The Resilient Mind - The #1 Mistake Holding You Back from Massive Success - Patrick Mouratoglou

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

Patrick Mouratoglou is one of the most renowned coaches in professional tennis, best known for his legendary partnership with Serena Williams. He has shaped the careers of numerous top players, including Naomi Osaka, through a unique focus on mindset, discipline, and high-performance psychology.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/Download_JournalSpecial thanks to Icons by Motiversity, subscribe to his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@theiconsbymotiversity Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to the number one mistake holding you back for massive success with Patrick Moradaglu. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. Patrick, you've coached some of the greatest tennis players in the world. When and how did you know they were champions? It's a good question. For some, it was obvious.

When I started to work with Serena Williams, who had already 13 grand slams, there was no doubt how great. she was already but before her I worked with players that had not achieved even 10% of what she achieved and it's funny because you know I worked with some players and most of the people from the tennis world told me what are you doing with that player and then I was asking why would you say that and the answer was well she hits every ball full she doesn't understand the game then they said Her father is completely crazy. And then they said she's not in good shape at all, stuff like that.

And I answered them, well, you tell me only good news. He's already top 100 in the world. And if you're right, if she doesn't understand tennis, if she's not in shape and her father's crazy, it's only things I can improve. So I'm going to improve that and her ranking is going to improve. And that's exactly what I did. So I wouldn't say they were champions for most of them because I found out that probably the way they were seeing themselves was not being champions. They were seeing themselves maybe in their dreams, top 20, maybe top 10 in the world.

They wouldn't see themselves beyond that level. And so in a way their motivation would stop when they would. they would think their limit was, which was true, by the way. Their limits are not always technical, tactical, physical. They're most of the time mental. And I know people are champions when they really see themselves with no limits, when they really see themselves great. And I have a funny story that comes to my mind about Stablanca,

because she's number one in the world, and she's doing incredibly well at the moment. And I remember when she was maybe just top hundred, she was with a coach, another guy at that time. And I knew the guy, and he came to me, he said, my player is crazy. I said, well, you say that? He said, because she thinks she's the best.

She wants to beat everybody. Like, she's unrealistic in his mind, in his eyes. But the one who was realistic was her. And she ended up exactly where she was really seeing herself. Because when you see yourself there, you are much more willing to do the work. you are much more willing to break barriers that others don't break because they don't really see themselves breaking those barriers.

And it was the same for Novak and this story I told several times, but very, for me, it says everything about him. When Novak Djokovic started, he was younger than two other guys, Rafah and Roger, just one year younger than Raphaa, but way younger than Roger. And those two guys, Rapha and Roger, were winning everything and all of the top tens at that time.

who are just saying, and they told me, it's impossible to win a grand slam with those two guys. You can't beat them. They're just way better than everyone. That was the main thought within all the top 10 players and, of course, the others. And this young guy, Djokovic, is 19 years old, and he plays Roger for the first time in a grand slam. He's nobody, and he's interviewed before the match,

and he says, I'm going to beat this guy. And I remember the press went really bad against him. Who does they think he is? But he was seeing him there. He was seeing himself there. He was seeing himself better than them, which maybe people saw that as being cocky, but he was just very confident about his abilities.

And nobody would ever think this guy would win more Grand Slam than the two others. Also because his game was more average than the two others game were flamboyant, incredible. And he ended up being the best of the three. He beat all the records. He beat them on every level. because his self-belief was extremely high. His self-esteem the way he was seeing himself. So that's how, it's a very long answer,

but that's how I know if someone is a champion. And then a lot of people fake it, which is better than not faking it, but it's not as good as really believing it deeply inside. A lot of guys, you talk to the young players, they will say, I want to be number one. I mean, they wish. Yeah.

The ones who really want to, you know, because they're not only saying it, but they're putting on the work. And this is a big difference because when you really believe you can get there, it's much easier. It's never easy to work hard. But in a way, you are willing to do everything to get there.

When you wish it, you do things halfway or 70%, you don't do it fully. So that's a big difference. I was so curious to ask that question. Thank you for sending the book, Champion Mindset. I've been reading it. I've been loving it.

And what's so fascinating about when you talk about champions is that my brain would have gone to technique or skill. And what you talk about is self-esteem and confidence. And I find that such a fascinating shift of almost what comes first. And you talk about in the book that the greatest, I mean, you've helped a lot of people win a lot of things. But you say your greatest victory was won over yourself. What does that mean?

And why did that connect you to maybe to confidence or self-esteem is an important piece? I think it's the masterpiece of everything. self-esteem and the fact that you are able to believe in yourself and in your ability to achieve this or that of course if your self-esteem is big like huge champions i mean legends like serena or venus and i had this discussion with richard williams their father by the way way before i started to coach them and it told me my main focus was to create two young ladies that were believing in themselves in general and he said to me this and i believe it whatever they would have done they would have been successful we chose tennis but if they would have wanted to be runners or

singers or whatever they would have succeeded because they had this incredible self-esteem that they have and you'll see that whatever they're going to do in after tennis they're going to be successful not saying that people never fail of course they fail and syrin I failed many times in tennis too, but we remember what you achieved, which is much bigger. So this is the masterpiece, because why would you do crazy efforts working crazy hard to achieve something you don't really believe in? Why would you put yourself at risk to fail if you don't deeply believe that at the end you're going to make it?

