My career has obligated me to hear a lot of commencement addresses. None, I will say, quite like this one. As a tennis fan, I’ve always found it easy to like Roger Federer and it would not have been hard to imagine that if he were called on to give a commencement speech, that it would be something like this.

You will not be surprised to learn that his speech had three points. Here they are:

“Effortless is a myth.”
“It’s only a point.”
“Life is bigger than the court.”

If you take the trouble to transplant those simple remarks to a tennis career, you will see immediately how he used them. It is how he used them that most interested me. Here are some illustrations.

First:
I’m happy to be here! Happy to be with you, here on the Green. As you might have heard… grass is my favorite surface.

Second:
Today, I want to share a few lessons I’ve relied on through this transition. Let’s call them… tennis lessons.

Third:
But talent has a broad definition. Most of the time, it’s not about having a gift. It’s about having grit.

Fourth
In tennis, perfection is impossible… In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches… Now, I have a question for all of you… what percentage of the POINTS do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%.

In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot. You teach yourself to think: OK, I double-faulted. It’s only a point. OK, I came to the net and I got passed again. It’s only a point.

And finally:
Tennis… like life… is a team sport. Yes, you stand alone on your side of the net. But your success depends on your team.

Pretty good, I thought. I would have loved to have heard it live.