{"id":861,"date":"2026-06-06T15:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=861"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:39:18","slug":"serena-williams-secret-to-success-is-about-more-than-talent-you-have-to-grind-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=861","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams\u2019 secret to success is about more than talent: You have to grind \u2018every day\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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She echoes the sentiment that success requires constant dedication, and she reflects that philosophy in her athletic and business endeavors; persistence and determination are winning traits for sweeping a match, or leading an entrepreneurial venture.\u00a0And she\u2019s proving that the grind never stops with her return to the sport at this year\u2019s HSBC Championships, where she\u2019ll compete in doubles with Canadian athlete Victoria Mboko at the London event.<\/p>\n

Read more Bernie Sanders and Sam Altman\u2019s private one-hour meeting about the public ownership of AI<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTennis is [played] every day, you have to do it every day. You have to train, and business is the same,\u201d Williams told CNBC Make It <\/em>in a 2025 interview. \u201cIt is exactly the same. You have to be very disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou also have to be determined through ups and downs, be determined to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams has won 23 Grand Slam titles throughout her 27-year stint as the darling of tennis; in 2022, the Olympic athlete decided to step away from the sport to focus on her business work. She started a capital fund called Serena Ventures in 2014, where she uplifted diverse entrepreneurs, boasting its Fund 1 investments were 79% underrepresented founders, 54% women founders, 47% Black founders, and 11% Latino founders. Serena Ventures raised $111 million during its early-stage fundraising, and in 2025 announced that her portfolio included more than 14 billion-dollar companies and several decacorns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019s new career with Serena Ventures is budding as she helps uplift startup leaders and small businesses, like wig-customization platform Parfait, independent publication Wonderland, and relationship-wellness company Ours, to reach new heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one thing that I\u2019m excited to do, is to talk to these mentors about that determination that I\u2019ve shown so much in my past career and just bring it out to this new career,\u201d Williams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Serena\u2019s advice: Work 28 hours a day and stay humble<\/h2>\n

Williams told Fortune<\/em> she\u2019s drawn to founders who have a personal connection to the problem their company is trying to solve. And when it comes to advising them on leading a successful business, the decorated tennis champion says people need to go above and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I mentor founders one thing that I find myself giving over and over again is to just dust yourself off and don\u2019t stop,\u201d Williams told Fortune<\/em> during an interview last year. \u201cVC is interesting\u2014it\u2019s a tough business, and then as a founder starting a new company, you have to show up 28 hours out of 24.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more SpaceX needs to grow 600x in a decade to justify a $1.75 trillion valuation. No company has ever come close<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou win a few, you lose a few. You get knocked down, and you get right back up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Williams displayed that same grit in her career, setting tennis records that may never be broken. With 367 career wins, 319 consecutive weeks as the number one tennis player, and nearly $95 million in total prize money, the 44-year-old legend should feel on top of the world. But even in the heights of her success, she has stuck to a philosophy that brings her down to earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think the main value that they instilled in me is just humility, and I think that goes way better than any championship or anything, because it keeps you grounded as an individual,\u201d Williams told CNBC<\/em>. \u201cIt keeps you respectful, and it keeps you just like everybody else, because at the end of the day, we\u2019re all the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other successful leaders staying humble and curious<\/h2>\n

Williams isn\u2019t the only successful person espousing the idea of grinding all hours of the day. As a huge proponent of \u201csweat equity,\u201d serial investor Mark Cuban has recommended to \u201cwork like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you.\u201d And the late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, who started working at Hewlett-Packard at the age of 13, said the determining factor between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs is \u201cpure perseverance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brian Niccol\u2014the CEO of Starbucks, who formerly held prominent roles at Chipotle, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell\u2014also stays grounded by being curious. Despite being at the helm of a $109 billion coffee giant, Niccol doesn\u2019t see himself as having all the answers. Employees of all rankings still have something to teach him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best business advice I ever received was: \u2018Don\u2019t be afraid to ask questions,\u2019\u201d Niccol told Fortune<\/em> in 2024. \u201cRegardless of what position you\u2019re in, even as the CEO, there are moments where somebody\u2019s talking about something, [and] I don\u2019t totally get what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Elon Musk bullet-proofed his $1 trillion \u2018Mars-shot\u2019 pay at SpaceX after the epic battle over his $56 billion moonshot at Tesla<\/a><\/p>\n

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A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on June 30, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 44-year-old tennis icon says humility and perseverance are key to success, echoing other leaders like Brian Niccol, Steve Jobs, and Mark Cuban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-serena-williams"],"yoast_head":"\nSerena Williams\u2019 secret to success is about more than talent: You have to grind \u2018every day\u2019 - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=861\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Serena Williams\u2019 secret to success is about more than talent: You have to grind \u2018every day\u2019 - 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