People don't do it. So that's why I'm saying that the core of everything, that, gives people the courage and the will to do what it takes to become successful starts with self-esteem. And actually, that's the first chapter of my book, because that's where it starts. And I said that my biggest victory and my only real victory for me is the victory that I won against myself because I was set to fail everywhere, whatever I would do, because my self-esteem was at zero because I was failing everywhere. I had zero self-confidence. I was shy to a point that I couldn't speak to people. I was the last at school. I was having the worst results. I couldn't

find a way to have good grades. I was sick all the time and I was scared to speak to people because I felt I had no value and I was scared that people would judge me if I would talk. So I was unable to talk. So that's my starting point until maybe 50. 15, 16, 17 years old. And still I was not confident at all. It took me from that point, 10 years to build myself and be ready for life. That's how I call it,

because before that, I was just ready for failing. So I know how important self-esteem is because I lived it as a person. And then when I became a coach, my main focus was to help people build their self-esteem, to be able to achieve things. When I hear you speak about that, wonder how many people hear themselves in that to a certain extent. And personally, I grew up

incredibly shy as well. And so when I heard you speak about that and that idea of you didn't speak to people until your teens, I mean, that was that was me as well. And so, you know, I, I recognize what that journey felt like. And when you were speaking to it publicly, it felt like such a powerful thing that I think resonates for a lot of people. And to recognize that there is a way out, There is a pathway to start to find that self-esteem and that courage and that voice. And you're a great example of it. You know, to be able to do what you're doing for a person that was extremely shy shows everyone that you can change everything in you.

And if you change everything in you, you're able to achieve anything. It takes courage. But I think, of course, it takes courage. But you don't go from being extremely shy to doing things that people not shy are doing. it's really a journey and this is the greatness of it is just and that's the goal of the book is to put people on that journey to make them start so what is the start the start is just to do today what you couldn't do tomorrow of course if you're shy as we were we're not going to take a microphone and speak in front of a million people that's not going to happen but what we can do

is just speak to one person for five minutes is it's going out of your comfort zone and achieve very little things, but every day. Every day, do something you didn't do the day before. If you did two minutes, do three. That's how you build your self-confidence. Because whenever you create those little victories

that are very small, but it doesn't matter how small or big they are, it's just victories. You are building your confidence. every single day. And the more victories you make, the more you dare. The more you think, oh, but maybe now I can do this thing that yesterday I thought I could never do because I've been able to achieve things.

The problem with people that are in a vicious cycle like we were not talking to people because we can't and staying in that vicious circle is that. is that this circle is destroying you because it takes confidence out of you every single day. And this is the thing you have to break. You have to stop taking confidence out of you

and start building it. And the only way to do it is to build very small victories every day. And don't get me wrong. It takes a lot of courage. Even though it looks so small, it's something you can't do. If you can't speak to people,

just to do it the day after for one minute takes a lot but you cannot and people you can but people cannot imagine how much you feel relieved how much you feel stronger so the only way to know is to do it and there is no other way out than doing what you think you can do and you know i've done a lot of things in my life I mean I've coached but I've done a lot of TV I've done books I've done a lot of things public speaking things that I couldn't even dream I mean I've been commentating the Grand Slam finals I was as a kid I was looking at that like they were gods so this this is possible of course it takes time but everything is possible and it fills you up with so much joy and so much power you build

your own power by little steps. And there is a guy that I value a lot who just said to me one day, he didn't create the sentence, but it's, I think, a famous quote, but just one day, every day put one foot in front of the other one. And then you're gonna go a long way. And the foot that you have to put in front of the other one

is to do something you don't dare doing, very small. And I took all the opportunity in my life. But I took them, but I mean, first time they had proposed me to do commentating for a match. I mean, the guy was missing. I was around. They said, do you want to do it? I said, sure, I do it.

And I did it. And then they said, you want to do a live show, participate into it? Of course, I do it. I took all the opportunities. But if I was able to take them, it's because I had the small victories before. Because if they would ask me a few years before, I would say, no. And I would not grow. So every single opportunity, take it.

And even if it's small, take it. Don't say I'm going to do it tomorrow, I'm going to do it next time. You're losing opportunities and you take confidence out of yourself. Because deep inside, you know you failed when you don't take it. When you don't make the effort, you know you failed. So you don't build your confidence. Thanks for sharing that. I think a lot of people really heard you in that.

And also heard about the idea of these small victories and that it works. That small victories, one after the other can start to build the big victories. And you've just had a really big victory with Naomi Osaka, your first victory together as coach and player. You know, for those who follow tennis, they know her name and her incredible ability and her incredible story. What did that victory mean to both of you? It's a very small victory because it's not a big tournament. It's $120,000. So it's really a small tournament, but it's a big victory.

