Customer Reviews

Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes (Billie Jean King Library)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

you already know these items in your heart, Billie just says it in a way you understand. thanks for being the role model to so many of us. after reading this book, just "play it forward" and dream your dreams....

Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes is a combination autobiography/inspirational tome. Ms. King focuses on her historic tennis match with Bobby Riggs in 1973, the Battle of the Sexes, and shares the lessons she learned from this and other important points in her life.

Ms. King writes in a straightforward down-to-earth style, sharing her feelings and experiences that made her the number one female tennis player in the world, activist, successful businesswoman and mentor that she is. The book is divided into lessons ranging from relationships to leaving a legacy. In each lesson she shares insight into her family, her coaches, and especially, preparing for her match with Bobby Riggs which opened the door for equal treatment of women in sport. Each chapter ends with an "instant replay" of the important points of the lesson.

If you're looking for an in-depth autobiography of Billie Jean King, this isn't the book for you. While she talks about her life, tennis, her family, and her sexuality, she doesn't delve deeply. It's more like how Maria Sharapova describes it on the back of the book: a "personal conversation" where Ms. King shares some of what she's learned in her groundbreaking life. A positive, enthusiastic book perfect for a light summer read. I wish my outlook on life was this good.

I had the privilege of meeting Ms. King this summer. She is truly wonderful and an inspiration to everyone--women and men. This book contains a lot of good stories about Billie's career along with good, common-sense advice. It's a great read and would make a great gift.

Billie Jean King is one of my heroes. She is from my generation, and as an amateur tennis player, she is "the greatest" to me.

This is an advice book, full of ideas useful on and off the court. There is no greater advocate of women's sports and tennis in general than this lady.

The book relates the impact of her famous match against Bobby Riggs, her preparation for the match and realization of what it meant to all women. How proud we all were when she "beat the socks off of him."

While she has achieved equal pay for women at the major tournaments, she herself played the best of five sets against Riggs, something women still do not do in pro tennis. Some critics say that women should play the longer matches to earn equal pay.

Regardless of one's opinions about tennis tournaments, this is an excellent compendium of advice for facing all sorts of challenges in life. Those who excel at something certainly earn the higher level pressures they face, hence pressure is indeed a privilege.

It is a small, short book, well worth the time to read and expenditure of the low Amazon price.

Loved this bio about Billie Jean King. I'm an avid tennis fan & club player, so information about those who were instrumental in forming the game is exciting for me to learn about. Billie Jean is more than a acclaimed tennis great. She is a role model treating others with fairness & teaching others that games are instruments for teaching us lessons about real life.

I bought this as a gift for my daughter, who has been under alot
of pressure lately. We are using the title now as a mantra.

The book is not a How To book. More of an autobiography.
I admire Billy Jean for all she did for women's tennis.

I'VE BEEN A BJK FAN FOR OVER 45 YEARS...I WATCHED HER GROW FROM A GIDDY TEENAGER INTO THE WONDERFUL WOMEN SHE IS NOW..
I HAD THE PLEASURE OF MEETING HER 4 YEARS AGO...SHE IS WHAT SHE BELIEVES..
SHE GIVES HER FANS HER FULL ATTENTION AND SINCERELY ENJOYED MEETING US AND EVEN GAVE US FOREHAND LESSONS..RIGHT THEN AND THERE..
THIS BOOK IS JUST LIKE HAVING A PERSONAL CONVERSATION WITH HER..
IT'S ALSO A LOVING TRIBUTE TO HER PARENTS WHO INSTILLED IN HER SUCH WONDERFUL LIFE VALUES...
IT'S A GREAT READ FOR ANYONE...IT TRULY PUTS LIFE INTO PERSPECTIVE.

Where is Billie Jean?

