Grand Slam Journey
Grand Slam Journey explores how lessons from competitive sports shape life, career, and business transitions. I host conversations with athletes, business leaders, and tech innovators, uncovering purposeful mindsets and tangible strategies — from leadership and trust to decision-making frameworks and emerging technologies, such as AI. Each episode offers actionable insights for thriving physically, mentally, and professionally, helping you navigate transitions and unlock your full human potential. Available in audio and video on YouTube.
Grand Slam Journey
3. Fazal Syed: Tennis career, finding purpose, being of service to others, transforming human lives, harmony, and self-awareness
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Fazal is a tennis coach a former professional tennis player and a friend of mine. We met in Dallas in 2007 playing mixed doubles together. He was #1 junior in India, represented India in Davis Cup 1998-2001, and achieved top 200 and top 400 ATP ranking in doubles and singles, respectively. Fazal was the National grass-court Champion of India in 2000. He was a Bronze medalist at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok and earned No. 1 ranking as an Amateur by the USTA 1997-98. He also won the 1997 USTA National clay court championship. After his retirement in 2002, he coached Mahesh Bhupathi (former No.1 doubles player) and Martin Damm (top 10 Doubles) on the 2005 US Open circuit.
During our podcast we discussed Fazal’s upbringing and how was it to grow up playing tennis in Kolkata, India. Fazal shared his challenges about having good quality coaching and support system that prevented him from reaching higher levels in professional tennis. We discuss his decision to come to the US and play tennis for a D1 University at Temple Philadelphia, a decision to quit school to go represent India at Davis Cup and play the ATP tour for 3 years, and then another decision to quit tennis and go back to school to finish his education. After finishing his university degree Fazal ended up accepting an investment banking job in Dallas. That was two years before the market crash happened. During the market crash, he lost his job and ended up moving back to Philadelphia. His route of self-awareness took him back to his purpose and passion - tennis. Fazal founded and runs his own tennis academy named Level 7 Tennis and coaches kids of all levels and ages to become better tennis players, and ultimately, better human beings.
What I admire about Fazal is his state of harmony that he mentioned numerous times during our discussion. His ability to look at life through the positive lens, gratitude that he holds in his heart, hunger for constant learning, strong resilience, and determination to keep going without worrying what other people may think. We talk about a strong commitment and drive to achieve his dreams no matter how crazy or wild they may seem… and through it all, always be giving back and serving others who may need our help.
My favorite quote from this podcast: “Our actions reflect what we leave behind.”
My favorite topics from this podcast: #purpose, #passion, being of service to others, the joy we get from helping to transform human lives, finding flow, balance, harmony, self-awareness
Book recommendations:
The Fountainhead
The Footsteps of the Prophet
Biology of Belief
The Hidden Messages in Water
How to Read a Book
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Introduction: Meet Fazal
Klara JagosovaHello and welcome to my Grand Slime Journey podcast. Today's episode is with Fasil Sayat. Fazel is a tennis coach and a former professional tennis player and a friend of mine. We met in Dallas in 2007 playing mixed doubles together. He was number one junior in India, represented India in Davis Cap 1998 through 2001, and achieved top 200 and top 400 ATP ranking in doubles and singles respectively. Fazle was the national grass score champion of India in 2000. He was a bronze medalist at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok and earned number one ranking as an amateur by the USDA 1997 through 1998. He also won the 1997 USDA National Clay Corps Championship. After his retirement in 2002, he coached former world number one devils player Mahesh Bupati and Martin Dem, who was top 10 in Devils, on the 2005 US Open Circuit. He also coached Mahesh Bupati on Mixed Doubles during the same year. During our podcast, we discussed Fasil's upbringing and how was it to grow up playing tennis in Kolkata, India? Fasl shared his challenges about having a good quality coaching and support system that prevented him from reaching higher levels in professional tennis. We discussed his decision to come to the US and play tennis for a D1 university at Temple, Philadelphia, a decision to quit school to go represent India at Davis Cup and play the ATP tour for three years, and yet another decision to quit tennis and go back to school to finish his education. After finishing his university degree, Fasl ended up working in investment banking right before the market crash happened. During the market crash, he lost his job and ended up moving back to Philadelphia. His self-awareness took him back to his purpose and passion, tennis. Fasel founded and runs his own tennis academy named Level 7 Tennis and coaches kids of all levels and ages to become better tennis players and ultimately better human beings. What I admire about Fasel is his state of harmony. He mentioned a number of times during our discussion, his ability to look at life through the positive lens, gratitude that he holds in his heart, hunger for constant learning, strong resilience and determination to keep going without worrying what other people may think. We talk about a strong commitment and drive to achieve his dreams no matter how crazy or wild they may seem. We talk about a strong commitment and drive to achieve dreams no matter how crazy or wild they may seem, and through it all always be given back and serving others who may need our help. My favorite quote from this podcast Our actions reflect what we leave behind. My favorite topics from this podcast Purpose, Passion, Being of Service to others, the joy we get from helping to transform human lives, finding flow, balance, harmony, and self-awareness. Enjoy the listen. I want to give you a chance to introduce yourself.
Fazal SyedI grew up in India, played tennis growing up. From a young age, I was born into an athletic family. My father was a soccer player and a coach at the international level for India. And then um uh he introduced me to the sport. I grew up playing tennis as a kid. I was uh ranked number one in India as a junior. Then I came to America to pursue my education and also uh the dream of playing professional tennis. And I came to Temple University and I played uh professional tennis uh after I finished my education. Well, I didn't finish my education, I turned pro my senior year, and then I was able to realize my dream of playing Davis Cop for India and then I went back, finished my education, worked in uh investment banking for a few years, and then after that, um I realized my passion was still on the tennis court and helping kids and went back to coaching and started my own uh academy, which is level seven tennis academy, and um that's what I've been doing for the last ten years, and uh I'm in a state of harmony at this point in time. And I hope I can continue to be so and continue to do some good work in the future.
Klara JagosovaWow, I love that. You summarized it really well, and we have all of these points on my list here, but that is a excellent introduction. I would like to start going back to your childhood. I'm curious about different cultures, different countries. How's it to grow up in Kolkata, India? How's your childhood and upbringing?
Growing Up in an Athletic Family in Kolkata
Fazal SyedI grew up in an athletic family, so I was exposed to sports very quickly. I'm a very competitive family. My childhood memories was going to soccer matches with my father and being able to go inside the ground and uh being able to experience that amazing feeling being in front of people with thousands and thousands of people watching. Then also watching the level of work that goes into behind the scenes. My dad was very tennis parentish like, he was tough. He put a lot of time and effort into it, which was the reason why I'm able to be where I am. I wouldn't say we had a typical childhood because uh we definitely uh put a lot of sacrifices to be able to play tennis, and uh that was the price to pay. I was personally very motivated from a young age. I had been told many times that I was not very talented or very good. So it was always in the back of my head to prove a point. So from a very young age, uh I had learned to be stubborn and resolute in accomplishing my goals, no matter what other people said, uh what their opinions were about me.
Klara JagosovaOh that's a great I guess it must be hard when you were a kid, but a great skill to build in a young age that I'm certain has helped you carry you forward, probably even now through the COVID and all that's happening in the world.
Fazal SyedTo be honest with you, I think it was one of the best things that ever happened because you really don't know what you're about until you face adversity. Um in comfort situations you really don't know what your abilities are because you may coast. It's only when things hit a roadblock that's when uh you really you reveal to yourself how deep you can go. How much can you lift and how far can you go? I think one of the things as a parent and as a teacher, I I wouldn't discount the value of failure early on in life because those teach a lot more than easy victories and constant flattering praise, which may or may not be true. In fact, it may even be harmful.
