Postcards: Champ to Facebook exec's kids: how to win

Postcards How the power players do it
Champ to Facebook exec's kids: how to win July 8, 2013. 10:56 AM ET Billie Jean King won the first of her 20 Wimbledon titles in 1961, at age 17, and has returned to the ivy-covered club every year since. These days, King's passion is business, running World TeamTennis with her partner, Ilana Kloss. King took a break from this year's Wimbledon to come to Fortune Most Powerful Women: London—and scored a point about how to win by calling the daughters of Facebook (FB) VP Carolyn Everson to the stage. I had interviewed Everson, who oversees Facebook's global ad sales (and had relocated to London for six months to shore up the European business) earlier in the day, and her twin girls came to see their mom on stage. Here are 10-year-old Kennedy and Taylor Everson learning a bit about teamwork from an icon who knows the game of success in business and sports: And here's more advice from King on how to win--edited from our on-stage conversation at Fortune MPW: London: Every decision we make, there's a consequence. Every single one in your life. The ball's coming towards me, I have to accept responsibility for it. I have to decide where I'm going to hit it, the spin, how hard I'm going to hit it, all those things. If I'm returning a serve, I have less than 1/10th of a second to make those decisions, OK? When it goes out, you take in the information. I call it, not failure, I call it feedback. Because that's really what life is. When we fail, it's really feedback, right? When we win, it's feedback. I try to get people to concentrate more on why they win. Here's what I'll ask a young person when they come off the court: "Why did you win?" I will spend a lot more time on that than when they lose. Because it starts to build up the self-confidence that you need to start to understand your strengths--and understand, you know, what makes you tick. It makes you allow yourself to be the best you can be. If you keep harping and spending your time on why you lose (sometimes you have to do a deep dive and analyze why), but if I can get someone to understand why they win and understand what makes them tick, their chances of winning are so much greater. 75% of the time in a match, you're not hitting a tennis ball. The champions use that 75% of the time better than anybody else. And they're stronger emotionally. Filed under: FORTUNE MPWomen, Most Powerful Women, Postcards See more Postcards	About This Author Patricia Sellers Editor at Large, Fortune Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package. A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs. Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies. In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders. Email Pattie Sellers | Welcome to Postcards. Subscribe: RSS feed | email newsletter Sign up News Breaking Financial News Be the first to know when there is breaking financial news with timely alerts delivered straight to your inbox. Markets Captain's Blog FORTUNE managing editor Andy Serwer keeps tabs on Wall Street. Market Briefing A complete roundup of each day's trading activity. The Term Sheet Receive Fortune's newsletter on all the deals that matter, from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road. Technology Apple 2.0 Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt brings you Mac news from outside the reality distortion field. Big Tech Fortune's Michal Lev-Ram covers the digital giants. Careers Ask Annie Mondays Anne Fisher answers career-related questions and offers helpful advice for business professionals. Postcards Fortune editor at large Pattie Sellers shares fascinating, fun and valuable insights into people who sit at the pinnacle of power. Personal Finance The Help Desk Tips for saving and spending smarter. Ask the Expert Our readers toughest market questions answered every Friday.
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