I recently heard a surprising statistic that I felt the need to verify, so I searched to see if it was true. The statistic is that the best professional tennis players in the world (think Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer) only win between 52% to 55% of the total points in their tennis matches. Don’t believe me? Check out this 2020 article from tennishead.net. Here are the figures from the article:
2015-2019: Percentage Points Won > 52%
- Novak Djokovic = 54.95%
- Rafael Nadal = 54.73%
- Roger Federer = 54.54%
- Andy Murray = 53.08%
- Milos Raonic = 52.43%
- Juan Martin del Potro = 52.42%
That tells us that the margin between good and great is quite small. Yet, as we know, Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer absolutely dominated professional tennis during that stretch of time. Imagine being good enough to win almost half the points against your opponent and yet still lose essentially every time you play them. Winning every once in a while is easy enough, but consistently putting yourself in that 55% category can put you into all-time great status. This is partly explained by their natural talent, but they clearly are consistently putting in the extra work to give themselves the edge to tip the balance in their favor. When others stop training, they keep going.
Another semi-related example of this statistical phenomenon is the casino game Blackjack. The odds of a player winning in a hand of Blackjack are approximately 42%. The odds of the house (i.e. the dealer or casino) winning are approximately 49% and the odds of a tie are approximately 9%. We know that casinos absolutely rake in the cash at the Blackjack tables. So, even though the house wins slightly less than half the time, they are the clear winners over the long run because they have the slight statistical edge.
The main takeaway here is that to consistently succeed over the long run, you need to consistently put in the extra work to give yourself the edge. This concept applies to all areas of life including business, investing, sports, health, education, and fitness. Make sure you are consistently (yes, that word again) putting yourself in the best position to succeed by continually putting in the extra effort and also avoiding “unforced errors.”
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