The School of Greatness - 535 Maria Sharapova: Unstoppable In Tennis, Business, and Life
Episode Date: September 11, 2017"Repetition led to discipline." - Maria Sharapova If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/535 ...
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This is episode number 535 with tennis champion and Olympic medalist Maria Sharapova.
Welcome to the School of Greatness.
My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur.
And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message
to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness.
Thanks for spending some time with me today.
Now let the class begin.
Thomas Edison said,
if we did the things we are capable of,
we would astound ourselves.
Welcome everyone to another incredible interview with the one and only Maria Sharapova.
And if you don't know who she is, she is a world-class tennis player.
She's competed on the tour since 2001.
She's been ranked number one in the world in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions
for a total of 21 weeks.
She is one of 10 women and the only Russian to hold the career Grand Slam.
She is also an Olympic medalist in women's singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
And I'm excited to have Maria on.
I've had her on before, but I'm bringing her back on because she's got a brand new book
that is inspiring and moving and powerful and all about overcoming the odds and what she's had to overcome in order to get to where she's
at.
It wasn't always easy.
She didn't have all this money and all these opportunities.
She really earned it through so many trials that she faced in her early years and continues
to face right now.
And in this episode, we talk about how Maria avoided burnout while playing the same sport
for so many years.
Also, why she would never want her child to play tennis, even though she loves it.
Why focus is more important than hard work in sports.
The difference between being good enough and what it takes to be great.
Also, what Maria is focused on in the future and so much more.
She just had a major comeback at the U.S. Open,
beating the number two player in the world in the first round
and continued on many other rounds
and was just so inspiring to watch her come back,
fight and compete at such a high level again.
So I'm so excited to see what's next for Maria,
but I really believe you're gonna get so much value
from this episode.
And as always, the full show notes and video interview
is back at lewishouse.com slash 535.
If you're listening to this on your podcast app right now,
take a screenshot, tag me and at Maria Sharapova
on your Instagram story.
Let us know you're watching it.
Let us know you're listening.
We wanna make sure to connect with you and I'm sure Maria would love to see that as well. Before we dive in,
want to give a shout out to the review of the week. This is from Robert M who said the School
of Greatness podcast is informative, useful, and really helped me grasp a better perspective
on life, especially as a 19 year old. I look forward to more content from you, Lewis.
as a 19 year old.
I look forward to more content from you, Lewis.
Please keep inspiring.
So Robert M, thank you to the young guns out there who are listening to the School of Greatness.
And thanks so much for leaving a review.
You are the review of the week.
And if you want a chance to get shouted out on the podcast, then head over to your podcast app and just leave us a review over on the School of Greatness podcast.
All right, guys, I hope you enjoy this one.
I'm super inspired by everything that Maria has created, not only in her sport, in her
craft, but also in her business endeavors and what she's doing to continue to learn
while she is performing at such a high level in her sport.
So without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Maria Sharapova.
Welcome back, everyone,
to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got my good friend, Maria Sharapova in the house.
Good to see you. Back. We're back. Back and excited to talk about your new book.
This was, I was nervous, like I was telling you before, I was nervous to read this because I really wanted it to be good for you.
Because I know you spent a lot of time and energy on this, but I was like, I have no
clue if Maria can even write because she barely went to school.
You know I can handle criticism.
And you know I want your honest opinion.
So that's what I wanted.
And I stayed up late until 2.30 in the morning to make sure I completed.
I have the early manuscript here, which was, I was so impressed
and so much more fascinated by you
as my friend
to know everything you've gone through
to get to where you're at.
It's just incredible
the amount of,
like,
lack of security that you had,
like financially,
emotionally,
without your mom being there growing up,
unstable environment
your entire childhood. You lived in a dorm for three, four, without your mom being there growing up, unstable environment your
entire childhood. You lived in a dorm for three, four, five years, I believe, in a tennis academy
for many years, which I didn't realize you were like a boarding student. And I lived in a dorm
for five years. Well, it was for a year, but it was in and out. Got it, got it. But you were like
10. I did feel like I was boarding for a long time. Right. But you were young. I was very young.
At one point, they didn't allow me to board because I was too young.
Wow. Yeah. And I know what that's like to be a boarding student. I mean, your dad was,
I think a few miles away from you, but I was, yeah, I was seven hours away from my parents
when I went to a boarding school when I was 13. So I just learned more about you that I was
fascinated by about how there's so many moments that you share growing
up that if they didn't happen the way they happened, you wouldn't have been a Grand Slam
champion. You wouldn't have been number one in the world. You wouldn't be doing all the things
you're doing. And so it's just fascinating to me that- It's very easy to forget once if you don't
happen to have it on paper or ever write it down or ever think about it. It's so easy to forget what happened so many years ago.
So this was in a way for me just going through my life journal,
which I did and I actually included.
Your diary.
You keep showing your diary.
It's amazing.
I go back to my diary and I include passages from my diary in the book,
which is very interesting to go back in time and to learn a lot about yourself as you're speaking to your family
and my example of the coaches that were in my life
and how they really shaped me
and how just because of them I am where I am today.
Yeah, it's amazing.
And to be, you know, your mom wasn't around most of your childhood
because she was in Russia when you guys came here when you were six.
