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Recently, we watched King Richard on Netflix. In the first few minutes, we realized that this story was about Venus Williams, and Serena Williams, both of whom reached the top of the tennis world. Yes, spoiler alerts begin here.

The film chronicles the childhood development of these two superstar tennis players. It shows us how Richard and his wife Oracene, build the confidence of these girls, and their other three daughters as well. At every step, whether it’s an achievement, a defeat, or a mistake, the two parents – but especially Richard – develop immediate teaching moments to guide the girls. Although Richard comes off as egotistical a lot in the film, you can see that he is relentlessly trying to mold champions in the healthiest way he knows how. The patriarchy is also alive and well in this movie, and Oracene is strong as a black mother who holds her ground against Richard’s eccentricities.

Richard imparts really powerful principles to the girls that take them all the way to the top of the tennis world. In this post, I am sharing four principles that really stood out to me.

The first principle is humility.

After Venus Williams wins her very first trophy, the girls are in the back of the family van, giggling and talking about how good Venus was. Richard abruptly parks at a convenient store and tells the girls to get out and get him a beverage. Then he makes as if he’s going to leave them there. Oracene throws a fit and forbids him from doing so. He parks several feet away from the convenience store. The girls come running up and they have some inkling that their father was about to leave them there. When they get home, Richard makes them watch Cinderella, then questions the girls about what they learned from it. He doesn’t receive the answer he’s looking for so he says he’s going to make them watch it again. At this point everyone is protesting, so he explains what he wanted them to get out of it: humility. He says that no matter what was happening with Cinderella, whether she was in dire straits, or whether she became wealthy and beloved, her demeanor was the same – she was humble.

The second principle is boundaries.

Richard knows where to surrender to another coach’s expertise and where to keep control as a coach himself. When he meets a couple of coaches who are offering to take care of Venus’s training, he is acutely aware that they are being racist and he rejects them. Then he seeks out Rick Macci and lays out his terms, providing his own contract. Rick Macci is quite taken aback about this (since he brought his own agreement), but he agrees to Richard‘s terms. Those terms, as we see later, include Rick not wanting Venus to play in any of the juniors tournaments until she finishes school and turns pro, which is completely unconventional. Richard is also adamant about the open stance for Venus and for Serena which irritates the initial coach, but which Rick Macci puts up with. So, Rick Macci is in this unfortunate position of paying for housing for the entire family, except for Tunde, the eldest. Interestingly, Richard is not shy about reminding Rick about all the money that he is spending on this family, which also comes across as egotistical and unfair. It isn’t until much later that Rick Macci is able to reap the rewards of this arrangement. At the end, Richard is able to deliver two world champions using his own method of coaching the girls, choosing what aspects of their training and development he controls, and which aspects he surrenders to an external coach.

The third principle is balance.

Richard is adamant that appreciating the stage of your life that you’re in should be important for the girls. He refuses to let the girls – especially Venus who is the first one who gets professionally trained – participate in tournaments after seeing how other parents push their kids. His reasoning is that he wants her to be a kid and to have fun while she’s still a child. He also wants her to get straight A’s and to finish her education so that she has something to fall back on. He instills in the girls, a wider perspective than other champions, such as Jennifer Capriati, who is seen to be suffering from drug addiction around the same time. Richard’s point is that balance is really important and even though his daughters are going to become world champions, they also need to have a life to be kids to play and have fun. Eventually, he succumbs to pressure from Oracene to let 14-year-old Venus decide to compete when she feels ready.

The fourth principle is self-worth.

Richard painstakingly ensures that his daughters learn to know what they’re worth. When an interviewer questions Venus’s confidence, Richard intervenes and puts a stop to it, to avoid damaging her confidence with the doubts being raised by the interviewer. There is a scene in which an agent from Nike comes over to their hotel room and puts a $4 million offer on the table. Richard allows Venus to think about it. Venus hesitates, and the Nike agent says that the offer is off the table by tomorrow: it’s only on the table tonight. That doesn’t feel right to the parents and to Venus. Meanwhile, the existing coach, Rick Macci, is flabbergasted as to why the family is not jumping on the $4 million offer. Of course, he wants his 15% commission, which has been non-existent so far. Venus decides to wait until she plays in the tournament. She defeats her first opponent, and then she plays with the world number one seed, Vicario.

Venus starts off the match in top form; she looks like she’s going to win the second set too. But then the Vicario takes a break to go to the bathroom and spends almost 10 minutes there, breaking Venus’s momentum. When Vicario gets back, she’s able to win the game because Venus is unsettled. Venus later sits in the locker room, crying, but her parents support her, telling her that she shook up the world number one seed. They walk her out and the moment they open the gates and get out of the tennis courts, they see a large group of young fans who are cheering and screaming with joy. They have been so inspired by Venus. This crowd includes young black girls for whom Venus has now opened up a world of possibilities. Venus realizes that she has made history because of the way she played against Vicario and because of her immense talent, which the world has now witnessed. Later on, Venus signs a deal with Reebok for 12 million dollars, 3 times what Nike had offered.

In this way, through Richard’s character, we learn that as we’re on the road to achieving greatness, we must remember to stay humble, no matter how rich and famous we get. Another lesson is to set strong boundaries and know where we are willing to negotiate. We must also be very aware of where we need to control the process and where we can surrender to someone else’s expertise. Remembering to live life and to keep a balance between work and play is another critical lesson. Finally, Richard teaches us to know our worth, and not let anyone else dictate that to you.

Think about a part of your life in which you are a champion – perhaps it’s as a parent or at work or in sports. Share with us what your principles are for being an amazing champion.