"WHEN YOU QUIT HARD THINGS…”

"WHEN YOU QUIT THE HARD THINGS, IT BECOMES EASY TO QUIT ON EVERYTHING WHEN THINGS BECOME HARD.”

As an 8-year-old child in Jamaica, I was fortunate enough to secure a spot in what, in my opinion, was one of the best tennis training programs in Kingston at the time, led by a gentleman named Arthur Philpotts.

Prior to this, I had another coach. However, I quickly realized that if I wanted to become the best player possible, two things needed to happen.

Firstly, one-on-one coaching wasn’t providing me with enough regular practice matches.

Secondly, I needed a coach who would push me harder than even I wanted to be pushed.

You see, under my previous coach, if I gave up during a match and stopped trying, my old coach would let me slide without saying anything.

BUT when I joined Uncle Arthur’s camp (as we all called him), he demanded a level of effort such that even if we knew we were outmatched in a game, we went down fighting.

He organized a tournament, and for the first time in my life, I was winning points consistently, then games, then sets, and eventually matches.

In a semifinal match I was losing, and to make matters worse, my mum had stopped paying attention to the game and started chatting and bonding with the mother of the kid beating me!

It was so bad that I actually asked the umpire to make them leave as it was distracting the game. Shane Alexis had me on the ropes, and victory was within his grasp.

Then I remembered Uncle Arthur's mantra.

“WHEN YOU QUIT THE HARD THINGS……

I had to dig deeper than I ever had before. Fought harder than I thought possible. Needless to say, I turned the match around and won.

But the battle was not over. My reward was Graham Tuller, a young teen who was a top 10 seed on the national junior circuit.

This was my prize for beating Shane in the semifinals.

I lost that match, but I won at life. You see, I had never reached a semifinal, let alone a final, of any tournament in the country at the time.

Up to that point and joining that camp, I had never learned how to fight and have a sense of purpose.

What that experience taught me was that quitting is easy, and if you do not learn the value of perseverance, one will develope the habit of quitting every time things get difficult.

To anyone reading this, if there is something you believe in and you feel like quitting, please don't. Remember, the harder the challenge, the more your self-esteem will grow when you look in the mirror, knowing that despite the result, you gave it your all.

Never give up! You can do it! Fail faster and treat any negative outcomes as feedback and go again.

P.S. Here’s a picture of my kit now. I have all the gear. I’m that guy who rocks up thinking I’m Carlos Alcaraz. But even though age and injury prevent me from playing, it's a physical manifestation of my resilience."