Is that right, six? Yeah. It's just crazy how everything happened and it's so cool I'm just
so excited for you now that I know everything I'm like just even more happy for you and I just I
appreciate the level of commitment you had to one thing yeah which is like how do I get to be the
best in the world at something well I was just really happy to share it. I think because I've never, I don't think I was, until a couple of years ago, I don't think I was available emotionally to share my story.
And I don't think you ever as an individual every day think of the depth of your upbringing.
And I think every individual is different and has a different coming of age and success story.
And we don't really, we don't go too deep into it.
We just, we don't think it's that special.
And as I did interviews throughout my career and people would ask about me moving to America
and they would just want to know all these little details.
And little by little, I was like is there
something cool about this story is it something different and as I got older I realized how
special it really was and um how inspiring it could be for many other people girls and boys and
and parents as well because a lot of a lot of this book is about um the journey of my father and
and his little girl and how I had to as a a little girl, put so much trust in the people that were around me and how my father was able to go on this journey with my best interests, not just his best interests and not a family or financial best interest.
it's also an athlete's story and to success
which can go into many wrong directions
and there's so many tough stories
out there of the past
so I was just so fortunate
to be able to share a story
that had a really amazing connection
with myself and my father and mom
well your father is like
literally like the dad of the century
after reading this
because he took such a leap of faith
to say I'm leaving my wife
my homeland like my friends I don't know english and i'm going off the trust of this one tennis
player that like watched you i guess when you were six or something or five and i was like you
need to send her away or take her to like america he could either look like he's the smartest man
or the stupidest exactly so it depends how you look at it's crazy and just how like he got like he enrolled
the the person getting giving the visa like how he just like razzle and dazzle the person to be
like give me a visa i need to go i'm taking my like child to go it's like every step of the way
like his conviction for his vision for you and i guess both of you, what was possible.
It just amazes me, his level of commitment.
Yeah.
One of my favorite things that he speaks about in the book is how sometimes if you think
too much about a particular situation or if you really think what is the best move, you
won't ever make the right move because sometimes the best decision is not always the smartest
one in that particular moment that's true and so when he was speaking about that as i was working on
this book that was it was extraordinary to hear that because we just we always want to make the
right decisions and we tend to overthink a lot of things in our future and our vision and you talk
about like feeling like you made a lot of these things yourself just because you didn't't know any better. And you were like, I would just practice hours and hours
because I didn't know any better. And I felt like exactly the only thing I knew. And, and I came
from, um, you know, I spent many years in a country where you didn't have so many opportunities or
opportunities to be part of other sports. So it was, you know, if you did one thing, if it was dance or ballet
or hockey in Russia, for me, it was tennis. I couldn't do all three. I just financially,
just time-wise. Resources, everything. Yeah. There was just not, you didn't have that opportunity,
which in America, when we arrived, you had so much opportunity to do that. And in ways,
that's pretty amazing that you have,
you can play twice a week tennis and twice a week football and lacrosse and swimming and everything.
Right. And then figure out at one point what you want to do. But sometimes that's difficult
because you, you like having, you have your social groups in each little sport and,
you know, what will you have to take away? do you really want to commit to one thing so it's a tricky it's a very tricky situation how have you stayed i mean you've
been playing for what 25 years almost i don't i'm done counting you're playing for a while
and you're just like at least the way you write about it it's like you're just eight nine ten
hours a day of just hitting a ball just as hard as you can.
Just like right over trying to hit a can over the net.
Right.
Barely over just hitting it deep and like in the corners.
Just like how do you do this without getting burnt out?
Because I did have all these.
I was playing four sports a season or a year or whatever.
And if I got burnt out from one sport, I'd be like, okay, I'm just going to play one of these other three that I like.
How do you still play at a high level? I'm just like, I'm just going to be,
and I got to watch you for the first time in the last few weeks, which was so awesome for me.
And that was just an exhibition.
I know. I want to see you at like the US Open or something, like at a big stage.
But just your mindset, I was just so impressed with how, I don't know, you've just come so far
and how you continue to stay
committed to that mindset is how do you stay there after this long?
Well, I think one of the things that having the hardships of the childhood that I had that I
speak about in the book is this sense of repetition, but repetition led to discipline.
And if it was about the repetition of hitting hundreds of balls,
it focuses your mind on doing this one thing repetitively.
And ultimately you get this just really good feeling about the stroke that you're hitting.
Or if it's a forehand or a backhand, you feel really confident and good.
It gives you a self-esteem and awareness.
And you feel that at a young age.
That's not something that just, no matter how young you are, you know that when something
feels natural and good and that you improved on it and you see maybe, you know, someone gives
you a compliment or your father or your coach and you feel it as well, it brings you up. It
makes you happy. And so, of course, as a young kid, I wanted that feeling. I wanted my father to
be happy about my practice. I wanted my coach to be happy. I wanted a little chocolate bar at the
end. And I knew that if I did... You'd be getting a little ice cream with sprinkles.
Right, exactly. I wanted all. And so I definitely looked for that. I wanted that. And I don't know
if that was a sense of I wanted that attention or people to notice me that I was doing well. But through that process, you're learning how to be
disciplined through that repetition and that feeling. And so, and for me off the court as
well, I speak a lot about my mother's influence and how she didn't have much to do with tennis
and she didn't come from a sports background at all so for her was more the
educational aspect and I talk about how she made me memorize passages and poems in Russian
literature that I I just didn't I had no idea what they even meant I was so young for any of it all
but the her idea was that if I was challenging myself to do something that I didn't necessarily love and I kept doing it, it was building some sort of toughness in my mind that would help me in other areas in my life.
