Ted Williams, the great Boston Red Sox slugger, once said that all he wanted out of life was that when he walked down the street, people would point and say, "There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived." Early in my career, I adopted a similar attitude. It may strike some as arrogant, but that's the kind of fuel you need to really reach the heights of achievement. There were times in my career when I would step up to the service line at a crucial moment in the heat of combat in a big match and pause to drink in the atmosphere. Fired up by adrenaline, I'd look toward the crowd and defiantly say to myself, "All right, everybody, now I'm going to show you who I really am!"
Most champions have that kind of aggression, that competitiveness. It comes with the territory. You don't survive long with a target on your back without it.
