Andre Agassi hates tennis.
This is surprising, given he has held the rank of No. 1 in men’s singles, won countless tournaments and eight majors, and completed a dramatic career Grand Slam in 1999 at the French Open. Agassi holds an Olympic gold medal, the 1990 ATP Tour World Championship, 17 Masters titles and more. He was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011. And he’s married to another celebrated tennis champion (Steffi Graf).
In an inspiring conversation with National Restaurant Association President and CEO Michelle Korsmo at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago on Sunday, Agassi explained why he hated the sport his father had forced him to play.
But he also explained how his rise to the top of the sport, and subsequent fall, then led to a vulnerability that allowed him to take control of his tennis narrative and find purpose and peace.
He founded the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, a public charter school for children in economically challenged neighborhoods. Since then, his foundation has raised about $180 million to support a network of about 130 schools across the country, he said.
Winning a tennis tournament gives a memory, he said. “But seeing a child’s life change, that’s generational.”
Agassi is also an investor in restaurants, with partner Michael Mina, a chef and restaurateur known for concepts like Bourbon Steak, Acqua Bistecca, Bardot Brasserie, and the restaurant Michael Mina.
Agassi said he loved Mina’s attention to detail. “Sixty restaurants later, we still love each other,” he said.
Great service, in particular, is important to Agassi.
“I also value acoustics,” he said to the crowd. “I think some of you like creating noise so people don’t have to talk to each other at dinner.”
Agassi sees a lot of similarities between playing tennis at the top of your game and running restaurants.
Tennis, at the end of the day, is problem solving. So is running a business. With both, you get immediate feedback.
Agassi found peace in realizing that he didn’t have to be good, he just had to be better than the one person he was playing.
He told the story of meeting Carl Lewis, one of the greatest track-and-field athletes of all time. Agassi asked Lewis why he would start off at the back of the pack in a race. “Why don’t you just run faster?” he asked him.
Lewis responded that he wasn’t actually speeding up later in the race. He would run strong throughout the race, but the others would lose speed, so it just looked like he was running faster at the end.
Agassi started to apply that notion to tennis.
He said, “If you can care enough about the details in everything you do, I don’t think you’re going to recognize pressure moments as pressure moments. I think you’re going to recognize that you’re just more prepared to be the best of yourself, whatever that moment calls for.”
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