First of all, because she didn't win a tournament for many years. I mean, her story is she had crazy ups because she was number one in the world, won four grand slams. Then she started to have some mental health problem that she was open to and spoke publicly about. She didn't play well for maybe a year and a half, two years. Then she got pregnant. She had a baby. And then she came back to competition and she didn't do well. And we started to work together in September.

Then she had a lot of injuries. So, you know, winning a tournament is very important. big thing. It's one week undefeited. That's what it is. We have players, let's say more than 90% of the players, probably 95 or 96, lose every single week a match during the whole season because they never win a title. So she won a title. And after so many years, it's big. And on top of it, she won it in difficult conditions. She had lost in the first round the week before. So the confidence was very low and she was going to a tournament that was smaller when in a way she didn't have the right to fail which I mean brought some crazy pressure on her and she felt it because every tennis player would feel that pressure

and on a surface which is clay where she never was successful she never won four matches in a row in her career and she won five in a row so for many on many aspects it was a big victory and you know what She arrived at the club in Rome today because now is the tournament of Rome and one of a top 10 players. She's not top 10 anymore, but she was top 10. A very, very good person, by the way, player. Came to her and said in front of me, she said, I respected you before, but with what you did last week,

I respect you even more. You have the courage to go there and to play those girls and to fight every match and to win it. It's huge. So that's a big victory for me. I mean, for me. I mean, in my opinion, it's a victory for her, but in my opinion, she did incredibly good. And, you know, as I told her before, and that's why I told her she had to play that tournament,

she's practiced very well. She's given 100%. I'm really proud of her. I think her game is great, but she lacks competition. And that's the reason why she lost in Madrid. And I told her, when you have a problem, you just fight the problem. It's no point to go back to practice. we have a problem competing at the moment, let's go compete.

Whatever tournament we have to play, let's go. If it's in Uzbekistan, let's go to Uzbekistan, doesn't matter. We need to play matches because those things we need to solve. And I'm happy with it. I mean, it's the way you describe kind of the compounding of all the things that she would be feeling going into that tournament. From the week before where she lost in the first match to then going to win five matches in a row,

what would you have said to her in between those? two points. I would say that the big difference and the big change she's made in the matches is her ability to stop judging herself. But the mistake she did, which is classic mistake for tennis players, and I think in life in general, is to put judgments on yourself continuously. And when you do that, you take a lot of confidence away from you and you feel bad, you You feel weak, you feel it's difficult to compete in those conditions.

Confidence is everything. I've said it's enough, but in tennis, it's everything. And all the players always talk about confidence. I need to win matches to get confidence. But on the other hand, I need confidence to win matches. So it's the story of the chicken and the egg all the time. So first of all, the practice has to be the best possible practice. So when you go to competition, you're ready.

But second, you need to have the right mindset when you compete. When things are going well, it's easy. And I told her, when everything's working to win a match with your level, it's easy. What is difficult is when you don't play well, and you don't play well for two reasons. First, because you have expectations, and you shouldn't go to a match, having expectations.

You go to a match, do your job. And to do your job is to focus on what you need to achieve and what's your goal for the match. And your goal is, I mean, of course you want to win. But winning is not a goal. Winning is a result. The goal is, what do I focus on? I focus only on things that I can control.

Winning, you cannot control everything, but there are a lot of things you can control. So when you start judging yourself and think, I don't play well, I should be playing better, I don't feel the ball today, all those things, it affects you, and it affects a lot of performance. And of course, all those thoughts come to your mind,

whether you want it or not. And the job, but most of the, players don't do the job well most of the time. Champions do, top champions do. And I'm sure that Naomi used to do it. She just forgot with all the things that happened those last years. You fill up your head, your mind with things that help you to avoid other thoughts that come in. That's the best way to avoid things coming to your mind is to fill it up with what you want. So it's a job on every single point, whatever happens during the match. And a lot of things happen.

A lot of emotions come in. A lot of thoughts come in. You have to take them away. And the only way to take them away is to talk to yourself in a way that makes you better. And I think she did great. She had some tough moments. She had some moments when it came back. But she fought it.

And she had some extremely difficult matches. But match after match, she was doing. better and better at that and she ended up playing the tennis that she wants to play at the end. But in a way that's deserved. That's what you deserve when you've done the job well. That's the ultimate results. That idea of kind of what you put in your head to be able to almost protect against other things getting in. In your book, you talk about finding your one thing, almost at the core of this, that one driving force. I'm curious, A, how you, how you found your one thing but also how do we all find it that's a very good question and most of the people

don't find it or maybe they know but they don't want to think that they can do it they think maybe they have a passion but i think uh but i'm not good enough or it's for others or i don't have the connections or but i think we all have something that we really love uh and i'm not talking about social media can be social media why not by the way but even though sometimes it's a trend i mean everybody probably when you're a kid every most of the people wish to be famous and an actor an actress a singer but there is something that you're good at i mean you're probably more than one but something you're really good at and you would love to be successful at that's your one thing You know, with your interactions you have with people, a lot of times you feel, oh, I'm good at that.

