Navjot
Singh Sidhu once shared an anecdote of a one day international against West
Indies in 1988. It was his third tournament and Sachin Tendulkar's second. To
give you a little context, it was a wet pitch and as you may know, the West
Indies players were HUGE!
Sidhu very desperately asked the then captain,
Azharuddin to do him one favour and win the toss because batting on the wet
pitch was going to be a huge challenge!
As the coin was flipped for the toss, Azharuddin
indicated to Sidhu to pad up because they had lost the toss!
Frightened of the massive West Indies bowlers and
concerned about how they would face them, Sidhu and Tendulkar started their
walk to the pitch.
Sidhu asked Tendulkar, "What are we going to
do?" The 16-year-old Tendulkar, in his squeaky voice simply replies,
"we'll play." Sidhu then asks who will face the first over? Tendulkar
very cheekily says you face and quickly walks over to the other side of the
pitch.
Left with no choice, Sidhu gets ready to face Curtly
Ambrose. He bowled 7 balls, of which 6 hit Sidhu on various parts of his body
and none even touched the bat and one was a no-ball.
Before the second over began, Sidhu and Tendulkar had
a quick chat, and Sidhu said, "this guy is so huge that the balls seem to
be dropping from the sky! As soon as it bounces, I'm left confused about which
way it will go! What are you going to do?” Once again, Tendulkar in his squeaky
voice says, "I'll play."
The second over was to be bowled by Ian Bishop, a
massive, mountain of a man. When he ran, the earth seemed to move. Ian Bishop
starts his run-up and delivers and to Sidhu's surprise, Tendulkar runs towards
the ball and receives it as a full toss and whacks a sixer!
Stunned, Sidhu asks Sachin, "What did you
do?" Tendulkar simply says, "You said it's difficult to judge the
ball after it bounces so I didn't let it bounce."
What I'm trying to explain through this simple example
is how a champion's mindset works.
Their thought process is not "it's so difficult,
how will I do it?"
Their thought process is "yes, it's difficult,
how can I accomplish it?"
It's the mindset that sets a champion apart from the
crowd.
Always
remember, your thoughts create your habits which create your character which
builds your destiny.
An important lesson to be learned for
one to progress from being a Manager to being a LEADER, especially so very
relevant to me.
--------------------
