Multiple grand slam tennis champion and entrepreneur, Venus Williams and 46 of her colleagues, friends, and mentors deliver a volume of invaluable wisdom, motivation, and inspiration. Come to Win demonstrates how the principles of competitive athletics translate into business success. With contributions from a wide range of men and women who reached the very top of their games—including former CEO and bestselling author Jack Welch, fashion designer Vera Wang, actor Denzel Washington, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—Venus Williams’s Come to Win is a book every aspiring professional, coach, and sports enthusiast should read.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Curious about life after tennis, Venus Williams started talking to other former athletes—pros and amateurs—and heard encouragement and some hard lessons, including the fact that the famous name doesn’t always guarantee business success or even open as many doors as some might think. The result is a collection of essays from a wide variety of sources—businessmen, politicians, artists, and scientists—all drawing on lessons learned through playing sports. Williams includes advice she has gleaned from her own career, including a childhood of drilling on life principles by her father and her own current business ventures in clothing and interior design. Among the contributors: from the political world, Bill Clinton and Condoleezza Rice; former athletes Billy Jean King, Magic Johnson, and Bill Bradley; business executives Meg Whitman and Ken Chenault; actors Denzel Washington and Hill Harper; journalists Soledad O’Brien and Robin Roberts; and designers Vera Wang and Richie Rich. Contributors offer advice on how to learn from losses, block out distractions, and visualize a course of action. Solid advice from a wide and varied A-list of contributors. --Vanessa Bush
Review
“Containing gems of biographical information not available elsewhere, this presents inspirational readings on how sports can make a significant difference and teach ‘life lessons.’” (Library Journal)
“An engaging collection. . . . Her advice comes from leaders who are masters of the power game, but the lessons are for us all.” (Bloomberg Businessweek)
“Come to Win is an athlete-driven project based on a refreshing concept - curiosity about what makes other people tick. . . . Successful people don’t always win, but they nearly always learn something useful when they lose. It’s a timeless message.” (ESPN.com)
“Contributors offer advice on how to learn from losses, block out distractions, and visualize a course of action. Solid advice from a wide and varied A-list of contributors.” (Booklist)
“A book written by former sportsmen and women who then made good in the world of commerce and politics [is] a welcome addition. Come to Win promises to be just that.” (Financial Times (UK))
“An engaging collection. . . . Her advice comes from leaders who are masters of the power game, but the lessons are for us all.” (Bloomberg Businessweek)
“Come to Win is an athlete-driven project based on a refreshing concept - curiosity about what makes other people tick. . . . Successful people don’t always win, but they nearly always learn something useful when they lose. It’s a timeless message.” (ESPN.com)
“Contributors offer advice on how to learn from losses, block out distractions, and visualize a course of action. Solid advice from a wide and varied A-list of contributors.” (Booklist)
“A book written by former sportsmen and women who then made good in the world of commerce and politics [is] a welcome addition. Come to Win promises to be just that.” (Financial Times (UK))
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is more about how the sociology of sports can influence what you do once you leave the competitive playing field than it is a tennis book. It's full of tips about how you can turn your athletic past into leadership skills. The profiles, even of the lesser known candidates, are fascinating. A great read for former athletes, parents, sports enthusiasts.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By frogs2day
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a well thought out and written book with motivational gems throughout the books. well worth the read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Ahmed Sule
Format:Hardcover
Come To Win
Review by Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA
The game of tennis has produced its fair share of worthy champions in both the men and ladies circuit. A number of these champions such as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, Serena Williams, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova etc have written autobiographies chronicling their journey from fresh tennis upstarts to multiple Grand Slam Champions.
In writing "Come To Win", which was released during the 2010 Wimbledon Championship, Venus Williams, the seven times Grand Slam champion takes a different route from her other professional colleagues. Unlike the autobiographies of her other professional colleagues, "Come To Win" is a compilation of Venus interview of forty-six successful people in which she documents the contribution of sports in their various professional careers. The people interviewed are achievers in a variety of fields including politics, business, medicine, sports, science, arts, and media. Venus essentially seeks answers to the following questions: How can sports help you in your profession? What principles that inspired you towards success as an athlete are helpful in your career? Are the skills learnt in sports transferable? What role did sports play in your development as a child?
Some of the people Venus interviews include Sir Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group), Bill Clinton (former US President), Denzel Washington (Oscar award winning actor), Philip Knight (Nike co-founder and Chairman), Irene Rosenfield (CEO of Kraft Foods), Billie Jean King (multiple Grand Slam Winner), Condoleezza Rice (former US Secretary of State), Jack Welch (former CEO of General Electric) etc.
All these people interviewed share two things in common- First, at one point in their lives, they were actively engaged in some form of competitive sports activity. Second, they are all motivated, confident and successful individuals who have applied the skills learnt from their earlier sporting activities to their professional careers and day-to-day living.