And when you're good at something, whatever it is, you keep building yourself around the feeling that there is something you're good at, having the attention of people and the congratulations of people because you're good at something, builds, it helps you build yourself confidence. It's very important. It can be cooking, can be anything, you know. Some people cook at home and they bring friends and people say, wow, you're so good at that. Why not?

You know, a lot of people have made incredible career in cooking. It can be anything. And I'm sure everyone has their one thing that they're good at. For me, it was tennis, was obvious because I was terrible everywhere. So there was one thing I was good at. There was passion since I was four. I started to play. And this became my thing because the tennis sport was the only.

only place where I felt worth something. Everywhere else, I felt worth nothing. As I said, school, I was terrible. In general, I felt terrible because I couldn't express myself that was scared to be judged. So even my self-perception of as a person was terrible. But when I was on a tennis court, people were telling me I was good.

I was seeing that I was good. I felt also more comfortable to speak to the players I was playing with because I felt worth something. So once you find this place, stick to it and give 100% there because that's your thing. When you talk about that, I'm thinking about the Moratoglo Academy, which you've built from the ground up. It's the largest tennis academy in Europe. I heard that when you were actually saying to your team, I'm going to be a coach, they kind of laughed at you because at that stage, you weren't a coach. And then you've built this thing with this belief around your one thing.

what did it actually take to build it? Like when you walk through the doors and see it now, what did it actually take to build it? Well, you are totally right. So I had my academy and I never thought I would coach. That was not my goal. My goal was to create the best academy in the world. That was my goal.

But at some point, I had to. I don't want to explain too much. It's going to be too long, but I had no other option than to become a coach because I put my name. I put my name because the previous coach that the academy was having his name, even though it was my academy, but he was famous.

It just left, and I had no more brand. And I thought I have no other option to put mine, because I'm the only person who's not going to live. Anyone else can live and take their own brand. The brand doesn't belong to me. So that's why I decided to put my name, but I was not a coach, so it didn't really look good. For a tennis academy, I had to be a coach.

And when I said this to my team, that I'm going to start coaching, and of course I have to be great, because otherwise the academy will not. not look good. They all did they didn't kind of love at me. They literally laughed at me and they said but you you never gave a tennis lesson in your life which was true. I was 32 years old, something like that. And I just answered you're right. I don't know anything, but I learned very fast. And I had the confidence. I knew I don't know how but I knew I would find a way.

Of course I didn't study coaching like all the other guys. I didn't have five, 10, 15 years, years of experience as a coach, I had nothing, but I knew I'll find a way. There is always a way. And when you have the confidence, you think you can accomplish anything. Actually, something Sirena also later showed me so well. You know, she thinks she can do anything on tennis courts. She thinks she can be injured and break her ligaments and win the grand slam. She really believes it. And it's such a powerful belief that helped her achieve so much. She won her in Garos with 40 degrees fever. She couldn't get out of bed.

She was going literally from her bed to the tennis court to play a match and go back to the bed, the whole tournament. It's impossible. If you'd ask anyone in the tennis world, is it possible to win a grandstander like this? 100% of people would say impossible. But she did it because of that belief. So how strong that is. So I speak so much that I forgot your question, which was, I think, about the academy more

than that, but I was just wanted to come back to your question about the people laughing at me. Yeah, they laughed at me, but didn't affect me. I was sure I would make it. So you've, I mean, there's so many pieces of that that are amazing, the Serena story is amazing, but just on the coaching side, so you've built all this. You've had this kind of success in coaching and you've only been doing it for 22 or 23 years. Yeah. Wow. Wow. After, after, I think, eight years, I mean, after five, no, less than that, actually, after three or five, four years, one of my player reached a grand slam final already. And after eight years, as a coach, I won my first grand slam and then 10, yeah. I want to go back to this idea of vicious cycles.

You mentioned it before. And you talk about in the book, this powerful idea that bad thinking leads to bad habits and bad habits lead to worse results. And it kind of, it sends you down this path. A lot of people have probably found themselves on that path at some point. How do you stop yourself if you're in that cycle. How do you stop and rewrite the ship? It has a lot to do with the concept of failure. We all fail, all of us, and we do fail a lot. The more you do, the more you fail.

People who are not active, they're actually failing 24-7, but they don't know they're failing, but they are. But the people who are acting, they leave the failures every day, every day. But they have a lot of victories, too, that counterbalance that. and if they have had enough victories, when they fail, it doesn't hurt them. It doesn't hurt them first because their confidence is big enough to take it, but also because of the concept of failure,

which is something that affects people much too much. It's a very strong belief and it's a reality. It's not words that want to look good, what I'm saying now. Failures are the best moment. Really. For two reasons. First of all, because when you fail, most of the time, it helps you know what not to do.

