{"id":39871,"date":"2023-10-20T15:04:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/tennis-star-venus-williams-on-the-best-thing-about-being-an-entrepreneur-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:04:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:04:55","slug":"tennis-star-venus-williams-on-the-best-thing-about-being-an-entrepreneur-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/tennis-star-venus-williams-on-the-best-thing-about-being-an-entrepreneur-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis star Venus Williams on the best thing about being an entrepreneur – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Venus
Source: AAP\/Dean Lewins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cPeople say there isn\u2019t a limit but in our head we always think in limits\u2014be limitless and take that limit off of yourself and realise that you can do anything,\u201d says international tennis star and entrepreneur Venus Williams.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lesson that was reinforced every time the Australian Open finalist walked away as the victor of a\u00a0difficult match\u00a0wondering how she won it. And the\u00a0lesson has\u00a0been a significant one for Williams in pursuing her \u201clifelong goal\u201d.<\/p>\n

“I always dreamed of being an entrepreneur,\u201d Williams tells Inc<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The three-time tennis world number one has founded two companies: an \u201cathleisure\u201d fashion brand EleVen by Venus and interior design company Starr Interiors. She is also a lead investor in Ellevest<\/a>, a fintech company founded by former Citigroup chief financial officer Sallie Krawcheck.<\/p>\n

Despite being a world-renowned athlete, Williams says launching and building a company has not been easy; there’s no immunity from \u201crookie mistakes\u201d and \u201csoured\u201d relationships with partners and retailers.<\/p>\n

And as Williams works on taking her fashion brand\u00a0global, finding buyers is also a challenge.<\/p>\n

“They know your name, and they respect what you’ve done in athletics,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they don’t automatically think you can transfer that focus to a business.”<\/p>\n

Williams, who has a degree in business administration and is currently completing a master\u2019s in interior architecture, says she was exposed to entrepreneurship from an early age\u2014along with her sister and fellow tennis champion Serena Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our home, we weren’t allowed to be just athletes. We had to be students,”\u00a0Williams says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur dad taught us to be entrepreneurs. We would drive to a tournament somewhere, and he would put in a cassette about buying foreclosure properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cSerena was eight and I was nine years old, and we had to listen to how to make money on foreclosures. Obviously, we didn’t understand much of it.<\/p>\n

“That didn’t really matter, because our dad was trying to establish that mindset of multitasking, of being an entrepreneur, of charting your own path.”<\/p>\n

Splitting her time between tennis and entrepreneurship gives Williams solace because she\u2019s able to spend part of her time building something special with a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the tennis court, it’s just me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very hard on myself, because I have to get the whole job done … That’s the great thing about business. There isn’t just one winner.<\/p>\n

“There’s room for everyone to win. I love that.”<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: AAP\/Dean Lewins \u201cPeople say there isn\u2019t a limit but in our head we always think in limits\u2014be limitless and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}