More from John McEnroe

Measure your success by how much you evolve, not necessarily how much you win.

JM

John McEnroe

Stanford University Commencement, 2023

23:35

Video starts at 23:35 — the moment this quote was spoken

The Story Behind This Quote

McEnroe's closing advice uses his final tennis analogy: when a ball is coming at you, you have a split second to decide how to return it. You have a handful of options and make the best decision in the moment. Sometimes you win the point, sometimes it's an endless rally that you lose — but you take your best shot and keep finding the courage to step on the court. He ends with a quote emblazoned on a wall at Wimbledon from Kipling's poem If: "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same." Win or lose, what matters is giving everything you've got.

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