, added skills needed for the future. They were not worried about measuring and protecting fixed abilities, looked directly at their mistakes, received feedback and altered their strategies accordingly. For growth leaders, success was about learning and growing, and failure was motivating, and a wake up call to put more effort. Iacocca and Welch are compared and other leaders such as Lou Gerstner and Anne Mulcahy are analysed for their mindsets. Leaders are made and not born concludes the study (I agree). And the best thing is that they are made by themselves. In the corporate scenario, the book says, we have bosses and not leaders. Leaders are the ones who have genuine empathy, who mentor and guide their employees and peers, and not boss over them.

In the areas of relationships as well, the issue of the mindset can make or break the relationship. In the fixed mindset, people seek revenge and in the growth mindset they look at forgiveness and moving on. Most seem to think that if you have to work at it, the relationship is not for you. In fixed mindset we tend to look at  relationships as mind reading exercises. The mindsets also explore the connection between problems and counselling, shyness, bullies and victims.

The chapter that interested me most was the one on parents, teachers and coaches who have the biggest impact on students, children and wards. The book emphasises the attitude of developing and conveying the fact that you are interested in the child's / ward's development. It warns agains giving the child and ward needless praise as it conveys to the kid that he / she is more talented and can set them off on the fixed mindset path. It is better to keep the child pushing his / her limits each time, than giving up. (Make them push limits a bit each time without demeaning them.) Instead of protecting them from failure by lowering standards, it is better to talk of bettering their preparation and of effort. It is important that we convey the right messages, clearly and honestly and mean what we say because children learn and pass on messages. Coming from Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh where achieving the IIT or Engineering rank is paramount, I can identify with parents who appear to want the best for the child in the worst way. "We love you they say but on our terms". Great teachers, Dweck says, believe in growth and intellect and are fascinated by the process of learning. They set high standards and a motivating atmosphere. (There is the amazing story of a group of disadvantaged children doing amazing things when standards were set higher - 3 and 4 year olds reading vocabulary for high school students, 7 year olds reading the "Wall Street Journal" and older kids reading Plato's Republic, Animal Farm, Machiaevelli. 5th graders reading the Mice and Men, Joy Luck Club, To Kill a Mockingbird and having discussions as well.)

The growth mindset is about hard work and more hard work. Talent is good but to rely on it entirely is useless. With hard work you are likely to go a long way in the long run. But hardwork and growth is the real clincher. We need to set high standards for wards to work with (or colleagues, or team mates even) to work with and equip them with the right tools to handle it and guide them. It's always beter to tell the truth and show them how to bridge the gap and not leave them in the middle. The best teachers are about learning.

While dealing with coaches, the book cites hard driven coaches who got results, but who did not help the players grow in other areas. The cases of Bobby Knight, the coach for the successful Indiana University and that of JohnWooden, the coach for UCLA are examined. Wooden taught his players to be successful in life while Knight restricted himself to the Championships - even sacrificing the players self-esteem to achieve that goal. Success was seen as being full preparation and full effort - "you may be outscored but you will never lose". I love that statement. All you need is to make your best effort.

The best coaches never differentiated between their wards and treated everyone equally. They were non-judgmental in their talk on developing the ward (not simply praise, but feedback). They set high standards and give process feedback and the growth framework. They believe that everyone can learn, are tolerant of mistakes, do not judge, show the process, ask for commitment and full effort, give respect and coaching and develop the players potential.

While on changing one's mindset the book dwells on the importance of asking for help, doing those small acts that could change things, working on beliefs and mindsets and get a process orientation. One has to get over the-world-owes-me and denial (as in my-life-is-perfect syndrome). One should work at the mindset by pushing gently to find something harder to do when something is easily achieved. One should also remember that champs are people who work the hardest and constantly challenge themselves. The best way of course is to learn and help learn.

When you think of any failure, says Dweck, feel it, then get over it after taking any feedback worth taking. One must understand that it is about high effort and high risk (what if we make the effort and its still not enough). Certainly low effort has no chance. On ability and accomplishment there are examples of Edison, Mozart and others who learnt and practiced for years. Research showed that the ones who did well were the ones who were treated like geniuses - and they performed. The key is in being treated like geniuses with clearly stated standards, with help and hardwork and not simply by attaching positive and negative labels.