Klara JagosovaThank you. I would love to dive into the mindset later. Definitely value of failure and learning how to take failures and continue to work hard that allows to build the resilience and through perseverance and hard work, then you can see the results and improvements. That's definitely something I have seen and resonate with. Going back to your dad, how come tennis? I've read about him, how famous he was with football, I guess India, football, soccer here in the football is like the universal because it is played with a foot. We call it that way in Czech as well. Football.
Why Tennis Over Soccer & the Davis Cup Dream
Klara JagosovaYeah, yeah.
Fazal SyedHe grew up playing football and uh he had to deal with the team dynamics, team politics, and he always said you need ten other guys to make you look good on a soccer field. And uh in tennis, if you're good, you're good, no one can stop you, and if you're not good, no one can help you.
Klara JagosovaThat's true.
Fazal SyedA lot of fitness like that in life. Nobody's gonna win the match for you in tennis court. You gotta win it. Whereas on a soccer field, if you're really good and your the other guys don't want to pass to you, there's not a whole lot you're gonna be able to do.
Klara JagosovaYeah.
Fazal SyedSo that's the reason behind it. And then his friend was the national tennis coach who was my coach, um, after Ali, and uh so that's how we sort of got into it. His son was world number two junior, and growing up we got to see him play, and we kind of got into it early, and we were fortunate to see some good tennis around us. Our club used to host the Davis Cup matches. I had fond memories of my first Davis Cup tie, which is always my dream, in fact, once I saw that as a 10-year-old in India versus Italy. I remember Adriano Panada, who was the Italian Davis Cup captain, and they came out and played. We got to see Vijayamatraj and Ramesh Krishnan. So from an Indian perspective, there were somewhat two of the greatest players India has produced, and being able to watch them, and as a child I was enamored by watching what Davis Cup, the kind of emotion it stirs up in the crowd, and it was a really cool experience. That's what kind of drew me to tennis.
Klara JagosovaSo it seems like the combination really your dad influenced you more towards tried this sport, and it seems like it fit your personality, and you found coaches and I guess friends that you just continued. Do you remember how you got the inspiration and how did you figure out this is the sport, this is what I want to do competitively?
Fazal SyedI would think it was my father really who pushed us a lot, uh, both me and my younger brother. And after a while, when you start getting a little bit better, you start winning some tournaments, you become I was like I think number one in my state by the time of their twelves and uh fourteens. He always taught us to think bigger and it was that and then I I love that concept of playing in front of people and playing Davis Cup for India. Davis Cup was a big thing growing up in India. For me, that was a big thing to play for my country back then at that time. My country of birth. Now I'm an American citizen and but back then playing for India was like my dream.
Klara JagosovaYeah, it's pretty big in tennis. How big is I I'm sure cricket. Is cricket the number one sport there?
Fazal SyedYeah, the cricket is number one sport. I think for a while it was really popular when Leander and Mehesh were doing very well in doubles and Sany Amirsta was doing very well in women's singles, and I have uh lost a little bit of touch with India. I think India's turned into a little bit of a nightmare right now at a global level. I don't have a whole lot of feel there right now, but I I think it's still a very popular sport. One of the guys, Rohan Bopana, he's still doing very well in doubles. A couple of other guys are starting to do well. But um I haven't been back to India in a couple of years and news back home is not very pleasing right now.
Klara JagosovaYeah. Is it combination of COVID, politics, corruption?
Fazal SyedUh we are Muslims and uh we have an extremely hardcore right-wing government, which is really making a very difficult time for Muslims. One of the things they mean they've been trying to build this concentration camp. They're sort of inspired, they're not sort of, they are inspired by the Nazis. They have some really strong support from uh some powerful countries and so it's it become a little bit of a nightmare there. They're jailing intelligent Muslim kids who are good students. They recently they had this huge, almost like a massacre, and after the massacre they blame the Muslims for their own massacre. It's it's been a little crazy. But we don't want to digress.
Klara JagosovaSorry. Yeah, I actually didn't know that it was all that bad. I'm sorry to hear that. That's a very dark topic, maybe for uh another day. Going back to tennis and your journey, you had great achievements. You were uh top 200 in the world in doubles, 400 in singles. You were the national champion in India, right? On the grass box and competed for Davis Gapp in 1998 and 2001.
Overachieving Without Support
Fazal Syed2001, yeah. Given what I had, I feel like I overachieved. We didn't have a whole lot of coaching, we didn't have a whole lot of planning, we didn't have a whole lot of support. We were constantly told that we were not good enough. So you always faced adversity at every level. I think the first time I ever found encouragement was when I came to America. And that was the first time I coach actually told me your talented, you can be very good. I really thought he was joking and he was trying to lead me on. So I didn't believe him because I'm not accustomed to that. I think a lot of it's a third world mentality, and we grew up knowing we needed to be twice as good to be considered equal. So we just always had that, and then it wasn't easy. Um you didn't have access to regular coaching or good coaching. Playing wasn't easy, getting on a court wasn't easy in India, and it was expensive sports, so my parents had to make a lot of sacrifices, just simple things like buying strings or balls or rackets, and traveling to tournaments cost arm and a leg. You could never really go abroad to play or anything of any of the sort. So it was really very challenging. Coming to the US definitely helped tremendously because it opened up many, many doors. And for the first time, I had people who valued my work ethic because I was extremely hardworking, and my coach at Temple was truly amazing. I mean, he was the first person who really helped me on his own accord and really uh supported my dream, you know, helping me go to tournaments, uh getting me equipment, uh, coaching me on his own dime. So I really feel extremely thankful and grateful to this country for where it helped me. So one of the prime motivators for me is I want to give back ten times what I got from this country.
Klara JagosovaThank you for sharing all that. Your first experience in the US was it when you came to university? Yeah. How was that recruitment for you? How did you decide this is the university I'm gonna go to? And it doesn't make sense to stay in India, I'm gonna try to go to the US and play for college. It seems like you wanted to be professional. How was that decision for you?
Coming to Temple University
Fazal SyedIt wasn't an easy decision, and uh in fact I had seen many of the guys ahead of me who had come to the US and had not played tennis at all. They were done after a year or two. So I really didn't want to come to the US. At this point, I had won a major tournament, so I was part of this Indian Tennis Federation's uh development program, which was completely terrible. And so I was extremely unhappy there, and then I was playing a challenger qualifying or futures, I can't remember, in Bombay, and I met um I was the last guy to leave practice that day, it was the day before the sign-in, and this guy came and he was last and he's like, Hey, you wanna hit? I'm like, Yeah, sure, happy to hit. And him and I became really good friends, and actually it was the futures, yeah, satellites. We were gonna play Bombay. I think Bombay, Bombay, Delhi, Delhi. I think that's what it was. And then we became really good friends, and over the month he he basically convinced me that I should be looking to go to the US and get out of India because I was wasting myself there. And which at this point I was had come to the conclusion myself because they were not gonna help me get better. So when he went back to U he was from UCLA, he w came back to California, and then we stayed in touch and then one fine day he s calls me, he said, like, hey, listen, my friends at this university, their number one player just quit and left. If you want, you can ha you can have a shot. You gotta make sure you go get your SATs done. And so it was kind of like a like a last minute jump to try to get your SATs through and run through a major hoops, get that done. And then long story short, I was in touch with the coach at Temple University, and then I came mid-season, I remember January 26th, 95. I still remember that. It's like my second birthday kind of and then um it was very, very dramatic. I would have never guessed that I would end up in the US, and then the way it happened, I really didn't know any better. I did not know which were the top schools, I had no idea what the different conferences meant. I did not know which are the tough conferences, whether the good conference. I was just getting out of India. For me, that was like a huge opening. And so when I came to the US, we were in uh North Philadelphia, it was not the most loveliest of neighborhoods per se. That was a huge learning experience, but my coach was really generous. He was like a father figure to me, unbelievably kind and caring. I think one of the biggest things that I learned from that it's not like how much resources you have or facilities you have, it's really the people around you care to help you succeed. You can go pretty far. And I know you were friends with Anarban.
