Several years ago, 4-year-old Micah Williams was watching a tennis match on the television when he caught a glimpse of his future.
Sisters Venus and Serena Williams, two of the most accomplished athletes of all time, were playing, and the young man knew immediately that he wanted to follow in their footsteps.
So he asked his parents, Ja Rai and Christian Williams, if he could play. They enthusiastically supported his ambitions and signed him up for classes and training.
The young athlete attends Tuscany Heights Elementary School in the North East Independent School District.
Over the next several years he built up his skills and has played in four tournaments, remaining undefeated. Now 9, he continues to play in matches sponsored by the U.S. Tennis Association.
As he looks to the future, however, Micah wants to be prepared when he does inevitably face that loss. So when he was able to ask his original inspiration, Venus Williams, a question in a Q&A session at the end of the 2024 Trinity University Distinguished Speaker event last week, he seized the chance.
“I never lost a tennis match,” he said into the microphone, in front of about 2,000 attendees at the Trinity event. “What should I do to get better when I lose a tennis match?”
After a burst of applause, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion told Micah that losing is part of achieving success.
“First of all, wow, what a record,” Venus Williams said. “When you lose at some point — and if you play long enough, you will — hopefully what you’ll learn is that you just can’t wait to get back.”
She went on: “Hopefully what you’ll learn is how much you love what you do and how much more you want to do it.”
Despite the same last name, as far as they know, the novice and the pro are not related.
The exchange stole the show, with attendees clapping loudly for Venus Williams’ answer. Smiling, the young man said he was excited to get to practice and continue getting better after the event was over.
Venus Williams’ advice echoed throughout a wide-ranging conversation with Trinity University President Vanessa Beasley, who asked about her life lessons and career in sport and as an entrepreneur.
“I had a lot, a lot, a lot — a lot — of things go wrong before I got to be a champion,” Venus Williams said.
When she first started out, Venus Williams said she watched the success and determination of her sister, Serena, on the court.
“She was such a fearless player on the court and I always admired that,” she said. “I was very talented … but didn’t quite have the thing in me to get past the finish line. And I knew it at a young age, … that thing she had, I wanted it.”
It took multiple losses and the realization that she hadn’t pushed hard enough for the wins to gain that fight, Venus Williams said, recalling matches throughout her early career.
“It’s OK to lose, but when you lost because you let your own self down and refused to do more than you could have, that’s not a fun feeling,” she said.
While failing is key for growth, she said, returning to the court afterward is equally as important.
“The option other than that is to lay on the floor,” she said. “The floor is dirty, and it’s not nice down there and you’ll get stepped on. You have to get back up. Because the same amount of time that you’re giving up is the same amount of time that you could continue.”
Another topic of the conversation was the work Venus has done to close the wage gap in professional sports between men and women, and between different races.
Venus Williams inspired tennis players from the Trinity University as well, including Rafa Candelas, a sophomore who was invited to join her on the court on the morning of the speaker series, according to a university spokeswoman.
Elodie Richard, a Trinity University senior and tennis player, asked that evening about how to respond to naysayers who expect you to fail in life, or in sports.
“You can politely tell them, I can’t have that kind of feedback,” Venus Williams said, adding that a mindset is just as important as physical fitness to success.
“You have to be deliberate in training your mind in how you want to think,” she said. “So before you get out on the court, spend five minutes by yourself … close your eyes, visualize what you’d like to accomplish, see it happen in your head.”
San Antonio Report photographer Brenda Bazán contributed to this report.
