Serena Williams’s retirement announcement in Vogue contained a telling line about the motivation behind her playing career. She explains that, for her, turning negativity into winning has been a driving force.
“I’ve built a career on channeling anger and negativity and turning it into something good,” Serena wrote. “To me that’s kind of the essence of being Serena: expecting the best from myself and proving people wrong. There were so many matches I won because something made me angry or someone counted me out.”
It’s easy to appreciate the greatness of Serena Williams: 23 grand slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, 14 grand slam doubles titles, and a “Serena Slam,” a non-calendar-year grand slam (winning the four major championships — Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open — consecutively). That’s a galactic level of wins. But in order…