In a wonderful visual at the end of the book Dweck condenses the two mindsets and explains it all in a nutshell. Simply the Fixed Mindset is about guys who desire to look smart, who avoid challenges, who give up easily, who get defensive, who see effort as fruitless, who ignore useful nagative feedback, who feel threatened by others successes and as a result of all this, they plateau early and achieve less than their full potential. The growth mindset guys desire to learn, to embrace challenges, to persist in the face of setback, to see effort as the path to mastery, to learn from criticism, to find lessons and inspiration from others success and reach even higher levels of achievement as a result. The growth mindset takes you closer to your potential.

The book slams the basic idea that intelligence and superior output cannot be cultivated. It talks of how exceptional individuals have a special talent in identifying their strengths and weaknesses. Success is learning and not about proving that you are smart. It is about stretching, about self-esteem, learning, preparation and effort.

I loved the book because it validates much of what I feel. I do a workshop called 'The Champion's Mindset' based on my experiences as a cricketer, writer, lecturer and coach, and my years in the corporate arena, and can see  how wonderfully Dweck has put the fine ideas of talent and hard work in place. I identify with almost everything she says, in each arena that I have been exposed to, As the book's blurb says it is a good book to read for every parent, coach, teacher, corpoate leader to have, to own. Wonderful stuff and a must read for everyone.

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Thought for the Day - It's not the money, It's how we use it

It is not about how much money we want that is the question - it is always about what we plan to do with it when we have it. Because the equation is that unless we have the uses for it, we will not get the money for it! So the key really is to begin at the other end of the pipeline, as all entrepreneurs do, and not by merely wanting money because everyone says we should have money!

Pic courtesy - Satish

A vibrant enterprise (read as career, life, business) is always built because of the outcome and what it means to you. It is never begun as 'I have so much money so what should I do with it' because that's a sure way of losing your money or running a low energy business - the kinds that wind up after a few months because you're not getting the kind of money or return or fun you expected. If we only want the money and have no use it will end up rotting in the locker instead of giving you pleasure of creation and acquisition.

So then, if we know pretty much what we want to do with the money and why, the money presents itself. In innumerable ways - equity, loans, investments and so on and so forth. Money really is never the problem - it is what you can do with it or rather, what you really want to do with it. The more we use the money, the more it gets energised and the better the flow. But the key as always is the end - how am I going to use the money.

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Vicky Donor - Movie Review

Finally watched Vicky Donor after much wanting-to and thoroughly enjoyed this completely off beat, whacky and funny movie of a prize sperm donor Vicky, his greedy and businesslike infertility doctor Chadda and a cast of quirky characters who step in to make it all the more enjoyable.Dr. Chadda (Annu Kapoor) is an infertility doctor who is facing the heat from his clients who are unhappy at not getting the results they want. Chadda says its all about luck but since his business appears to be endangered, he starts seeking out some stud types who can donate good strong sperm. His research yields Vicky, a young lad who does nothing but play cricket, hang out with his friends and go clubbing. When approached Vicky finds this whole idea disgutsing (despite Chadda trying to convince him that its an ancient science and that rishis and munis would do that in the days of old). Vicky is offended when Chadda says his sperm all going waste anyway. But enticed by the money he is offered and the taunts of his beautician mother to earn money, he donates his sperm and its a hit - or as the tag line says, Vicky's sperm is lakhon mein ek.

Vicky becomes rich soon in his unconventional and rather pleasurable career, and so does Chadda, as Vicky's sperm brings great results. Chadda pays handsomely, his own graph is on the upswing and now top businessmen and politicians are now queuing up for his services. But Vicky falls in love with a Bengali divorcee and marries her. But he does not tell her his source of income, lying that its all exports and imports. When the girl learns after marriage that Vicky is a donor and is technically a father already (and by some quirk that she cannot have children of her own) she is upset and wlaks out. But all is well finally and one of Vicky's own (one of the 53 he has fathered) is adopted and all is well.

It is a fun movie and money is well spent. I liked the way the team handled relevant issues of marital stress, of sperm donation, of adoption and so on in a light and yet responsible manner. Great performances by Ayushmann Khurana, Yami Gautam and Annu Kapoor. If you haven't seen it do! It is as it claims - lakhon mein ek.