So in a way, it tells you what to do. So it's a great way to see the way out to get what you want first. But more than that, it's the greatest moment because it's the moments where you can really transform things and people and make changes that will pay off. I mean, the example that you just asked me about now, Naomi failing in the first run of Madrid is a good example. Maybe we'll see, time will tell, but maybe this failure was the moment when everything changed

for her because she bounced back because we knew where the problem was, so we knew what to do and we did what we had to do with success and maybe this success that she had will lead to many more and that would have been then when you look back you think, oh, that's failure was the most important moment of the season. It completely changed her season and maybe it will be her whole career. Who knows? Of course there will be other failures on the way. So when people fail, if you accept the responsibility of it, which is the main obstacle, because most of the people find excuses, if you don't find excuses and you say, okay, I fail, let me understand what, sorry, let me understand why I failed, let me see what I can do, let me see what I can change, can be the most interesting

moment in life. I remember when COVID hit and everybody was in quarantine and I spoke with this friend of mine who's one of the biggest banker and he said to me, you know, 50% of the most powerful companies in the world were built during the biggest crisis. So and that's when I built my, I started my tennis league that is doing extremely well now, UTS. I started doing the pandemic. I thought, I brought my team together and I said, listen, it's one of the worst moment in terms of business, but maybe there is a big opportunity there. So we have to see the opportunity and take it.

And the opportunity, the players were available. They were not playing. They were not able to play regular tournaments. We created a new league, a new tennis league, and we could enroll all of them to play. and most of the best players in the world playing the league. And after six weeks, our first event started and was broadcasted in more than 100 countries in the world with the best players in the world.

And now the league is doing incredibly well after a few years. So again, those moments of failure are such key moments. I could completely switch some players' mindset after a failure because they were also ready to hear. So to change for people who are in a vicious cycle, which is difficult to get out of, I would say number one, get out of your comfort zone just for a few little victories.

That's number one. And second, when you fail, just think maybe I have an opportunity. Most of the people don't see the opportunity because they're too focused on feeling pain, the pain of failure. They don't see the opportunity, but they're there. They're sometimes incredibly obvious from outside.

I mean, I see in other team in tennis the opportunities, but sometimes because I'm outside and I don't have the emotion. When you are into the emotion of failing, you don't see them. So take some distance. Take some distance, look and try to see where the opportunities are. There are always some. I almost want to go a bit deeper on that because I'm fascinated between this relationship between winning and failure. And you know, you talk about someone like Serena who's got this belief that

she can do anything. Ligaments torn, sick with a fever. So how does somebody who's got that kind of belief, that refusal to lose, also take a failure as a positive step or an opportunity? How do they make that shift? And does it really come back to belief? I'm just curious how that works and someone like that. You, me, everyone, we are, what we are today is the result of 10, 20, 30, 50 years of daily experiences. The experiences that we've gone through make us believe or see ourselves one way. For those champions, how many times do you think that Serena was in trouble in a match and found a way to win? a lot of times.

So when she's in that situation, she thinks, I'm going to find a way. Because it happened so many times. So she believes it. Of course, she has also an incredible driving force, but not everyone is going to be Serena. So I prefer to explain it that way. So that's why those winning experiences are so much,

so important. That's why they're such a key. Because it's like you're building a house. All those little little victories are building the house of your self-perception. If you don't do it every day, you don't dare doing it, you're too lazy, you're proxinating, procrastinating, sorry, in English, not easy, in French either, by the way. If you do those things, you are experiencing failure every day. So next time you're going to think, I can't do it. But on the other hand, if you do it, you are building the belief that you are able to do things.

So that's why it's so important. And those champions, they have years of those positive experiences, years of matches that they have been able to win, even though they were losing badly at the start. It reminds me of another one of Andy Murray, who was also an incredible champion with several majors, Gold at the Olympics at the era of Novak, Raffa and Roger. So not so many people can say that he has three grand slams. So he was playing George Songha, French guy, and Wimbledon. And he wins the first two sets, loses the next two.

So he's on a losing streak. And then first game of the fifth set, he wins his serve, normal. And it turns to his camp, to his team. And he says, and it's quite obvious what he says, even though we don't hear it with his mouth, he says, there is no way I'm going to lose this match. But the way he says it,

he believes it so much, six two for him and the fifth. Of course, no doubt, because he knows who he is. He's experienced it a hundred times, a thousand times. That's the way that people have to take.

That's why I'm going back to these little victories. And tennis is such an interesting sport. because there's a player on a court by themselves for so long. So although they've got a coach, they're going through a lot of that experience on their own, and it brings up this idea of resilience, that through that match, there's going to be all sorts of ups and downs.

So is resilience just that belief plus this history of positive experiences, or is there something else, and is there a procedure that you ask players to go through if they're finding themselves down? Yeah, I always say that in a tennis match, you have a life condensed. It's a life.

