Yesterday, I was lucky enough to interview Serena Williams at the CAIS Alternative Investment Summit.  In preparation, I reviewed her record, which includes 23 Grand Slam singles titles. On top of that, she is the only woman to win a Golden Grand Slam in both singles and doubles.  She is considered the greatest of all time in her sport…..a GOAT.  We all want to be GOATs in what we do, don’t we?

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Williams is her competitive focus and her mental toughness, which shines through in everything she does. She doesn’t get enough credit for her business accomplishments, but she’s a killer venture capitalist, with over a dozen unicorn investments under her belt.

Once again, she’s changing the game. Seventy-nine percent of Serena Ventures’ investments went to under-represented founders, including 54% to women founders.

Where did she get her drive and mental toughness?

First, she thanks her father for pushing her so hard and has given him a lot of credit for her business and athletic careers. She also credits her background, growing up in Compton, California, as a source of her toughness.

When you think about it, every entrepreneur, CEO or top athlete must develop mental toughness.  Talking to Williams made me reflect on my own journey to develop toughness.

I believe that my toughness comes from working from a young age and learning how to thrive and survive in male-dominated professions. I think back to my first job at the age of 15, doing customer service at an all-male electronics shop. From there, I reflect on the damage of my parents’ split early in my life. Then, in my 20s, I juggled building a business with going to school for an MBA, which was an academic stretch for me as an English lit major (see my Memories of a Math Mean Girl post a few weeks ago).

Mental toughness is formed over long periods of time. Malcolm Gladwell might argue this is a part of his 10,000-hour rule. Those, who, like me, did their 10,000 hours of mental toughness training before hitting the workforce were probably ahead of the game.

As a parent, my conversation with Williams was especially interesting because she admitted she’s not pushing her kids as hard as her dad pushed her. And she wondered if that is a mistake. I wonder that as a parent too. In our quest to de-risk our kids’ environments, we might inadvertently be messing with their ability to gain mental toughness along the way. It seems that anyone who went through adversity to become mentally tough doesn’t wish all that toughness on their children.  But it’s a reflection point for sure.

I thank Serena Williams for inspiring me to continue to “go for GOAT.” Even if I never get there, the journey and aspiration are the fun of it.