Serena Williams: "Pressure is a Privilege"

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Revisiting a conversation with BoF’s Imran Amed from 2019, the 23 grand slam winning tennis champion, who announced her retirement this week, talks about how the mental toughness she has built on the court has prepared her for life as an entrepreneur.

Background:

This week, tennis superstar Serena Williams announced her imminent retirement as part of a cover story with American Vogue. Known in fashion circles for her on-court style, which included catsuits and denim skirts and a collaboration with late designer Virgil Abloh’s Off-White, Williams will have more time to focus on as her burgeoning business empire, including her fashion label S by Serena and a venture fund, Serena Ventures.

This week on The BoF Podcast, we revisit Williams’ 2019 conversation with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed about how the mental toughness she has built on the court has prepared her for life as an entrepreneur.

“It's really important for things not to come super easy for you, and to kind of accept that challenge, embrace it and then just roll with it,” said Williams.

Key Insights:

Rather than work with a partner, licence her name or sign another lucrative endorsement, Williams felt it was important to invest time, money and effort in herself and chase her own vision with S by Serena, a direct-to-consumer brand she has funded independently.
Serena Ventures just raised $111 million and has invested in over 60 companies including personal care brand Lola, supply chain management firm Calico and razor-maker Billie.
The fund was originally founded in 2014 when Williams noticed people of colour and women were not getting the investments they needed.
Balancing all her pursuits and personal life can be tough. But, when she feels pinched, William is reminded of one of her favourite quotes from Billie Jean King: “pressure is a privilege.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion. Welcome to the BOF podcast. It's Friday, August 12th. This week, news broke in the September issue of U.S. Vogue that Serena Williams is starting to step back from her outstanding run as one of the most successful tennis players of all time.
0:23.6	Tennis star Serena Williams says she will retire from the sport following the US Open.
0:28.6	The 23-time singles Grand Slam champion said there comes a time in life
0:32.6	when we have to decide to move in a different direction.
0:35.6	That time is always hard when you love something so much.
0:39.7	Inside this month's vogue, Serena telling the magazine,
0:43.1	I've never liked the word retirement.
0:44.9	It doesn't feel like a modern word to me.
0:47.2	Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution.
0:50.2	I'm here to tell you that I'm involving away from tennis
0:53.4	toward other things that are important to me.
0:56.0	So what might Serena do next? And how is she thinking about those things that are important to her?
1:02.2	On this week's episode of the BOF podcast, we revisit a conversation I had with Serena back in 2019,
1:09.1	addressing exactly that question, including her interest in fashion and focus on
1:14.6	venture capital investing. We discuss how the mental toughness she has built on the court has
1:20.5	prepared her for life as an entrepreneur. Here's Serena Williams on the BOF podcast.
1:28.2	Welcome.
1:30.3	Hey, everyone. Thank you.
1:33.3	So today, you know, we're talking about entrepreneurship.
1:36.7	Everybody knows you're a tennis champion.
1:41.6	But few people know all of the other stuff that you're working on.
1:44.9	So I'm just going to quickly lay it out for all of you.
	...

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