And for me, that became sort of that mental aspect in tennis.
Was there ever a part in tennis where you didn't love for like a period of time where you're just like, I don't love this at all?
And you thought about like, why am I doing this? Um, there are a lot of things that come with the sport that you
don't necessarily choose and, and you don't necessarily know what road that might take you
to or how you will feel about it. There are definitely moments where, um, you know, after
tough, like there's so many tough matches where I come home and I just tell my mom,
I would never want to put my children through this ever, ever.
I don't want them to feel.
Paying the sadness.
I don't want them to feel this.
Yes.
In front of thousands of people going down.
But then I wake up the next day and I get up and I go to the practice court and I do it again.
And I look forward to getting back on that court and
playing the same opponent and coming out the one that's victorious and and then I'm like well
actually I would love this experience for my child because it teaches you so much and it does I mean
there's so many hardships and you know you have to grow up on your own a lot and you're you could
become very isolated and the sport itself kind of,
you know, it made me, I wouldn't even say by choice, but it isolated me from the very
beginning because if I wanted to keep a strong mind and a clear path, I really, I had to,
even though I could have chosen other directions, which maybe wouldn't have continued my success.
But, and again, those are all, I think, choices that you make.
Another choice that you made that I was just like,
I don't know if I could do this,
is you literally couldn't really be friends with anyone
that you're playing tennis with,
like any other girls that you're playing against.
You're not like buddy-buddy.
You're not like talking and chatting up after the match or before the match.
That was kind of like from when you were like six to nine until now.
You really say, at least you write in the book that you're like,
you really can't have friends because then it might make you a little weaker,
a little softer because you'll feel bad for them.
That's got to be hard too.
You're just like isolating yourself to never really have a community
in the sport you're playing.
In football, we may like hate each other and we're playing like our rivals,
but then it's like you respect each other and you're like buddy, buddy afterwards.
Well, there's a difference.
I think there's definitely a difference between respecting each other
and going into a locker room and knowing that every single one of them in that room
works so hard and is so extremely disciplined to get that credential, to get their name in the
draw, to be there. And I feel that and I understand that. And so that respect is always there for me.
But I think- But you're not like, let's go up dinner and have cocktails afterwards and relax.
Just because I've always felt it's been my workplace. And a big part of that, I think,
happened when I did win a
grand slam at a young age and it immediately as i said it isolates you because you you become not
just someone that someone plays in a quarterfinal or final of a tournament but you become the match
that people want to win right um and it becomes so much more And they not only want to be you, but they want
to have everything that you have, all the things that came with winning a Grand Slam. And I didn't
like that idea. And it's not what I really chose. It's not what I knew. And so I immediately realized
that I want that for myself. I worked for it. And I'm going to do everything I can for others not
to have it. And that's the competitor in me. Yeah.
Were you the youngest female to win a Grand Slam or no?
I believe at that age, no.
I think I was the third.
Third youngest to win one.
Yeah.
And you almost didn't even get to the finals.
Weren't you down like three sets or something?
Yeah. In some ways.
Well, yeah, against Lindsay Davenport.
She was like crushing you, right?
Completely.
I had no chance.
I was like a delay or something, right? Completely. I had no chance. There was like a rain delay or something
and you were like,
I talk about this match
vividly
because it's still a huge,
I was so excited
as a teenager.
I was so happy.
I was in the semifinals
of Wimbledon.
It was already a big deal
and just say,
I described that match
quite well
because I was really on,
I was already on the plane home
and then my father,
yeah,
my father just had this intervention with me and he just had this, he started laughing, right? Yeah, you were in the locker room during the break. Yeah, my father just had this intervention
with me and he just had this
He started laughing, right? Yeah, he started laughing
in my face and said, you got this. You're going to win
this. So I came
from laughing to just being,
wow, maybe I have a chance.
And she was just dominating.
She was dominating. She couldn't hit anything in return.
She was crushing your serve.
Zero chance.
I was able to turn it around. How do you think you were able to do that though?
Was it really more your just consistency of just hitting the ball back or was it her just breaking
down? Cause she was like, I don't know what to do in this situation or what was that?
Well, there was a little bit of a rain delay. So I think when you're in a position as a player,
that's up and ahead and all of a sudden has the opportunity to think that you have a chance to be in the Wimbledon final and it's so close and it seems so easy, that's hard.
It's mentally – it's tough, definitely.
Have you ever talked to her about this?
No.
Really?
No.
She probably thinks about it all the time.
She's had so many incredible moments in her career.
So yeah, you usually tend to think of those
rather than the tough ones.
What do you think is the moment growing up
that was if one of them was a different situation,
obviously like so many things could have happened
where you couldn't be here now,
but what was like the one thing that almost ruined it all?
Where you're like,
good God,
we got out of that situation or thank goodness someone rescued us on the side of the street.
And at this time,
I think if you read those moments,
once you read the book,
I think there's so many that I could say a name.
And I just think overall,
there's so many paths that we could have taken that were wrong.
Or maybe just because when I was young so many of the
decisions that were made were out of my hands yeah and I really loved sharing like that trust
aspect in this book because I had to give a lot of trust as a young girl to my parents and and
that's really special as I look back on that because you're as you're growing up and you
become a teenager you kind kind of, you know,
you want to, I wouldn't say separate from your family, but you want that distance from your
family. Um, and in my, you know, in my youth, in my situation also maybe because I was an only child,
um, and because they sacrificed so much. And I, I think I felt that. And I knew that,
that I, I just felt like what they were doing for me was the right thing.