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Legs on Everest - Mark Englis

For the third day in a row I picked and read an interesting book from Rajesh's enviable collection - this time 'Legs on Everest' (Random House India, Rs. 499, 190 pages) written by Mark Englis, a New Zealander who scaled the 8848 metre high Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, from its North Face on May 15, 2006. What makes Mark Englis's effort special is that he is the first double amputee in the world to scale Mount Everest on prosthetic legs. Though written in a humourous and self-deprecating manner, Englis's book is very disturbing in many ways, and one wonders at the limits to which human endeavour can take us.

Englis, born in New Zealand in 1959, is a researcher, mountaineer, wine maker, entrepreneur (he has a sportsdrink called PeakFuel)  and motivational speaker, an accomplished cyclcist and a silver medal winner at the Paralympics Games in Sydney 2000. In 1982 he lost both his legs to frost bite when he got stuck in a blizzard for 13 days on Mount Cook, New Zealand. In 2002 he summitted the same. In 2004 he summitted Cho Oyu, one of the 8000 meter peaks in the Himalayas, and became the second double amputee in the world to scale a 8000 meter peak. The Cho Oyu expedition was made of a team of 6 guides, 8climbers, 7 sherpas and was an expedition that started on September 14, 2004 and summit achieved on September 27, 2004, Englis's birthday.

In 2006 he undertook the Everest expedition with the HIMEX expedition team led by Russel Brice and summitted the Everest on May 15, 2006, becoming the first double amputee to do so. This expedition had 4 guides, 11 climbers, 16 members of a camera crew, 10 sherpas and 6 cooks. Englis details his preparation for the Everest summit, the physical training that is required (strength is one thing one must certainly have), the various types of illnesses one can be subject to which are often fatal - mountain sickness. high altitude pulmonary edema, high altitude cerebral edema, hypoxia and so on. The winds are ice cold, temperature around -35 degrees and - 50 degrees and the climb is only half the job done - the descent is more treacherous than the climb.

Englis describes his days in Cambodia where he does his social work for those who have lost their legs to land mines and then the lead up to the Everest climb. Kathmandu, Lhasa and the climb up to the base camp. There are pujas before the climb, the mandatory medical tests including the brain swell test, the kit, the sherpas and the climb itself. Englis and his other team members encounter fever, head aches, stomach aches, sore throats, but somehow go on, find the strength to go on. It is tough and scary as there are stories of injuries and death. Englis's prosthetic leg broke during the ascent and he had to wait for a replacement before he took up the rest of the climb. Going up beyond the camp, 1, 2, 3 and 4 and then reaching what they call the 'death zone', somewhere about 500 meters short of the summit is completely crazy. He talks of the mushroom rock and the trickiness of climbing it.

But what was most traumatic even to read is the story of 'Green Boots', an Indian mountaineer Tsewang Paljor, head constable  from an ill fated expedition of the Indo Tibetan Border Force in which three climbers lost their lives, whose corpse lies till date and probably forever, well-preserved in the icy tomb of the North Face of Everest's Himalayan route, and is a landmark (just as there is another landmark of another corpse hanging from a rope). There is no way that these bodies can be brought down and they remain as landarks and warnings for the climbers from the North Face.

Englis's feat is marred by a controversy of his sighting of David Sharp a frostbitten Briton whom Englis claims he saw huddled in the cave near 'Green Boots', frost bite and all. But that day almost 40 climbers passed Sharp, who was finally attended to by one of Englis's climbers Max Chhaya, the first Lebanese to sclae Everest, but by then it was too late for Sharp who was scaling the Everest without support and oxygen and perhaps proper equipment. Despite all the criticism, Englis in my opinion, need take no blame for his action to pass Sharp on his ascent, as he did what he says had to do - "take care of his own life in the upper regions of the Everest". Lack of oxygen, the sheer effort can play tricks on the mind and one would be undermining Englis's own feat by attributing his actions to Sharp's death.

It is interesting to know that the climbers are asked to get off the summit, 20 minutes and no more up there, because it is too dangerous to be in such high altitudes with the mind playing tricks. The descent is as treacherous or worse than the climb and the climbers are allowed only a few moments up on the summit, a place where 50 climbers can stand up at one time says Englis. In his descent Englis suffered serious injuries to both his leg stumps for sheer effort and cold, frost bite on his fingers, and had to be carted quickly down to medical care on the backs of yaks and other improvised tranpsort. In extreme pain Englis was finally flown off to New Zealand where his stumps were shortened by another 3 cms as a result of frostbite and five fingers amputated to frost bite. But he contines to get on at lfie, with zest and his crazy sense of humour.

