Billie Jean King Quotes - Page 2

Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball.

When people tell you not to believe in your dreams, and they say “Why?”, say “Why not?

I try to perfect my strong points and make my weaknesses adequate.

Winning is very tangible, it's very exciting, it's very pleasing, but it's momentary. If you can do things that last, that each generation can build upon, then that's when you're cooking.

I would just never out anybody. I think everyone has to find it in their own way and their own time.

Champions adjust and pressure is a privilege.

Women get the attention when we get into the men's arena, and that's sad.

In 1973, a woman could not get a credit card without her husband or father or a male signing off on it.

Winning comes down to who can execute under pressure.

In business, everything starts with integrity. Otherwise it falls apart, though it does take time to find out who has integrity.

I've never cared that much for cementing my place in history. Sports is so transitory, so ephemeral. It just seems like so much nonsense comparing me to Helen Wills Moody or Suzanne Lenglen or anybody else from some other time. One lesson you learn from sports is that life goes on without you.

I always think it's best to pretend you're in a tenuous position. Just as a player, you always want to stay in the now and work hard but also have goals for the future. There's no promises in any entrepreneurial business. You have to really work hard every year and also try to envision where you want to go in the future at the same time.

When a child signs up for tennis, he or she is put on a team. I put them in a circle and then I make sure they name their own team. I would have them do their skill drills as a team and their fun drills together as a team, then they have to have a match at the end of every week. They can't just have what they call a lesson today every week.

When they take surveys of women in business, of the Fortune 500, the successful women, 80% of them, say they were in sports as a young woman.

Women's sports is still in its infancy. The beginning of women's sports in the United States started in 1972, with the passage of Title 9 for girls to finally get athletic scholarships.

Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquillity.

It is very hard to be a female leader. While it is assumed that any man, no matter how tough, has a soft side... and female leader is assumed to be one-dimensional.

I didn't really care if I had a coach that much, me personally, because I was brought up to think for myself.

I think younger players probably just think they are who they are-they don't think about coming out. Unless you're number one in the world, nobody cares, usually.

Some people do have softer boundaries.

I like entrepreneurial people; I like people who take risks.

I always listen, I ask children, I even ask adults in tennis, "What are your children playing?" And most of the time it's not tennis. It's pathetic.

It's about learning your craft. That's a wonderful thing--especially with today's consumerism and instant gratification. You can'tbuy that. It's about making decisions, corrections, choices. I don't think it's so much about becoming a tennis player. It's about becoming a person.

Men still get a lot more opportunity. It is still a big part of the old boy network... They have more companies they can get money from.

I wanted to use sports for social change.