The USTA has new clothes by Javier Palenque (3 minute read)

This week, my 10 year old asked me for help in her school assignment for a well-known short story by Andersen Christian “The emperor has new clothes” I am certain most of you have read it at some point, after helping my child and explain the key lessons, I sat in my office and related it to the situation we are in, the virus and the beloved retrograde USTA. The world’s best-funded sports nonprofit with the least amount of kids and adults playing the sport.

As the story goes, two con men — fabric weavers, promise a prideful emperor a fabulous new suit of clothes. They said the clothes will be invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. However, they made no clothes at all, leading everyone to believe the clothes are invisible to them. When the emperor parades before his subjects in his non-existent suit, no one dared to say that they do not see any clothes on him for fear that they will be stupid. Finally, a child cries out, “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!” When the crowd realized the child is right and confirmed their belief the emperor was not wearing anything at all, they began to roar in laughter. However, the emperor continued his parade, because to turn back, he would admit that he was fooled.

Here are a few business lessons from the elementary school short story that the…