It's okay to not get it right.

"Serena, swing all the way around. All the way around, always."

Hi guys,

Hope you are well. I’m doing okay, Alhamdulillah.

I write this at 7:35 am on a bright Sunday morning, and I have already been told: “you’re in such a good mood this early morning”. It is not untrue. 😅

As I intend to both get a lot of work done and rest a lot today, it is in my interest to write as early as possible. So let’s get to it.

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Over the past few days, I have been watching The Playbook: A Coach’s Rules for Life on Netflix. It is a 5-episode documentary, each following a world-class sports coach. It includes interviews and stories from people like José Mourinho, the football coaching legend currently at AS Roma, and Doc Rivers, coach of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.

But the one that really caught my attention was the episode with Patrick Mouratoglou, coach to Serena Williams, probably the best female tennis player of all time. Patrick shared a story from a Wimbledon game back in 2015, when Serena was consistently losing whenever she hit the tennis ball from around the center of the court.

While she had been playing well in general, anytime she had to move close to the net to hit the ball, she struck out. Her opponent seemed to notice this and hit more balls in that area of the court. Again and again, Serena was striking out. She was losing confidence. During the break, Patrick knew that she needed to fix up.

As a coach, he could have given her tips for doing better closer to the net.

“Serena, whenever the ball is about to hit your contact point, swing all the way around. All the way around, always.”

He could even have gotten frustrated.

“Serena, this is not what we practiced! You’re throwing it all away, remember what we practiced!”

Or he could have been supportive.

“Don’t worry about it honey, I love you and we’ll get them next time. Just do your best today.”

What he chose to do instead, was the following.

Patrick: Serena, you’re doing so great whenever you’re close to the net. Whatever it is you’re doing, keep doing it!

Serena: Huh?!

Patrick: Keep doing whatever you’re doing close to the net, it’s working!

Serena: I’m striking out close to the net every time!

Patrick: I’m watching the game and the stats say otherwise. Whenever you hit the ball around the center of the court, you win 80% of the game sets.

Serena: Really?

Patrick: That’s what the stats say, not me. Just keep doing it.

Serena: Okay.

After the break, Serena’s confidence improved. She started hitting more balls from the center of the court and ended up winning the game. Watching this for me was an unbelievable lesson in how to motivate people.

Serena and Venus Williams shake hands after a game in 1991 - Image from NPR

As I spent more time thinking about it, I realized that I had just had a similar experience. You see, from about Thursday last week, I had been working on a client deliverable at work. When I initially received the task, my vibe was, ‘na smallz, I sabi this thing normal’. 😅

But as I began to work on it, I quickly realized that it was very different from the ones I had worked on before. As I sent it for review after review, each response came with about 20 comments (I kid you not) on what to fix.

And it began to take up a lot of my time, quickly becoming a source of frustration. But it was a deliverable that needed to get to the client ASAP, so I could not afford to be frustrated. Of course, I was putting in long hours. After working till 10 pm on Monday night, I slept till about 2:30 am, and continued working on it till after 5, all part of trying to meet the deadline.

During my 9 am meeting on Tuesday morning with J (my Manager on this project), she was worried. Not so much for the state of the document, but for my physical and emotional well-being. She could tell I had been working stretched, and wanted me to seek out help rather than suffer in silence or burnout.

And then she said something I really appreciated.

“Hameed, the first time I worked on this type of document, it took me like 15 rounds of edits and rewriting. So it’s okay to not get it right once or twice. I will support however I can, but if things stay this difficult, we can always speak to the client and push back on the timeline.”

My thinking immediately changed.

It took J 15 rounds? Ehen.

Bad as it bad o, it can’t take me 15 rounds.

And so we worked and worked over the next few days, eventually sending the deliverable to the client on Thursday evening. Finally, we could breathe. Until the next round of comments and questions come back from the client at least. 😅

Thinking about it, I don’t think it actually took J 15 rounds even in her first time. I am 99.9% sure that she only said that to make me feel better, much like Patrick did to Serena in the Wimbledon tennis game.

But you know what?

It worked.

** Jara content:

قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّى وَهَنَ ٱلْعَظْمُ مِنِّى وَٱشْتَعَلَ ٱلرَّأْسُ شَيْبًۭا وَلَمْ أَكُنۢ بِدُعَآئِكَ رَبِّ شَقِيًّۭا

“My Lord! Surely my bones have become brittle, and grey hair has spread across my head, but I have never been disappointed in my prayer to You, my Lord.” - Zecheriah, Surah 19 verse 4

Have a great week. ✨