And I had to give them that trust in order to make decisions for my life
that would bring me to where I would be today.
Crazy.
In your mind, what do you think it takes for anyone to be number one in the world
at whatever they do?
What's it take for that to happen?
A lot of things.
So many things have to come together.
There's hard work, but I believe, especially in today's age, everyone works hard.
Everyone.
Everyone works hard.
But you have a different level of hard work.
You have this obsessive hard work ethic.
It's unbelievable.
I wouldn't say it's the words hard work.
I think it's the focus.
I think I just know personally what focus is able to do for me when I work hard
and when I focus on a task.
And even when I do play the exhibitions that you watch me play at World Team Tennis,
and those are just small examples, but I, for instance,
I don't know how
to differentiate an exhibition to a real match like i just know one way like that's the way that
i play and i'm focused and i'm pumping my fists and i'm excited after a good point i'm emotional
and um you know i i think exhibitions are also a way to show your personality and be, you know, funny and fun and enjoy the crowd.
And sometimes when I go to that direction, I like, I don't exactly know what to do.
So I was like, whoa, I'm so out of my element.
So I know that, you know, I know when someone pays me to go on a court, they want to see the Maria that they see when I play Wimbledon.
And that's what I want to deliver.
And so that's how I treat everything that I do.
It's like if I practice and I'm training or if I have a meeting and I'm with people that I've met for the first time,
that first meeting, that first impression takes you to so many directions that it's very important.
And what about the mindsets we talk
about this focused hard work but what about the mindset because i think a lot of people say they
want to be the best at something or you know i hear a lot of people say i want to be the best
or number one or whatever at the top what do they have to think about mentally in order to
it because it takes decades sometimes to get there yeah how do how do they how do you prepare
mentally to try to even strive to be the best at something,
even for a moment in time?
And then how do you try to stay there
once you're there?
Don't we all want to know that?
I think I'm still trying to figure it out.
But I definitely see this,
everyone seems to have this aspect of rushing like rushing to
get to the next step and rushing to make a certain amount of money and um when i when i think of
goals i don't necessarily think of specifics i just think of more feelings of how i would feel
when i get to that what is my success and how does that feel like?
Instead of saying, okay, I want to win this amount of titles and I want to win this amount of Grand Slams
or I want to earn this amount of money.
I think more of the feeling.
How am I going to feel when I win Match Point?
I visualize it.
I embrace that feeling and I carry it with me.
Like you visualize it all the time or in the moment? I think it. I embrace that feeling and I carry it with me. Like you visualize it all the time or in the moment?
I think moments.
And I think it always comes when you least expect it.
Sometimes you can be on a run.
Sometimes those long plane rides where it's sunset and it's just you and you've been traveling and you're going home and you have no one around you, just yourself on the flight and just a bunch of hundreds of strangers next to you
and you have this moment where you start thinking of why you're doing this.
Why are you lonely?
Why are you in this position?
And you think of what you've already done to get there
and where you would like to see yourself go.
So those moments always come at a different –
I don't sit down and i think okay right
now i'm going to visualize um the feeling that i might have when i win a tournament or yeah but i
definitely i think it's important to i when you say things or you know when a friend of mine says
something negative and i was like don't put that in the universe like don't put that out there yeah
i do believe in that there's some sense of of truth in that because it also comes with –
then you carry it with that attitude.
When someone says something negative, you usually see their attitude change.
It shows up in your body and your energy.
Yeah, and I mean I for sure do that as well and I have my moments.
But the faster you acknowledge it and realize it, the faster you can move on.
Yeah.
the faster you acknowledge it and realize it,
the faster you can move on.
Yeah.
So you went through a big, you know,
this unfortunate experience in the last couple of years.
You got silver at the Olympics in 2012.
Then you had the surgery after that or before that?
When was your surgery?
Before that.
Before that, right.
But then you came back and you won a French Open in 2015.
Is that right?
I won in 2012 and then 2014.
2014.
And then in 2000 – I'm trying to get the dates.
2016 is when the Australian Open thing, right?
Where you got hundreds of athletes got caught for using something
that they announced but didn't really tell anyone
that they announced, but didn't really tell anyone that they announced this new
regulation. You were the one that was made an example of out of everyone. Unfortunately,
it had an incredible effect on you, I think, over the last year and a half.
I was the only one being suspended for it.
Yeah. So you were made an example, unfortunately.
Those are your words, not mine.
Yeah. Which was also, it sounds like, was, you know, this, a very challenging time for you.
I was, I met you right before it happened, I think like a month before or something.
And I was just felt horrible for you because I was like, this has got to be the worst feeling.
Because you were writing about it and this, how you were like, you know, maybe this is my last year.
Exactly.
And I'm going to go out on a hurrah like yeah try to win another grand
slam and call it a day and then retire like on top and then this this happened where you're
suspended for 15 months uh then they i guess they took back the claim or something they they
i was suspended for two years and then that was reduced to 15 months yeah yeah um and during that
time you learned a ton so i've known you like this whole time
this happened. You've grown a lot. You got to go to Harvard to practice, to learn from a couple
of great teachers. You got to travel, you got to explore, you got to date, you got to do all these
things and have fun probably for the first time. Really did. And relax and recover, which is kind
of cool. Now I'm curious, and now you just came back a few months ago
and you've been competing. You got a couple of minor injuries. So you're like-
Had a little bit of a setback.