Every tennis match, it's like a life. It's long. You go through all kind of emotions and situations most of the time. And in a way, you experience failure during a match. You have this breakpoint, you don't make it, you have another one, you don't make it. And then the guy wins his serves. And then he breaks your serve. Oh, my God.

So what do I do with failure? Happens during one match. So those champions, they do well with failure. They're able to calm down. down, take a bit of distance, understand why they're in that situation, understand why they didn't make the break points, understand why they lost your focus, and then the other guy could break them, and they look for solutions because in the failure, there are opportunities, they look for them.

So that's why I'm saying it's a life condensed. And you're right, there are all the other things. The resilience is huge, the top players, the level of resilience. resilience is incredibly high. You know what? I always do this because I want to teach the young players what it is about. And I don't like to give lessons. So I asked them this question. And I did it with Holger Runa, for example. I started to coach him. He was 19 years old, so very young. And I said to him, okay, give me a few, just one or two words to describe Novak Djokovic. One or two words to describe Raphael Nadal. one or two words to describe Roger Federer, Sirina Williams. He didn't say talent once. Because that's not what defines them.

It's always the resilience, the ability to work extremely hard, the fighting spirits. I mean, all those things that make people successful. Were they born like this? No. Did they learn it? Of course. But how did they learn it?

not with a teacher telling them you have to be resilient, by experiencing it every single day on a tennis court. Because it's every day. Every day you have to practice even when you're tired or play a match in which you're going to get judged. And the first judge will be yourself and maybe fail. It's every day. And that's how you build yourself.

And the fact that those people have been able to create many more positive experiences which means victories, even small ones during matches, the negative ones have built them as champions. That's the only difference. And everyone in the tennis world would tell you there's not big difference in terms of level between a guy number 18 in the world and a guy number 10. They don't play incredibly better,

but they're better competitors, they have better mindset. That makes a difference. And I always said you don't win a grand slam with your tennis. You win it with your mind. and your heart. Interesting. That's fascinating when you asked that question,

and he responded with these internal characteristics, not with technique or skill. What, I mean, tennis is such a, again, it's such a fascinating, unique sport, the way it works between a coach and a player. What have you learned about the power of teamwork? Well, tennis, as you said, you're alone as a tennis player on a tennis court,

even though you're less now because you can be coached during matches, but you have a team around you. And in a way, you live in a world where everyone is your competitor. Everyone is going to face you one day on a tennis court and try to beat you. Can really have friends, so you're very alone. I mean, they all have friendly relationship, but not real friendship. Very rare in tennis. So the only people you can rely on is your team.

That's why the team is so important. And I have a whole chapter about the team in the book. Because it's the same in life. The people who are around you are going to make you successful or not. And I would say that there are a few things that are extremely important. And the first thing that I want to talk about is the way the people that are around you look at you. How do they look at you? In general, I think people are very critic.

They have a very critic eye. they always look at what's wrong with you or where they can find something weak or bad and it's funny because I talk to the coaches on tour quite often because we all know each other and I'm asking question and I say oh tell me about your player and most of the time the first thing they say is

his problem is a sentence starts like this believe it or not this is I'm coaching a competitor of his player and he's just pointing out where his problem is and even to think, I would never think about that first. Even I try not to think about those things. I think about what I want to solve. First sentence, his problem is, wow, this is not the way to look at people.

So the people who are around you, they can admire you, they can look at all your qualities. This is true in life, huh? what you do great, what a great person you are in many aspects, or they can look at your flows. They can look at what you don't do well, where you're weak, and if your close people look at you in the wrong way, they're killing you. They're taking all your positive energy. They're taking your confidence out of you. They're taking out of you.

they're literally how do you say cutting the branch on on which you're sitting so to choose the people who are looking at you the right way is a key really a key in life

and it's funny because all the famous people they're known to have those people around them that admire them and people are I mean fans and all people commentating they say oh look he loves to have people who who only are fans of him,

it's so weak, et cetera. No, no, no, no. Those people are right. Those people are right. And all the champions, people around them are admiring them. I admire my player all the time. I have a huge admiration for my player, huge.

And I think they feel it and give them confidence also. So that's number one key. And then after, of course, you need to have the right people in terms of, I mean, purely professional. A fitness coach has to be extremely professional. Of course, it's an evidence, but it's not easy to find people who are,

who understand, who are passionate, because passion is everything. If you do something with passion every single day of your life, after 10 years, you are a million times better than all the others. I met a physio many years ago. It was in 2000, 2000, I think, so 25. five years, six years ago, five. And the guys looked crazy because of what he was saying. I remember he wrote me a letter explaining how he would see, he sees his job because he

wanted to work with me at the academy. And I read the letter and I remember saying to a guy who was working with me, there are two options. He's completely crazy or he's a genius. So I have to meet him. And I thought he was a genius. I thought he was really way above everyone. He had understood a lot of other things that people did.