Klara JagosovaYes.
Fazal SyedAnurban is always he's like, I I still cannot believe how you played professional tennis coming out of a school which is not even ranked top 100 in the NCAAs. You know, I worked really hard and I had people who supported me and I had a dream and I just went after it hard and for the first time I had a little bit of help.
Klara JagosovaHow is your transition to Philadelphia? How is Coke at uh how cold it gets there? How do you how did you transition from being India? When I say India, I know you have mountain regions that for whatever reason what what I imagine is a lot of heat and warm.
Fazal SyedYeah, it's super hot, super hot, very humid, extremely crowded, very dirty. So um you know, I I I came with an open mind. And you know, it was like I'd burned a boat and you get on and you just gotta make it work. So I uh it was never a complaint, you know what I mean? It was never like, oh, this is terrible, this is I mean it was just everything was good. I was just like I was thankful I got an opportunity and I was gonna make the most of it.
Klara JagosovaGot it. So the cold and the whole adjustment never really hit you or you didn't complain about it.
Fazal SyedNo, I mean it was definitely yeah, I mean it was exciting. I remember the first time I saw snow, it was so different. But I was so naive back then. It was just like in every little thing fascinating. I really had a wonderful experience, yeah. It really was. As I looked back at that time, it was good, it was beautiful. I definitely can't complain.
Klara JagosovaWere you ever thinking about transferring? I'm sure as you competed for Temple, it was a small university. No one perhaps knew you back then, but once you showed what you can do and how great of a player you can be, did you have other universities reaching out and uh had perhaps other opportunities to transfer a year or two later?
Fazal SyedYeah, yeah. I did. I looked at a couple of schools, and in fact, I was very, very close to transferring to Boise State, who had a really good coach, Greg Patton, and he they were top five in the country. And I was very close to transferring out. And you know, I I really looked at it and then I thought about how much my coach uh Andrew Sarantino, who had done such an he was so generous and put so much uh time and effort into me, and I was really thankful for that. So I guess I was loyal too, and I felt like he was trying to build a program around me, and I I'd never regretted it. Uh until today I have really good friends with him. After I quit, I came back, I worked at his club for a little bit. Yeah, I did uh think about transferring, but in the end I ended up not, and um it all worked out.
Klara JagosovaAnd talk maybe a little bit about playing professional while playing college. Personally, I I've tried it at least the first couple years, and the problem I faced was eventually a burnout. Because you have so many matches, you're playing the tennis tournaments in the fall, that's still for the school to build up Division I ranking. Then you play the team matches in the spring that are the most important for the school to ensure the team ranks as as good as they can in the specific conference, and then you really only have three, four months in the summer to then continue play and compete on the tour to continue to have some sort of global ATP or WTA ranking. And so I've tried it for a few years, and what I've realized that through this whole year I was eventually burning myself out to where when I continue doing that in the summer, I just didn't even have the energy or the joy to continue playing the tournaments at that point because the season was so long and I needed some break to disconnect. Have you faced anything like that? Or how did you balance competing for college and obviously getting points for college while playing the tour and continue climbing on the ATP ranking?
Turning Pro & Playing Davis Cup for India
Fazal SyedMy thing was I never really started playing until I was done, really. So I would say my first summer uh when I came, I went back to India to play some tournaments. I lost terribly and I was super disappointed. When didn't go back the next year. I think I went and played the amateur uh college circuit, which I did well at. And then '97, when I went to play in Denmark, I went and played some tournaments. Again, I was very, very low on fonts. I wasn't to go too many places. One of my friends, he was Danish, so he was gonna help me stay with his parents and stuff. So went and played in Denmark in '97 and then '98. That year I didn't do anything. 98 December, I went to India to play and I w I qualified and won a future. And I did some good had some good results there. And then 98, I when I came back after the spring semester, I quit. And I basically started playing full time. In reality, I I didn't get a chance. A lot of people like you, you might have played a lot of heavy juniors and stuff. And it sort of wears on you. But I didn't get a chance as much to play. So I was really hungry to compete. When I got a chance to play, I mean I was super excited. But now when you go from college tennis to pro tennis, I granted I played some good matches, but I wasn't competing with the division top ten guys, which would get me somewhere closer to the pro level. So going from playing for a team which is not even top 100, and I was getting invited to some of the individual tournaments, and I got to play with some of the better players. But going from there into the pros, and I got up, I won some futures and stuff, and I was doing okay. But that transition, that jump was a massive jump. I was fortunate, it was a very hard worker, and I made that jump. To go from the 300 to the 100 level, I needed a little bit more time and a little bit more game development. I was just sitting in cross courts and down the lines. It's not like you know, going in and out and building your game uh methodically. I felt like maybe I didn't do as much of a good job developing my game to the high level. I was never like, oh my god, I'm tired. I wasn't that way. It was more like, oh gosh, I got no money. What am I gonna do next week or something like that? That was more of my concern, more than I'm tired of playing.
Klara JagosovaSo how did you decide to quit? You mentioned you quit uh when was it your third year in college? You came to India, you played some tournaments really well. Yeah, you decided let's see if he tried to go pro.
Fazal SyedYeah, I I mean I figured like, you know, I mean, I knew my window was very small because I was already behind the curve so much. Ideally, I was playing future six years before that. So I was like, you know, I can always go back to school and finish up. But that was my goal to dream to play Davis Cup for India. And what happens because I want the future and stuff, I got asked, uh I got selected, or rather did ask me to come for the trials, uh, which I you know said no, either I'm on the team or not. So I then never put me on the team. And then when I got on the team, yeah, I was like, you know what, let me just go for it full out. Can't go half and half. So I I decided to quit because I figured I can go back and finish my education anytime I want, which I'm glad I did, because eventually I was able to go back and finish up my education. The only thing I would do differently was maybe in the early stages of my career when I was first came to temple, I was so gung-ho, so focused on that I was gonna play professional tennis and Davis Cup for India and all that. I didn't put a whole lot of attention to my grades, and I wish I did a little bit better job there.
Klara JagosovaWhat did you decide to study?
Fazal SyedI studied international business. In the beginning, I don't I decided not to study. So it was just like you know, I was in training constant mode, but I I I think international business thing, whatever, it was useless. But later on, when I came back, then I was ferocious about learning about finance and business, and I took a lot more capital markets class, finance classes, some economic classes. I think if I'd go back into academically, I probably would have loved to get a masters in economics or something like that. I really enjoyed that.
Klara JagosovaDo you remember how you chose international business? Because that's what I studied. I did international business in Spanish in my degree.
Fazal SyedI Yeah, I think it was I think it has a lot to do with all of us because we had international students who come and it's like something resonates. It's like, oh, I'm international, international business. I think why this works.
Klara JagosovaYeah.
