Serena Williams attempted to deposit her first $1 million check at a drive-thru ATM: "If I didn't win, I wasn't thinking"

In the early days of her tennis career, Serena Williams was so focused on winning that she often forgot to collect her earnings.

According to the Women's Tennis Association, Williams, 42, amassed $94.8 million in prize money as a tennis player before retiring in 2022. Early in her career, she nearly left a significant portion of it behind: She was so focused on her performance that she'd often forget to pick up her money and leave cities without it, as she revealed in a recent interview with First We Feast's YouTube talk show "Hot Ones."

Did Sean Evans ask you if it's true that you rarely collected your winnings during your first year on tour and attempted to cash a million-dollar check in a drive-through ATM?

"Williams, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and 73 career singles titles during her 27-year career, responded, "Those are all true." She never played for money but instead played because she loved the sport and wanted to win."

At age 14, Williams reportedly earned a $240 check for her professional debut, in which she played a single game and lost a qualifying match at the 1995 Bell Challenge in Quebec City, Canada.

When Williams received her first million-dollar check, people around her were thrilled about the amount, but all she wanted to do was deposit it and get back to work, she remembered.

"Williams stated, "I didn't typically spend a lot of money. I simply drove through and the attendant said, 'I believe you need to go inside for this.'""

She toured extensively, but her "tax guy" had to remind her to collect her money.

"I was so focused on winning that I didn't consider the possibility of not getting my money back. When I realized I had forgotten to retrieve my payment in Zurich and Moscow, I became extremely angry and determined to find a way to win the next time."

When to teach kids money lessons

Richard ensured that Williams was responsible for managing her finances when she began earning money as a teenager, as she revealed in a May interview with Bloomberg's 'The Deal' podcast.

Williams stated that she had to learn how to manage from a young age and not become overwhelmed, and that her experience helped her to empower others to do the same. She also mentioned that she always had a say in sponsorship deals with companies like Puma and Nike.

"I'm 16, my dad is negotiating, and he wants me there for the whole time to ensure I understand my future responsibilities," she said. "I learned early on that tennis paychecks should be my smallest source of income."

Experts suggest that it is crucial to teach personal finance lessons to kids from ages 5 to 8, so that they can grasp concepts like saving, spending, and investing by the time they reach ages 8 to 12, as stated by Eric Landolt, head of family advisory and art & collecting at UBS Global Wealth Management, in an interview with Make It last year.

Teenagers will be able to manage a small budget or allowance effectively by the time they reach adolescence, according to Landolt.

"Like reading or writing, financial literacy should be a basic skill that is essential for everyone in any circumstance," he stated.

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