Kyrgios
Unless you are a tennis aficionado, you probably have never heard of Nick Kyrgios.
But you know him. You might have been him. Or maybe you manage him. Or God help you, maybe you are in a relationship with him.
Nick is a 21 year old freak of nature from Australia. Perhaps the most physically gifted athlete in tennis history. A long, lean frame (tennis players are now the size of NBA point guards), more quick twitch fiber than Verizon, a lively serving arm that fires 140 mph offerings and backs them up with a wristy, explosive forehand that leaves audiences gasping and broadcasters at a loss for words.
He is “The Gifted One.”
You know a gifted one. They are in our Facebook feeds, our families, on our sales teams. Everything comes to them so effortlessly. They live without anxiety, life’s concerns, so stressful for you and I, never seem to reach them. They shrug and say “things will work out.” And they do! We look across at “The Gifted Ones” and think, “is it possible for them to go all the way through life without loss? Without pain?” You kind of hope they don’t! And you know why? Because so many of them are like Nick:
- Last year Kyrgios was getting beat by a famous player. So he broke the men’s code and out loud, during a change over, told his opponent his girlfriend, in the most vulgar terms, was sleeping with her mixed doubles partner.
- He swore at ballboys and umpires and ticket buying spectators when the ball wasn’t bouncing his way.
- His coaches say he doesn’t train hard. He often gets beat by nobodies because he doesn’t “feel like playing.”
He has been suspended, fined, and vocally lacerated by the tennis elite for his bad behavior. (You know you’re out of control when John McEnroe tells you your behavior is unacceptable. You can’t be serious.)
And a few weeks ago, he hit a new low. [Watch it here]... He was in the Asian part of the tennis tour. He had played the week before, and won the tournament. But poor Nick was tired. So he stopped playing. In the middle of the match! He stopped chasing the ball, served like a child wielding a badminton racket. He walked off the court in the middle of a point. The referee begged him to act like a professional. He laughed in his face. The crowd booed. He told them to leave if they didn’t like it. In the media interview afterwards, he said he “just wasn’t into it.”
Every Sales Manager, including me, I have ever known, has felt this at the gut level: ”Why is it the ones blessed with Talent don’t work hard, and the ones who work hard have no talent?”
Nick is very young. He was suspended last week again but this time he agreed to emotional counseling. Perhaps he’ll learn before it is too late. Or perhaps the fact that he has already earned tens of millions of dollars in endorsements, along with the fact that he “sometimes would really just prefer to do something else”, will convince him he doesn’t have to be play by the rules. If so, he will age and rue the precious prime he is throwing away, but “I told you so” won’t feel very good for him or us.
But it won’t be tragic. Because Nick is making a choice. Just like the Nick Kyrgios you know is making a choice every day. But take some heart in this: If we think “The Gifted Ones” can’t be fantastically talented and supremely successful yet also be decent, gracious and humble, I urge you, before you get cynical, to watch another man play tennis. His name is Roger Federer.