"A part of me will enjoy proving people wrong" - Serena Williams says she used negative comments as motivation throughout her career

Serena Williams has worked hard to tune out everyone else's opinions throughout her illustrious tennis career, and the 23-time Grand Slam champion was being honest when she said she thrives on turning skeptics' negativity into fuel.

"I'm like, 'Oh that's what I needed to hear. You're going to regret what you just said,'" Williams said in Insider's first digital cover story. "But that's me, and growing up behind Venus, I had to have that personality."

Though the 40-year-old admitted that, early in her career, she couldn't help but allow outsiders' opinions to "affect me like 10 percent," she's reached a point where "now I'm at zero."

Watching her older sister navigate turbulent waters as a young Black woman in an overwhelmingly white sport, and later following in her footsteps, helped Williams learn to tune out the haters.

"Growing up in the public eye, you really are affected by what people say," Williams said. "But there was a point where I said, 'I don't care what people think.' God made us able to make our own decisions, and if people don't want to like me or what I do, that's okay."

"Get in line — there's going to be a long waiting list," she added.

Even though the naysayers no longer get under her skin like they used to, Williams can still hear — or see — all of the negativity they spew. And she loves to use it all as motivation — on the tennis court, in the boardroom, and beyond.

"Whether it's venture people saying that I shouldn't be doing it, or it's tennis when people said I'll never be good at it, I do think there's a part of me that always will enjoy proving people wrong," Williams said. "And sometimes you just need something to feed the fire, right?"