In movies set in small towns there is a character stereotype that comes up time and time again: the washed up jock. The captain of the football team who was everything in high school, but grew up to be the town drunk, forever reliving his glory years. I’m sure you’ve seen that character in a movie, but I’ve seen him in real life.
I’ve seen him in my former teammates, guys who were among the best in their school at their sport, sometimes even among the best in the city. One by one, as we got older and many of us realized professional sports weren’t in our destinies, I saw them become lost, unsure of what to do, unsure of who to be.
They faded away into mediocrity, settling for average, settling for less, perhaps not knowing that they could be more. I was there once. 17 was the age I accepted the fact that pro basketball wasn’t the path for me. I had to recreate who I was, what I was living for, and it wasn’t an easy path. There were definitely some dark years.
But eventually, after following the principles taught to me by sports, one by one, I started to achieve my goals in life.
At 21, I became a freelance writer and, for the first time in my life, made money off of my writing.
At 23, I fulfilled a childhood dream of moving to Japan. There, I became a freelance games journalist, being paid to write about one of my greatest passions in life. Being invited to game shows, and getting free games and merchandise from game devs are among my fondest memories.
At 25, I was making a living as a writer full-time.
At 26, I became an editor at HackerNoon, one of the largest tech websites in the world.
At 27, I was promoted to VP of Editorial at HackerNoon (the site you’re reading this on!).
Today, I’m the Director of Content & Marketing at ISNation, using my sports knowledge to build tools to help athletes grow in sport and in life.
I’m here to tell you that just because you don’t go pro, does not mean the time you spent as an athlete was a waste, far from it. In fact, it is a valuable edge that most do not take proper advantage of.
If I had the knowledge in high school that I have now, this is what I would have said to them. This is what I want to say to you, to help you grow from athlete to whatever else you want to be.
What Being an Athlete Means
You are an athlete, and that means more than just putting a ball through a hoop, running fast, jumping high.
It means you have the ability to work hard now, relentlessly, everyday, so that you can perform well in the future when it counts the most (hard work and delayed gratification).
Being an athlete means you know what it means to work as a team. Even if you are playing a solo sport like tennis or wrestling, to succeed you need the help of others. Whether it’s your coach, or your training partner, you can’t do it alone. That means you learned how to work well with others towards a common goal (teamwork and relationship building).
But perhaps the most important thing about being an athlete is learning how to fail and get back up again. By now, I’m sure you’ve learnt that you’re going to miss shots. You’re going to lose matches. But without practicing and missing shots, you’d never learn how to make them. As an athlete, you’ve learned, perhaps subconsciously, that failure makes you stronger. (perseverance).
I can say to you with confidence that as long as you learn how to apply hard work, teamwork, and perseverance, outside of your sport, you will be successful in any workplace.
Transferring Athletic Skills to Your Career
This section will talk about practical ways, things you can do write now, to start using your athletic skills and network to help your career.
1. Finding Volunteer and Work Opportunities
The first way to transfer your skills is to find opportunities in the sports world. I highly recommend this for athletes in high school or college, before you enter the workplace.
Some options for this would be:
- Sports clinics
- Training camps
Reach out to your coach or club for opportunities like this to help build your resume early on. Even if the only opportunities you can find are volunteer work, this is a great way to get work experience still in the comfort zone of your sport. It’s time for you to start racking up experience not just on your resume, but in your life. Do things out of your comfort zone and learn what it feels like to be uncomfortable; it’s going to happen a lot in life.
2. Blogs and Social Media
Other opportunities I’d also recommend for those of you with a passion for the arts or creative work are writing and social media.
What I absolutely love about the writing career is that you don’t need anyone’s permission, and you don’t need to pass an interview. Writing speaks for itself. You can start your own blog on numerous free writing platforms (like the one you’re reading this on).
A blog (even a self-run one) shows employers that you have writing skills, and the experience of being published online. If you do it on HackerNoon, that comes with the experience of working with an editor.
I’m living proof that this works and that it is possible.
When I left basketball as a career option behind, I never thought I’d find myself back in the sports industry. These days, I use both my passion for writing and my passion for sports. I write and publish informative sports content on basketball, soccer, swimming, and other sports at ISNation. We go as basic as teaching beginners what a shooting guard does on the court, to providing tips on how to breathe for swimmers.
Social Media is another option which you don’t need anyone or any organization to get started. You can create accounts on your own, posting content about your sport, your passions.
Every account starts at 0 followers. But in a year from now, 2 years from now, who knows how big your account can be? It isn’t about the immediate wins, it’s about starting something as soon as possible and letting it build over time.
Even if you don’t have a large following right away, this shows employers you have initiative, the ability to self-manage, and the drive to see something through on your own, without anyone breathing down your back.
Trust me, to an employer, those traits are priceless. And so are these…
Accountability
Whether it was at startups or the corporate world, the worst coworkers are the ones who pass the buck. The ones who blame others for a project failing, or for something that doesn’t go their way. But as an athlete, you know that that isn’t an option for you. To be a good teammate, you sometimes have to carry your teammates’ burdens upon yourself. At the same time, I’m sure your coach has held you accountable and you learned to be accountable. When you miss a shot, when you make a mistake on defense, that’s on you. And that shouldn’t change when you get to the professional world.
A wise man once told me that at the end of the day, in your career, it isn’t about what you do, it’s about how you make others feel around you. If you show up and confidently say you did your very best and it didn’t go as planned, you can work through that with your team. And it’ll make people respect you much more vs. the person who tries to find excuses or blame others.
Communication
While it’s talked about all the time, and often even written in job descriptions you apply for, what the hell do we really mean when we say “good communication skills”.
It doesn’t mean the ability to use email or Slack. Anyone can create an account and type. Communication means understanding how others around you perceive the words you say or type. It means understanding when the best time is to say something. For example, your coworker just gets into the office, looks a bit out of breath perhaps from a rushed commute. They put their bags down and just login to their pc. Is that the right time to ask them why they haven’t sent the PDF you asked for yesterday? Of course not.
They are already flustered from perhaps running to the office. They want to get their bearings, and then a coworker complains to them that they forgot to do something.
It may seem like a small annoyance then, just a one time thing. But if you do that once a week, that annoyance adds up, and their perception of you changes.
My best advice here is to have as much empathy as possible, don’t overly filter yourself, but at least take a few seconds to think about the other person before sending a message. Over time, you will get better at this and it’ll come naturally.
Keep the Fire Burning in Your Heart
Despite all I’ve said so far, the most important thing to carry from your athletic career into the professional world is the athletic spirit, your competitive spirit. That fire burning in your heart that makes you want to be the best.
Remember those practices where you felt like you had nothing left to give, but you pushed forward anyway?
Remember those days you trained alone, with no coach to watch you or no audience to hold you accountable? Yet, you did it anyway because it wasn’t about them, it was about you – your desire to be the best version of yourself in your sport.
I promise you, if you transfer that mindset to the rest of your life, nothing can stop you.
Because those hardships don’t stop when the game ends. It might be your first job out of college where you’re tired from working all day, but you might need to stay late to catch up on some things. It might be a task you’re given, or a role you’ve taken where you feel wildly out of your depth, unsure that you can do what is expected of you.
It is in those moments where you need to dig deep, and remember who you are. Remember you’re the person that works hard when no one is watching. Much of life after sport becomes less of a physical game and more of a mental game.
But as an athlete, you’ve been here before. You have the experience to handle it, you will push forward, and that is the greatest advantage you have as an athlete.
So my final piece of advice to you is this, “Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’s yours.” (Ayn Rand).