The book is divided into eight parts, with each part containing a series of interviews. Venus begins each interview with a quote from the interviewee, followed by a short biography and then the interview. Though the format of each chapter is not in a Q&A format, however, each chapter spells out how the contributors got involved in sports and how the lessons learnt playing sports have helped in their careers.
This book would be of benefit to a number of people. For instance parents can learn the importance of getting their children actively engaged in sports. Denzel Washington notes that as a result of his own active engagement in sports, he encourages his children get involved in sports as it keeps them busy. He say "when you are young, you want to fit in somewhere...you are going to fit in with the stars, the jocks, the Goths, the drug heads...I just felt it was important for my children to stay busy". Sports also improve children's self-confidence and self-esteem, it teaches them humility and mitigates against child obesity. Some of the contributors note a link between sports involvement and academic achievement as children learn from sports, the values of discipline, focus and persistence, which are essential in academics excellence.
Another useful information that comes from the book is the beneficiary impact of sports on females. Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay notes that sports can give little girls confidence. Furthermore, women who have engaged in sports often develop a competitive spirit which enables them to thrive in a competitive business world that is often dominated by men. Soledad O'Brien, the CNN journalists also notes that sports helps ladies to get comfortable with their bodies. She says "I really feel comfortable in my body, and I think sports got me there. I never had any of the eating-disorder type issues a number of my friends had because I believed my body had a totally other purpose"
The contributors also discuss other lessons from sports, which they have been able to apply to their careers. Some of these lessons that I found noteworthy include:
* Sports help in developing soft skills such as teamwork, managing people, managing and maintaining various relationships and understanding other people's perspective.
* One learns how to accept losses and learn from the losses to improve performance. A number of the contributors note that they learnt more from their losses than their victories.
* Execution and strategy are important in both sports and business.
* Discipline, preparation and extra effort are all key ingredients for success.
* Sportsmanship and integrity are very important in business and sports. Winning at all costs is not winning.
* In sports and in life, there will always be another chance to prove yourself.
* Unspectacular preparation yields spectacular results.
There are also some very remarkable quotes such as "When you win, don't crow. When you lose, don't cry" - Bill Bradley; "If you don't know how to lose, you will never know how to win" - Jack Welch; "if you don't do your absolute best, you can't expect to achieve anything different from what anybody else has done"- Sarina Bratton; ...."Golf is a lot like life. You get breaks you don't deserve, both ways. You have to learn to make the most of the good breaks and shake of the bad ones" -Bill Clinton
The book also details a number of skills developed in sports, which are transferable to other areas of life. Skills such as focus, teamwork, persistence, resilience, continuous improvement, discipline, hard work, sportsmanship, visualization, coping with pressure etc are all discussed in detail in this book.
In conclusion, I recommend getting this book as it helps improve one's understanding of management, helps one learn about the relevance of sports in business, day-to-day living and in the workplace. It would also help one understand the importance of sports in a child's development. If you are not currently engaged in any sporting activity, this book may even inspire you to get your jogging shoes and start running or get involved in other forms of sporting activity.
With this book now published, the world still awaits Venus autobiography; however, producing an autobiography could be a bit challenging for Venus as sister Serena has written her own autobiography (see
[...] for my review of Serena's book), which could contain events that are likely to overlap with what Venus would want to say. Only time will tell whether Venus will write her autobiography in the foreseeable future.
Ahmed Sule, CFA
[...]
Review by Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA
The game of tennis has produced its fair share of worthy champions in both the men and ladies circuit. A number of these champions such as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, Serena Williams, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova etc have written autobiographies chronicling their journey from fresh tennis upstarts to multiple Grand Slam Champions.
In writing "Come To Win", which was released during the 2010 Wimbledon Championship, Venus Williams, the seven times Grand Slam champion takes a different route from her other professional colleagues. Unlike the autobiographies of her other professional colleagues, "Come To Win" is a compilation of Venus interview of forty-six successful people in which she documents the contribution of sports in their various professional careers. The people interviewed are achievers in a variety of fields including politics, business, medicine, sports, science, arts, and media. Venus essentially seeks answers to the following questions: How can sports help you in your profession? What principles that inspired you towards success as an athlete are helpful in your career? Are the skills learnt in sports transferable? What role did sports play in your development as a child?
Some of the people Venus interviews include Sir Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group), Bill Clinton (former US President), Denzel Washington (Oscar award winning actor), Philip Knight (Nike co-founder and Chairman), Irene Rosenfield (CEO of Kraft Foods), Billie Jean King (multiple Grand Slam Winner), Condoleezza Rice (former US Secretary of State), Jack Welch (former CEO of General Electric) etc.
