The Winner's Mind: A Competitor's Guide to Sports and Business Success [Paperback]

Allen Fox PhD (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005

Acknowledging the conventional wisdom that "winning isn't everything," this guide takes the position that winning is still eminently preferable to losing and lays out a step-by-step plan for succeeding at any of life's endeavors. In addition to sharing his personal experiences as a world-class tennis player and successful businessman, Allen Fox unveils the secrets of champions and reveals how everyone can put them to use to tilt the odds in their favor in a hilarious, take-no-prisoners tone. Factors contributing to success, such as common mental characteristics of winners and the role of intellect over emotion, as well as obstacles to victory such as the insidious and pervasive fear of failure and the unconscious struggle between ambition and fear, are also discussed.

Editorial Reviews

Review

""Illustrates simple principles for success with fascinating stories about athletes, business people, and famous historical figures. It's a fun read, and I couldn't put it down." --Vic Braden

About the Author

Allen Fox, PhD, is the author of If I'm the Better Player, Why Can't I Win? and Think to Win: The Strategic Dimension of Tennis and a former editor of Tennis Magazine. In addition to being a world-class tennis player who was at one time ranked fourth in the United States, he has been an investment banker and a coach for the Pepperdine University tennis team. He currently consults and works privately with professional athletes on the mental issues of competition and travels worldwide to lecture on sports psychology. He lives in San Luis Obispo, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Usrsa (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972275924
• ISBN-13: 978-0972275927
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #625,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Winner's Mind is a winner, December 13, 2009

By 

Ganesh Bala (Havertown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Winner's Mind: A Competitor's Guide to Sports and Business Success (Paperback)

Is tennis primarily about "winning" or "having fun and learning"? Or both, or something else, or all the above? And how about matters beyond tennis, such as life itself?

Ultimately, that is, of course, probably for you to decide...

Meanwhile, this book, The Winner's Mind, by Allen Fox, Ph.D., and as stated by the publisher: "acknowledg[es] the conventional wisdom that "winning isn't everything," [but] takes the position that winning is still eminently preferable to losing and lays out a step-by-step plan for succeeding at any of life's endeavors." In short, while fun, learning and growth are indeed critical to our games and our life, this book goes on to present a well-thought argument about the value and reality of "winning" and a formula for most of us "non-champions" to better achieve it.

Fox, a psychologist and former successful business executive, is a former world-class tennis player, ranked No. 4 in the world, and a Quarterfinalist at Wimbledon, and later a coach at top-ranked Pepperdine University. In crisp and pointed language, rich with historical and recent examples, he lays out a case why we all have a genetic and learned need to compete and advance, and what factors typically block or restrict our path to "winning".

In a stunning example at the beginning of the book, he mentions a revealing study made of World War II fighter pilots which revealed that only about 5% of U.S. fighter pilots were responsible for shooting down enemy planes. What were the other 95% of our pilots doing? They were, of course, being shot down by the 5% of the enemy fighter pilots. The point? Only about 5% of us in the population possess an exceptional level of the "winner's" competitor's fire and formula.

He then goes on to study and outline the common characteristics of people he calls "habitual winners" in tennis and other walks of life...what do they share in common?

And in the heart of the book, Fox argues how all of the us, namely the rest of "non-champions", can model or employ many of these characteristics to better attain victory in our own games and lives.

This is a self-help book with a tennis flavor, but with valuable insights into ideas and strategies such as goal setting (short-term and long-term), the power of boundless energy- mental and physical, the assumption that all problems have solutions, and the value of constantly evaluating, adjusting and changing what we do.

Highly suggested.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars U like tennis and success story? You must read it., March 27, 2005

By 

Smart Coach (SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Winner's Mind: A Competitor's Guide to Sports and Business Success (Paperback)

As a coach of professional players and business man I could really relate to the relation that Allen Fox makes between tennis and today's business. If you read one book this year, make it this one. You will really enjoy it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get this book!, August 30, 2005

By 

Jeffrey M. Hallman (Long Branch, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Winner's Mind: A Competitor's Guide to Sports and Business Success (Paperback)

This is not a book about tennis. As its title implies, it is all about winning...About why we don't always win and how we can increase our chances of winning. This author clearly articulates the reasons why we and those around us often unknowingly sabotage ourselves and the methods that we can all use to overcome these tendencies. He does this without the use of "physco babble" and you won't have to run to the dictionary every five minutes. The use of tennis as a segue into a business context is very effective, but you don't really need to know anything about tennis to "get" the point. The book is organized into sub-headings within each chapter. These sub-headings are frequently several paragraghs long in which he "nails" each point effectively. So the authors offers up his book in "bite size chunks", making it easy to read and digest. I've read many "self help" books, and this is among the very best.