not understand at that time and I was right because what he was doing 25 years ago, everybody's doing now, but at that time nobody was doing it to take care of the players. But he was saying this to me. He was saying, I asked him that question when I interviewed him, why would you be better than others? Why would you understand things that others don't? And he told me this and he was totally right. He said, you know why? Because other people love to go fishing. I like only shoulders and knees and I spend 100% of my time thinking about this. That was completely right. And all the greatest players I've met in my life, they are the most passionate people about what they're doing. Wow. I heard you tell a story once about sitting,

eating your lunch by yourself, looking over a tennis court, just envisioning all this stuff. I can see that in you as you describe this. And when you're talking about the way your team looks at you, you had this saying, they look at you with kind eyes. And I loved hearing it said like that, kind eyes. It just felt like I know what that means. I know what that feels like and I know what I'd want around me in that case. Yeah. I mean, the people you like the way, if you think about it, and I'm sure you do, the people you like the most in your life are people who value you and who look at you with kind eyes. And I like what I like the most is a lot of my players when they're asked what did Patrick bring to you?

Their first response is I felt valued. And I'm happy to hear that because I do value them. I do admire them for what they're doing. I think they're great people. I think they're incredibly courageous. And I look at all their qualities.

And I think everyone deserves people who look at them that way. And everyone should look at people around them with the same kind and the world will be better. When you think back about some of the players you've coached and the moments that you've shared with them,

what are some of the moments that have made you just go, wow, like this was unbelievable what they just did. What stands out? What really struck me a lot, and this is what I look at when I look at the young player's potential, is the competitiveness, which is for me, the ability when you're in the money time to play your best.

and I've seen things that really were wow. I remember a player like Stefano's Siti Pask, where I know for a long time, he was at my academy when he was young, and I saw him grow there. I remember when he was playing the qualities of the Grand Slams and he was young and he was not a great ranking yet. I've seen him in major matches for him at that time

in the most difficult moment, hit a shot that he was never able to do at practice and make it. That was crazy. When the shot that you master the least, but you have to make it, because that's the moment that you have to deliver, to make it successful. And that moment, wow. Really, wow. That's really, really impressed me.

I got goosebumps as you were saying that. The best players in the world are the best competitors. 100%. So I always look at this when I see a young player, a good competitor that player is. But it comes back to also being able to find a solution when you don't play well. I mean, people don't realize because they're not professional tennis players, but professional play tennis players, if let's say they play 18 matches per year, they will play really well, five matches.

They will play good, 15 matches, play really average. average 30 matches and bad, I don't know if my calculation is good, but very bad 20 matches. The champions will win 90 to 95% of them. So that's a big difference. How do I solve my problems instead of complaining looking at the solutions? of being down because I'm not playing well, looking for solutions and finding them. Patrick, what was the lesson that's taking you the longest to learn? I think the longest lesson to learn for me was about the emotion because, I mean, humans

need emotions and we all seek emotions all the time, more or less, but we do, and that's why people drink alcohol also or take drugs for the extreme cases, because they're want to feel emotions and we all seek emotions we are a bit addicted to emotions all of us again more or less and probably me more than other people because my job is all about it we live crazy emotions every single day um so a lot of times when i was studying coaching um i was the emotions were overwhelming for me and i did mistakes because of the emotions and it took me a few experiences to to realize that emotions were bad advisors because when you are into really deep, strong emotions, you don't think anymore.

Your answer is purely emotional. And it's easy to, I mean, you have examples every single day in your life. Imagine your partner. Your partner is emotional. She's shouting. You get emotional immediately and you answer with your emotions. most of the time the response you give is not the right one. Never. If you respond to your emotions, never. So one of the biggest lesson in life is to be able to, because we are humans and we have

emotions, be aware that you are under a huge amount of emotions and don't answer, don't ask, don't answer, don't act. All your actions will be wrong, driven only by emotions and all your responses to the emotion will be also driven by emotion. So the best is to not take any decision, wait to count down, and this is also a big lesson in the book, and always ask yourself this question and answer honestly, what do I really want? I come back to the example because we all leave that example of arguing with your girlfriend or boyfriend or wife. Okay. your partner you're you're arguing what you want and you're arguing you want to be right that's all you want and you're very emotional about it and you think she's wrong and you're right and blah

and then becomes can become really bad by the way if you calm down and you ask yourself what do i really want i want to have a great relationship with my partner that's what i want i want when she's emotional to give her what she needs because she needs something when she's emotional when she's emotional. That's what you want. But during the action, you cannot think that way. So that's not the right time to answer. And when you're ready, when you come down and you can answer that question, then you're ready to try to find solutions. And then you can come back to the discussion when everybody's calm and have a much more fruitful discussion that will lead to a much better income at the end. I don't know if it's the right word. I don't think so. Outcome. Sorry, the outcome will be

much better at the end. So this is true for everything in life. Emotion is really a bad advisor. We love it. When it's positive, just enjoy it. When it's bad emotions, be extremely careful. This took me a bit of time to understand. And if you could go back to 20-year-old Patrick, Patrick that was going through a ton of transformation of that time, what would you tell your 20-year-old self? I would just tell myself, my 20 years old self, I would tell my 20 year old self, you're on the right way. You're courageous, you're doing an effort every single day to change your life. I started a therapy when I was 17, I did 10 years of therapy also, which was, I think, courageous at 17 to be able to accept that things were not going right. I just and I would tell myself

you're doing a great job you're really courageous the therapy will take the time that you're going to take it's not everything you know you do a therapy but you also have to make efforts every day and you do to have those small victories and build yourself as a person that is able to achieve

his dreams so keep going you're doing the right thing when I was 16 it was a different story I was not doing the right things at all but when I was 20, I was on the way already. It sounds in kind eyes. Sounds like you're looking at yourself with kind eyes.

