Why Do Founders Talk to Themselves?

David Senra has lost count of the founders who talk to themselves out loud, answer themselves, and negotiate with their own psyche, and who call the work lonely. Tennis is the sport where you talk to yourself and answer. In the heat of a match, tennis players look like lunatics in a public square, ranting and swearing and conducting debates with their alter egos, because tennis is so damn lonely. One byproduct of the self-talk is a lot of good ideas.

Andre Agassi does the same thing, and a lot of the self-talk happens in the shower. Tennis is the closest thing to solitary confinement, which leads to self-talk, and the self-talk starts in the afternoon shower. In the shower he began to say crazy things over and over until he believed them. He has won 869 matches in his career, fifth on the all-time list, and many were won during the afternoon shower.

The orders are strict. Take it one point at a time. Make the opponent work for everything. No matter what happens, hold your head up. Enjoy it, or at least try to enjoy moments of it, even the pain, even the losing.