Why I believe Professional Athletes and ETA are a perfect match

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January 23, 2024

by a searcher from Louisiana Tech University in Orlando, FL, USA

Professional athletes give up the bulk of their childhood and early adult years training their bodies and minds to compete at the highest level. In order to make it to the professional ranks, you have to have a very unique combination of physical traits and ability to work within a team setting. If all goes right, there is the possibility to realize the dream of playing professionally and fulfilling a professional dream that many don't believe is possible. There is also the ability to earn an income that puts you in the top 1% of earners at an early age. The issue is that the window of opportunity is very short lived. Some athletes will create generational wealth and never work again, but the vast majority will have to seek out a 2nd career before the age of 30.

I believe there is opportunity here for athletes to get involved in the ETA world in 2 distinct buckets. Investor and owner operator.

The first bucket, investor, is the one that many people would think of as athletes have money in their pockets and are looking for relatively safe assets to generate yield.

The 2nd is in the owner operator bucket. While many won't have hard skills in the businesses that they are seeking to acquire, most will have the required soft skills to be successful in the ETA world. Leadership, marketability, teamwork, communication, competitiveness, grit are all inherit to professional athletes or they would've been weeded out long before getting to the professional ranks.

I am passionate about educating professional athletes about the ETA space and hope to see a trend of current and former players moving on to this path post sport career. Besides the wealth creation aspect, the professional purpose that most desire when they are done can be fulfilled in our niche. I plan on sharing my story and trying to play a small role in creating momentum for more value add players in the ETA world.

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Reply by a searcher
from Fort Hays State University in Wichita, KS, USA
Hey Jeff....I like the concept and agree with what you've outlined. I was wondering if you are aware of anyone who has pursued this type of program? I thought the NFL (or maybe NBA) was doing some "financial education" with rookie players because so many of those age players have never had to deal with the financial assets before making it into the league. Maybe a program like you are describing might be piggy-backed on to something like this financial education.
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Reply by a searcher
from University of Colorado Denver in Boulder, CO, USA
Hey Jeff, it’s a great idea and I think your logic is sound. How are you thinking about tackling this? Possibly a non-profit to educate other athletes, or maybe a for profit-consulting business? Individuals like Shaq have seemingly done very well in entrepreneurship. I think other athletes could too, they just need someone to possibly help them with some of the basics of ETA and ownership / management.
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