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By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, November 30 2017

 
Venus Williams

"I have no plans of stopping anytime soon,” says 37-year-old Venus Williams of her tennis career.

Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve

Venus Williams has a primary pet peeve: Wasting time.

At an age when many of her former rivals have long-since retired, the 37-year-old Williams is shining in her tennis golden years. Williams contested two of the four Grand Slam finals—the Australian Open and Wimbledon—as well as the WTA Finals concluding 2017 ranked No. 5—her highest year-end ranking in seven years.

Coach: Serena Will Make Melbourne Decision Soon

The four-time Olympic gold medal champion isn’t contemplating retirement. Instead, Venus is revving up her competitive engine.

Williams has revealed an audaciously ambitious goal: Play the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The former world No. 1 graces of this month’s Entrepreneur and told the magazine playing Tokyo at age 40 is her long-term goal.

“I have no plans of stopping anytime soon,” Venus told the Entrepreneur. “It seems somehow that 2020 Tokyo is on the horizon. Isn’t that wild? I’m trying to stick around for that.”

If Williams realizes that goal it would complete an astounding 20-year Olympic career. Venus made history defeating Monica Seles and Elena Dementieva to win the gold medal in singles and partnered sister Serena to strike gold in doubles at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympic Games.



That stirring Olympic sweep was part of a stunning 35-match winning streak where Williams won six straight tournaments, including Wimbledon and the US Open.

At the Rio Olympic Games last summer, Williams partnered Rajeev Ram to the silver medal in mixed doubles—her fifth Olympic medal, which made her the most decorated tennis player in Olympic history.

In addition to her daily tennis training, Williams spends her days running her athletic fashion brand EleVen, managing her interior design firm, V-Starr Interiors, which shares office space with EleVen, taking college courses and she recently started taking dance classes.

Cramming all of that responsibility into a 24-hour day can be stressful. Williams shared her best stress-buster tip with Entrepreneur.

“My best advice for staying positive and focused during stressful times is to realize those times don’t last forever,” Williams said. “You deal with what you have to deal with, but there’s a rainbow around the corner. Because it’s easy to worry, but do everything you can do about something. And when you can’t do more, you can’t worry about it because you’ve done it all.”

An aggressive, instinctual player on court, Williams has tried to adopt a similar approach to building her brand.

“I know when it’s right,” Williams told Entrepreneur “It’s all about making a decision and executing it. I never want to be part of a big corporate wheel. I definitely don’t want to spend too much time on something, because then it gets convoluted. Sometimes the right instinct is the first instinct, and then you just have to move on that.”

EleVen current sells in the USA, Europe, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand and is planning to launch a special collection in China.

 

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