It's a good old funny gist about contests between these friends that we can glean from. Boris Franz Becker standing with blue jean and Andre Kirk Agassi sitting in a dark shirt.
Both of them absolute Lawn-tennis legends,both former world number ones. Boris Becker,born 22nd Nov,1967 won his first major title(Wimbledon) at a record age of 17. In his career he went on to win six Grand Slam Singles titles,an Olympic Gold medal in Doubles in 1992 and a host of other titles. Agassi won eight Grand Slam Singles titles, an Olympic Gold medal in Singles in 1996 and many other laurels.
In their first three meetings Becker beat Agassi. This sent Agassi into a season of inquest as he reviewed tapes upon tapes of Becker to find a possible breakthrough. Becker's serve was invincible for Agassi and so many folks on tour. By the way, such a serve is a huge advantage for a serve–and–volley specialist like Becker. Never mind these tennis jargons, if you don't know much about the game ,please hang in there, we are going somewhere. So zeroing into his service motion, alas Agassi found something rather weird. It wasn't the ball toss, body movement or even the angle of the racket face during serve,he found the man's tongue. O yes, Boris Becker's tongue was the result of the inquest. If you ask me how his eyes spotted that minute detail,then your guess is as good as mine.
He discovered that Becker's tongue protudes from his lips during serves. So according to Agassi when he served from the deuce court and his tongue came out centrally between his lips,that serve must go down the middle of the court or to the player's body, but if the tongue came out at the left corner of the lips,he is going to serve out wide. That was it! Infact Agassi said his challenge was no longer about returning his serves but to ensure Becker doesn't even as much as suspect that he can read his serves,to the extent that sometimes he deliberately fails to apply this secret just to fool Becker and keep the tongue out. 👅This was the game changer Andre needed and he went on to win nine matches out of their next eleven meetings.
Years later Agassi, having intentionally kept this secret close to his chest, exposed same to Becker after Becker's retirement as they went out for a drink as friends. On hearing this revelation Becker just about fell out of his chair in vibrant laughter and at thesame time it all now made sense to him. He replied, Agassi reporting– "I used to go home all the time and just tell my wife,it's like he reads my mind, little did I know you were just reading my tongue."
In the midst of the laughs in this story I couldn't help but spot the doggedness of an athlete,the shear will to get a breakthrough on a knotty issue (an issue where others have tried and failed) till it opens up. This is a life lesson we have here too. Or as Agassi puts it in his lead-up to this story above : "Tennis is about problem solving,it's really what it is. And you can't problem solve unless you have the ability or the empathy to percieve all that's around you. The more you understand what the problem is through other people's lens,the more you can solve for people in life and in business."
You can see how he himself sees parallels between that episode and life generally. You get value when you solve problems and one skill to employ is the humility to see through the minds of people to deduce what they really need or the minds of an obstacle in other to create a system that will overcome it. Scorum is such a venture where you can benefit from this lesson of doggedness as you find solutions whether as a writer,investor or developer. In the end solving a problem,meeting a need, is what creates value.
Can I say Scorum has applied this principle recently("..perceive all that's around you.") and is set to launch in only a few days the Scorum Non-sport vista. This is indeed solving a properly discerned challenge.
Keeping winning everyone.
Cheers
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