Lessons from Venus!

 

I had the chance recently to attend the annual general meeting held by Butterfly Equity, the PE firm that I have worked closely with over the past 5+ years when we bought Bolthouse Farms back from Campbell’s.  I am proud of the Butterfly team and their incredible growth and am very proud to serve on the board of the Butterfly Equity Foundation whose focus is to support non-profits in greater Los Angeles in nutrition security, food as medicine, and increasing healthy food access in underserved communities.  To see more about Butterfly Equity or the foundation, see: https://www.bfly.com)

 

While the meeting this year was primarily focused on the growth and success of Butterfly Equity broadly, and the specific performance of its companies, it was a real treat to get to see the guest speaker, Venus Williams, share her thoughts and learning from across her incredible career in Tennis and in life.  Venus was very gracious and candidly very humble as she spoke to the crowd and as she answered questions that came from the audience.  Here are few specific Q&A “moments” that struck me as deeply true and incredibly applicable in business and life today:

 

Ø  “Challenges”: An early question had to do with the incredible amount and breadth of “challenges” that Venus had to deal with across her youth, her playing career, and today as an entrepreneur.  How did she handle them and what advice would she give for those facing challenges in their businesses today.

 

o   Venus responded, ” you don’t want to ask for fewer challenges… you ask for and work on building more skills.”  She NEVER stopped trying to get better at Tennis, and she worked on that objective every day for decades!  That I idea that we all should focus ourselves and our teams on “building skills” every day for decades is a powerful inspiration!  Our businesses and our companies WILL face more challenges ahead, and we can’t just wish them away.  

 

Ø  “Pressure” : a  question from the audience had to do with how she and her sister Serena handled the pressure of growing up and training so hard from very early ages to excel at tennis and what does she think about the pressure facing on kids today.

 

o   Venus responded that “pressure was a privilege” in her mind and that “kids without pressure won’t be ready for life.”  I won’t focus on the parenting lesson in this comment (though I deeply agree with Venus on this one!!) but we must convert our thinking and the headsets of the key leaders in our organizations to take this idea on… how to think that “pressure is a privilege.”  Every business I know is facing a wide array of pressures every day, and rarely (ok, never!) have I thought about them as a “privilege” personally… but the power of building the strength and grit of an organization is built on that simple idea…and ALL organizations would benefit from building “grit!”

 

 

Ø  “Legacy”: Now this topic is close to home for yours truly… having written a blog

 (“Find Your Legacy”) on this topic since 2009 and have been speaking about this topic since the time my grandmother died in 1998!  

 

o   As Venus was wrapping up her comments, she shared her thoughts about where she was in her life today and what she thought her “Legacy” was as of today.   She commented that “Legacy was about what you can give… not what you take” in life and that she wasn’t done “giving.”  I loved the response to remind all of us that we aren’t done leaving an impact in life … leaving a legacy… and whether you are a world renowned Tennis star, a business leader, or a simple attendee at a great meeting in Southern California ( referring to yours truly) we all have the chance to haven an impact, leave a legacy, on those we connect with today or in the days to come!

 

 

I hope that a few of these ideas/inspirations from Venus’s talk connect with you personally and that you can see ways to apply them in your work ahead.  Work to think about how they may apply to your personally, and then think of applications for your team/teams broadly.