becoming number 1

I've been doing a lot of flying lately. To me, flying means uninterrupted time to read (on my fabulous new kindle). On my last trip to Tampa, I flew threw Open, Andre Agassi's memoir. I know not much about Andre Agassi, just that he was a tennis player who was once married to Brooke Shields, and I downloaded the book on a whim, as a change of pace from all the poorly written legal thrillers I had been reading. (What is it about legal thrillers that make them bestsellers despite implausible plotlines and ridiculously unbelievable characters (a lawyer with a heart of gold, an IQ of 170, the wit and charm of a fairytale prince, all wrapped up in supermodel looks? Please.))

I loved the book. It was beautifully written (it was after all the creation of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer J.R. Moehringer) and disturbingly honest, but here is what I got out of it: Talent will only take you so far, even if it is world-class, one-in-a-gazillion, make-others-choke-with-envy type of exceptional talent. Of course, there is hard work and persistence involved (duh), but what Agassi makes infinitely clear is that it is desire that ultimately makes the difference. Easy to say and easy to dismiss as a cliche, but in a world where it is so easy to just get by with what seems like plenty (or at least enough), it is not as easy to want something so badly, both emotionally and mentally, that you will become number one. Sounds like the start-up world to me.

Mina