By Lazaros Ioannou, APC Sports Consulting Limited
Exploring Life After a Sports Career: Employment vs. Entrepreneurship
Professional athletes, whether competing within a team or performing individually, eventually face the life-after-sports dilemma.
Planning Your Next Chapter
When it’s time to retire, many athletes struggle to decide what to do next in terms of employment. In your post-sports career, you will face two main options: becoming an employee or becoming an entrepreneur.
There are two key ways of making money: employment or entrepreneurship—working for someone else or working for yourself. You should focus on choosing the option that makes you happiest and aligns with your goals.
Finding the Best Fit
No one but yourself can tell you which path is best for you. But you can discover which one fits you better.
Write down your dreams and goals. Assess which route—entrepreneurship or employment—will help you achieve them.
There is no black-or-white answer. It depends on many personal factors. And nothing guarantees success in either option.
Some people are more naturally suited to entrepreneurship, but no one is born an entrepreneur. People can become entrepreneurs at any point in life—regardless of age, background, or experience.
Athletes as Entrepreneurs
Being a professional athlete provides valuable life experiences. These experiences can become assets in future business endeavors.
Individual sports athletes in particular share many qualities with entrepreneurs. Both are often lone riders, paving their own path through hard work and persistence.
Which Path Matches Your Personality?
If you want stability and peace, hate risk, value free time, and want time to relax—choose employment.
If you’re ambitious, love to work, can take risks, and handle discomfort—entrepreneurship might be for you.
Both paths are very different but can be rewarding, depending on your personality.
Discovering Yourself Beyond Sport
Before making a decision, discover who you are outside of sports. That self-awareness will shape your future.
Ask yourself:
What are your interests?
What are your greatest skills?
What would you like to do other than sports?
How much money do you need to earn?
Once you identify your passion, look into what skills are needed in that field. Start building those skills.
Try volunteer work to explore your interests. It gives you insight into the day-to-day life of a potential career.
Preparing Before Retirement
Start identifying your interests and building your network well before retirement. During your sports career, develop skills to help with the transition.
Gain experience and make connections in both sports and other industries. These relationships can be valuable later.
Examples of Athlete Career Transitions
Many athletes have successfully transitioned into second careers:
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Broadcasting: John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Annabel Croft, Gary Neville, and Michael Johnson.
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Politics: Jesse Ventura, Bill Bradley, and Vitali Klitschko.
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Other careers: Klas Ingesson became a lumberjack after retiring from football.
LinkedIn analyzed over 3,000 former NFL players to track their career paths. Here are the results:
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20% small business / entrepreneur
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18% sales
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9% coaching / fitness professional
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8% finance / insurance / banking
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5% campus and professional athletics
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3% media and sports broadcasting
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3% education
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2% non-profit / board member
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23% other
It is very important that your post sports career is an interesting one and at the same time earns you enough money to support your desired lifestyle. Your goal is to have a career that pays you enough to live well and that matches your current and future interests. If you need any help in getting ready for your life after sport you can get in touch with us at [email protected]