I know Tony Robinson OBE has a crush on the Williams sisters so let me use an example from Serena to explain the mind set you need to succeed.
The Williams sisters have raised the game, opportunity and fashion in women’s tennis but they are most definitely not who the tennis establishment expected to be their sport’s trailblazers.
As Tony, my hapless and hopeless agent is not, by any means, the sharpest knife in the drawer, he doesn’t realise that what the Williams family achieve provides some great learning for micro business owners the world over. It also captures a lot of what that fab Enterprise Rockers movement is about.
Last year, there was a lot of controversy at the Madrid Open about the new blue coloured clay courts. They use blue playing surfaces indoors in tennis and in other sports, like hockey, as it make the game better for spectators and television.
However, the men, particularly the world’s number 1 and 3 at the time, Djokovic (cool) and Nadal (hot), didn’t like these blue, normally red, clay courts. They said it was too slippery. They threatened to boycott any future tournaments that used it.
This is what Serena Williams had to say, in her winner’s interview, about the playing surface:
“Women are way tougher than men,” she said. “That’s why we have the babies; you guys could never handle kids….. We ladies don’t complain we just do our best. On the WTA we are real performers, we are not about going out there and being weenies.”
Go Serena go. Now neither Serena nor I have had babies but I think you can see what she’s getting at. By the way, I wonder if she hasn’t had babies for the same reasons I haven’t. I’m just not convinced that the maternity or new Mum look is for me – why I’ve even seen some of these women go outside without their mascara on!
The point is there’s really no point in whining – just get on with it. I believe women are better at just getting on with it. Look at Tina Boden, for example, co-founder of the global Enterprise Rockers movement and her two high profile friends, Clare Rayner and Kate Hardcastle. Follow these amazing women on Twitter and learn from them.
All the successful micro business owners, women and men, I’ve interviewed work longer and harder and against greater odds than their corporate and public sector equivalents. Yet, because they love being in their own business they remain incredibly positive. That is an enterprise mind set.
For more from Soculitherz come back every weekend or purchase the Kindle book ‘Freedom From Bosses Forever‘ by Tony Robinson OBE (with Soculitherz) from Amazon.
