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💡 Big Idea: The Entrepreneur & Athlete Connection 🤝🏽
Each week this newsletter dives into the connections between startups and athletes.
We've covered innovative athlete marketing strategies, athlete-investor rounds, athlete-driven startup concepts and more.
But today, we’re talking about the synergy between the people that move the athlete’s economy forward.
In reflecting on year 2 of entrepreneurship, I kept thinking about the connections between the entrepeneur & athlete journey.
Entrepreneurs & athletes are both:
Aspiring to beat the odds
In a game of mindset
Experiencing failure more frequently than most
Are fueled by and obsession or passion for their craft
And endure highly intense career paths for long periods of time
I see these themes everyday, literally living at the intersection of these two worlds:
I'm a founder that played basketball
I spend my days helping founders that are building products for athletes
I mentor athletes that want to be founders
The purpose of my content is to teach founders about the modern day athlete
Very, very meta.
This week we're going to dive into the parallels that I see from experience and lessons from observing others.
I hope it provides some mindset motivation heading into a big 2024.
1️⃣ Shots on Goal
I often get asked how I have so much energy to do everything that I'm doing.
The truth is it's just how I'm wired.
As an athlete, you grow up in a consistent pursuit of the next milestone: winning the game, getting to the next level, receiving the offer or improving every year.
And we put a lot into that pursuit.
Over our career lifespan we may go to 100's of practices, 100's of game days, 100's of tournaments, and get 1000's of shots on goal.
We know that winning the game, getting to the next level, receiving the offer or improving every year won't come from doing the bare minimum.
Low input ➡️ mediocre output.
High input ➡️ right output.
As a founder, you're also in a consistent pursuit of winning in business which can be defined in different ways: an IPO, acquisition, revenue milestone, a million-dollar lifestyle business, audience growth or simply a feeling of purpose from your company.
The most successful founders that I see get a lot of shots on goal.
They know that posting once a week, trying one version of a product, pitching the business to 2 people or talking to 1 customer a quarter isn't going to get them to where they want to go.
They are in the arena, trying different things at a high volume, some will work and some won't.
But they are putting in high inputs, knowing they will eventually find the right output.
2️⃣ Generalist Skillset
Today's college athletes are SO prepared for entrepreneurship.
When I speak with them, I am amazed at how they are managing:
Being a great student
Being a great athlete
Building their personal brands on social media
Managing NIL deals
Thinking about life after sports
And enjoying their life as a college student
It reminds me of this very relatable tweet from Andrew, the founder of Acquired.com.
We always say how athletes are great contributors to the corporate world → see my podcast Court to Corporate.
But something I've learned in this transition from the corporate world to entrepreneurship is that you have to grow from a specialist into a generalist that can move the ball forward across different priorities of the business.
It all requires your attention.
College athletes are building a generalist skillset today, and getting a taste of what it means to manage multiple high-priorities at once — and do it well. This is preparing them well to be a founder, or early-team member at a startup one day.
3️⃣ Instagram vs. Reality
All founders can agree that there's a false perception of what being a founder is.
Let's start with what it's not:
Panels
Interviews
Media Headlines
Conferences
But that's what people see on LinkedIn, especially if you're founder that is actively building a personal brand, and society in general attaches a lot of value to those moments.
When in reality, 90% of our 7 days of the week are spent on doing the “boring” and hard things that move the business forward:
Product building
Customer research and interviews
Partnership intro calls and pitch meetings
Emails and follow ups x10
Fundraising meetings
Having hard conversations
Getting ghosted
The same is true with athletes, especially with NIL and the headlines that circulate in the industry on weekly basis about all the deals, and how big industry is.
When in reality, athletes are still doing the fundamentals on daily basis: practice, lift, rehab, battling through injuries, preparing for the big game day, watching film etc.
As a founder or athlete, a misunderstanding of the craft can sometimes be frustrating.
My take is to find ways to be more open about the realities of your journey if that suits you, and then don't worry to much about changing people's minds. Keep doing the work.
4️⃣ We're Consistent Anyways
As an entrepreneur I've really gained an appreciation of studying other entrepreneurs, thanks to David Senra and the Founders podcast.
One theme I hear throughout David's episodes is the relentless consistency that founders have over long periods of time, while being misunderstood.
It shows up as a level of intensity that can be confusing to the public, until it works though .
I see it all the time.
The founder that commits to posting on Instagram every single day may be speaking into a void at first, people may say themselves — why is so and so posting all the time?
Until they break through and now a year later they have 20K followers, and brand deals, and their business is thriving because of it.
Relentless consistency is confusing to the public, until it works.
The same thing is true in sports.
Athletes are often times told to be realistic.
They're reminded of the statistics — how few make it to the NCAA, and even fewer make it to the pros.
But they apply relentless consistency anyways, putting in the work every day.
5️⃣ Next Play Mentality
In entrepreneurship and sports, you have to have the ability to bounce back to keep it moving whether you, whether you lose or win.
If a post goes viral, learn from it and do it again.
If a post flops, learn from it and improve.
If you make a shot, learn from it and do it again.
If you miss a shot, learn from it and improve.
You're never discouraged, but you're never complacent — it's all even.
For me personally, I practice this every day:
If I post something and it doesn't perform well, I leave it up and sit through the discomfort. I try to figure out what went wrong. Formatting, length, imagery, timing? And I improve moving forward.
If a post goes viral I look at the comments, who's resharing it, what their commonalities are and what questions people have. Then I add a template to my content calendar and make it a repeatable post moving forward.
A next play mentality keeps you on the course of continual improvement.
6️⃣ Zooming Out
The ability to zoom out is very important.
Sometimes loosing a game would feel like the end of the world.
It would impact my mood and energy for hours, sometimes days.
A few years later, life has moved on — and it's been pretty good. And sometimes I think about, why I allowed myself to be so stressed when it all worked out.
When people ask me about my experience playing basketball, I don't remember how many games we won or lost, who scored what when. I just remember the chapter and the positive impact that it had on the trajectory of my life.
I try to remind myself of that perspective all the time in entrepreneurship which is filled with so many ups and downs.
Some day sit feels like you won championship.
Some days it feels like you lost an important game.
Sometimes both of those things happen in the same day.
The journey of building a company or making it in sports can be all consuming, but pause from time to time and remind yourself to zoom out.
7️⃣ Pick Your Role Models
Both in sports and entrepreneurship there are so many examples of “one way to do things”.
Entrepreneurs need to…
Be a solopreneuer
Raise VC funding
Build a personal brand
Athletes need to…
Be social media famous
Focus on sports
Go all in on NIL
The reality is that you have to pick what type of business you want to build or what type of athlete you want to be.
Don't get caught in someone else's pursuit of what they're doing.
Think about what you are optimizing for as an athlete:
Playing time
Academics
Makings it to the league
Getting the best job after school
Making the most with NIL
Or as an entrepreneur:
Who are you serving?
What business model aligns with your skillsets?
What is the end goal of your business?
There's never been a more important time as an athlete and entrepreneur to pick your own role models.
🫂 That's a Wrap
2023 has been an amazing year.
Thank YOU for the support of New Game Labs.
This work isn't possible without a community of true supporters that allow entrepreneurs to evolve as they grow, and genuinely cheer them on with each step and iteration.
I see it all and appreciate it all.
2024 will be even bigger and I can't wait to continue to bring this community of founders, athletes and investors together more.
See you on the other side and as always, let’s connect on LinkedIn.
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