Serena Williams’ Unlikely Story
Pushing boundaries and making history.
By Sydney Mischke | Psychology Major, Bethel University (St Paul, Minnesota)
Serena Williams in1999. Seventeen years old. Three Grand Slam wins behind her. One in front — just one. This match, however, just happened to be against the №1 tennis player in the league. Serena was young and hungry, though, and she started the match strong, took the lead and instantly, and then kept it for the entire match — and won the grand slam competition — becoming an instant national icon. Serena stood on that podium as the first African American to win a grand slam title since 1958, young, African American females like Serena did not often get the chance to experience such success, but Serena has used her platform not only to show her accomplishments, but to be a role model for girls just like her.
Serena Williams is now one of the most well known tennis players, not only in the nation, but in the world — she has an unmatched 23 grand slam titles, multiple gold medals, and multiple titles from various world tennis cups.
Serena is a story of success that Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success, would treasure. The book walks through countless success stories, and some not so successful stories; however, all of the stories include one similarities — people do not succeed based on talent alone, all the success stories include a special combination of certain things in their life that made them an “outlier,” or different and unique. Serena Willams’ “things” including taking her family legacy into the world of sports, where she found meaningful work and used her grit to become one of the best tennis champions of all time.
“It is, quite possibly, the best sports story of the modern era. Two young black girls from Compton, Calif., trained by their father, himself a self-taught player and coach, who grow up to be two of the greatest players in tennis history” (USTA) — this quote sums up the story of the Williams family quite well — two daughters with the drive, and a father with the tools.
This is unlike the classic family legacy stories we find within the modern day world, stories of Zach Praise and Bronny James — a famous parent puts all their kids into the highest calibre camps with the highest calibre coaches in hopes that they too, make it big. In fact, as Jon Wertheim states in an article about the two sisters — it’s quite the opposite — “here are two sisters who did it their way. Here are two sisters who rejected junior tennis. They rejected the American tennis institutions. They did not go to Nick Bollettieri’s Academy or one of these tennis hothouses. They absolutely did this their own way. It was firm, it was unapologetic. And I think there were a lot of people, I don’t want to say, rooting against them, but essentially rooting against them” (Wertheim).
Though the idea of family legacy that Malcolm Gladwell talks about in Outliers is an important aspect of success, that doesn’t mean it’s a one trick pony. During a time of large uncertainty for African Americans (the 60s), William’s father set the stage for a family legacy of his own — by becoming a self-taught tennis player, and subsequently, a coach.
In the Outliers, Gladwell gives us a similar story of one’s family story pushing them down the unusual road to success in the story of Jon Flom, who went on to co-found one of the biggest law firms in the US; Flom was the son of two Jewish immigrants, and lived in New York during a time where Jewish people were heavily discriminated against — similar to the Willam’s father. Flom’s family background prevented him from instantly snagging a job at an already established law firm, Gladwell gives us enough insight into Flom’s talent that we know his rejection does not come from a lack of skill. There is a quote within Flom’s story from Erwin Smigel that sets the scene for exactly what law firms were looking for at the time — “lawyers who are nordic, have pleasing personalities and clean cut appearances…have the “right social background…and are endowed with tremendous stamina” (Erwin, Gladwell 123).
Flom had the stamina, but that was where his credentials ended, as Gladwell states Flom was faced with two options — “join a smaller, second-rate upstart law firm…or you simply went into business for yourself” (Gladwell 123). Just as the Willams sisters did by not going to all the “right” jumps to make it big in tennis, Flom paved his own way and, along with other ‘outliers’, started a law firm of their own — one that became one of the most successful law firms in the US (Gladwell).
Serena Williams’ life doesn’t stop with just her — it extends even further into the family — to her daughter named Alexis who drives most of her life choices; however, unlike many other women who unfortunately feel forced to choose between being a great mother and a career, Serena wants to show her daughter she can be both — and furthered her success by finding meaning in her career.
In a video done by NBC, Serena shares a defining moment in her career that has translated into how she has raised her daughter — Serena was practicing to try to grab her 18th Grand Slam title (her ultimate goal at the time), but she was losing all of them. Her coach asked her — why are you limiting your success? You can get 30 or 40 Grand Slams, this is not the end — this is a stepping stone. From that moment on Serena realized she could be better, do better than most, including men. She found more meaning in her career at this moment, she had to prove that she did not have to set her goals lesser than men, and that is why she is happy she has a daughter, so she can prove just that to her (Connley); and prove herself she did.
An article titled Double Fault, the author discusses the unlikeliness of Serena’s success as an African American mother in sports, as the “crazy mom success stories” only seem to apply to white moms — “This is shown in studies focused on the media’s representation of(white) athlete mothers through the “fairy tale narrative.” The narratives, which include cultural stereotypes like the “super mom” and the “golden girl,” do not apply to elite black women athletes with children, like Serena Williams” (Martin).
Being a mother can drive someone to achieve tremendous heights — just as Leigh Ann did in Micheal Lewis’ Blind Side. We see Leigh Ann push for Michael Ore’s success throughout the book, and well it may not be Leigh Ann being the sports star that Serena is, we cannot discount the success Leigh Ann had through finding meaningful work through Michael. When Leigh Ann met Micheal, he was homeless, could barely read, and stood only on his size to hold a scholarship at Baycrest (the private school Micheal and Leigh Ann’s kids attended). Leigh Ann took Micheal in, and through determination alone on both ends, helped Micheal become an extremely successful football star (he had the top D1 schools fighting for him), and furthermore taught Micheal what a loving family was.