Yeah, setback. What are you playing for now? And what's the vision moving forward? Because again,
you've achieved everything pretty much that you can achieve. I mean, that's just more championships,
but you've won every big tournament, right? Yes. And I think that's one of the questions
that I asked myself as I was coming back into the routine of playing tournaments again in April.
And as I left for the trip, I had been home for a few months at a a time which was unusual and so different than than ever in my
life um and as i was leaving i i noticed this feeling that i was i was just so ready to go
like there was no sense of i'm leaving something behind or i have i mean one of the greatest things
was being able to i met so many so many new friends and um friends and been able to really form great friendships and partnerships during that time and really be there for people that I haven't been able to be there for.
But as I was leaving, I had this sense of just contentment or happiness that I formed these bonds.
I formed a little bit of a normal life. And I didn't feel like I was these bonds. I formed a little bit of a normal life.
And I didn't feel like I was leaving it.
I just felt like I was going to do something that I was meant to be doing.
And that was my work.
And I knew that I had that when I would be coming back home.
And so I think that was a really great feeling to have.
Because I think it's always scary to just go away from it.
And because I've done it for so many years, I think it's always scary to just go away from it.
And because I've done it for so many years,
those first few days away from home are just really tough.
Different food, you have different people, just hotel room,
just everything is cold and opening a suitcase.
I don't know, it's so sterile.
Is that the right word?
Sterile.
Yeah.
So it doesn't feel very friendly but you felt good leaving but i felt like i wanted it like i really really wanted it
and i didn't have any regrets of leaving and so i knew that that was a really good sign that's good
and you didn't want it then it'd be hard to play it'd be really hard it'd be really hard and i
didn't um you know there's so many little things of a routine that you do every day
that are fun at first, that are exciting.
But when you do it hundreds of times, such as pre-practice warm-ups or the shoulder rub-downs,
and when you do it dozens and dozens of times, it gets old.
Very old.
It gets old.
Very old, boy.
Right.
But I loved every part of it in the weeks that followed when I left.
I just loved the feeling of getting in an official transportation car.
Usually I want to feel anonymous.
I always say I love being in a taxi in New York City because everyone, there's hundreds of taxis.
No one is looking in the window to see who's in a taxi.
They just know it's another passenger in a car when we're sitting in an official transportation car with the logo of
the tournament and um kind of the announcement oh someone someone knows in another car that
there's a tennis player in the car so they're all looking at you and they're trying to see who it is
so i love that anonymous feeling and um and i loved getting in a car where people knew that
here's an athlete she's going to
the courts and she's she's playing in this tournament at this um at this venue and i i
wanted that feeling and so i knew those are i felt like all were good signs because i was i think i
was a little scared of that um because it can it's a long it's a it's a long process. So much work. Yeah. And so without really understanding what I wanted to come from this, I knew that I had the desire.
And I knew I was looking forward to those things.
And I knew as long as I had that, I will have the motivation to train as hard as I can to be a winner at the end of a certain match.
And so what's the goal now then?
You're back, you're playing.
I think every stage will carry a different goal in my mind.
But you're not like, I'm going to play for this many more seasons
or I'm trying to win a Grand Slam.
Do you have that vision or dream?
No, I never did.
I never had that vision, but a few years ago.
You just wanted to win every time you were on the step on the court.
I did, but I was also starting to think about the end end and that's something that i think i share in the book
that was a big surprise for a lot of the people that are they're just starting to read it and that
um that were close in my life that i didn't really share with because i i wasn't so sure but i was
it was always on my mind was like this when when would i end and how would I end it. And so it played as part of this do I even want to come back?
Do I really want this?
But there's nothing that stopped me from it.
So I don't see, I don't look at the future and say this is my goal
and this is my timeline.
I think everyone has a different timeline.
And based on just even if you look at my whole life,
I've had so many surprises and so many uncertainties.
And so I don't want to say that this will be the time to end it
because I don't want to play it out like that.
Yeah.
So you don't know.
I think I also don't want to know.
Yeah.
I think you'll know when you know, right?
Yeah, I think so.
Right.
You'll be like, I don't want to play anymore.
I'm good.
Maybe.
But I certainly have the feeling that I'll be playing much longer
than I thought that I would be a few years ago.
All right.
Definitely.
I like that.
Some foreshadowing.
All right.
I like it.
Yeah, I want to see you in a Grand Slam.
I want to think the U.S. Open or something.
I think it would be awesome.
Well, it sounds like Wimbledon is your favorite place to play based on this.
Right.
It's special.
If you get back there, I would love to go there and watch.
So you have this team now that's supporting you.
And they can be like, here's an athlete who's done it all.
Is she going to be around?
Because you probably don't tell them what you're going to do.
They don't know, right?
I don't share long-term goals or visions.
I mean, I have a contract with each one of them and they know that based on the timeline that
I obviously look forward to playing those years and fulfilling our contracts. But of course,
you never know with the body and health and motivation and all those things.
How do you keep them inspired and this vision of moving forward if they're, you know, you're unclear where you're going to go?
