“I think of someone who I know is rooting against me” - Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian shares his unorthodox method for finding motivation
Serena Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian is an entrepreneur and investor best known for co-founding the popular social media platform Reddit. Recently, Ohanian shared with fans his unorthodox method for finding motivation when he struggled with a setback.
Williams and her husband met in Rome in May 2015 over breakfast. The tennis legend asked Ohanian to sit with her and her friends and later extended an invitation to watch her play at the French Open. The couple got engaged in December 2016 and were married a year later.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian are fairly active on social media, and the latter recently took to X to share with fans an unexpected way in which he finds motivation when something doesn't go according to plan.
“I still have moments where I'm really discouraged about something I'm building — usually because of some setback — and I take a minute to literally acknowledge that feeling in my mind ‘that sucks, I'm disappointed with X, what can I learn from X? (sometimes nothing) OK, now what can I do about it.’ And usually that alone helps diffuse my frustration,” he wrote.
“Then, sometimes, I think of someone who I know is rooting against me and I think about how disappointed they'll be when we eventually succeed, and I swear to God it motivates me. Still, even after all these years,” be went on to add.
When Serena Williams found motivation after getting ghosted
Serena Williams is one of the most successful tennis players of all time, and in a recent documentary, the American revealed she once found the motivation to win after getting ghosted.
In her new docuseries titled ‘In The Arena', Williams shared that she was once ghosted by her partner when she was 20 years old, right after her 2001 loss to sister Venus Williams at the U.S Open. The younger Williams then went ahead to use this as a fuel for her success, saying,
"I got ghosted and it wasn't even that serious. I remember thinking, 'He's going to regret this for the rest of his life' and that he'd see me everywhere. I can be vengeful. I'm grateful for it, so thank you!”
A year after this ghosting, Serena Williams had one of her career’s best seasons, winning both the Wimbledon and the French Open women's singles titles. She would win 20 more Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any player in the open era.