All these people interviewed share two things in common- First, at one point in their lives, they were actively engaged in some form of competitive sports activity. Second, they are all motivated, confident and successful individuals who have applied the skills learnt from their earlier sporting activities to their professional careers and day-to-day living.
The book is divided into eight parts, with each part containing a series of interviews. Venus begins each interview with a quote from the interviewee, followed by a short biography and then the interview. Though the format of each chapter is not in a Q&A format, however, each chapter spells out how the contributors got involved in sports and how the lessons learnt playing sports have helped in their careers.
This book would be of benefit to a number of people. For instance parents can learn the importance of getting their children actively engaged in sports. Denzel Washington notes that as a result of his own active engagement in sports, he encourages his children get involved in sports as it keeps them busy. He say "when you are young, you want to fit in somewhere...you are going to fit in with the stars, the jocks, the Goths, the drug heads...I just felt it was important for my children to stay busy". Sports also improve children's self-confidence and self-esteem, it teaches them humility and mitigates against child obesity. Some of the contributors note a link between sports involvement and academic achievement as children learn from sports, the values of discipline, focus and persistence, which are essential in academics excellence.
Another useful information that comes from the book is the beneficiary impact of sports on females. Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay notes that sports can give little girls confidence. Furthermore, women who have engaged in sports often develop a competitive spirit which enables them to thrive in a competitive business world that is often dominated by men. Soledad O'Brien, the CNN journalists also notes that sports helps ladies to get comfortable with their bodies. She says "I really feel comfortable in my body, and I think sports got me there. I never had any of the eating-disorder type issues a number of my friends had because I believed my body had a totally other purpose"
The contributors also discuss other lessons from sports, which they have been able to apply to their careers. Some of these lessons that I found noteworthy include:
* Sports help in developing soft skills such as teamwork, managing people, managing and maintaining various relationships and understanding other people's perspective.
* One learns how to accept losses and learn from the losses to improve performance. A number of the contributors note that they learnt more from their losses than their victories.
* Execution and strategy are important in both sports and business.
* Discipline, preparation and extra effort are all key ingredients for success.
* Sportsmanship and integrity are very important in business and sports. Winning at all costs is not winning.
* In sports and in life, there will always be another chance to prove yourself.
* Unspectacular preparation yields spectacular results.
There are also some very remarkable quotes such as "When you win, don't crow. When you lose, don't cry" - Bill Bradley; "If you don't know how to lose, you will never know how to win" - Jack Welch; "if you don't do your absolute best, you can't expect to achieve anything different from what anybody else has done"- Sarina Bratton; ...."Golf is a lot like life. You get breaks you don't deserve, both ways. You have to learn to make the most of the good breaks and shake of the bad ones" -Bill Clinton
The book also details a number of skills developed in sports, which are transferable to other areas of life. Skills such as focus, teamwork, persistence, resilience, continuous improvement, discipline, hard work, sportsmanship, visualization, coping with pressure etc are all discussed in detail in this book.
In conclusion, I recommend getting this book as it helps improve one's understanding of management, helps one learn about the relevance of sports in business, day-to-day living and in the workplace. It would also help one understand the importance of sports in a child's development. If you are not currently engaged in any sporting activity, this book may even inspire you to get your jogging shoes and start running or get involved in other forms of sporting activity.
With this book now published, the world still awaits Venus autobiography; however, producing an autobiography could be a bit challenging for Venus as sister Serena has written her own autobiography (see
[...] for my review of Serena's book), which could contain events that are likely to overlap with what Venus would want to say. Only time will tell whether Venus will write her autobiography in the foreseeable future.
Ahmed Sule, CFA
[...]
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice advice
This is good reading for anyone wanting to advance their business or career. The advice, from a wide spectrum of achievers, holds up for anyone who wants to be mobil and is seeking... Read more
Published 9 months ago by crystal view
5.0 out of 5 stars
Come to Win by Venus Williams
To be honest, the only reason why I purchased Come to Win: Business Leaders, Artists, Doctors, and Other Visionaries on How Sports Can Help You Top Your Profession by Venus... Read more
Published on April 18, 2011 by asanz20
5.0 out of 5 stars
From visualizing techniques to turning losses into learning tools,...
COME TO WIN: BUSINESS LEADERS, ARTISTS, DOCTORS, AND OTHER VISIONARIES ON HOW SPORTS CAN HELP YOU TOP YOUR PROFESSION is edited by Venus Williams with Kelly E. Read more
Published on September 18, 2010 by Midwest Book Review
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Inspirational + Fruitful book...
"Come to Win is a well written insightful + inspirational book for all old + new generations of our blessed time. Read more
Published on August 8, 2010 by NearChukwu
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary Insights
This book is a terrific read! There are many wonderful nuggets of advice for both men and women on how to convert athletic prowess into success later in life. Read more
Published on July 5, 2010 by Jazz
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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