What Tennis Taught Me About Starting a Business

Let me just start with, I hate the game of tennis. It’s not that the game itself is inherently bad, it’s just that I can’t seem to win. I hit the ball, get it over the net, but scoring? Not really doing much of that.

My husband and I found some racquets on the side of the road recently and decided maybe it was a sign to give this new sport a whirl. We have open courts near our house and this was our attempt at changing our “eat dinner on the couch and fall asleep” routine after work.

I haven’t really played much tennis outside of my elementary school days when I was forced to play the sport during a regular monthly rotation.

I was a major tomboy, but I don’t think I liked it much back then either. But here’s what’s interesting. I’m fascinated by the things I’m bad at. I’m even more fascinated by the things that really frustrate me. So naturally, I got really into playing tennis after work. I became obsessed with figuring how to win this awful, torture-riddled game.

I promise the business tie-in is coming.

I started my own business a month ago. I was laid off with no notice from the best job I’ve ever had about 7 months ago, and quit the job I took to fill an immediate void a month after that. I decided at that point that it was time to live life on my terms and do the work I was meant to do.

The immediate weeks of starting a business are almost more torturous than playing tennis. You go through an insane mielu of paperwork and legal documents and immediately get advice on what you need to do with social media, a website, a brand identity, a profit and loss statement… You learn new acronyms like EIN, AP, AR, etc.

Your brain is spinning and you find yourself wishing you could put all this through a trial run before taking this idea so far. In the first month, it’s also hard to find victories. You don’t find yourself instantly scoring deals and making sales. It’s a process.

So, when I was on the court those first few days, I realized I was living out my business feelings through tennis.

Here’s What I Learned in the Process:

Eyes on the Prize

In Tennis: Obsessing over a win feels like fuel in a game like tennis, but it’s really a distraction. The real goal is to hit the ball and get it over the net. By default, the more times you effectively hit the ball over the net, the closer you are to a win. Start one step at a time.

In business: Staying focused is one of the most difficult aspects of being an ambitious entrepreneur. You feel motivated to chase whatever project pays you (a win), which creates a loss of vision and a muddy business offering in the long term.

It’s about taking it one day, and one strategic move at a time. The big win is your goal but don’t lose sight of the effective steps required to take you there. This makes the whole process much less overwhelming, too. Simply hit the ball.

Remember to Enjoy the Process

In Tennis: After several losses, I started whispering intense pep talks to myself, getting really riled, angry and worried about losing yet another game. Can’t I just catch a #$%*! break?! I dropped the laughter and transformed into an insane tennis Viking who just wanted to clobber the enemy.

I forgot that I was with my husband, trying something recreational and fun. I let the losses control my experience instead of simply allowing the process of getting better to unfold. Let me tell you from experience, mastering tennis is not an overnight process where your skills magically improve through a pep talk.

In Business: It’s safe to say that starting a business can mean a long series of missteps, misfortune, and misunderstanding. It’s easy to lose sight of your original intention and desire to start a business in the first place. Don’t forget that running a business is a journey, it takes time and if you’re not enjoying any aspect of it, you might as well go back to working a 9–5 for someone else.

Learn to embrace, and even revel in the difficult process (it’s especially important during a losing streak). Let me tell you from experience, mastering business is not an overnight process where your skills magically improve through a pep talk.

Shortcuts Don’t Work

In Tennis: In my moments of desperation, I tried to be cheap and hit really hard or soft. My version of a “trick shot” always came out wrong, out of bounds, over the fence with no scoring whatsoever.

In fact, during one game, I ended up scoring 3 whole points for my husband with this method. Trying to take the easy way out only got me more behind.

In Business: There are no shortcuts. If you see one, look and turn the other way. The long road will always pay off.

Victory will Come…and What Happens When It Does

In Tennis: As I mentioned in the introduction, I become obsessed with the things I’m bad at, so we played extremely regularly. After many games over several weeks, I finally won ONE game. I didn’t even cheer. I just laid on the court exhausted and whispered to myself: “finally”.

In Business: I realized later that when I won for the first time, it happened to be on the one month anniversary of starting my business, and on the day I booked my first official event. My tennis and business victories had aligned.

I would say that it was “my lucky day”, but it was really my hard-earned success. I now felt like I had put in the time and effort and earned my win fair and square. When these victories come, that’s where the real sense of achievement comes in, and when a feeling of accomplishment is truly felt.