The Entrepreneur Athlete: What it takes to be successful!

By Athena Constantinou, Managing Director, APC Sports Consulting, Nicosia, Cyprus Entrepreneurship is a lucrative post-sports’ career option for many athletes. Entrepreneurship itself is very exciting and it usually comes with excellent wealth-generating prospects and results. During the past decade, we have seen a number of successful business ventures initiated and headed by former athletes. Entrepreneurs are usually risk takers. They like to create; they love to work; and do not mind being constantly out of their comfort zones. These are the very same characteristics that athletes cultivate throughout their athletic careers which, as a consequence, make them ideal for becoming successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship, however, is not “all roses”! Athletes aspiring to become entrepreneurs should be fully aware of what they are getting themselves into and what is required of them to become successful business persons.  Especially, as entrepreneurship is usually accompanied by high financial risks as well as long periods of struggles to achieve their business objectives and goals, at least in the initial stages. In our February ‘MoneySmart Athelete Blog’, we want to make athletes aware that, because of their athletic backgrounds, they already possess the necessary personal characteristics for becoming successful entrepreneurs. If they do, in fact, decide to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors in their post-sports’ careers, they can do so successfully by following the same principles that inspired and delivered their success in their athletic careers, namely: -grit; -discipline; -patience; and -persistence. This is the winning formula for them - both on and off the field of play! For more details on how to achieve successful athletic entrepreneurship: readers are invited to log onto ‘www.moneysmartathlete.com’