Yeah. I think that, I think by them showing me and sticking with me through this tough time,
I think it's every day that I'm around them. I, I think of it that I, I'm doing it for them and
not just myself and that I, I don't think I ever had that feeling. Even as a
young girl, I never thought that I was doing it for my family or to, yeah, I never, or maybe
because my family never made me feel like I had to, I don't, I don't know.
Did you always love playing then when you were younger?
Yeah, but I never gave it, I never thought that, okay, if I play well in a sense this will cover um you know my grandparents or my
parents or they can travel around the world and they can be financially stable like that was never
really never thought about it but I think after going through the last couple of years when you
see um because you're as you know I mean I'm with my team so often and all the time and much more than I am with my family.
And what they do for you and just on a daily basis, just the smallest things are, those are not things that are written in a contract.
But you have to realize how important that is.
And it really, I mean, it's so crucial.
It's so crucial to have a great team that has your back, that understands you.
And I know that's such a broad thing to say, like understands who you are.
But it does take time and takes a lot of trust.
And I'm someone that likes to build the trust.
And I don't go into a partnership saying, I immediately trust you and believe you.
And I think that sense of loyalty is so important to
me so I definitely build on that with people and I challenge people I think that's also important
and I want people to challenge me you challenge your team a lot yeah yeah no I I definitely I
question their even exercises things drills plans. I question it all the time.
Wow.
I know, which is kind of like makes me.
Come on.
Ooh.
Is that what they call a control freak?
Yeah, right.
Exactly.
But I think the act of asking questions is so important.
I agree.
I think it opens up.
That's what I love doing.
Well, clearly.
Yeah. I think it opens up. Well, clearly I think it, it opens up, uh, different
avenues, different plans. Um, and it makes like, I, I know that before my team comes up with a plan
or a practice that they've thought about it because they know that I'm going to be thinking,
why are we doing this today? And what, what is the idea behind it? What's the goal? They've got
the best answers.
So they've got the answers
before I'm able to give them that question.
That's good.
What advice would you give to a parent
who's got a young child
that they put into a sport
or a musical instrument
or singing or something?
They put them into an experience
with a talent.
What advice would you give them just in general about if you want to cultivate?
I wish my father was here to help with that.
But I mean, it's like, okay, you want your kids to succeed.
Yeah.
And knowing what you knew growing up and kind of where you're at now
on the latter end of it,
I guess what would you tell parents that they should focus on
when cultivating the champion's mind for children?
Yeah. Well, I think one of the biggest gifts that my father gave me and something that I
speak a lot about is this idea of he was my father and the guidance, but he never knew everything.
So I think as a parent, it's very easy to believe that we are, not that I'm a parent at all, but to have the sense of they know everything and they know the answers and they know what's right for their child.
And what my father was able to do for me was realize that he wasn't a tennis coach and he wasn't the best at that, but he would find the
right people that could help me. And, and so that's, I don't know if that's kind of letting
your ego step aside and being like, there are other people that I will oversee everything,
but there are other people that are much more knowledgeable in my field than I am.
Um, and it's a tough thing to do. And also having realistic goals and being very real. And my
father and my mother as well, were very well aware that in any day we could move back to Russia. And
having that realistic approach that that could happen without thinking about it negatively,
I think really helped them because it gave them the security that even if they did go back to their previous life back home, then that was okay.
I think I saw a lot of families while I was boarding at the academy and training at the academy that had this financial opportunity of having, you know, trying to fulfill unrealistic dreams.
They weren't good enough.
And they might have been good enough, but they weren't great enough.
And I think that's a huge,
to make the pro level elite level.
Yeah.
It's a huge difference.
You can maybe get a college scholarship somewhere,
but which is a,
I mean,
that can't take that for granted,
but you're paying more for like 10 years.
Yes.
And tennis is not a cheap sport.
I mean,
no sport is.
Yeah.
So I think having a,
just being real about, about your goals,
um, in the most sensible way. Do you feel like your father did a good job of switching off from
parent to like manager coach, like where you felt like he was still your father as opposed to just
focusing on one thing all the time? Well, one of the biggest things that he did was that,
I mean, after I won three grand slams and you would think that he'd want to be overseeing that or being my coach,
that person that sits in my box during every match that I continue to play
for the rest of my career.
He said it was a very mutual decision that now you can do it on your own.
that now you can do it on your own.
And as I look at the tour now and I see many examples of parents continuing their life on the tour with children,
and that separation is very difficult because you spend your life from a very young age being together and the parents always want to be by their side and kind of taking, I wouldn't say almost all the credit, but a lot of it does go to the parents.
And I think it was, I think just selfishly, I also wanted to prove that I could do it
on my own.
I think that was the competitor in me and my father fully understood that and accepted
that and he stepped back and let me, you know, get my own coach and do it on my own after
already accomplishing what I had.
That's amazing.
Now, I remember you writing about there was one Grand Slam,
I think it was you won and he wasn't there and you were like looking up.
The first one.
The French Open.
You were looking up in the stands.
You didn't see him.
Yes.
So he just didn't come to the events anymore?
No.
He stopped.
Just watched on TV or what?
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
He didn't even just come and sit as a spectator like at the top?
I don't think there's like a – there's no happy medium.
You can't do it.
Well, I don't know.
I don't know.
I think if my father would come, I would definitely want him to be sitting next to my coach.
Right, right.
He's my father.
But I think that time has –
So you just said it's not – you shouldn't come anymore. He was like, I'm not going to come anymore. Yeah. He hasn my father. But I think that time has... So you just said you shouldn't come anymore.
