As I watch the proceedings on Centre Court, it reminds me of a dear friend who was an avid tennis player in India. He was fairly successful in the domestic circuit and had even tried to play in some of the international tournaments. However, as we celebrate his birthday in a week, I realize while he was successful in tennis to a certain extent, he was not able to make a living for himself playing on the professional circuit. As a result, he is now spending most of his time following the sport without the option of ever earning a living from it. As his birthday approaches, I can only go looking for online birthday gifts to send him a present for his birthday.

What is it that happens to the many of the top sportsmen and women of our country who live a life of oblivion and mediocre means if they never achieve international success? The reason is that our country does not have the system and infrastructure in place to support the next tear of sportspeople. These are people who just missed the pole position but were excellent talents in their own rights.

It is no wonder that most parents just insist that their children study hard and achieve success in their careers. They don't want their children to experience the near miss of failure. Where they achieve a certain level of success but fail to make it big - which is restricted to the very few. For the rest, the only option is to hope that their loved ones go online gifts shopping to send them a token of their love when they fail to become the best!

Either way, one should try their best to achieve whatever success they can. I strongly believe that perseverance in any and every endeavour as hopefully and eventually success is achieved!