pieces of advice. But I am also aware that we
are all masters of our own destiny and that
some lessons are exclusively ours.
Tennis star
Novak Djokovic
holds copies of
Serbian street
paper Liceulice.
“Liceulice has
contributed
significantly to
the empowerment
o f marginalized
groups in Serbia
and a ll those
individuals who
are participating
in this important
project,”he said.
Novak Djokovic
He's one o f the greatest tennis players o f all time - and he's
creating opportunities by investing in Serbia's children
PHOTO BY MIRALEM CAUÖEVIC
BY LICEULICE STAFF
C O NTRIBU TIN G WRITERS
he world of professional sports is
typically associated with stories about
competitive sports records, record
earnings or record-breaking events. This story
about a professional athlete is entirely
different
Serbian street paper Liceulice interviewed
Novak Djokovic, the most famous Serbian
tennis player and athlete whose public work is
a testimony that not all successes are solely
achieved through competition. On the
contrary, it is through solidarity and care for
one’s community that significant
achievements are made. A child survivor of
the Yugoslav Wars
between 1991 and
1999, Djokovictoday
"Every single wrong decision dedicates his off-
court time to helping
is also a step towards the
other Serbian youths
final goal."
rise above adversity.
T
NOVAK B JO K O V IC
Liceulice: Many
celebrities, as well as
prominent and
successful people, have
their own foundations, but not too many o f them
have demonstrated such an interest in the
communities they come from. What was the
crucial reason that prompted you to emphasize
that part of your story?
Novak Djokovic: It was a personal feeling
that it was necessary to help the community
in which I grew up and where I evolved, and
also the awareness that we cannot expect
others to do absolutely everything for us. I
was immensely lucky to have had the
opportunity to m eet wonderful people from
various humanitarian organizations, and to
raise awareness about the importance of
supporting of every single individual in
resolving large, systemic problems.
Early development is a topic that my
foundation identified as its priority, and it is
at the center of our mission and vision. A lot
of research showed that the very first years in
children’s lives are crucial for their
development, and that this is the period when
they need a lot of stimulation and attention.
That’s why it is important for them to go to
kindergarten, to be able to learn and evolve,
because that is the starting point for all of
their future activities. Otherwise, if they
enter that race unprepared, other children
will overtake them, and they will get
discouraged, will leave school, and then we
will all have a huge problem. The number of
children in Serbia is decreasing every year.
Our duty is to invest in children if we want
them to live in a country that will be
developed and progressive.
L.: Wfeo inspired you in your humanitarian
work?
N.D.: They are those people who are using
their current popularity to promote good
things, fair play, equality and diversity, and
protection and support of minority groups. I
admire Oprah Winfrey for her efforts to
empower young African-American girls, but
also Zlatan Ibrahimovi, who participates in
many humanitarian activities Leonardo
DiCaprio, David Beckham - there are indeed
many of them.
L.: What would you single out as your
foundation’s particular achievement?
N.D.: The foundation was established 10
years ago and is focused on early
development of children and on the
improvement of conditions in which children
are learning and developing. Of course, we
are doing our best to complete our mission
and vision and to make the foundation as
streamlined and striking as possible, to
embrace various projects we are currently
pursuing, including the development of the
magazine Original (a monthly magazine that
seeks to engage young Serbians in culture,
educations, arts, sports and science).
The reasons to establish the foundation
were of an exclusively personal nature. I
wanted to help, and I had the unconditional
support of my family who understood it
completely and joined my initiative.
L.: Prominent people often show a certain
level o f responsibility toward the societies in
which they are famous. Do you think that
approach is an exception or a rule? For
instance, you refused to advertise with casinos
on a couple of occasions. Are there things that
are more important than sheer profit?
N.D.: For me, the values that I promote
and live by are paramount, and that is why I
attach the greatest importance to them when
I am deciding who to work with, what kind of
messages to send and who will be my
partners. I always endeavor to have one
unified message. In that sense, I have not
made any compromises thus far. Neither the
foundation nor myself personally is working
with companies and industries that - in our
opinion - are not promoting good values. I
did refuse to advertise a casino, but I am not
judging those who choose to do so. We all
have our way.
I do think that it is extremely important
that publicly known people show not only
what they do on sports courts, television or
through other things that made them famous,
but also demonstrate a high degree of
responsibility and utilize their popularity to
help those who are most in need of that help.
Voices of prominent people can be heard .
far and wide, and it is not by chance that
humanitarian and other organizations have
relied on them as a support for decades. The
number of people who are following
celebrities and trust them is enormous.
In traditional media sources, sometimes
there is no space for the promotion of things
that someone is doing, and that is exactly
where social media serves its purpose. When
you look at the social media accounts of
world-famous people, particularly professional
athletes, you realize that they spend a lot of
time promoting exactly those issues that
pertain to social responsibility and
empowerment I think that this is very
important and am happy that I am also
participating in it.
L.: Ever since you started
winning big tournaments and
achieving historic results,
children around our
country started to
improvise conditions in
public spaces in which
they can play tennis
rather than football or
basketball. You became
a hero to many. What
kind of influence would
you like to have on
them? Do famous people,
precisely because they are
role models to many, have
additional responsibility
for what they say and do?