Fazal SyedUm it w it was something like that. It wasn't some deep thought process, you know. So I think that's how I went with international business because I was like, I'm international, this may sound good.
Klara JagosovaThat's what how the thought went for me.
Fazal SyedYeah, exactly. Exactly.
Klara JagosovaAll all I want to play tennis. I don't know if you can study. My parents had business and I love different cultures. If I could do business internationally one day, that would be great.
Fazal SyedYeah, that's exactly what it was. Like I'm international, and maybe it'll help me, I'm gonna enjoy it. You know, and uh so let's just do international business.
Klara JagosovaAnd sorry, backing up again, taking you back to India playing Davis Cap. How was the training conditions then? So you decide to stay, represent the country, and you ended up training, I'm assuming, in India with a team. How would you compare that training versus before you left for university when you felt you weren't growing or developing and had nowhere to to go?
Fazal SyedI mean, I th I I mean I think once you made the team, obviously the other guys on the team were very good too. And you Davis Cup training is only like a week before the tournament, so it's matched. So it's not like you're really doing a whole lot of that much work. Nobody's gonna make you that much better in like a week. You know, there's only so much you can improve. The m the majority of the work is done off campus. The work I was still working with uh Andy Sorantino uh in Philadelphia, getting out there early morning, hitting balls, and going and training. I remember I used to do this fitness program with this Navy SEAL platoon program early morning, five o'clock in the winter. It was really fun. I mean, I had great memories from those times. Similar stuff if I were to go back.
Klara JagosovaI wanna dive into that later. So it sounds like you stayed in the US, you trained with your college coach, but you decided to travel and play tournaments for a year or or two, or how long did you play you took a break for?
Fazal SyedSo basically that was 98, and then I basically 98, 99, 2000, 2001. And in 2001 I quit at the end of the year, and then I came back to uh Philly and I got a job as a teaching pro and went back to school at night. So I didn't give myself a whole lot of time on the tour, but I I wanted to give myself a chance. I don't want to be just big. I played tennis in my twenties, and that's my background.
Klara JagosovaYou were still young though, Faso.
Fazal SyedI know my father was very heartbroken at my decision. He really didn't uh understand why I did what I did.
Klara JagosovaThat must have been really hard. How did you decide, or how did you even make the evaluation? I'm not making it. Um were you judging that you're not good enough to where you wanted to be, or was it more the pushback finishing
Leaving the Tour & Going Back to School
Klara Jagosovathe school?
Fazal SyedUnder a combination of factors. I think the one thing was you know, traveling always was difficult, and then after 9-11, I was basically the random check every week. And uh it was just annoying for one. Second, it was also on in the back of my mind that I need to go back and finish school, and I was like, you know what, where am I going? So a lot of people started telling me that I'm really good in doubles, I could be top 10 in the world in doubles and whatnot. And I remember going to playing in Dubai, and I was playing the last round quality, and I played this guy like 7-6 in the third, and then his coach came up to me and he asked me who was my coach, and I was like, I don't have a coach. He's like, Oh, why don't you come to Germany and train with me? And I think you're gonna be top 15 singles and top ten in doubles. And I was like, Oh, you're kidding. I told him I'm gonna quit after the end of this year. He's like, You're crazy, and he walked off. And uh, but you know, he invited me, I got a chance to hit with Reiner Schuttler, who was at that time like I think top ten of the world, and then I remember playing in Dubai. I split the court with um Sapin. So it was me and Schuttler hitting, and then Sapin was hitting with somebody else. So it was it was a really cool experience, but at the same time, I mean I think if I had better guidance in terms of how to go about it, I probably may have done different things. I think I was fortunate to go back and finish my schooling, but I think maybe if there was online schooling and stuff like that, I would have done more. Who knows? You know, you can't look back and second guess yourself at this point.
Klara JagosovaYou can also imagine the 9-11 and the being screen and traveling. I'm sure that gets old as well. I remember I played some tournaments in the US right after 9-11. And like futures? Like WTA? Yeah, some of the 10Ks, 10 and 25ks. And I couldn't even bring my tennis rackets with me to the to the plane. And I'm like, well, what if you lose my luggage? I have nothing to play the tournaments with. And they're like, Well, what if you beat someone with your tennis racket in the cabin? I was like, have you ever seen that happen?
Fazal SyedI don't think these guys are thinking too much at that point. One of the flights, I think they confiscated my jump rope. Oh wow. I was like, okay, whatever. We all used to get our rackets custom built, right? There'd be lead tape on it, so they'd be like, why is there this here? I'm like, because it's trying to make the racket heavier. These are all interesting experiences we all went through. I think there was a reason it was meant to be that way.
Klara JagosovaNavy SEAL, Fasil. Tell me a little bit more about that. How was that training? I can't imagine. And how does it match together with tennis training?
Fazal SyedPhiladelphia winter morning, five o'clock, you get out and uh workout for uh an hour, hour and a half, and uh freezing cold. It's all hands-free, like push-ups, pull-ups, uh like you know, carrying people on running and all this kind of like freehand exercises. It was good, it was tough. Those guys were tough. It was a great experience. I really enjoyed it.
Klara JagosovaI think I remember then because we had something similar in our university, but we didn't run with them. There was a Navy training at the same stadium, but we were there at 6 a.m. and we had our own conditioning in a separate section. I know what you mean now, because I saw them working out.
Fazal SyedYeah, yeah. Basically that was it. It was hard work, it builds so much character because you learn to like you really tough it out.
Klara JagosovaAnd I do love they had the singing thing together with it. Did you have to do it with them? They always have they counted in synchronization.
Fazal SyedYeah, yeah, yeah.
Klara JagosovaThat to me was always fascinating. It sounded like a for us, yeah, yeah.
Fazal SyedYeah. I think that I would attribute a lot of my success when I went back at in '99. I think I won the futures in India, like I was this the four weeks I won the four week satellite, and it was like my fitness level was just ridiculous. That was just so strong. Like I remember the first week I had a bad loss, and then basically the next three weeks I was the finals. I think I won two finals and one runner-up, and then I won like maybe two so doubles finals, and like basically I was in the finals of singles and doubles every week.
Klara JagosovaGoing back, you went to university, then decided to train hard and GoPro. You gave yourself two and a half, three years, and then decided to go back and finish your degree. How is that? Were you coaching? Because I know you had a very successfully coaching career earlier. Was it before or after your investment banking?
Fazal SyedYeah, that's when when I came to Dallas, that's when I got the job and I came to Dallas. Before that I was coaching at a club. This is more like country club coaching. And then I was good going to school at night and uh I was paying for my education. You know, in the past I had a full scholarship and I was a complete immature person about my grades and I I wanted AIDS. I was super motivated and I wanted to finish the top of the class and I worked really hard and then after I finished up then I got a job for one of the top banks and I've moved to Dallas and where we ended up meeting and uh playing some uh doubles.
Klara JagosovaYes, I remember there was fun uh mixed demos tournament. And so you went to investment banking, how long were you working there?
Fazal SyedI came to Dallas uh so I finished 2001 and then 2002, three, four I worked, and then two thousand five I moved to Dallas. Five, six, seven, eight I was in Dallas. And then nine I moved back.
Investment Banking, the Market Crash & a Trip to Turkey
Klara JagosovaHow was the investment banking journey? What made you decide I'm gonna do this now? I'm gonna put my coaching on hold.
