 I'm Rusty Kamori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today was born with four impaired limbs and he will inspire you because he has inspired countless people throughout the world and Sports Illustrated named him one of the most accomplished physically challenged athletes in history. He is the one and only Roger Crawford and today we are going beyond your potential. Hey Roger welcome to Beyond the Lines. Thank you so much Rusty. It's really a pleasure to be here and congratulations with all your successes as a tennis coach. That's quite impressive 22 years so in winning championships. I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me. Well Roger I am super excited to have you. You are someone that inspires me now as well and I want to ask you if you can first share with us in detail about the condition that you were born with. Right so Rusty I was born with a physical challenge. It affects all four of my limbs from the elbows down and and from the knees down so I have two fingers on my left hand and one finger on my right hand. You know it's interesting my grandchildren are just fascinated by the fact that I have a college degree but I'm unable to count on my fingers. They don't understand how that worked. You know how I was able to have a college degree but my bottom part of my left leg was amputated when I was five years old and today I wore an artificial leg or a prosthesis and I had three toes on my right foot partially developed lower right leg. You know but Rusty I was fortunate growing up that I had a mother and father that instilled in me that I wasn't going to use this as an excuse. They always said you know you got to do the best you can with what you have and it helped me understand that you know we're all challenged in some way. You know some challenges you can see like mine but there's also challenges that you're unable to see. So I think growing up with that mindset it enabled me to not fall into self pity to be determined and become the best version of myself. Roger you know for my coaching you know with a lot of my students the parents I would tell them the parents that I'm not going to protect your child from a challenge. I'm going to teach them how to face it and I'm so happy to hear that's what that's what your parents did. Absolutely and I think one of the great gifts that we can give others is facing adversity not trying to protect them not shielding them from challenges because what happens is as we walk through it we become more aware of our own capacity, our courage, our resiliency and so I think that's really a great gift and for the people listening I'd ask them to look back at their lives and some of the adversity they've been through and I'm sure that they could point to tremendous benefits that they've realized because of it. So I think you're very wise as a coach Rusty and as a leader that you place people in positions where they have to discover their courage. Yeah no that's because challenges it's inevitable we're all going to have it and and some of us will deal with deeper levels than others but Roger I feel it's so amazing that you picked up the game of tennis and you excelled in tennis through high school and then you went to college you played college division one tennis for Loyola Maramount University. Why did you have such a passion to really start and to pursue tennis? So Rusty I come from an athletic family my father was an athlete as well as my brother so it's why I really love sports growing up. I think for me sports were so important because they gave me a platform that helped me feel equal you know if I could go out and participate on the football field with the other kids or the baseball field or whatever just participating you know I felt like I was I was equal right I didn't have a physical challenge but I fell in love with tennis we moved to California from Ohio and there was this tennis court public courts across the street from our house and there was this backboard and I just became fascinated with the sport I would take the racket lay it against my right arm and then hold the grip to my right up with my left hand so that's how I began playing tennis but I fell in love with the sport I think part of my being attracted to it was the fact that it was an individual sport I could do it on my own and I just I just loved the whole I just loved everything about the game so that's how I got started yeah no I like hearing that and you know when I started I I did baseball then soccer and when I started tennis I thought to myself all I got to do is hit the ball in one more time I can do that and that's something you thought about right absolutely you know Rusty I think you really hit on really something key and that was that you know I realized you know obviously I'm not going to be the fastest I'm not going to be the most powerful but what I found was that if you could keep the ball coming back over the net one more time than the other person you win the point as you said so it really speaks to I think an important principle in all of our lives and that is that consistency is more important than perfection it's continuing to hit that ball over the net and I see I apply that in my own life and my work as well you know perfection striving for to be perfect can really be a demotivator because very rarely if ever do we reach perfection I don't think we're called to be perfect I think we're called to to be better and that's why I just think having that consistent mindset just every single day putting in what it takes you know the work before the work and um so yeah so consistency was was a huge part of me having whatever success I had you know as a tennis player also I got to tell you Rusty that you know my physical challenge in some ways worked to my advantage because you know as being a collegiate athlete when somebody walked out and realized I was going to be their opponent they started to get some butterflies because a couple things happened number one they thought what if I lose to this dude right how am I going to explain