He was like, I'm not going to come anymore.
He hasn't been to a match since?
Maybe one or two.
Really? Yeah.
Wow. He watches them all on TV though.
Oh, he does?
He speaks to my coach and I every other day.
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
And after every match. And he's still very much a big part of my career.
Of course. But he doesn't come. Is doesn't is that weird he's not there it was weird in the beginning and i think it was weird
because i i definitely it just felt like i really wanted to prove that i could do it on my own
because so much of of our lives was me and him and trying to accomplish this together and i i think i
just wanted i love that responsibility of proving
that I could do it on my own.
You did it.
Yeah.
We got a great team.
I mean, again, it's when I say on my own,
it's you're on your own.
Right, you're on your own when you're out competing.
But that little group that's behind you every day,
they're so very much part of your victory.
And I've been able to
win with with all the previous three grand slams i've had different coaches um so it's it's been
an interesting journey and as i grow as i grow up i also learn a lot more about what what i would
want or what i needed before is not what i need now. And so making those adjustments, um, and also having a
great connection. Maybe when I was younger, it wasn't as important for me, but really
just because they, they become family. And as you're older, you, you, I don't know,
we speak a lot about different aspects of life and conversation and from the plane to dinners
and things beyond tennis, which I love to do because we're so enclosed in the small world of,
of sport.
And I,
I like to,
I love to grow.
And so having people that are,
that are smart and that can challenge my questions and answers,
um,
that have a,
a good brain on their shoulders is,
is interesting.
Yeah.
What's the things you still feel like you need to learn?
Um, I don't think we always know what we need to learn i think that's that's part of it is there anything that's holding you back then in your life or in any area yeah i mean i think i think
injuries is a big part of an athlete's career as you know as you very well know and i think when you go
through a few in your career um that hesitation and that uncertainty and you become you know you
become a little less comfortable and confident and less fearless yeah and you you think of it
sometimes a little bit more you think of it more than than you should yeah and um so
always i try to snap out of it because that's such a you know tennis is so physical and it's um
it's so quick and there's so many movements and to feel healthy is is just completely healthy is a
complete gift it's almost impossible yeah it's a complete there's no no no chance 17 again maybe right
maybe so i think but there's so many things i mean you have the food and you have diet and you
have discipline and and the way that exactly and the way that i believe we work out now compared
to years ago is very different and more refined and the quality is more important than um than
quantity yeah so it just sounded like
you just to be beating yourself up constantly just like constantly it was more about hours
and repetition and i don't necessarily think that that was the best way it was just the only way
that was accessible yeah it was the tools you guys had yeah and i just one of your coaches here that
you would come to la he would just hit the same ball over and over for hours.
Yeah, there was just this huge basket of balls.
I don't know how you do it.
Stay like excited and passionate and like motivated.
Well, he was a nut.
So he brought, he made it fun.
And well, I look back at it now, it was fun.
But in the moment, it was brutal.
But you just have to have such a big reason why you're doing this every single day.
I mean, you're talking about getting up at 5 a.m. and going to the courts and then going to training and then film and then back at the courts all day.
It's just you have to really have a big reason why you're doing it, especially as a kid.
Otherwise, you're just like, I want to go play you know, friends in the playground and not work. Yeah. Well, I want to know what it I'm curious by what it would feel like to be
better at what I do than today. So I'm curiously challenging myself to find out what that would
feel like. To be better than you already are right now? Yeah. To be better and to be.
Yeah. Which I think that leads to better performances and quality performances and
yeah i i i think that's the feeling and drive that still gets me that still gets me up in the
morning do you ever feel like maybe doing less would be to make you better less of less reps
less like lifting less um i don't think I do.
I actually don't think that I do more than others do.
I think that the way that I train is maybe more quality focused and more intense.
And if I bring that intensity a certain amount of time,
I don't think that I could bring that intensity for six hours a day.
So, but there are a lot of other variables that go into it. And it's sort of the patience of carrying, carrying yourself through the day, going through the different phases of the gym
and the warmup to the tennis court, to the cool down, to the stretching, to specific injury
exercises, to the rehab on the massage table and, you know, finishing your day up at 7.30,
8 p.m. and doing it all over again from 8.30 the next morning. So kind of having that patience is
crucial. What do you think you're going to do after tennis? Years and years from now?
I don't know. I don't know where. I don't know. I think that's an uncertainty.
I mean, I think there's.
Besides being a successful businesswoman and building brands and.
I mean, I envision a family.
Absolutely.
I mean, I have such a great bond with my family that I definitely envision that for myself.
Yeah.
But that takes time.
And with what I do now, it's very, you know, it's extremely difficult,
but it's definitely a, you know, a goal of mine if that can be a goal or,
sure. But, uh, yeah, business is a part of it. Yeah. No being, being excited about seeing
something grow. Yeah. Being, it's still being in a competitive atmosphere. I think that's what
business brings to me as well, even now.
Yeah.
Because that's ultimately what tennis brings to me today,
and that's the driving force that nothing else can really replicate.
Yeah, you love to win.
Yeah.
It's a good thing I beat you in bowling, though.
I know.
You have that one victory that I'm never going to stop hearing.
We should play some ping pong.
I can beat you at that, baby.
I'm sure you can probably beat me at every other sport.
It's not tennis.
We played once.