Fazal SyedWell, it was n nothing more dramatic than I just want to make a lot more money. I had read about it build and I was interested in being successful in business and investment banking was an area which had a very lucrative career. So I was very interested in it, and that's why I I worked hard to try to get into it. But I wasn't super passionate about it. It was a really amazing learning experience, uh, especially working for a big bank that definitely showed me how to be professional in your work. It was really a fortunate experience to learn about credit and how banking really works and what goes on. But it wasn't something I was uh passionate about, and I really enjoyed helping people, and people always told me I had a very good gift on the tennis court, and then uh once the market collapsed, I lost my job, came back to Philadelphia because I had some friends in the city. I was doing other stuff. I tried working for another firm and then I worked for commercial real estate, but I really didn't like it. And then one fine day a friend of mine who out of the blue from India, who I'd known for a long time, connected with me on Facebook, started chatting. He was like, Oh, I'm going to this really cool backpacking through Turkey, would you like to come? And I was just like so frustrated at that time, I was like, Yeah, l let's just do it. So I went and it was just really the most amazing experience. Yeah, I felt like a liberating experience because it's just first I saw some amazing generosity from people who I don't really know, and these people were so big hearted and generous and giving and I just had such a great experience and then I came back, I was like, What what makes me really happy? And looked myself in the mirror and I said, This is my gift, and uh let me just go with this. So I started uh my tennis coaching business, the level seven tennis, after that. And uh it's just been a great experience so far after that, ever since.
Finding Purpose Through Coaching
Klara JagosovaYou've gone back and forth between school and college, and then maybe for a while it seemed like you were trying to put the same effort and intensity into your college and finishing the school and into your investment banking job. But it sounds to me that maybe the purpose wasn't that aligned and whatever you were experiencing through tennis and your coaching seems like after your turkey trip really came back and spoke to you that that's maybe where you get your passion and your inspiration from.
Fazal SyedYeah, I think you what you said was uh actually very uh true. I never thought about it, like yeah, whatever I experienced on the tennis court, my purpose wasn't aligned when I was doing other stuff. It just didn't feel right. I didn't feel that same kind of satisfaction. It wasn't like I was top ten on the world in tennis, but I had a certain satisfaction giving my best, trying to improve, chasing a dream, and I didn't feel that way. But then when I came to coaching and helping somebody else's dream and the joy of impacting people positively was really profound, philosophically speaking, like contributing to see somebody improving was really gratifying. And I don't have to work, I really enjoy being out there, I'm there seven days a week. I was in a state of harmony once I got back on the court and helping people and uh I just enjoyed my my purpose was aligned. I think you really hit the right word. I think it I i it just sort of it fell into the right groove.
Klara JagosovaYeah. And I checked out your level seven Academy website. Thanks. I wanna bring in a few things from there because I think it's super powerful. I love how you build in the philosophy around it. The seven virtues that you talk about wisdom, knowledge, courage, industry, courtesy, compassion, contribution. How did you build that whole thing together? I resonate with that, and I'm curious to hear
Level 7 Tennis & the Seven Virtues
Klara Jagosovamore.
Fazal SyedI think at that point I was searching for myself. I was studying all the different religions, I was studying a lot of different thinkers, I was reading a lot of stuff, and I looked into my own background in Islam and I looked at everything, and it came to me the most important thing is to have wisdom, because once you have wisdom is you know how to drive. And then knowledge, you need to have knowledge, but you have to have the wisdom to apply the knowledge. And then you have to have the work ethic to have impact the wisdom and the knowledge. So that's why it's wisdom, then it's knowledge, then it's industry. And then it's important to be uh courteous to people. Just because you're good doesn't mean you should be a boar, you should be nice to people. And being compassionate, I think it's important. Everybody's doing the best that they can, and I feel it's our job to help people along their journey, and you cannot help another person until you have compassion. And then ultimately, contribution, because at the end of the day, what really matters is what you contribute out here. One of the best quotes is from Muhammad Ali service to others is the rent we pay for our time on earth. That resonated with me, and at the end of the day, what really matters is how I contribute to the people around me and to Earth. That's the kind of person I aspire to be, and I hope to drive myself and encourage others to be that way.
Klara JagosovaWell, thank you for sharing that. How did you come up with the words? Was it self-reflection on your journey, your upbringing? Do you have any method of anybody who would want to come up with their virtues? It seems like you created what makes you as a person whole or what's in the core of what you truly believe in and how you would want to reflect your work into the community and the tennis world specifically that you're working with.
Fazal SyedI was fascinated by the fact certain numbers happen all the time, seven days in a week, seven heavens, seven seas, seven continents. What's so special about seven? Then then what's virtue and what's vice, and what's the best seven virtues? And if I were to do virtues, then what would be like an order? So to me, this order made sense. You start with wisdom and you end with contribution. A lot of it's driven by my personal philosophy, my personal background and my studying as I reflected upon things, and then it matters is w what you do. You can talk all you want, but actions speak louder than words. If we do good, it's to be seen. Somebody can say something on a person, but their actions really reflect what they leave behind.
Klara JagosovaYes.
Fazal SyedI've enjoyed this journey and I feel like all those things that I did where I would say would be considered failures were amazing learning experiences. Because although I was not passionate about things that I did, but I was learning a ton of things. I was learning what I didn't like, learning what I was not aligned with. So it took me a long time to figure out what I'm aligned with. And uh that came with a lot of reflection and learning and reading and observing things.
Klara JagosovaSounds like you'd have had a lot of self-awareness and self-discovery, which I think tennis players we naturally well, I don't know if I can make that assumption in general, but I think we naturally do a lot of because we're on the court by ourselves for such a long time, so you have no one else to talk to and nobody else to rely on.
Fazal SyedI agree. I think uh tennis players should because you're like you said, we are forced to be in that situation a lot more than other people. We are forced to solve the puzzle while you're on a court. Tennis is interesting, you're looking to solve the puzzle called life, you start reflecting on what works, what's your strength, what's your best shot, what's your weakest shot, who's your code, where are you learning from? What's your source? And I think once you start I sort of got on that path and I became a like a voracious reader after I quit, and that definitely helped me a lot. Looking at things in many different ways.
Klara JagosovaI would love to get into f your favorite books a little bit later, but bringing back the value of failure and what you mentioned early on on the mindset. I find it way easier as I get older. I really now understand the value of failures way more and I can look at them differently. But that's one of the things when I look back. I was horrible in losing. How have you been when playing tournaments back? And were you good with taking losses and learning from it? How do you reflect how you handled it in the past versus when you look at it with your mature eyes now?
Fazal SyedI think growing up, I definitely don't think handle losing well. I had a father who was very close to being a tennis parent, if not being the quintessential t tennis parent. So it wasn't like the most positive experience from losing. But um I really didn't even understand I was failing until I stopped fighting, which was much later in life. And I was just like, you know what, what am I really trying to do here? And I was like, then you just look at it as like, you know, these are all like learning experiences. And that didn't come to me until much, much later in life, and was way past when I stopped playing. So much more recent in the last ten years. I'd start building my business and I started going around and now when I look back at it and I was like, those are all amazing learning building blocks because I learned so many different things from so many varied fields. I think it was fantastic. Traveling internationally, amazing experience. Uh, being in countries where no one speaks your language. Then coming back and trying to work at a country club and going to school at night, it's a completely different experience. Then moving to Dallas on a in my two-seater sports car and just living in furniture less for like two years, great experience. And then coming back and trying to do investment banking and learning commercial real estate. I learned about credit, I learned about real estate, I learned things which is very, very valuable now that I'm in tennis business, but I also have a certain background in other things, which really has been very beneficial for me as a business person. Banking, finance, accounting, understanding how the bank is not just being a tennis coach, but also how to run a business. How does a bank look at a business? And then how do I want to manage my books and things like that? I think has been incredibly beneficial.
