Preparation

When it comes to being successful as an entrepreneur, preparation for business is as important as practice is for your game.  Too often, players push the business management off to others to handle, and then wonder where the money went.

Being prepared to handle your money and your business is as important, if not more important than preparing for your game.  Because your career as an athlete will not last.  Statistically speaking:

[box type=”shadow”] “The average playing career for an NFL players is 3.5 years, the average MLB career is 5.6 years, the average NBA career is 4.8 years, and the average NHL career is 5.5 years. Playing in one of the major four American sports takes a toll on a person’s body that is nearly unfathomable.” Jeff Nelson [/box]

Which means that the majority of your adult life will be spend doing something OTHER than playing your sport.  Here’s another scary statistic:

[box type=”shadow”]”78 percent of NFL players are bankrupt or facing serious financial stress within two years of ending their playing careers and that 60percent of NBA players are broke within five years of retiring from the game.” Pro athletes often fumble the financial ball By Russ Wiles, Arizona Republic[/box]

So how do you make sure that your professional career as an athlete doesn’t end in bankruptcy?  You must prepare as hard to be an entrepreneur as you prepare to be an athlete.  Learn about business.  Learn about managing money.  Learn about building and managing a team.

You don’t have to do everything yourself.  Delegating is a key entrepreneurial skill.  But delegation is NOT abdicating.

[box type=”shadow”]Delegate: to commit (powers, functions, etc.) to another as agent or deputy.

Abdicate: to give up or renounce (authority, duties, an office, etc.), especially in a voluntary, public, or formal manner: [/box]

When you delegate, you are still responsible and the person you delegate to is accountable to you.  When you abdicate, you are no longer responsible.  It may feel easier and more comfortable to abdicate – because you have not properly prepared yourself.  The solution isn’t to give away your power over your business.

The solution is to prepare yourself as an entrepreneur.
[testimonial company=”25-year Head Coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide” author=”Bear Bryant” image=”http://dev.entrepreneurshipforathletes.com/wp-content/uploads/220px-Bear_Bryant.jpg”]
It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.
[/testimonial]