CHAPTER 4Find your focus
… life must be understood backwards. But … it must be lived forwards.
Søren Kierkegaard
They say that little things don't matter. Tell that to the guy with a mozzie in his tent in the middle of the outback, or the woman with a pebble in her shoe. Little things can have a big impact.
Do the little things right
I was reminded of this a while back when I was attending a seminar on applied finance in Melbourne. Across the road from my venue was a tennis centre where all the professional players in town were training for the Australian Open. Being an avid sports lover, I couldn't help but turn my attention to the courts, where Roger Federer was conducting his last-minute training for the finals that night.
I thought Roger would be practising his overhead smash shots, his service or his backhand. But no. He was on the back line, bent over, bouncing a ball, over and over. He must have done it 50 times without a break. Occasionally, he would toss the ball up in the air, as if to serve, but then he'd just let the ball drop to the ground and go back to bouncing it, over and over. I should have been watching an accountant present on time-series analysis, but I was transfixed with watching this master of tennis rehearse his ritual, in awe at his precise preparation and attention to detail.
Knowing he had a Grand Slam tournament ahead of him that night, he could have been doing a hundred different things that afternoon to prepare for the game ahead, but he was ...