Gratitude & Learning from Every Experience
Klara JagosovaWhat speaks to me is and uh you actually have it on your Facebook profile as well. The first step to being great is being grateful. Everything you've gone through, and one could look at it positive or negative way. You can look at it, well, this didn't work out, and then the economy happened and I got fired. But it seems like you always look into things into the positive way. So when you look at the past, you reframe it and you choose to see the positive part and where it took you to your next step or to the next adventure. Any tips on how to do that or have you always had that mindset? Do you practice it?
Fazal SyedI definitely always didn't have that mindset, but I was a lot more uh calm and going back to being a little more spiritually oriented helped me tremendously. Uh learning to enjoy the journey and then observing what is you're being forced to learn. I do believe we keep getting the same lessons until we get the lesson. And so whenever I go through things and I'm just thinking, what am I supposed to learn out of this situation, out of this experience? And by doing that, I think I'm always looking to learn as opposed to is this a win or is this a fail? Is this a win or a loss? More about what could I learn out of this? And I think if we stay in that frame, it works. I always saw my son, we are uh as a Muslim, it's a love of God, love of knowledge, and love of service. Trying to be in service and learning, and it's a happy place to be because you're constantly learning whether you're winning or losing. That's one of the things I try to teach with my son is what did you learn? And it's not about winning and losing, although I could always be better. I'll give the qualifier. I uh every once in a while the tennis parent in me comes out. In life, you have to learn to learn. Knowledge is power. I really love this quote. I'm reading this guy, Jim Quick, Limitless, and uh who I found on Joecoach's Instagram. And I really love what he says if knowledge is power, ability to learn is superpower. And uh I think that's the most important thing for us to embrace the desire to learn new things.
Klara JagosovaYes, love learning can I agree. Are you teaching your kids tennis? Are you leading them towards tennis?
Fazal SyedMy oldest definitely plays, he enjoys it, he's doing okay. My other two, my daughter, she's like my boss. I mean, I would love for her to play because she looks like she's very good at hand-eyed coordination, she's a lefty, but uh she has no interest in listening to me, so I'm not really doing that well there. And my youngest, uh, he could be actually pretty good too, but he has no interest. He wants to be a ninja warrior. So uh between a ninja warrior and an artist, and my oldest is playing a little bit of tennis.
Klara JagosovaYou have uh wide variety of interests there between your three kids.
Fazal SyedYeah, yeah. They're so young. So my oldest is ten and the other two are seven and five. So I believe in exposing them to a lot of different experiences and then seeing where their blessing is, and as long as they're in harmony with their blessing, I think they'll be okay. I'm not the kind of person who's gonna be like, you gotta play tennis. Uh I'm more about figure out what you're about.
Klara JagosovaThat's great. Great parent and uh great guidance. Going back to your academy, anything you would want to share about the coaching or how you go about coaching, you have a really good eye on finding talent and giving guidance on what people should improve. Any tips on how you go about spotting it, or anything you would want to share in your favorite coaching or practice drills?
His Coaching Philosophy: Care, Competence & Flow
Fazal SyedFor me, coaching is first and foremost caring. A coach has to care so that the student feels like my coach is there to help me. Second is to have the competence. Too often, if you're in a subject where you do have not had in-depth experience, you just don't have enough capacity to give. So it's important to have good competence in your subject and then have very good caring attitude. And I think if you do those two things as a teacher, one would excel. And so, one of the things I always tell my guys who work for me is I want you to express care, like you really want to help the person because one, you're gonna really enjoy it because you're gonna see that they appreciate that what you're doing for them, and it's okay not to know, but it's not okay to BS people because that just doesn't work. It's okay not to know, then at least you then you know you gotta learn it. The being honest about it. So, one of the things is like being honest about okay, I need to improve this skill, so we spend time with that. And the other thing is for me, coaching personality is each person is individual, so you gotta try to help them learn what they need to learn as opposed to me trying to teach them what I think I can teach them. So it's a little different approach. So I really try to see what the person needs and I try to help their need. It's not about what I know, it's how can they learn what they need to learn. You know, it works. I think people appreciate it, they know if I don't know something, I'm gonna tell them. And if I know something, and I'll try my best to help them achieve it. And and you try to be honest. It's important to be honest as a teacher. That this long term people know that they value your opinion.
Klara JagosovaYes.
Fazal SyedIn the short term, some people may be like, Oh, I I didn't want to hear that. But in the long term, people when they calm down, they'd be like, you know what, this person said it and it did come true. I think that's important. From a technical perspective, I'm more about finding the physics of the game. So we really want to help people improve their smoothness and balance without getting too technical. If somebody is finding smoothness in their swing, there's something right because everything is flowing in order. And if you don't have balance, it's very difficult to have flow because somewhere it's gonna get locked up. So there's a philosophy of life there, find your balance so your flow will be improved.
Klara JagosovaYeah, that sounds fantastic. Sounds like you're really teaching them the basics and understanding the mechanics, the movement, and the physics behind it so they can get the touch instead of just focusing on the high-level things.
Fazal SyedI don't try to use technical terms and jargon. A lot of times people use on YouTube, they have those catchy phrases, this, that, and the other. What I'm more about in trying to help the person discover how their rhythm works.
Klara JagosovaTo develop their personal style and personal skills.
Fazal SyedYeah. They really gotta know how their body is working. Does that feel they're open, do they feel they're constricted, do they feel like their weight's moving forward or backward, or is it moving at all? It sounds like self-awareness teaching them about Yeah, that's very important to know how your bodies work. So it's that listening is very important.
Klara JagosovaDo you have a favorite group or age group or skill group of kids you enjoy coaching the most?
Fazal SyedYou know, I used to really love coaching the really tiny little people, three-year-old, four-year-olds, they're really fun. Really? But they're they're super taxing, but they're really fun. It's not a whole lot of teaching, but you can have such a great time with them.
Klara JagosovaThat age is terrifying for me. That's right to my fear. I have no clue how to interact with those little kids.
Fazal SyedIt's actually super fun. I really love it. It's just um we've had a really nice size program for that age group. But as have uh had more success with the tournament players, I think going in more and more towards the competitive level players, especially I think the last 18 months or so, we've just really suddenly gone in a lot more towards the I personally have gone a lot more towards the performance players, but I really enjoy coaching the kids who have really no talent or on paper who would be considered people who don't have a whole lot of natural skill. But I enjoy connecting with them and helping them develop confidence. And I remember I had this one kid who really was not having a hard hard time connecting to the ball two years ago, and this year they got to play on their high school team, and the confidence it brought to that person made their high school team and serving and playing points and rallying, and you know, I was just like, wow, this is amazing. I think that was very gratifying.
Klara JagosovaThat sounds fantastic. It's like transforming the whole life of the kid and teaching them through tennis how to take those skills and also apply it to the other parts of their lives.
Fazal SyedYeah. Sometimes you get these from the heart letters from parents and grandparents about their kids, and those make your day, and then you're like, but that's worth the whole year's work. It's been really fun. Like I said, I'm in harmony with what I'm doing.
Klara JagosovaI also see on your website you have the better the serve, the more skillful the player in life. On the tennis court, our game is determined by our ability to serve well.
Fazal SyedYeah, I reflected on that. In the tennis court, the big server has an advantage, and in life, the one who serves well has an advantage.
Klara JagosovaI love serving.