One line on the blurb of the book says it all. "Whenever you have pushed yourself to the limit, you know you can achieve things that were once only a dream. The more times you undertake the extreme journey, the greater your confidence that you will attain your dreams and the bigger your dreams become. And if you want a bigger dream then why not go for the biggest - imagine standing on the summit of the Everest".

Englis writes the book in a humourous, self deprecating manner. There is no self-pity and he pokes fun at himself, much bathroom humour included. He writes non chalantly about his pain, his travails, his loss of limbs and sticks to telling his story. The preparation, the money, the sponsors, the cameras, the trauma, the pain, the loss, the sacrifice - its crazy to imagine what people can do. The controversy is needless and Englis is not the man to blame certainly. To me he should remain an inspiration for achieving something like this without his legs and many can take inspiration (though I doubt they will - just the thought of how much he lost despite his constant jokes about them - can put people off). For a long time now I have been wanting to read a book on a climber who scaled the Everest and there can be none better than this honest, hard hitting and telling-it-like-it-is book that does not waste time on the technicalities too much. It is certainly not a book for everyone - it is disturbing - and the style may not appeal to everyone. But to me, Englis is a champion, despite what Sir Edmund Hillary feels about him.

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RAFA My Story - Rafael Nadal with John Carlin

I read 'Rafa - My Story' the biography of Rafael Nadal (304 pages, Hachette India, Rs. 595) from Rajesh's increasingly interesting collection with great relish in one sitting this morning. Rafael Nadal comes across as the scrapper, the one who won't go away, and this book talks of how the tennis great built himself up to be that - someone he really is not. (In fact there is a whole chapter that addresses this dichotomy titled as Clark Kent and Superman.) Nadal's greatest asset they say is his mind and this book is all about a tennis player who believed that he was not naturally as gifted as Federer, not as well co-ordinated and one who was prone to injuries, fears and self-doubt, who conquered it all in his mind to become a true champion - one you can never write off and one who seems to increasingly become bigger each year.

The book is told interestingly - from two points of view. One of Rafael Nadal himself as he describes the great 2008 Wimbledon final against Federer in a series of chapters - a game which many have described as probably the greatest sporting contest in all history and which McEncroe said was the greatest game of tennis ever played, in great detail, from the locker room to pre-match routines (taking sips from two different bottles, tying his bandana etc) and the match itself. The other point of view is that of John Carlin's as he pieces all the other stories and pieces that make up the entire portrait of Nadal and his success - his tightly knit family, his association with his native town in Mallorca, Spain, his support staff, his childhood, his pillars of support, his injuries and so on.

The resilient Spaniard born on June 3, 1986, comes from a small town called Manorca on the island of Mallorca in Spain which has a population of 80,000. His family is intensely close knit, living in one big building, with his grand parents and uncles and aunts. His father Sebastian Nadal is an astute businessman, his mother a housewife who gave up her perfume business and he has a younger sister Maribel who studies sports medicine. His girl friend Maria Francisca works in an insurance company in Palma. The young Rafael however has some illustrious genes - his grandfather was a famous musician who ran the opera and his uncle Miguel Angelo was a Spanish International and Barcelona player in soccer. The family had fame, wealth and to top it all, an uncle, Toni, who played tennis to a particular level before giving up. It was Toni who took Rafael under his wing and taught him the one thing he felt had failed him in his career - mental toughness and the skill in tennis. Rafael was doing well in his soccer too and there came a time when he had to make a decision to choose between the games. And he chose tennis and the harsh lessons of 'endurance' that his coach and uncle Toni put him through which included picking up more balls, endless hours at practice without any time off, sweeping the courts and so on.