Not tennis.
I want to play again.
Definitely not tennis.
I want to play like a real – no, I won't even be able to hit a ball back from you.
But I want to play like some volleying or something and see if I can try to hit something back.
All right.
Make sure you guys get this book.
It's called Unstoppable, My Life So Far by Maria Sharapova.
It's an incredible story of overcoming unbelievable challenges
and adversity to making your dreams come true.
It's a great story about trusting yourself, trusting your family,
having discernment in certain situations,
knowing when to back off from things that are maybe too good to be true.
And just how do you turn the lessons you learned from here and how you turn all these setbacks
into comebacks to get stronger every time is just so inspiring.
It makes me so happy to know you.
Thank you.
And to be friends with you and to know like how you've
gotten through it all. We did a previous interview where I asked a lot of other questions. We'll link
it up below. You guys can learn more about kind of the rituals and routines, more of the mindset
and all this other stuff. We'll have that linked up. But I'm curious, a couple of final questions.
What's the thing you're most proud of over the last two years
since kind of all this has happened with the setbacks
and now the comeback?
What are you most proud of in your life?
Well, proud that I still have this incredible motivation to keep going
and that I really still want to keep doing it.
I think that no one I really still want to keep doing it.
I think that no one can really give that to you.
And no one, no matter how much money, no matter how many people you have around you, family,
great words, positive energy, if you don't want it yourself, it will be really hard to live through it.
And so I'm definitely very proud that I still have that feeling.
And I think it has a lot to do with the mentality that I held through those couple of years,
through the way that I handled it and got out in front of it,
through the tone of voice that I had in my mind, the belief that I had in myself.
And all those things really come into play.
And yeah, and that I still want more. I think that's something to be
proud of. And yeah, probably can think of a few other things, but I, you know, I don't, I don't
speak about myself. No, you handle it with such grace, like, which was again, so impressive for
me. It's just like the level of grace and humility that you have throughout the challenges. Yeah.
I love those two words.
Those are great words. Yeah.
As opposed to like defensiveness and anger and.
Yeah.
I think those things only get you so far.
Yeah.
You know,
maybe they can get you immediate.
I don't know.
Attention or something.
Something.
Yeah.
But.
I just appreciate you so much.
Thank you.
And I'm so grateful to know you and to be a part of this comeback.
And seeing everything.
And this book is really cool.
So make sure you guys get it.
It's called Unstoppable.
You can go to mariasharapova.com, at mariasharapova, everywhere on social media.
She's really active on Instagram and Twitter.
So make sure to let her know what you thought about the interview.
Get her book.
Take a photo of the book at the store. Tag on instagram twitter that you got the book um and you've been
through that all before with your books and you know all the things get ready it's about to be an
adventure you're about to go through a whole other like journey well i just got like a first couple
book reviews and i was like wait people have read it before and i was like, wait, people have read it before? And I was like, yes. It's about to get real.
It's a whole new process. It is. Which I love. Like I said, I love that people are able,
because I didn't share the book with many people at all. I shared it with my best friend and I
shared it with my father and my manager. And those are the only few people that read it through this
whole process. And so now in the last few weeks, I have finally been sharing it.
Yeah, all my other friends and my team.
And I think I was just scared to be influenced by everyone's opinions
while it was not finished.
Smart.
So it's just been great getting feedback and hearing them,
just hearing what everyone is taking away from it because i think everyone it
everyone kind of knows me in different parts of my life and not maybe all of it and it was amazing
that some of them still felt like there's so much that they learned in the story and for some people
that don't know me at all that were very inspired by this story and yeah yeah, it's just, it's, it's real, right?
Like when you have a book and I just finished the audio version of the book.
Which takes like three days.
Three days.
It's exhausting.
Wow.
Wow.
I was like,
I don't know if I'm going to be doing a book for a long while.
It's a lot of work.
It's a lot of work,
but I was really happy that I did it.
I think it's,
it adds another element of,
you know,
a fan can really see how those
words made you feel.
Expressing that.
You're going to inspire a lot of people with the book
as you do in your
competition and the way you carry yourself.
Thank you. Congrats on this.
I'm so excited to see
what's next. So am I.
It's going to be an amazing ride.
I am as well.
Thanks so much for coming. Thank you. see what's next. So am I. It's going to be an amazing ride. I am as well. Yeah.
Thanks so much for coming.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
All right.
If you enjoyed this one, please let me know and let Maria know your favorite part of this interview and what you enjoyed about it the most.
Shoot her a message and tag me and her at Lewis Howes and at Maria Sharapova over on Twitter, over on your
Instagram story, and let her know that you're listening and let her know what you thought about
the interview and your favorite part. The link for this is lewishowes.com slash 535. You can
watch the full video interview there. Check out all the show notes. Make sure to get a copy of Maria's book as well. All the
links for that are back at lewishouse.com slash 535. And as always, make sure to take a screenshot
and post it on Instagram story. Let me know. I like to have as many conversations there with
you as possible. I try to reply to as many people on the Instagram stories as possible. So let me
know that you're listening and I'll make sure to reply if I
can. And as Thomas Edison said, if we did the things we are capable of, we would astound
ourselves. You are so capable of creating more than you've ever even imagined. You have all the
tools within you to become resourceful, to master skills, to optimize
your mind, your health, your opportunities.
You just have to be willing to take the next step.
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and you know what time it is.
It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music Bye.