Fazal SyedI know, you had a beautiful serve.
Klara JagosovaI did until I tore my shoulder and then uh it was super painful. I just got my surgery done a couple years ago.
Fazal SyedOh, is it all good now?
Klara JagosovaYeah, I definitely improved my quality of life. Still working on some strength and motion, but nothing drastic. I'm retired, so it's more of working back up into being able to do my pull-ups and uh things like that.
Fazal SyedYou always trained too hard. You didn't listen to your body.
Klara JagosovaI did. Yeah, one thing I'm definitely learning as I'm getting older because pushing through pain is not serving me well anymore.
Fazal SyedYeah, you gotta learn to listen to your body when it's complaining and when it's screaming.
Klara JagosovaYes, I agree. I'm fine-tuning my sensitivity not too much is deteriorating my performance.
Fazal SyedYeah, yeah, definitely. You definitely did a beautiful game.
Klara JagosovaThank you. Another quote I have here from Plato says you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Fazal SyedThat's a good one. Yeah. I actually remember that from uh my childhood. My coach uh Akhtar Ali, he always told me he said when you watch somebody play, you will know what kind of person they are. If you see them cheat on the court, they'll be cheaters in life. If they're courageous on the court, they'll be courageous off the court. You know, if they're timid and they're gonna try to do, you know, deceptive stuff on the court, that's how they're gonna off the court. So it definitely brings out your qualities, innate qualities on the tennis court. Somebody who's a resolute fighter, and even if they don't have the talent, they're gonna you know, they're gonna be successful because they just don't give up.
Klara JagosovaYes. I like that. It makes me feel better, hopefully, now about all the cheaters I played against.
Fazal SyedI'm hoping Yeah, I'm sure we've and we've all gone through our list, you know.
Klara JagosovaYeah, I'm sure. Come back actually maybe more difficult topic and even more difficult I know for you personally now, COVID. And I wanna lose your what am I supposed to learn here? I'm wondering what do you think we're supposed to learn here through this whole COVID-19 experience? And also curious, how do you see it? Because I know it's impacting a lot of your business. I have my personal views on uh tennis being impacted by COVID, but we'd love to hear your opinion on this whole situation.
Lessons from COVID-19
Fazal SyedWhat is it trying to teach us? I think we we try to learn and try to make the most out of it. I I feel like this is a time where people are learning a lot about themselves, they're learning a lot about the people around them, they're learning a lot about the communities that they live in. It's really a revelation. A lot of people are uncomfortable being by themselves, a lot of people are are married to or surrounded by people who are negative, who they can't stand, but because everything goes on, you go by and then your people also d discover they're around really great people, and you know it's it's okay. You you enjoy the small things in life. Some people enjoy reading, some people enjoy exercising, some people are doing online courses and they're learning, they're using the time to learn and grow, the ways to improve, and then there's some people who are complaining and they're having a hard time with everything that's going on. You know, I think uh whoever is the way they are sort of gonna get accentuated. I think I for myself I've really had a great time uh hanging out with my kids and having really a fun time. It's definitely been difficult. My mother passed away eight weeks ago from COVID. So that was uh that was very tough being unable to go visit, see, or any of that. But uh it is what it is, you know. Um I can't fight it, I just gotta go with it. Using my time to read a lot of books, I I've made Amazon rich contr contributing to the stock price, and I've bought books and I've hopefully I can learn read some more stuff. And in history the things have happened, we just have to uh deal with it. A lot of times with COVID, I think about all the wars that take place, right? And why aren't people so vigilant about not countries kill millions of people for the sake of territorial quest and they malign people so they can lie and take over their resources? And then you have COVID now, everybody's also paranoid. I think it's interesting. Part of me is uh reflecting on the positives, but a part of it also you guys are concerned about this. But what about like all those millions of people, all those kids who died because put the sanctions on them or these people who have lost their houses and scam war because somebody else won territorial. I myself am reflecting on the social justice issues uh and around and you start seeing a lot of stuff.
Klara JagosovaReally good talk that's in line with my thinking. I stopped watching news early on because I've figured that that's not gonna drive much happiness in and messages so divided and so politicized that you can't really trust what's real anymore because of the division. And really started focusing on what is it that I can influence. And uh I've dialed in my health so well now that in a way this COVID-19 is really in some ways a blessing for me. I have my whole workout routine going, I've dialed my food, so I'm almost leaner than I've ever been before. Going back to my pre-college weight, just my yeah, so it's it's been fun and uh definitely reading and doing a lot of mindfulness.
Fazal SyedThat's exactly what it is. One of the best things I when I first came to Dallas in 2005, I didn't bring a TV and I've not had a TV ever since. So I can attribute a lot of my life's positives to the fact that I illuminated TV. I have made it a point not to give the media and these cable companies my dollars. Because my history teacher from India told me a very, very profound thing. And he said, remember, all these newspapers and media, they have a boss, and they will write what their bosses want them to write. So that really made me think I've not had the TV, I don't listen to the news, I deal with people and try my best, like you said, to impact the people around me and then leave it at that and see how it all ends up.
Klara JagosovaWhat does kids handle though that TV?
Fazal SyedDo you can they watch like their cartoon shows or they still do and stuff, but we really try to minimize the media in front of them because also there is a huge pornography problem in the world, and they are very surruptiously targeting young kids. So we are very mindful of those little dark forces out there who are really looking to corrupt people, just like Facebook. They have those they look to take you on the slippery slope and then throw you over. And what happens with that is just really ruins relationships. We really want to make sure our kids are staying off their on, but we really to the best of our ability try to keep them off their media. They watch Netflix and we watch documentaries and they have their fun cartoons and whatnot, but we definitely are vigilant, as many parents are, but the harms of the media is Yeah, that's smart.
Klara JagosovaSo books going back, I wrote down here Limitless, I haven't read that yet. You mentioned you've read a lot of books that influenced you even in the creation of the level seven and the virtues. What are your favorite books or anything you're reading now that really caught your inspiration during the pandemic that is timely and you would recommend?
Favorite Books
Fazal SyedMy first book that I read was Anne Rand's The Fountainhead, which was in 2001. And the protagonist was really more into doing work which he f enjoyed and loved. I really liked that concept. And then in the footsteps of the prophet, which is really good. He was somebody who brought immense change and how he looked to serve people. There's a lot which is said negatively, and when I first started learning, I was like, wow, how come these things never get told? What's the agenda here? So that was a big one for me. Biology of Belief, which is written by Dr. Bruce Lipton. It's an amazing book. It talks about this PhD researcher who was doing stem cell research on cancer cells and how the environment impacts individual perception, which leads to a personal reaction biologically. That was massive for me to even understand, like, you know, if you have a negative perception of a situation, internally you release toxins in your body.
Klara JagosovaYes.
Fazal SyedSo it makes a lot of sense. He was like, you go to some place and the job is really stressful, and you can see the person's hair falls off, they look aged, and it's just this negative energy, and then you see some people who are like happy and full of light, and you see, oh, this person is so warm and fuzzy, right? And he said those are all your skin is taking in information, and based on the perception, it's creating an effect inside you. I thought that was very good. Hidden messages in water by a Japanese scientist about the effect of energy on water crystals. It was massive for me. Somebody who can have a positive thought impacts their environment. I think that was tremendous. If you start with those, I think it's pretty solid. And those are some books that I read several times over and over. And then I read a lot of biographies. I don't read any fiction, so I read all non-fiction. I've enjoyed anything where I can learn something from. One of the best books that I ever read is how to read a book. It's the first book that one should read. It's really great. One of my teachers did a talk on it, so I ended up buying the book and I read it. It was just terrific.