I was delighted to get an ARC for Billie Jean King's book, since I think of her as an extraordinary woman, one who has not only been a #1-ranked tennis player, but a woman of integrity, who championed the Title IX for equal disbursement of Federal funding for male and female sports in schools, World Team Tennis, the Virginia Slims Tournament, equal pay for women's tournaments, women's liberation and for non-discrimination in life style choices. I have always admired her for her willingness to take a position, albeit unpopular ones, because it was the right thing to do.

That being said, I am sorely disappointed in her book. It's not that the book isn't well written, as prose goes, it's just fine. And, actually, her subtitle does indicate that her book is about lessons she has learned and The Battle of the Sexes. I was hoping that the book was about more than the subtitle. My mistake.

She does list and discuss these lessons and her set of life principles with great enthusiasm, and I agree with them all.
The problem is that these lessons and principles are not new ones; certainly lots of champions and even everyday people live by these same principles. They are good principles to live by, and it isn't a bad thing to be reminded of how powerful they can be in your life. But she could have talked about all of these things in one chapter, as a prelude to telling us about herself. Instead this book is about stating and then restating (in large boxes at the end of each chapter) her principles and life lessons.

Secondarily, most of the rest of the book is about the tennis match for the ages - The Battle of the Sexes - with Bobby Riggs. Billie Jean would chat about other events in her life in a vague sort of way, but they always let back to some more conversation about the Bobby Riggs match. The book has 187 pages of text. She begins on Page 20 (following a preface and an intro) mentioning Bobby Riggs and the match. The story continues with him, ad nauseum, up to page 97, when Billie Jean states that she wants to make a "final observation" about Bobby Riggs. I thought - whew! - Enough already, we're going to get to the story of Billie Jean. Except, that promise of release from Bobby inanities was broken and Bobby continued to be discussed throughout the book and was last cited on page 186.

I agree that, in retrospect, that tennis match was more than just the entertainment, more than the spectacle. At the time a statement about women in sports, women as champions and equal rights was being promoted. But enough already! It was also just a tennis match. In equal retrospect, any number of other important events could be cited in that same vein - we just don't need 187 pages of it, couched in between lots of not-new lessons of life.

In reading this book, I relearned one of my own life lessons. Never let your expectations exceed a reasonable payoff -- you're bound to be disappointed. I went looking for Billie Jean and got Bobby Riggs and platitudes instead.

I think that Billie Jean is worth much more, that her life story would be profoundly more interesting that this rather trite and ultimately uninteresting account. Too bad she didn't write that book.

AN ACE !!! From one of the great women of our time. This book is filled with ultra-valuble lessons from someone who has put those lessons to use, to effectively change the face of womens' sports and the sports world in general, and how our entire society treats women.. Not just theoretical, but practical, sound and tried & tested advice. Every woman in this country owes a debt to Billie Jean..Every Woman.. for her courage and tenacity in the fight for womens' rights. You're probably making more money because of her, have more upward mobility in the work force and your daughters life on the sports field and the business world will be much improved due to the efforts of this great Woman, activist and athlete. A great read and a great gift for women of any age.

I was a kid when the Billie Jean King/ Bobby Riggs Battle of the Sexes tennis match happened, so to read King's firsthand account of this groundbreaking event now that I can appreciate it was a treat. Pressure Is A Privilege by King and Christine Brennan is a fun read (certainly a must for tennis fans) that encapsulates key moments in King's illustrious career and life and segments each into key lessons. Some of my favorite chapters/ lessons:

See It Happen To Make It Happen on visualization;

Champions Adjust is on how even the best-laid plans (King's strategy for the Riggs match) might get tossed aside when gut instinct, conditions, or chance dictate a new strategy may be better;

Never Underestimate Your Opponent on preparation;

Leave A Legacy on mentorship.

I am not a tennis player. I am not even an athlete. But we can all learn from greatness in fields outside our expertise. In fact, reading about completely different fields lets us absorb the essence of the lesson and not get mired in the details. This book gives more motivational than tactical advice, but I was duly inspired by King's achievement in sport and life.