Building the Champions of Tomorrow
Watching Wimbledon the other week I was interested to hear a commentator remark: “Tennis champions are not born, they’re made, and Richard Williams made two.” It struck me as a rather odd thing to say. For starters, didn’t Mrs Williams have a pretty big role to play in the creation of Venus and Serena? And how much of the sisters’ incredible success should be credited to their parents in any case? After all, I don’t see Richard wowing the crowds at centre court with his backhand.
But apparently parental influence is everything when it comes to building champions and it is essential to start them young. Age five seems to be about right. That explains why I never made it to SW19 as I didn’t lift a racket until I saw Borg and McEnroe on the telly in the late 70s. By then I was ten and obviously past it. Also I never had access to a court and just hit the ball around the school playground with my mates using a line of classroom chairs for a net. My racket came free when a parent filled the car with petrol.
But now, at last, I have a shot at glory, albeit of the vicarious variety. I have the chance to follow in Richard Williams’ footsteps and create a couple of tennis champions of my own. My children are three and one – young enough surely to mould into the Wimbledon winners of tomorrow?
So it was that filled with hope and expectation I took my three year old son Matthew down to the Nottingham Tennis Centre last week to get started. Dressed in our best Wimbledon whites we joined one of the Notts Tots tennis classes and I walked in proudly alongside my little protege. Sadly ten minutes later we were walking out again. Matthew had decided it was more fun to climb the nets than play tennis and I had to remove him for his own safety.
Evidently he’s not quite ready just yet to challenge Nadal and Federer, or even Andy Murray for that matter. But with fifteen years intense training and several hours daily practice to the exclusion of any other interest or pastime and who knows?
The question is would he thank me for it? If he turns out to be anything like me he’ll prefer to spend his teenage years sitting in dark rooms playing video games and listening to moody music. I wonder how Richard Williams dealt with such difficulties?
Press Release Surgery: If you would like me to give an opinion on your press release email me at steve@pressmanpr.co.uk.
Squidoo: I now have a Squidoo page where I describe ten steps to create a snappy press release. Click here to visit and please rate it.
What I’m Reading: I am currently reading Purple Cow by Seth Godin. The book has the strap line - Transform your business by being remarkable. Seth’s a very wise man who has recognised that conventional advertising is dead. It’s all about PR now. If your company is still spending a fortune on ineffective advertising stop right now and hire yourself someone who can create a buzz about you in the media instead. It is cheaper and much more effective.
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Inspiring Entrepreneurs: I now have my own bookshop - in association with Amazon. It is stocked with all my favourite business books and all the books which have inspired me over the years. Click here to visit the Pressman Bookshop.
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Pressman Seminars: If you would like to find out how to slash your advertising spend yet gain lots of great publicity for your company, how to plan your PR strategy, how to find an angle about you and your company that the press will love, and how to craft punchy press releases that journalists won’t be able to resist, then come to one of the Pressman seminars.
Seminars take place in Nottingham and run from 10am to 4pm. The cost is just £295 per person with lunch, parking and tea / coffee all included in the price. I will take you through exactly what the press need and want and help you identify what aspects of your company, products and services, are PR-able.
I will work with you on an individual basis to help you create a perfect press release to kick start your campaign. You are guaranteed a marketable release – if it isn’t finished on the day I will complete it for you later and email it to you within a couple of days. If you would like more details email me at steve@pressmanpr.co.uk with “seminar” in the subject box.