this to my teammates to my friends I lost to some guy you know with three fingers in one leg so that kind of worked my advantage and then you know the more consistent I could be giving him more chances to miss that also made him a little bit nervous. Roger I'm sure you have so many stories where people just cannot believe they lost to you but you know that's that's the heart I mean you have a heart of a champion and I love that and I noticed that on your rackets there's like in the throat area there's like a contraption that allows you to hold the racket can you can you tell me about that? Yes I'm glad you brought that up let me tell you where that that device came from when I was 13 years of age I walked into a tennis store and I saw what I think is the holy grail of tennis rackets the Wilson T-2000. Rusty you're probably not old enough to remember the Wilson T-2000 but it had two parallel bars that were open from the head of the racket to the grip my finger this finger got stuck in between the two parallel bars so oftentimes people will give me way too much credit they'll say Roger that was so innovative I mean how you how you learn how to hold the racket I said not really and my finger just got stuck so that's how I so that's how I secured it and from that I used Wilson T-2000 for years and years and then finally when some of the the newer rackets came out I was able to take that same space those same dimensions and put it into a racket today and so I still use Wilson rackets they've been really great to me over the years and so I just had that piece that has the same dimensions put my finger in just that's how I hit the ball. Wow that is that is absolutely amazing Roger I mean and you know for me as a tennis player I I don't think I could be able to do what you do like that as well so that that's tremendous but I want to ask you Roger you know people learn so many life lessons through sports and absolutely you mentioned consistency earlier what what are some life lessons that you learn through playing tennis so many being able to take risks you know it's fascinating and I'm sure that you've shared this with your students is oftentimes people think you know to win a match it's important that I don't miss any shots well the truth is to play at your best you got to miss a few shots you have to take a few risks so what that taught me was wherever there's opportunity there's always a risk you know some people look at that and say no no I'm not going to take that risk you know because I'm afraid of failing the people that achieve their very best look at a situation like that and say well if I didn't take this risk what opportunity might I miss so I think opportunity and risk is huge certainly preparation right you know I we say to people when they so I'm going into you know maybe it's a sales call or whatever and I'm nervous I say you know you want to reduce your nerve prepare more more you prepare the more that your mindset is going to be you know what I'm capable you're aware of your capacity your resiliency and you're ready to move forward follow through you know that's another one right I mean so important you know you complete your stroke well for people listening they can all point areas of their life where they see that value right a follow through it's not just preparation eye on the ball you got to finish the stroke no matter what you do follow through is absolutely crucial so that would just be a few I mean there's so many right that you can take from the game of tennis and I think really any sport yeah I love hearing your insights Roger and and you were a frequent guest on the tennis channel I mean I love seeing your segments on the tennis channel and what do you feel I mean you've shared already some incredible things but what is your big message to the world well I would think that the most important message that I could share with audiences is that and you said something similar earlier rusty and that's challenges in life are inevitable but defeat is optional I want to provide to audiences and to people some ideas on mindset reminding their them of their own power their own ability to achieve their very very best because oftentimes in life we underestimate ourselves and we overestimate our obstacles so I think sharing those messages of mindset because you know the better that we choose to think the better results we get you know I talked earlier before the interview about self-imposed limitations and and have you noticed that you very rarely if ever perform better than you believe you can you know when you believe that you can't do something you work really hard at proving yourself right in the same respect when you believe that you can do something you're going to work really hard at proving yourself right now it's not just thinking about it it's doing something about it but I really believe that mindset is the foundation for for success because we can often sabotage ourselves with with our thinking right and I know for me I've often said this I you know I'd rather have the physical challenge I have and a positive mindset than be able bodied with a negative mindset because I kind of pay I think that a negative mindset is a lot more disabling than my hands or my legs now as I mentioned it's not the only thing that you need for success but I do believe it's the most important thing and when I look at success it is to me it's becoming the best version of ourselves you know I've accepted that no matter how much I practice I'm never going to be the best Roger in tennis it ain't gonna happen so when we think about becoming the best version of ourselves we have to redefine what winning means and I think what winning means is becoming your very very best and the competition being you just trying to be a little bit better every single day that's what I think about success I love hearing that and I love that you you talk about mindset so much and I I do the same because the brain controls the body and Roger you're you're an author of multiple books and I love in your books how you