Back in the day for Serena Williams, she was so focused on being the best that she often forgot to collect her prize money. Must have been nice, ha!
Williams, now aging gracefully at 42, has amassed nearly $100 million in prize earnings, meaning winnings from tennis matches before eventually retiring in 2022. She revealed something interesting on First We Feast’s YouTube show “Hot Ones” last week:
“Is it true that you rarely collected your winnings your first year on tour and then once tried unsuccessfully to cash your first million-dollar check in a drive-thru ATM?” host Sean Evans asked.
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“Those are all true,” Williams responded. Throughout her 27-year career, during which she won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and 73 career singles titles, she said, “I never played for money. I played because I loved the sport … I wanted to win.”
Way back in the 90s, Williams made her professional debut at the 1995 Bell Challenge in Quebec City, Canada. She took home a not so impressive $240 check after falling in a qualifying match. But she was young, just 14, and wasn’t eager to spend it. Smart young lady. But get this, she kept that same energy after snagging her first million-dollar payday.
“I never really spent a lot of money,” Williams said. “I just went through the drive-thru and the guy was like, ‘Uh, I think you need to come inside for this.’” Hilarious.
As time went on, her “tax guy” often reminded her to scoop up her prize money.
“He would be like, ‘You didn’t get your money?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get that one in Zurich. I forgot that one in Moscow,’” she recalled. “I was playing to win, and if I didn’t win, I wasn’t thinking. I was just so angry that I wanted to just figure out a way to get better and win the next time.”
These interesting experiences that coupled Williams success, contributed to her financial literacy education. Full stop. This is so important for all young people to focus on. Not just a super star athlete who was earning big numbers. It’s all relative and financial literacy is invaluable. They say teaching children about personal finance is crucial. As early as ages 5 to 8 prepares kids to understand how to save, spend, and invest by ages 8 to 12.
She went on to say “I remember having to figure that out and having to learn how to manage from a very early age and not get crazy with it, and so he empowered us to do that,”
Williams added that when negotiating sponsorship deals, she was active in the process.
“I’m 16, my dad is negotiating, they’re going back and forth, and he wants me there for the whole time to make sure I know what to do in the future,” she said. “I learned early on that your paycheck from tennis — maybe that’s why I forgot them — should be your smallest earning.”
Looks like Serena Williams figured it out and hopefully made really smart decisions with her bread. Hopefully we can all learn more about financial literacy and pass on that knowledge to generations to come.