Klara JagosovaMy last two questions to you, Faso. Mindset, and what I've put down here really stood out to me is the ability to enjoy the journey, face adversity, learn new things and your curiosity that you have and you approach life and coaching with. Value of learning from failures, understanding yourself, your purpose to be able to grow your wisdom and then connect to your virtues. What else would you want to add? What have you learned from tennis and you're taken now into your coaching and your personal life?
Self-Awareness & Harmony
Fazal SyedThe word that I'm looking for is being self-aware and being in harmony with yourself and your surroundings. So a lot of people are not in harmony with themselves. And a lot of people are not in harmony with those around them. And I think if you're self-aware, at least I try to be self-aware and trying to hopefully find a harmonious situation with my surroundings or with nature. Sometimes people are hard to be harmonious with, is the nature of the beast.
Klara JagosovaDo you have any how to achieve it? Because what speaks to me, it seems you get into a state of flow or grace, right? That's when you would perform at your best, where you can be in harmony with the environment and with the people around you. You're not moved by any external forces because you're in power of your own decisions and your own reactions. You know, you have a full control over how you respond, react, and impact your surrounding in a positive way.
Fazal SyedI think to the best of her ability is be the best that I can be. Cannot always control everybody else's reaction.
Klara JagosovaYeah.
Fazal SyedAnd it's not as easy, but it's also important not to get swayed by somebody's negative reaction. That their negative energy is absorbed. And it's like uh I don't know, I was reading it's like somebody give you a gift and you don't accept it and it stays with the person who was trying to give it, right? So it's like somebody wants to give negative energy. If you don't take the negative energy, it stays with them. There's a lot of negative stuff going on, and all I can do is be positive myself and try to be positive for my next inch around me. And uh that's all I can do. I know I can't have this massive uh macro impact, but just at the micro level, try to be in a state of harmony and try to be in peace and be with peaceful as best as possible with those around me. Smiling goes a long way with it. Going through life with a smile is helpful.
Klara JagosovaAnd I love what you mentioned, going back to your three rules that you teach your kids and everybody maybe could take it as love of God, love of service, and love of knowledge.
Fazal SyedThe order is love of God, love of knowledge, love of service.
Klara JagosovaYeah, because you have to learn before you can serve making Right.
Fazal SyedI mean you have to have knowledge before you can act. Acting without knowledge is foolishness. We may have the good intentions, but without the right knowledge, we cannot do it. I think it's important to have that love of knowledge and growing, and then it really is the desire to serve other people. I think that makes it really joyful. The most dopamine release a human being gets is uh when a person gives charity. I don't know if you knew that.
Klara JagosovaSo I actually listened to a podcast from Sam Harris on exactly that, and my thing in my brain is how much money do we donate out of our income to charity or how do we serve others? So that's been my thought for the past two days. How do you think the right person?
Fazal SyedI don't think it's the dollar amount, it's the impact amount.
Klara JagosovaYes.
Fazal SyedYou could do something and it changes the person's day and you can feel that joy come right back to you. You could feel somebody's career change and you will feel that joy come back right away in more ways than one. I think it's easier to give a dollar. I think it's a lot more difficult to meaningfully impact a heart. Sometimes all you have to do is one of the things we were taught is a smile can be a charity. And I thought about this a lot when I was listening to Biology of Belief because he said when sometimes somebody smiles and it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, your body relaxes. I was like, that's interesting, never thought about that. If you're just smiling and the other person feels good and it produces a good effect in them. Yeah. A lot of times it's not about how much you give, it's even the little thing which makes a big touch.
Klara JagosovaYes. That brought into my thought a story. One of my colleagues told me she was presenting in front of a big group and she was very nervous because it was an important meeting and she wanted to ensure she does well. And then she told me about this one lady who was sitting in the room who had this very peaceful posture and smiled back at her and how much that changed her mindset to feel comfortable and do well and be herself. So we never know how that can interest others, and spreading that smile in this instance and presence and calmness that we can sense can be a big change for some people in stressful situations. Going back into tennis, knowing how to relax during tough points, especially during the decision points, such game points, match points, feeling relaxed and in a flow, and to have an inner smile. I always felt like that was the best tip of playing well and performing well in that moment.
Fazal SyedI 100% agree. I wish I knew all these things when I was playing. I'd be a lot more relaxed. Just saying, I love this moment. Look, I'm here playing tennis, this is my passion, my dream. I get a chance to go for this shot and see if I can win. You know? It's a lot different than saying, Oh, I hope I don't miss this shot.
Klara JagosovaYeah.
Fazal SyedI think we've all been there. So as we reflect, we learn and we try to keep going, and hopefully we can do some good in this short journey that we have.
Klara JagosovaCreate the most impact we can.
Fazal SyedYep. Contributions.
Klara JagosovaAnything you would want to share with people that are think about taking tennis or even the people you coach, what is your motto you're trying to teach, or any tips you would like to give out to encourage people to play tennis?
Tennis as the Language of Life & Closing
Fazal SyedTennis is a beautiful sport. It's a sport one obviously we know it's for life. You can play for a long time, you can play with your family, with your loved ones. And more than anything, I think if you really step back and look at the scoring in tennis, it's got the language of life. The game starts at Love All. That's where life starts. To have a sense of love in the heart. Better the serve, the better the player. And uh it's about serving and receiving, it's about taking advantage, and it's really an amazing experience to the extent we can make it more mainstream and more available to kids across the world. I think it would be a a great achievement and part of the tennis community that more and more kids, especially kids in Africa, in the war-torn countries, in the Middle East, and uh all these places where it's um not even possible. I would love to see more people play tennis and it becomes a much more loved sport, easily accessible sport. I think that'd be a great achievement.
Klara JagosovaThat's a great goal to aspire to. I agree that it's uh people don't often realize how expensive it can be, especially traveling around for the tournaments. Yeah. I've sometimes seen these pictures of kids in Africa playing in barefoot with their own made racket over a net that's almost broken and and look uh those pictures always just spike my uh enthusiasm and excitement. Because if someone wants to learn something so hard, how can we increase the opportunity to actually give them to be better and learn through the sport? Because that is what you seem learned, a lot of your knowledge. You read a lot of books, studied, but I feel a lot of our knowledge and how we understand life has been through tennis and creating the self-awareness and learning through our tennis journey. Is that accurate for you?
Fazal SyedYeah, absolutely. I mean, the tennis court has been my greatest teacher, so I've been fortunate. And had it not been for tennis, I wouldn't have never met you. Tennis makes some great friendships, great relationships, connect with people across the world. I've been involved in a lot of interfaith uh work, bringing people together, and my biggest passion is to use tennis to help bridge communities. One of the things we do, I don't know if you've seen that we do in Philadelphia, it's uh with the Interfaith Center of Philadelphia, it's called Get on Court, Build Bridges, Connect Hearts. So we try to bring people from all different backgrounds, come together and just play tennis. And in the world full of madness, it makes people appreciate what they have in common.
Klara JagosovaI love that.
Fazal SyedTennis is amazing, and hopefully more people can take it. And your podcast is very well received. I hope nobody falls asleep listening to me.
Klara JagosovaI'm sure not. This has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you, Fasil, for slowing down with me for the hour and a half and chatting about tennis life and lessons that we all can take forward and uh maybe work to practice and implement.
Fazal SyedMy pleasure. It's been absolutely a joy. Thank you for having me.
Klara JagosovaThank you.
