The US Open, tennis’s most visited Grand Slam, is in its second week now and I cannot pass on the opportunity to pay homage to my favorite Champion. He had never had anything to do with the financial profession (even though he possesses remarkable financial savvy that allowed him to preserve and expand his wealth), but what fits him perfectly into this blog’s context is his special relationship with Frustration.
I am talking, of course, about John McEnroe. The majority of his critics wrote off his tantrums, consistently displayed on and off the court, as uncontrolled bad temper. As if he just had bad manners and didn’t know how to carry himself properly in accordance with the “proper” police.
The truth is that the great tennis misbehaving hero has an incredible sense of what’s right and what’s not. He gets frustrated when things are not the way they are supposed to be. And, as we discussed before, in What is Frustration? , that’s a normal reaction.
If you recall, his most famous outbursts were never random – they were directed at chair umpires’ questionable calls, rude audiences, trash-talking opponents, his own errors, etc. Unfortunately, he didn’t have an ability to keep it inside until the end of the match and then let it out some place private (like I advise you, or like Roger Federer does). Instead……
Watch this: “You cannot be serious!!!”
Talking about the frustration release… However, he also capitalized on his frustration. He elevated his game and thus silenced and destroyed his critics, he created shots still remembered by connoisseurs, he won 7 Grand Slams and ranked Number One in the World.
The reason to address the problems that we face everyday in our working environment is not just to release our frustrations, but to to be able to get over them, to continue doing your job the best you can, to carry on.
The Frustrated CFO 