talk about how so much things are imagined versus real and nowadays there's there's a big thing about mental health what are your thoughts about mental health issues well I think it's important and again I precious by saying you know I'm I haven't studied mental health and and I would say to people you know when they're in you know having bouts of depression they need to to seek out a professional to address that but I think in just looking at it in global terms I think it's important that you separate fear from anxiety here's what I mean fear is based upon something real fear is present based anxiety is future focused and anxiety is believing that something's going to happen in the future whether it occurs or not it's anticipating a negative event what's interesting about anxiety is it doesn't have to be based upon something real it just created your imagination it's often defined as the negative use of mental rehearsal here's why I bring that up rusty I think that for a lot of people we get caught in this cycle of anxiety and we are looking into future and we're projecting all these negative outcomes that happen what does that do that paralyzes us in the future now when we look at fear I think fear can actually be a positive emotion because if you're leaving the known and going into the unknown okay so you're trying to advance trying to do a little better known to the unknown you're going to face fear that's part of it but see fear is a good good barometer it's a good metric because it shows you that you're challenging yourself to be your very very best because when you stay where you are you don't really face a lot of fear usually when you're moving forward it's though you know it's that you know match point you know in tennis or yeah people can can see the equivalent in all of their lives um so it's separating the two and that really comes down to language that we use you know how do we interpret events in our lives you know oftentimes you hear people say well that's a catastrophe that's pretty big word is it a catastrophe let's take a hard look at that most likely it's not maybe it's actually an inconvenience is it Mount Everest well you know actually when you look at the facts it's really a molehill I just think that that's really really important we've seen that with COVID right who people have have absolutely gotten in this cycle of of anxiety and not to say COVID has been a huge challenge for all of us without a doubt but what we know from wisdom as we look in our past this too will end you know there's an old saying goes like this in times like these it's important remember they have been times like these we're going to get through it we're going to come out the other side a little bit better more knowledgeable more creative I think we're going to have more gratitude I love I love that I mean and I want to I want to talk with you a bit about my books Roger in the books you know because you definitely are somebody that goes beyond the lines and I talk about creating not just a culture of excellence but a superior culture of excellence and that's what you've done and I also talk about the difference between a victim mindset versus a victor mindset and can you can you talk about I mean because obviously you have that victor mindset and and it's a choice right we could choose to say hey woe is me and the world is falling apart or whatever or we can choose to look at that one positive among 20 negatives right absolutely I really like how you put that a victim and victor I think that's really great you know something I say with audiences is this one way that I'm absolutely certain you can increase results is by decreasing excuses because when you remove excuses right when you remove that self-imposed limitation it's amazing how these new possibilities emerge I like what you said Rusty about all of us could say woe is me and I so agree with you because for everybody listening we could all find an excuse to feel badly for ourselves all of us can however when we are in a victim mentality we feel completely out of control why because it's everyone else or circumstances doing this to us we're not empowered at all we've given up all of our power we're a victim right but when you become a victor when you have that victor mentality you see that your thinking is volitional your motivation is a choice excellence is a choice you know I remember Rusty I met somebody who had hands very similar to mine and this was years ago and I'll never forget during our conversation who was evident that he was bitter and angry and he blamed all of his unhappiness his lack of success his discontentment on his hands and his legs and I remember I left that meeting really a changed person I really was because here's the thought I had if he was given normal hands and normal legs in other words his circumstances changed but he had the same mindset his life wouldn't be any different he'd be at the same place his life that he is today because we live life from the inside out so that was a real epiphany for me meeting him and that really put me on a quest to continue to study and to learn about you know what makes people successful what makes them perform at their best I love that Roger and Roger you are a hall of fame speaker that have spoken to huge companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nike just to name a few and when these companies have challenges how are you able to help them if you can give me an example of like a challenge they might have and how you would help them be better just to improve themselves. Often organizations will will ask me to come speak when they're going through change because change is also inevitable and change can be difficult and the reason change is difficult is we really value as human beings we value certainty that the truth is change is going to happen so the question is how do we respond to change and something I share with with organizations is the importance of a forward to normal mindset in other words not looking for everything to go back to normal because