Tennis legend Stan Smith on aim, agree with and chasing each ball

“You can live life, but if you don’t have a purpose in what you are doing, then it is not going to be as fulfilling,” Smith defined in a up to date interview. It’s a philosophy he carried from the tennis courtroom to the boardroom – and one who lately’s emblem leaders may do neatly to undertake. “Every time you hit the ball, you should have a purpose,” he added, describing the mindset he handed directly to younger athletes.

Smith’s upward thrust from being rejected as a ball boy to turning into an international primary is a tale of resilience – but additionally of values. He credit his early coaching in a Pasadena neighborhood program, the place younger avid gamers would follow within the mornings and train others within the afternoons, with shaping his long-term manner. “Each one teach one,” he recalled. “It taught us about giving back.”

This worth gadget prolonged all through his enjoying profession. Smith got here of age within the politically unstable overdue 1960s, turning skilled the similar 12 months the game formally did in 1968 – an technology marked by means of civil unrest, protests, and high-profile assassinations. His shut friendship with Arthur Ashe – who turned into the primary Black guy to win america Open that very same 12 months – highlighted how athletes had been more and more considered as cultural ambassadors.

Ashe’s quiet mind and ethical readability left an impact. “He always had his nose in a magazine,” Smith recalled fondly. “He wore a t-shirt that said ‘citizen of the world.’” That mindset, says Smith, assisted in shaping his personal working out of affect, accountability and persona – courses related to any fashionable chief managing each public belief and purpose-led messaging.

His option to trade is constructed on an identical rules. In his e book Living Trust, Smith outlines a type for relationship-driven management, captured within the acronym SERVE: Strategize, Engage (construct private connections), Recreate (attach outdoor of labor), Value (resolve actual issues), and Execute (sweat the main points). For Smith, the essence of long-term good fortune – whether or not in recreation, existence or emblem partnerships – is discreet: agree with.

This is greater than principle. His multi-decade partnership with Donald Dell, his longtime agent and trade spouse, has continued with out a formal contract. “We’re definitely trusted,” Smith mentioned, underscoring how credibility and integrity can from time to time do greater than forms.

And then, in fact, there’s the sneaker. The Adidas Stan Smith stays an international icon – an not going branding feat for a participant whose heyday used to be a long time in the past. He is, to nowadays, the one athlete whose face seems on a sneaker. And but, Smith stays characteristically humble. “People know the name, but they don’t know who I am,” he joked.

Asked to distill his legacy into one phrase, Smith spoke back with out hesitation: “Respectful.” It’s a price that has guided him throughout a long time of trade – and is also the quiet basis in the back of some of the enduring sports-lifestyle crossovers in fashionable advertising. Or, as he put it: “Chase the ball, be grateful for people, and treat everybody the same.”

PS. Following this option on Stan Smith’s courses in management and agree with, we additionally sought after to spotlight some further insights collected by means of Jovanni Sterling, a part of the DigiLearning cohort reporting from POSSIBLE 2025.

In a wide-ranging on-stage dialog with advertising veteran Bonin Bough, Smith expanded at the roots of his good fortune – from being rejected as a ball boy in Pasadena to turning into an international No. 1. That early knockback, he mentioned, taught him grit – and set the tone for a profession outlined by means of aim.

Smith additionally printed that the now-iconic Adidas sneaker wasn’t initially designed for him in any respect. “I never imagined my face would be on one of the most iconic shoes in history,” he mentioned, noting how its good fortune displays the sudden intersections of recreation, style and emblem storytelling.

Most robust, although, had been his reflections on mentorship and neighborhood. From founding the youngest-ever Boys and Girls Club bankruptcy to construction a existence targeted on circle of relatives and training, Smith shared that “Tennis gave me a platform, but giving back gives me purpose.”

Thanks to Jovanni for shooting those further moments. Together, they paint a good richer image of an athlete whose emblem legacy is grounded now not in hype, however in humility.