Serena Williams: “Champions have to pay a price, and it’s not always fun.”
Mexico City, Sep 5 (EFE)
Serena Williams, one of the most influential figures in the history of sports, asserted this Friday in Mexico City that to be a champion, talent is not enough; you need mentality, discipline, education, and the ability to get up after falling.
The former world number one, who accumulated 319 weeks at the top of the WTA rankings, burst onto the scene at the Mexico Siglo XXI forum, organized by the Telmex-Telcel Foundation of Mexican magnate Carlos Slim, not with a racket, but with a clear message in front of thousands of young people who filled the National Auditorium.
“Champions always feel they have to pay a price, and it’s not always fun (…) in the future, things will pay off, so champions also understand the fact that one has to work hard and that there won’t be a quick reward,” she commented.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion confessed that since she was a child, she learned to push herself beyond her limits. “I became obsessed with winning and being number one, and this made me disciplined,” she said.
For Williams, that discipline is inseparable from success, adding that “success doesn’t come overnight. You have to work for it.”
The now entrepreneur, investor, designer, and producer grew up in Compton, California, a neighborhood in the United States that she described as a “tough area.”
While she acknowledged that hearing gunshots was part of her childhood routine and playing on courts surrounded by broken glass wasn’t uncommon, she asserted that it was easier to be at Wimbledon than in Compton.
“And those moments made me stronger and really made me appreciate being in a place and saying, ‘I shouldn’t be stressed about being in a Wimbledon final because I’m better off here than where I came from,’” she contrasted.
Williams insisted that a champion’s strength is revealed in moments of adversity.
“The best way to describe a champion, and I’ve always said this, is not when they’re winning, but when they’re bouncing back from the fall,” she cautioned.
Another key she shared was confidence and the ability to motivate herself, recalling her famous “Come on!”
Williams said that being motivated came naturally in an individual sport and was something like an internal dialogue to stay focused on the court. She also recalled leaving herself notes, which she said “became my own ‘coach,'” explaining how she would write messages before matches to stay on track amid the pressure.
Education, she added, was another pillar her parents established as a condition, as in their home, tennis practice was not allowed without perfect grades.
That rule, she said, allowed her to understand that sport is temporary and that there must always be academic and personal support.
She also revealed that not reading what the media said about her was a habit that helped her protect her stability and emphasized that “to be a champion, you have to be humble,” convinced that negative energy contaminates results.
“If you’re surrounded by negativity, you become negative, the results are negative, and you can’t become the number one investor or the athlete you want to be,” she concluded.
Williams added that now, in her role as an entrepreneur, she maintains that same approach.
However, she emphasized again that, as an investor and founder of her own firm, Serena Ventures, the pressures of her new role don’t compare to the tension of a decisive match.
“Wow, it’s a lot less pressure to sit in an office and decide whether or not to close this deal than it is to decide how to serve in the final of an American tennis tournament,” she quipped.
