Novak Djokovic: From War-Torn Serbia to Tennis Superstar - The Untold Story of Resilience and Triumph | Novak Djokovic EP 702

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0:34Make sure to get your tickets right now and step into greatness with us at the Summit of Greatness 2024. Head over to lewishouse.com slash tickets and get your tickets today and I will see you there. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:56You know, as a parent, you always think like, okay, who is going to be the mentor of my child? So both my mom and dad were really, really happy with, you know, with, I guess, quality of person that Jelena Gencic was. And she used to train also with Monica Seles and so forth. So she was probably the best person I could have at that stage. And she saw me right away. She said, OK, you have great talent. She told my parents. She said, OK, this kid can be number one of the world. At five years old? And that was exactly. It was at six or seven. After you were playing for a little bit now. For a few years.

1:33I don't know if I would actually pursue the career of a tennis player if it wasn't for the belief and support that I had for my parents and her. Really? Yeah, because, I mean, of course, I fell in love with the sport. But, you know, when you're that young, kids are curious. So we play different sports. You engage yourself and who knows where, I guess, the path takes you. And I did play other sports as well. I mean, I did skiing because it was mountain. My father was a professional skier. My aunt, my uncle, they were all competitors. And they were all competing on a high level, regional level and European level.

2:14So that's actually how my parents met as well. My father was an instructor and she was skiing. And so the whole thing, you know, and then here I am. and so skiing was and still is today a great passion of mine but you're right if I haven't had her and my parents saying there is something that you should pursue here in this sport I probably would play other sports and probably the sports that were more popular with friends you know how it is when you're that young you want to play sports and you want to belong to a group you know to a little community whatever so nobody was really there were not many kids playing tennis because it was expensive it's not affordable it was isolated it was not maybe as much fun as some other team sports because you know when you're playing soccer or basketball it's it's more fun like this exactly you're more isolated more individual you do play you know of course in groups and so forth and camps and stuff like that but you know they're you know half of the time you're spending it by yourself on one side of the net and that's that's all you got that's crazy now the first war you went through two wars in serbia right the first war you were six seven uh yeah yeah i was uh five i think 90 92 yeah that's when you and that one was the the lesser of the two wars is that right it was still you know bombs everywhere but it wasn't as hard as so the first war uh the first war was more in croatia and bosnia uh it was between Serbs and Bosnians and Croatians and the whole Yugoslavia there was once a big country with 6-7 states that fall apart and so it was the war lasted for a long time I think 3-4 years and there was of course a lot of victims nobody wins in war it's a terrible thing but I didn't feel it my family didn't feel it in Belgrade in Serbia as much as people you know in these areas of Bosnia and Croatia felt it.

4:22Gotcha the second war was the one you felt the most right? Yes. You were around 12? I was 12 and I remember actually I celebrated my birthday during those two and a half months of bombing and I was turning 12 and I still remember that scene actually we We were having this like a little birthday party at this tennis club. So us kids, we, of course, we were frightened. We were scared. We were, we didn't know what tomorrow brings. But at the same time, we, you know, as a child, you don't really have the worries that adults have. So you are living in a moment. And for us, it was great that we get to spend more time playing tennis, having fun than in school.

5:08So, so that was, it was like, oh, great. You know, we get to do that and that. We don't get to sit, you know, for hours and hours, but we get to actually play. So you didn't have school during that time? Sorry? There was no class during that time? No, absolutely not. No, no, no. It was canceled. It was canceled. Everything, you know, it's just many people fleed and just, yeah. I mean, it was, you know, it was one of these things that, you know, it's not, it was not like from one day to another. We were kind of warned about it months prior to when it happened. But I think the super majority of people really didn't believe that that's going to happen.

5:46Really? Imagining that you sit here and you see planes dropping bombs here and there. And everything is trembling and the windows are breaking and everybody is screaming. And the whole city, I mean the whole country was basically bombed. And it was because of the part of Serbia at the time. And it was Kosovo that was... You know, and the whole thing, I mean, not to get into politics because it just gets ugly. But it was one of these things where, you know, you just don't know. And I think that feeling of insecurity, you know, the feeling of helplessness, just it's terrible. because you know we as human beings uh we like to have a control of you know environment of where we live what we're going to do you know of our experiences and and this was completely taken away from us and and there was this higher power from above that could do anything you know to anybody and and you could be a collateral damage any minute

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7:51Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.