N.D.: Of course they
do, but there should be
the correct measure about
that as well. Everyone should
have the right to live the life they
want to and to stick to their
values. The message I would like to
send to young people is that the most
important things in life are to do what
you love, to be grateful for everything
you have, and to pursue your dreams
and goals. That was my path - an
enormous love for tennis, a lot of
hard work and sacrifices, but I had
my dream. Once I achieved it, I
was deeply grateful for i t Very
often we forget to see all the
good that we have. We are
too focused on the things we
are waiting for, and on those
things that we do not have. I
would be happy if young
people would adopt these few
L.: As you travel a lot, you must have come
across street papers sold by marginalized people
around the world. Do you ever buy them, and
what is your opinion about that way of
economic and social empowerment of those who
need help the most?
N.D.: I always buy them and am very
happy when a community organizes around
helping a marginalized group, thus
empowering those people to do some good
things and to be able to benefit from that and
personally feel that they contributed to those
processes. I would like to congratulate and
thank all the people who are behind the
Liceulice project. Liceulice has contributed
significantly to the empowerment of
marginalized groups in Serbia and all those
individuals who are participating in this
important project. When we are talking about
the support of marginalized groups, it is very
important not to forget that they also have
their needs, that they can do a lot
themselves and that it is therefore crucial to
enhance all of their capabilities in that
process.
L.: What is your opinion about the role of
sports in the de-marginalization of vulnerable
groups? Do you think sports have a greater role
in communities, apart from professionally
engaging a limited number of
people?
. ,
N.D.: I think that
the role of sports is
immensely
important, and that
many things are
being done in that
regard. Examples
of such
empowerment
are the
Paralympic
Games and Special Olympics. I was very
happy when, a few years ago, I was in the
position to help our national team to
participate in the Special Olympics. They
brought back a lot of medals. Many
professional athletes joined forces to help,
which produced results. If we look at the very
essence of sports, we can see that it
promotes what is the most valuable. It
enables one to fulfill one’s potential. You get
as much as you deserve on a court or field,
and your body and mind are going through an
exceptional development. Hence (there is
the) recommendation that sports should be
an obligatory activity for disabled and non
disabled children.
L.: For many young people, sports are a way
to escape from,poverty. B u t that can also be a
thorny path, bringing a certain form o f modem
slavery and exploitation of those same poor
people on their way to unattainable success. Can
we fight to reinforce that former value o f sports
and eliminate this malignant side effect?
N.D.: The values of sports are so great and
important that I simply cannot view it
through a prism of slavery and exploitation.
Are some sports more difficult, some
competitions more'demanding, some
managers more dubitable? Perhaps. However,
its core essence is noble, and that shall
always be its main value.
L.: How important, in your opinion, is
education in the fight against poverty? And are
the most acknowledged and appreciated (if not
necessarily the wealthiest) members of a society
those who are also best educated?
N.D.: Knowledge, together with health and
several other things, is indisputably the
greatest wealth one can possess. I do think
that formal education is extremely important.
However, athletes are often faced with the
challenge of how to best reconcile demands of
formal education and those of their careers.
That is, perhaps, the only discipline where
supreme results do not necessarily have to
be, or are not at all, in any direct correlation
with education. If you look at the arts, science
and similar areas, they are all the result of
formal education. Even music. If you want to
improve your musical skills, you need to get
the education. In sports, that is not the casé.
However, I was doing my best to
compensate for the lack of formal education
by constantly working on my own
development. I am continuously learning new
languages, and I have a need to keep
improving in every possible way, as a person,
a human being and an individual.
Recently, our foundation launched the
magazine Original, dedicated to young people
eager to learn and read good stories. Last
week, for instance, we organized a huge
human resources conference for students,
with the aim of simulating first job interviews
and enabling them to understand what the
recruitment process looks like. On-that
occasion, we heard how important education
is, but also that it is not the single most
important thing in our personal development
Unless you work on yourself and are willing
to constantly learn, formal education in itself
does not mean much. Every one of us should
nourish that great need for knowledge and
growth. Life and work practically only start
after a formal education is acquired. There are
so many things that people are doing at
present, especially when we talkabout new
industries and professions, where very little is
learned from faculties. There are well-known
examples of successful people who are
running world-renowned IT companies who
did not get the knowledge necessary for their
work through formal institutions, but rather
by doing it day by day, and learning through
their experience. My message is that you
should keep learning during your entire life
and that it is necessary to keep evolving all
the time. That process must never end.
L.: You are originally from a region in which
tolerance is not a b ro a d ly a cc ep ted te rm . Yet,
through your own example, you are trying to
promote some other values. Is the absence of
tolerance merely a fear of the unknown? I f so,
how can we get to know each other better?
N.D.: In my opinion, tolerance is a result of
several things - openness, love you carry
within you, and the capacity to understand
other people without being judgmental.
Tolerance requires constant work; children
look up to parents as models of behaviors,
and if we are not open and tolerant, our
children will not be either. But I also believe
that things are changing and that people are
increasingly more accepting of each other,
regardless of their mutual differences.
L.: Is there anything you wish you had not
had to experience in your life?
N.D.: I guide myself with a belief that
everything happens for a reason, both good
and bad. My impression is that things appear
much worse when we look at them closely,
compared to when we take some distance.
Usually those ugly, difficult situations are
crucial in prompting us to action, in lifting us
and forcing us to find the best in ourselves.
There are negative examples, of course, but I
choose to believe that everything that
happened in my life helped me to become
who I am now. And I am very grateful for
everything I have become and everything I
have; I am, therefore, grateful for those less
pleasant things that have also been part of my
life.
L.: F om have had a lot of successes, but there
were surely some mistakes, too. What are the
things that you would have done differently
today?
PHOTO BY REUTERS/MATTHEW CHILDS
See DJOKOVIC, page 11