A Different Perspective on Business and Life
After 28 years as CEO of Athletic Resource Management, I retired from the Sports Agency world that I had participated in since the mid-1980s. Oh the stories that could be told with a behind-the-scenes look at NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball players, General Managers, Owners and coaches.
How representing players in the NFL is a sales competition in itself with a +90% economic failure rate for agents who were inspired by the Jerry McGuire movie or simply anxious to get to some of the big money that athletes sometimes earn.
More importantly, every season in every sport has some enlightening and frightening truths that the average citizen doesn’t know about. Life lessons abound with an application that all of us can experience in our own lives.
- Scottie Pippen ( selected one of the NBA’s 50 Best Players of All-Time) was never even recruited to play college basketball. The bizarre referral story that helped the youngest of 15 children in the Pippen family become the first to attend college.
- How Horace Grant ( another Chicago Bull’s World Champion) became our client because of a lack of customer service by his previous agent.
- Adding income streams to your business. How we survived in the early years by deploying our limited staff ( all 3 of us) in the off-seasons to sell “passive auto-theft security” to car dealers.
- After developing a good reputation for managing pro athletes, why we started a coaches representation business that has included NFL Hall of Famer Bill Parcells and multi-time National champion college coach Nick Saban.
Building and Leaving a Valuable Legacy to your family
Why would 13 of my father’s football teammates/friends including Frank Gifford, Actor/producer Clint Eastwood and broadcaster Pat Summerall name one of their children Kyle in my father’s honor ?
Why ESPN the Magazine called me the “Greatest Athlete of All Time”
How I beat O.J. Simpson, Roger Staubach, NBA legend Julius Erving, Pete Rose and hundreds of other pros including winners of 3 Olympic Decathlon Gold medals in ABC-TV’s Wide World of Sports SUPERSTARS competition 3 out of 4 years. The importance of finding mentors in every aspect of life.
Extending your Championship Run
How innovation, networking and discipline can keep highly successful people and organizations on the top tier for extended periods of time. (ex. Coach Saban’s use of NFL standards for recruiting)
Establishing and Enhancing your corporate or association Culture
How mission statements, airline pilot protocols, marriage communication and Chik-fil-a can help anyone experience a sense of real belonging to your operation.
The importance of Educational Influencers
How Mrs. Parnell, a 2nd grade teacher, became the most important educatorI ever had. No matter what level of teaching you currently are responsible for, her example will inspire each of us to put childrens’ needs above our personal comfort.
How automobile sand blasting operations saved our sports agency business!
Recruiting and signing prospects is a seasonal activity in the Sports Agency world.In addition, there are only about 250 players drafted in the NFL each year. With about 1,000 certified agents, many agents don’t sign a single player, so they will have to wait about another year to recruit and hopefully sign a prospect from the next class. With no NFL revenue stream for so many agents, many of us have had to do extraordinary “money making” side jobs to just keep “alive”.
What do Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, Alabama Coach Nick Saban and You have in common?
The simple answer is that each of us has a lot in common with them. The individual choices we, and they, make today will define the path that each of us walks tomorrow. Its often been said that “spectacular results in the future will be the result of a lot of unspectacular practice today and this week”. Much of Tebow’s and Saban’s success comes from untold hours of film study, personal physical fitness, and connecting tightly with their teams.
Other Topics / Titles
- Pursuing Your Goals Without Forgetting your Values
- More than Gold – Pursue Faithfulness
- The Game America is Losing (A call back to integrity)