Rafa showed early promise of course as the Under 12 and Under 14 champion for Spain and an ATP victory at 15. But an interesting Davis Cup victory at 18 over a higher ranked Andy Roddick made Nadal believe he could beat players at the highest level. Then followed the French open when he was 19. That paved the way for his legendary rivalry with his friend Roger Federer and their many fantastic duels that continue to date. If Federer ever showed nerves it was against Rafael - and it was the 2007 Wimbledon loss to Federer that Rafel ranks as one of the lowest in his life. But he came back the next year and the 2008 final described in amazing detail was one that Rafael won - two sets ahead and then levelled by Federer and a fifth set that went to 9-7. The tension of the match could be felt through the pages of the book and tears flowed for me at the sheer elation of the win (great sporting events do that to me all the time!).

But the story of the shy, polite, respectful and highly sensitive young man who is easily affected by emotional turmoil around him and how he transforms into a highly combative, almost fearful opponent on the tennis court who seems to only desire to crush the opponent ruthlessly, is what the book is all about. Rafa's team is long term and he believes in continuity - from his agent to therapist, his doctor to his PR man, his sponsor to his friends - they are all there for many years. Rafa's family believes in no big celebrations, always bring him down when they think he is overconfident, and always taught him to respect his racquet as much as the game and what it brings to him. His first coach and uncle Toni instilled much of this almost rustic philosophy that rules Rafa's mind.

But if there is one thing that describes Rafa, it is his endurance and his mental toughness and that is what we must look at. Here I will quote from the book some of the quotes that made an impact on me which probably say it as it is.

When he talks of endurance Rafa speaks with a maturity that belies his age.

"Enduring means accepting. Accepting things as they are and not as you wish them to be; and then looking ahead, and not behind. 

And on the virtue of never giving up he says. 

"I learned that you always have to hang in there, that however remote your chances of winning, you have to push yourself to the very limit of your physical abilities and try your luck."

After the famous victory over Roger Federer to win the Australian Open coming into the final drained after a 5 setter against Verdasco, he says.

"That day in Melbourne I realized more clearly than ever before that the key to this game resides in the mind and if the mind is clear and strong you can overcome almost any onbtacle including pain. Mind can triumph over matter."

 On the effort and sacrifice that goes in he says as a true champion should.

"The fact that I had got to this point was the culmination of long years of sacrifice and dedication all based on the unbreakable premise that there are no shortcuts to sustained success. You can't cheat in elite sports. Talent alone wont get you through. That’s just the first building block, on top of which you must pile relentlessly repetitive work in the gym, work on courts, work studying videos of yourself and your opponents in action, always striving to get fitter, better, cleverer. I made a choice to become  a professional tennis player, and the result of that choice could only be unflagging discipline and a continual desire to improve."

And on the satisfaction he derives and of what differentiates great players and good players he says.

"One lesson I have learned is that if the job I do were easy, I wouldn't derive as much satisfaction from it. The thrill of winning is in direct proportion to the effort I put in beforehand. The difference between a great player and a good player lies in how well you’re prepared."

And an important lesson to all sportsmen.

"If you’re tired, do not show it."

Rafa talks in detail of the fear of winning and on that he says, when on the point of wining the fourth Grand Slam by beating Djokovich at the US Open, he made a couple of errors.

"I tried to push away thoughts of victory that flooded my mind; tried to do what I knew was right, which was to think only of the next point, in isolation from everything else. I felt quite simply afraid."

Coming on the heels of Bob Woolmer's book on cricket, Rafa's story is something that every sportsperson should read - rather anyone who is gunning for excellence should read. In many ways this is the story of how a champion is made, how he built himself piece by piece, how his support staff helped, how his work ethic helped and how he overcame injury and mental fragility to emerge a true champion. Highly recommended reading and certainly one for any library. Thanks is owed to Rajesh for lending me the book too!

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Bob Woolmer's Art and Science of Cricket - Bob Woolmer, Prof. Tim Noakes and Dr. Helen Moffet

Bob Woolmer was a cricketer who gave pretty much everything to the game and someone who sadly died while on duty as coach to Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup in West Indies. He was a cricketer of reasonably good standing, having played for England in International cricket, but it was as a coach that he made a big impression, bringing technology into the game and trying to make the game better in his own way.

Woolmer's Art and Science of Cricket, Supernova Publishers

I saw this book, a 654 page tome (30 pounds, Supernova Publishers), which Rajesh had bought, and wondered what Woolmer and his co-authors, Professor Tim Noakes and Dr.Helen Moffet, wrote in such great detail. This was the book that he was in the process of completing when he passed away suddenly. I flipped through the pages and saw some pictures and familiar shots of cricketing techniques being demonstrated but what caught my attention was the first part which contained a large section called 'The Mind Game'. Appropriately, this section got almost 70 pages and I thought that was interesting. There have been enough books on technique, rules and regulations anyway.

