Ever since that day when I was 11 years old, and I wasn't allowed in a photo because I wasn't wearing a tennis skirt, I knew that I wanted to change the sport.
Billie Jean KingRead
Natural talent only determines the limits of your athletic potential. It's dedication and a willingness to discipline your life that makes you great.
Interpretation
Talent sets potential limits, but greatness comes from dedication and discipline.
This quote emphasizes that while natural talent can highlight one's potential in athletics, true greatness is achieved through hard work, dedication, and a disciplined approach to life. It suggests that effort and commitment are the key factors that elevate individuals beyond their inherent abilities.
In practice
Use this quote to inspire athletes during training sessions.
Ever since that day when I was 11 years old, and I wasn't allowed in a photo because I wasn't wearing a tennis skirt, I knew that I wanted to change the sport.
Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have to make a decision. I have to accept responsibility for the consequences every time I hit a ball.
A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
I feel that tennis is an art form that is capable of moving the players and the audience - at least a knowledgeable audience-in almost sensual ways. When I'm performing at my absolute best, I think that some of the euphoria I feel must be transmitted to the audience.
I like putting money back into what made my life, and tennis has been great to me.
Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball.
Running a start-up is like eating glass. You just start to like the taste of your own blood.
With engineering, I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again. Failures are not something to be avoided. You want to have them happen as quickly as you can so you can make progress rapidly.
Live today. Remove all blame from your vocabulary. Catch yourself when you find yourself using your past history as a reason for your failure to act today, and instead say, 'I am free now to detach myself from what used to be.'
My wrestling dream was to become a Division I national champion. That was my No. 1 dream - not Olympics, not money. Just winning that tournament.
Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.
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