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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now that we've been through the mayoral race, rats in your playgrounds, and the state of the economy, we're going to end the show today with something that is sort of sports-related, but that has more to do with your own life in sports or otherwise. This past weekend was one of the great weekends that has come in many years. Usually comes in September, actually, in most years, for people who are sports fans in the New York area in general. On the same weekend, we had the US Open tennis finals, women's on Saturday, men's on Sunday. We had the Jets and Giants opening day games. Sorry for your loss, Jets and Giants fans.

We had both the Mets and Yankees playing important games against teams they're competing with for the playoffs. There was so much to watch. In person, big events in Queens, tennis, the Bronx Baseball, and MetLife in New Jersey, football, all happening at the same time on Sunday. Maybe some of you were channel surfing or binging sports this weekend. What we want to focus on is one plot line from the women's side of the tennis that is sticking with us these few days later, that anyone in sports or not might relate to and have a story about from your own life. It relates to the women's player, Amanda Anisimova back in July.

She didn't just lose the Wimbledon final to Iga Świątek; she lost it all. Game, set, match, scoring 6-0, 6-0, the infamous double bagel, something that hadn't been done in a finals match in over 100 years, so not just a loss, but a hard one, a humiliating one, and one that she took gracefully nonetheless, or as gracefully as a person can withstand when their anxiety dream actually comes true. The rematch between the same two players in the quarterfinals at the US Open last week was fraught, but Anisimova, after a rough start, won and advanced all the way to Saturday's final, where eventually she lost.

We want to hear from you about when you lost big and came back. What lesson did you learn? What strength did you draw on? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We're inviting your story of when you lost big but came back. What was it like? What lesson did you learn that helped you do it? What piece of strength of character helped you get through and actually make a comeback? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

Of course, we're not just inviting sports stories, although you can tell us your sports story. Maybe you got trounced in an election but managed to learn from it and win the next time. Maybe Andrew Cuomo is having this conversation with himself right now. Did your restaurant fail, or any business? Did you go personally bankrupt but manage to rebuild your credit and rebuild your savings, rebuild your lifestyle? 212-433-WNYC call or text 212-433-9692.

I'm curious if anybody, in your own comeback story, looks to sports for inspiration. No athlete ever wins every matchup, right? A brilliant baseball batting average is getting a hit like a third of the time. What are the stories from sports, history, or family lore that kept you going? 212-433-WNYC, give us a brief version of your comeback story and how you came back, what you drew on to help you come back. 212-4339-9692.

Many people say that what Anisimova did after her loss at Wimbledon was like a master class in losing. A reporter from The Athletic, The New York Times sports website, got comments from a Harvard Business School professor who studies failure. It sounded like she would have given Anisimova's tearful speech thanking her fans and her mother, as she did, would have given it an A.

How did you handle your big loss, set you up to succeed the next time as Anisimova did, at least by beating Swiatek when they saw each other again at the US Open? 212-433-WNYC call or text 212-433-9692. We'll hear a few of your comeback stories right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, to some of your comeback stories in about the six minutes we have left in the show. Sean in Los Angeles, you're on WNYC. You also have one from sports, I think, right?

Sean: Yes, Brian, and it's actually related to my growing up in New Jersey. I went to Union Catholic, shout out to Union County, High School. Going from freshman to sophomore year, we had a really good basketball team back then. I was just determined to make varsity. I think I put in like six to eight hours a day. Anyway, the wind up was, hey, we had a good back to court, and I did not make it, but it was actually a huge lesson for me about just putting in all the work, doing all the right things, and still things might not work out.

The wind up is I probably wound up- my basketball game definitely did improve, and I became a better player because I joined other clubs and really just started figuring out how to the sport for itself. I do love the Amanda example because it was extraordinary, and just seeing how she handled it. I love watching her videos of how she took time off and went surfing in Long Island. Everything about that is just a wonderful story of resilience. I love that story.

Brian Lehrer: Sean, thank you very much. Larger life lessons. RV in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, RV.

RV: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me. I used to work at Kickstarter and was a leader of our union effort there back in 2018. We had a really difficult loss where the boss fought us really hard and actually illegally fired two of our colleagues. We had to really take a moment and say, is the risk worth the fight? We thought we were working at a mission-driven company where this would be really easy, and got our wits about us. Had to really think about what it would mean to mount a substantial fight.

It's on my mind because, right now, those workers at Kickstarter are negotiating their second contract with the boss, and that wouldn't have been possible if we didn't get up and fight again. It's really cool to kind of think about how we show that resilience and keep going even when it's uncertain and even when the risk is high.

Brian Lehrer: Back to the drawing board. Get up and fight again, even in the face of risk. Justin in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Justin.

Justin: Hi, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. I got out of law School in 1985. I went to work for a large regional firm in Connecticut. They had an upper-out policy. There were 23 of us that started that year. After seven years, there were only two of us left, and I did not make partner. I had two babies at home, and I had to find a new job after devoting my life to these guys for seven years.

There was a recession going on at the time, and another regional law firm moved to town. I opened up their Connecticut office, and it turned out that the clients that my old firm thought were theirs were actually mine. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Brian Lehrer: That's great.

Justin: It was a difficult unemployed three months.

Brian Lehrer: You learned that you mattered, your skills, your relationships mattered, even in the context of the big corporate blob. Great story. Bobby in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. I think you're going to have the heaviest story here, Bobby, hi. You're on WNYC. Hello.

Bobby: Hey, Brian, thank you for having me. What I've learned in life is that it's not how much you make, it's how much you save. I'm sure a lot of people can relate to it, especially when you live in suburbs. You have pressure to show off or compete. After making 250,000 many years ago, I found myself homeless, not being able to pay rent, bounce back again, but the best lesson I can say for everyone listening is it's better to make $50,000 a year and save 20,000 than make $1 million and spend it all. Please don't be a fool like me.

Brian Lehrer: Bobby, thank you very much. It's not how much you have, it's how you live with what you have, Bobby is saying. Here's a text. "Nearly drowned in the Hudson. Afraid of the water. For the first time in my 65 years, following year, began training and competing in sprint triathlons and succeeded in conquering the PTSD. Took a few years. What a feeling." Wow. Mark in Jersey City, you're on WNYC. Another sports example, but it intersects with COVID doesn't it, Mark? Hi. Hi.

Mark: Yes, I had COVID in the first wave, like March of '20. I was in my 60s then and was pretty sick. I thought I would get over it like any other thing, like a week later, I'll be fine. Well, I mean, it's been a five-year journey for me and [inaudible 00:10:14]--

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead. Oh, I think somehow we lost the quality connection. Can you pick up the phone the way you had it? Well, I think I'm going to have to complete Mark's story, at least as he told it to our screener, which is that he was an endurance athlete. He had COVID in 2020. He went through the sickness and the results of it for a long time and he thought he was done, but he just completed a 100-mile ride in the Berkshires. If he was still there, I was going to ask him if he had tips for anybody fighting long COVID, but I guess I'm not going to do that as we end the segment.

I thank all of you for your stories of resilience of various kinds, and techniques and points of strength of character that you drew on, and lessons from other people to make whatever kind of comeback you did in your life. Thanks to that, and again to Ms. Anisimova for the inspiration.

That's the Brian Lehrer show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our daily Politics podcast. We had Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Stay tuned for Alison.

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