One of my favorite stories in Outliers is not a rag to riches phenomenon, or a crazy opportunity leading to a crazy success story — it takes place in a doctor’s office, with a mom, son, and doctor. The son was named Alex, and he was only 9 years old, on the way to the doctor’s office he and his mother had a simple conversation — Alex was concerned about some bumps he had under his arms from a new deodorant he was using. His mother simply told him to “ask the doctor about it”, she says, while this is a simple action, it paves the way for her son feeling comfortable questioning people of authority, and that is exactly what Alex did in that office (Gladwell). Although Alex did not become some big successful athlete, this is the type of mindset Serena is trying to instill in her daughter — question authority, question institutions, do not let them be in control of what your outcome is.
Serena’s success may be under appreciated, but she still has made great leeway in the fight for equality in sports, by finding meaning in her work on that day with her coach, Serena has pushed herself and achieved great things not just as a female tennis player, or a black tennis player, but as an athlete alone.
Success in the face of all the challenges that stood in front of Serena doesn’t come without work, as discussed Serena faces multiple obstacles that many famous athletes do not share these days, she is a black female. It takes determination to succeed at the calibre Serena does, but she has as Malcom Gladwell famously coined “grit.”
In Sarah’s Hope by Eric Adler, we get a look at the life of a young middle school girl named Sarah and her unlikely journey to success in the cheerleading world. Well cheerleading is predominantly dominated by females, Sarah stood out for a different reason — she wasn’t a size 2; Eric Adler gave us an insight into Sarah’s thoughts right before the tryouts that highlighted Sarah’s obstacles: “Sarah knows what they think. The smirks. The laughs. The way the other girls, all week long in cheerleading practice, have been rolling their eyes…They think she is a big fat joke” (Adler). Throughout the article, we get a play by play into Sarah’s success as a cheerleader.
We see yet another clear cut example of grit in the story of Casi Florida in Please Let Me Die, Casi was already a top tier athlete when we enter her story, so it wasn’t achieving her sports dream that stood in her way, it was losing it. Macur, the author, introduces us to Casi in the midst of one the hardest moments in her life — in the middle of her eating disorder.
Casi seemed to have a lot of people abandon her throughout the story — her parents are not in the picture, her aunt is in and out, her friends are pushed away, and her coach’s attempt to help seems to go array; with all this Casi was left to overcome the most deadly psychological disorder — alone. To me, this is the highest display of grit I have seen throughout the stories I have read; even though Casi experienced extreme ups and downs, she overcame.
All three of these women (Serena, Sarah, and Casi) all succeeded in different ways and all shared one thing in common — grit; however, Serena had an up that these girls didn’t, which subsequently led to her to succeed at a higher level — she had family. This shows Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that one simple factor, whether it be grit or true raw talent, does not necessarily lead to success.
We further see this unfortunate trend of grit and raw talent not instantly equating to high levels of success when the individual lacks family support in the story of Chris Langan. Langan was what Gladwell coined a “genius”, Langan had all the smarts, but none of the money. His mother was a preoccupied woman who, respectfully, did not seem to have the ability to focus on college for her sons; unfortunately, this set Langan up for failure in school. Gladwell gives us a glimpse into a defining moment for Langan’s schooling career and how his mother affected it — “I lost that scholarship… My mother was supposed to fill out a parents’ financial statement for the renewal of the scholarship, but neglected to do so” (Gladwell). This further proves that success is a combination of things, and not one sole concept.
Success is a subjective concept, there is no checklist that determines if someone has made it; however, there is no denying Serena has “made it” in the world of tennis. She was given the perfect set of building blocks (family legacy, meaningful work, and grit) to overcome the obstacles in her path — including her race and gender. It is easy to focus on Serena’s extraordinary numbers to deem her success, but it is also important to recognize Serena’s success as a person of the court, she has become an amazing mother and advocate for young females. Her combination of dedication to the sport of tennis and changing the world for the better is what makes Serena Willams an outlier.
WORKS CITED
Adler, Eric. “Sarah’s Hope.” Kansas City Star, 2000.
Classically Court, Connley This Is the Number One Lesson That Serena Wants to Teach Her
Daughter. CNBC, CNBC, 16 Jan. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/01/12/serena-williams-shares-the-no-1-lesson-she-hopes-to-teach-her-daughter.html.
Crawford, E.J. “BLACK HISTORY MONTH LEGENDS: VENUS AND SERENA .” USTA ,
2017,www.usta.com/en/home/stay-current/national/black-history-month-legends--serena-and-venus-williams.html.
Gibbs, Lindsey. “Women Warriors.” MasterFile Premier .
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: the Story of Success. Penguin Books, 2009.
Lewis, Michael. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. W.W. Norton, 2006.
Macur, Juliet. “Please Let Me Die.” Dallas Morning News.
Martin, Lori. “Double Fault: Serena Williams and Tennis at the Intersection of Race andGender.” Louisiana State University, 2018.
News, CNN. Serena Williams — the Story of a Tennis Sensation . Youtube, 2015,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cytEeIChQrg.
Ritholz, Barry. “Serena Williams Talks Success on the Court and in Life.” Stitcher, 29 Mar.2018.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sydney Mischke, a freshman from Buffalo, Minnesota, seeks a psychology degree in hopes of one day becoming the administrator of a charter school for impoverished children. Mischke enjoys 2 a.m Taco Bell runs with her friends, watching “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” and listening to Elton John.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
I learned that “I have the voice of a teacher.”
I love self-timer selfies
I hate index cards
I found my path in life : I want to be principal of a KIPP school, which I discovered in this class in Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success.
I hate my computer.
Serena Williams is a pretty cool gal.
I love being IN class.
People are like sheep, they like having one choice.
I was beaming, my laughter pouring out from every inch of me… I never would’ve thought that such laughter would come from sitting in a small classroom on the 4th floor of the main academic building on her school’s campus, but here she was — in class and grinning from ear to ear.
