hen their father, Richard Williams, told the tennis world that his two daughters: Venus and Serena, would be great champions in tennis, many laughed at him in his face. Some were thinking privately: “what is he smoking”. They never believe that two little black girls from Compton, California, would ever make it past average. The Williams Sisters did not fit the profile of tennis idols. They were black and from poor background. Tennis stars are normally white and from well-to-do families.
Yet they still doubted him. But his girls dreamed of being world beaters. They went out and worked their butts off with eyes on the ball. They moved from dreaming about being world beaters to actually believing that they are world beaters! They went out there and proved it!
Later, when Venus was starting to dominate, their father told the world that Serena is the real deal and that she would be better than Venus. He told them that Serena was more driven, more aggressive and meaner than Venus, a combination that make great players.
Moral of this story:
Never let your children or yourself think that you or they are second bests because of their background or their skin color/race/gender or that what they aspire to be is impossible. Always tell them that they can be anything they want to be, if they are ready to work hard towards that goal. Do not put an imaginary ‘glass-ceiling’ on top of their heads by telling them how difficult it would be.
Always instill positive attitude in them to believe that nothing is impossible with God and with hardwork, endurance and perseverance. Once they start imagining themselves being great, they would start believing that it is possible and then they would see themselves at the top! Their scripts are still being written.
All the people that never believed Mr. Richard Williams and her daughters are now the same that are celebrating their successes. They are the same ones that are calling him a genius. So don’t worry about negative people…’ndi osu imi’. Worry about doing what you suppose to do: eyes of the ball! The future would take care of itself when you take care of the present.
PHOTOS GALLERY (Click on any image to enlarge)
Chukwudi Nwokoye is a lawyer (LL.M.) and a former United States Marine who hails from Anambra State of Nigeria. He is on Facebook and can be emailed at nwokoyeac@hotmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
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