Sachin Tendulkar Life Lessons: What Sachin Tendulkar God of Cricket Taught Me

by Nitesh Mathur | Apr 24, 2023 | Life Lessons, Tributes: Cricketing Heroes

What lessons can we learn from Sachin Tendulkar’s life?

Today is a day of great reflection because today we celebrate the 50th birthday of the great Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, SRT, or the ‘God of Cricket’—regardless of how you referred to him, for most cricket fans between 1989 and 2013—the love of cricket coincided with the love of Sachin. He represented hope, excellence, and discipline for billions of people around the world.

Let’s reflect back on those 24 precious years and see what we can learn from Sachin Tendulkar’s life. Or at least here is what Sachin Tendulkar taught me.

Also Read: What Rahul Dravid Taught Me, 155 Greatest Cricketers of All Time (Men’s)

7 Lessons We Can All Learn from Sachin Tendulkar’s Life

1. We Must Accept Finite Disappointment, but Never Lose Infinite Hope

• Quote By: Martin Luther King Jr.

After Kapil Dev & his men lifted the 1983 Cricket World Cup trophy, playing cricket for India and lifting the World Cup became a dream for every schoolboy. Sachin was no different. Fast forward three years into his career, he was selected for the 1992 ODI World Cup.

First time, no luck. Then, 1996 semi-final happened. Sachin Tendulkar stumped. Eden Gardens stunned. India collapse—A common sight in the nineties. It was followed by 1999 hardships & disappointment, 2003 (Final – so close, yet so far), and last, but certainly not the least, the 2007 Cricket World Cup. India crashed out in the group stage. It seemed to be curtains on Sachin Tendulkar’s lifelong dream.

But then four years later, “Dhoni finished it off in style and India lifted the World Cup after 28 years.” Broken Dreams No More. Tendulkar’s years of toil finally transformed into moments of pure joy that he had always dreamed about.

• What Can We Learn?

Life Lesson 1: Disappointments are a part and parcel of life. The important thing is to never lose sight of the hope, dream, or end goal you have deep down. If you persevere and keep at it, who knows, maybe one day that dream may come true.

2. Rest at the End, Not in the Middle

• Quote By: Late American basketball legend Kobe Bryant (and quote from his English teacher, Mr. Fisk) while accepting the ESPY ICON AWARD

This speech is so beautiful, it is worth writing it in full here.

Just like Kobe Bryant and other legendary sports stars around the world, Tendulkar had to work hard for it.

Sachin Tendulkar was definitely a gifted a cricketer, but that alone did not make him great. Sure, he had natural timing and great hand-eye coordination, but he still had to put in the hard yards. Hours and hours in the nets, days and days in the Bombay Maidans under the sun, honing his technique slowly but surely. One day at a time, he got better. And he just never stopped.

Life Lesson 2: What differentiates excellence from just adequate performance is the work ethic. To achieve greatness in any field, the end result is directly proportional to the amount of work you put in.

3. The Price of Anything is the Amount of Life You Exchange For It

• Quote by: Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher and writer

From an outsider’s point of view, Sachin Tendulkar was a superstar and public figure. But this definitely came at a cost. Staying away from family for the better portion of two decades, always being under media pressure, recovering from career threatening injuries, and maintaining international level fitness would not have been easy.

Life Lesson 3: Sacrifice. Whether that is time, family, plans with friends, delicious food, sacrifice in some extent is necessary to progress to the next level.

4. Sometimes It is the People No One Can Imagine of who do the Things No One Can Imagine

Quote By: Alan Turing, Father of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

Who would have thought that a 5-foot four schoolboy from Mumbai become the first ODI double centurion, go on to score hundred 100s, and become the idol that would inspire a nation of a billion? And even after he debuted for India, not many could have imagined the scale at which Tendulkar was able to conquer the cricketing world. There have been many 16- & 17-year-old debutants in cricket, but none like Sachin.

Life Lesson 4: If you can put your mind to it and imagine the impossible, you can achieve the impossible. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you that cannot do something.

5. Only Those Who Will Risk Going Too Far Can Possibly Find Out How Far One Can Go

Quote By: T.S. Eliot, American Poet

Tendulkar did not stop until he reached the height of individual excellence. Sunil Gavaskar, the original ‘Little Master’ had set the bar with 10,000 Test runs and 34 Test centuries. How far would Sachin go? 35? 50? Once he got past, he did not stop. 34,347 runs across formats, scoring hundred 100s and 164 fifties, he finally hung up his boots. But by the time he was done, he had expanded the horizons of what batting excellence looks like.

Life Lesson 5: Beware of complacency. Take some risks. How far can you push the barriers in your profession?

6. Courage is Grace Under Pressure

Quote by: Ernest Hemingway, American Author

Sachin Tendulkar had the weight of a nation’s expectations but never showed it. He always carried himself with grace and did not let the public know about the stress and mental pressure he must have been going through. That, my friends, is courage.

Life Lesson 6: It is more important how you carry yourself rather than what you achieve.

7. Without Continual Growth and Progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

Quote By: Benjamin Franklin, American writer, thinker, politician, scientist, diplomat, printer, publisher, everything.

With such a long career, ups and downs are bound to occur. Teams figured out some of his weaknesses, injuries occurred, and so did prolonged loss of form. What mattered was that Sachin continued to reinvent himself and bring out a new version to overcome certain obstacles. Prime examples are the 241* in Sydney when he famously gave up the cover drive & the second wind in 2010 (at the age of 37, he dominated the South African bowling attack, scored double centuries, and looked fluent as ever).

Life Lesson 7: Keep the curiosity alive and continue to learn. You can only make substantial progress if you struggle initially, experiment with possible solutions, and ultimately overcome the challenges. Lather, rinse, and repeat.

Sachin Tendulkar Life Lessons – Final Thoughts

I will leave you with this final thought.

Sacrifice, patience, longevity, work ethic, reinvention, curiosity, grace. The list goes on. We can learn so much from Sachin Tendulkar, a cool head on broad shoulders that taught a country how to excel, win, and most importantly, dream.

What life lesson has Sachin instilled in you? What has he meant to you?

Other Articles on Cricket, Philosophy, and Life Lessons

If you liked this article, be sure to check these articles below on Cricket Life Lessons:

1. Top 10 Life Lessons From India Vs Australia 2020: Courage, Character, Resilience – Which One Is Your Favorite?
2. Top 10 Life Lessons From IPL: Beauty of Cricket
3. Cricket’s Reflections of Passion
4. Rahul Dravid Biography: What Dravid Taught Me
5. Lasith Malinga: The Slinga, Slayer, and SuperStar
6. What Can Ellyse Perry Not Do?
7. Nicholas Pooran, A Story of Pain, Hope, & Inspiration: The Next Big Thing of West Indies & World Cricket
8. Dale Steyn, The Embodiment of Simplicity and Intensity
9. Ross Taylor, An Underrated Cricketer Who Was A Giant Among New Zealand’s Greatest Generation
10. 20 Years of Mithali Raj And Jhulan Goswami: Eternal Legends for Indian & Women Cricket
11. The Magician With the Yorker – Umar Gul
12. Faf du Plessis & AB De Villiers’ Friendship: Broken Dreams of Faf and ABD
13. Dinesh Karthik and the Art of Self Correction
14. MS Dhoni and SK Raina Retire: An End of An Era
15. Dean Jones: A Celebration of Life

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