I hope a lot of 20-year-olds hear that. Patrick, what do you hope? I look at people with kind eye, yeah. Yeah, in general. It's powerful. What do you hope your legacy is? Honestly, I never think of this. I never think about legacy.

I never think about what I've achieved. Never. And believe me or not, but never. And every time I'm asking, what are you the most proud of? I don't know. And I always answer the same. The only thing I'm really proud of is the transformation from 16 years old to 26.

What I did during this time was, it made me ready for life. And in a way, everything else was just work. And it was so much easier than transforming myself, even though nothing is easy. I mean, I'm not saying it's easy. But I found out later because I never look back. I always look in front and I will always look at what's next because I think we're on a journey or on a bike and if you look back on a bike, you're going to fall. It's always better to look in front and be excited with the journey you're on. And that's what's making me excited every single day of my life.

If I would look back, I think I would be in contemplation. And contemplation means being static. And I think we're much better being dynamic. and I found out that champions always look forward, always. And I tell that story about Serena that really struck me because it was very extreme, but she is very extreme. That's why she's so exceptional. 2013, January, she comes back to number one.

And she tells me, okay, now my goal. I mean, she came back to first winning grand slams. She won three. Yeah, she won two grand slams, Olympic gold in singles and doubles, and the WTO championship at the end. the season, she's back to number one. And she said, now, now I want to win Rangaroz because I've won only once in 2002. We are in 2013 and it's 10 years of failing and I want to win it. Can you please make a plan for me to win it? I make the plan and that season 2013, she doesn't lose one match on

clay the whole season. She wins all her matches, including Rangaros. And I mean, the trophy she was chasing for 10 years. She has it in her hands and it's the trophy ceremony. And then trophy ceremony is over. She goes down in the locker room, I went down the stairs first. And then she says, come with me. I want to go to the fitness. I want to stretch. I go with her.

We literally five minutes after the trophy ceremony. For a trophy, she's chasing for 10 years of a grand slam. And after five minutes, she looks at me and she says, okay, now we have to win Wimbledon. She already forgot about it, five minutes after it. She's already thinking of the next one. I mean, that's outrageous, but that says a lot about who Serena is and the ability of the champions to always be embarked on the next journey, always with high goals and with excitement. Rafi did the same. I remember 19 years old, he wins his first Rangaros.

The day after Rangaros, I remember watching the interview, and he's talking about winning Wimbledon. He said, oh, now that I won Rangaros, I want to win Wimbledon. and I never won't Wimbledon. I mean, he's already there. He's already thinking about the next one. So, yeah, that's one of the characteristics of the champions. Wow. Wow.

That champion perspective is so extraordinary. And so you said extreme, extreme. And you talk about the idea of what's next. And my final question for you, you know, tennis academy, massive success across the globe of tennis, a tennis series that's being successful champion mindset the book. After all of this, what's next for you? Next for me first is Naomi. I mean, I started the journey with her in September.

I could feel she was very motivated to come back. I believe in her abilities, tennis-wise, and mentally wise because she's been a champion before. So I know she has it somewhere for sure. It's inside her. And then the start was tough because she got in. three times, bad injuries. So, I mean, the start was really difficult. And then a bit up and down for three months. She had some good results, but bad ones too. So I'm very excited to find

a solution to help her find a solution to come back to being great again and potentially even better than before. Why not? Everything's possible. So that makes me extremely excited. and I always put my job as a coach as my number one goal always because that's my passion and that's what I think I'm really good at and that's what drives me the most. But I have other goals, but for that I have a team that I really value a lot. I mean, great people, they've achieved a lot with me. So my tennis academy is number one in Europe. We're doing extremely well.

We open now 14 new locations in the world. We're going to open, I think, five new ones before the end of the world. We're in all continents, Europe, US, Latin America, Asia. We have one in China, one in Malaysia. So we're opening everywhere. And we have other businesses. I have my tennis league that is so exciting that I think can show some future for tennis because it's a really new way to play tennis.

Very exciting. We're filling up stadiums. the last stadium we filled up 12,500 seats so it's really working incredibly well also broadcasted everywhere in the world and then we started other businesses in other sports so yeah everything life is

exciting when you when you have goals and you're excited when you wake up in the morning because you believe you can achieve those goals and you're on a journey so that's the whole topic about the book and my goal is to help as many people as it can help. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.