Right up front in the Mind Game section comes the quote from Tony Francis, the author of the book 'Zen and Cricket' - who says that he became three times the player he was by getting his thinking right. Francis went to the extent of saying that he believed that cricket at the professional level is 90% in the mind and only 10% raw ability. (I think its true even at other levels.) And then the book quotes Sandy Gordon, the well-known Australian mental toughness coach, and his definition of mental toughness - as the ability to "(a) Generally, cope better than your opponents with the demands of the game and (b) Specifically, to be more consistent and better than the opponents in remaining determined, focussed, confident and in control under pressure."

With certain examples the book deals with the mental toughness part. How some crumble under criticism (which one gets a lot of, beyond a level anyway) and how some turn it into success. The book deals with basic mental techniques such as Deep Breathing, Deep Relaxation (including hypnosis) and Visualization. At a basic level they can be used by anyone to prepare better for games. Interesting to know how Wasim Akram used hypnosis (from his wife) to perofrm better in big games.

The book then delves into the psychology of the player and his fears that affect his performance - fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of injury and fear of losing form. While on that the book delves into the 5 lessons that Steve Waugh learnt from his failure - (1) Ask for help (2) Learn from the opponents (3) Use good luck charms only to get morale up and not bring morale down (4) Find out what works for you as a preparation and stick with it and (5) Relish the challenge of playing the best. This he learnt on a tough tour against India in India.

On mental strategies for batting the book talks of preparing for the innings being the key - so the mind is at rest and fully geared up. Getting information about the pitch, the weather, the opponents, the grounds, the refreshments available to start with. Also getting the gear completely ready well before the game so there are no surprises. Also, to participate proactively in team talks and enlist family support to complete the circle. Woolmer's personal strategy is about visualising the perfect innings one has played so one is in that frame of mind and carry it to the next day. Woolmer recommends it before big games. There are some tips on handling danger points in the innings (the 30s and the 70s apart from the beginning of the inning) and how to counter sledging.

For bowlers the book emphasises the importance of getting psyched up. Here he brings in some wonderful points from Peter Philpott's book 'The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling" where he says that the bowler has to "clear the mind of everything except what you want to bowl and where". He says the bowler has to decide first on that and concentrate on that fully. Bowlers can gain from the concept of Circle of Concentration - which is about things the bowler can control such as to (1) steady oneself (2) grip the ball properly (3) make up the mind about what to bowl and where (4) run in rhythmically (5) stare at target (6) have a clear mind and (7) bowl. All else about the batsman, the spectators, the pitch, the weather, and all other things that we cannot control and should be blanked out.

There are several chapters that cover techniques of batting, bowling, fielding and wicket keeping which most other books do. I found nothing new here and that was rather disappointing. I did find an excerpt from Richie Benaud's book about the atributes a slow bowler should have interesting (or any bowler in general) which include Patience, Concentration, Economy, Attitude and Practice.

There are chapters that discuss Strategies and Captaincy, Use of Statistics, Coaching, Cricket and Science and the Future of the Game. I read briefly through these - though they may interest an academic.

To me the book was rather confused in the target it was writing for. It has techniques for the beginner but also deals with the pressures of a cricketer including women and sex (which only international cricketers would be exposed to). The statistics and scientific aspects would appeal to some academics perhaps. In strategies and captaincy I found little insight. With the services of the South African team and his vast experience and access to all International cricketers and authorities, I expected more meat, more finer points on the 'keys' that guide all the aspects than mere 'how to' of the technique. It fell short of my expectations over all but its singular biggest contribution was bringing the mental part right up front in the book for me. But its an honest and comprehensive effort that tries to cover as many aspects of the game and its history and its future and for that I appreciate what it tries to convey. More depth, more content, more live examples from internationals, would have given this book an edge that no other book has. A lost opportunity. Rather steep at its price as well. But for one who has not read a book on the 'Art and Science of Cricket' in contemporary days, this book is a good one to have, though, it may not be the best in covering all the aspects.

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