I was glued to the TV watching the final of the men’s singles at Wimbledon when Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in arguably the greatest tennis final ever.

What impressed me the most was not just the superlative tennis or Rafa’s self-belief and ability to stay in the present. No, it was on Monday when on doctor’s advice to rest his knee he pulled out of the Mercedes Cup, he flew to flew to Germany to apologise to tournament organisers. It would have been so easy to phone, text or e-mail – but to do it in person reveals a lot about his character.

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to visit Kleiner Perkins the doyen of VCs on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley. One phrase stuck with me was ‘pick your friends who you want to get into trouble with’ relating to building teams who you can trust to do the right thing in good times and bad. I’d love to have Rafa in my team any day.


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Magnanimous in victory

By Philip

Posted on July 8, 2008 to Uncategorized. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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