it's not going back to normal normal is going to be ahead of us and not behind us so afford a normal mindset is letting go of that myth that we're going back to normal it's being forward focused it's it's doing business as the world is today but also doing business as the world's going to be then nobody can predict the future you know there's an old you've probably heard the saying you know I mean it's easy to predict the future it's hard to predict the future correctly so we can't really predict the future but we can prepare for the future and one way we can prepare for the future is knowing and understanding that what brought us to where we are today is not going to keep us where we are today we have to continue in a change and evolve it's important that we don't let the change outside exceed the change inside and I know I understand the change can be difficult the change is necessary and here's why because the gift of change is it provides us with new opportunities new possibilities and it helps us do more and be more so I think change can be a great gift oftentimes we want to resist it pretend it's not happening and want to go back to normal the truth is we're not going back to normal your perspectives are absolutely perfect roger and so when you're on stage in front of let's say 15 000 people what what are some key things that you do to really connect with the audience well I really thank you for that question I think that's a great one and I'm not asked that very frequently so I appreciate it so I had been speaking for like 10 years and I started to experience some anxiety and what was happening Rusty was you know before my speech my stomach would get upset I'd start perspiring and it was really was really challenging for me and you know once I got started it was fine I don't think the audience really knew but I knew right and so I wanted to feel more at ease now I'm always nervous but I wanted to be released from that groups of anxiety so I talked to a friend of mine here's what he said to me he said roger the issue is you're focusing on yourself and not the audience and that was like an epiphany again I knew that word before but epiphany I mean this new awareness and you know Rusty when I made that shift to stop thinking about me you know I'm thinking about oh you know what if I'd perspire what if I and start focusing on the audience the anxiety went away now it's not to say that I'm not nervous you know when people ask me about that they say well gosh you know you're probably over the nervousness I said no not at all I'm still nervous before I speak absolutely but I'm not gripped by that anxiety yeah no and I think you know being nervous before speaking or before you know a sports competition or anything it just shows that you care about what you're doing I I think I would tell my players I would be nervous if they weren't nervous before a big match I agree and roger you know for me as a coach my goal was really to develop the potential of greatness for each player on my team and as a team as a whole and I want to ask you how how do you define greatness wonderful question and I and I would say this Rusty that as as you look at your life there are many dimensions of greatness okay there's personal greatness family greatness you know career greatness and what I would say to people listening is this I had someone ask me this question what do you want written on your tombstone and my response was I'd rather be speaking that's what I want on my tombstone but as you think about what you'd want on your tombstone I bet it would be something about contribution that you've made that you've made a difference that you've had impact I really believe that that's a big part of greatness because oftentimes we look at prominence but prominence it's all about us and it's usually about something on the exterior it's usually well for possessions thing is that that's fleeting but when you think about significance that's about others and so what are you doing every day to invest in other people inspire other people uplift other people I think that's a big part of greatness you know I think especially for young people today with social media you know their definition of what they think success may be I think in so many ways is an illusion right and what I would also say is that I think everybody has greatness within them I absolutely believe that and it's taking a look at your life and saying you know where do I where do I really want to be great what do I really want to what do I really want to excel and that that's that's what I think of as greatness you know not everybody can be a Roger Federer right not you know not everybody can be in a LeBron James not that those are not worthy goals but if that is our metric we're going to be disappointed you know there's but that doesn't mean that you don't have greatness doesn't mean that you don't have potential you've got a tremendous amount of it that's why I share with people that oftentimes we have to get out of get out of our own way we have to break through that limited thinking and start to say we know what's possible you know often say this to audiences say you know I'm sure people have said to you that something that you want to attempt is impossible I said I think it's important to keep that in perspective that's their opinion that's not a fact I love it I love your insights Roger and and Roger I want to sincerely really thank you for taking time to be on the show today I mean you're an inspiration to me and I love that you're going to the impact that you're having across the world well listen I appreciate being on your show and like I said congratulations on all the great work you're doing and the great work that you've done in the past and I was just thrilled to to be included today so thank you for having me thank you Roger and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii for more information please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble I hope that Roger and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs Aloha