Things aren’t always what they seem to be. If you’re an athlete who’s checking out this site because you’re preparing to make your mark at the next level of your sport, I’m eager to believe you when you say you’ve been investing your heart and soul into trying to be the best at what you do. And that’s great, because being the best is what competing is all about. However, if you’re aiming for a professional athletic career, I’m here to help you broaden your thinking to include developing the skills that will make you a star player in the Game of Life off the field or court.
Try to remember back to when you first discovered your athletic talent. Was your first thought, “I’m going to willingly sacrifice a major portion of my privacy and freedom to choose how I behave so I can get rich from playing and product endorsement contracts?” Or were you just enjoying playing a game you love to play and also feeling good about the acceptance it brought you in other areas of your life? If you were already well-acquainted with the business side and social implications of being a professional athlete, then what I say in this article will be nothing new to you. But if that’s not the case, lets get you breaking onto the scene at the next level with your eyes wide open.
Each of the links on the list below will take you to a training module covering one of a variety of human relations topics ranging from how a celebrity should handle making new friends and finding relationship partners while trying to maintain some privacy, to how to prepare for media appearances.
- Making New Friends: How can you Discover Who’s really in your Corner?
- Dialing up True Love while Temptation is on the Other Line
- Going Places: A Few Private Moments can be yours to Steal (Coming Soon!)
- Can I ever Say No to Autograph Seekers? (Coming Soon!)
- Building an Appealing Media Image Overall (Coming Soon!)
- Navigating Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Game Interviews Successfully (Coming Soon!)
- Making the Right Impression during Team- or League-Sponsored Public and Community Relations Events (Coming Soon!)
William Pencak
06-08-2008Hi Dr. Thompson -- in the old days, before the huge salaries, players lived in the neighborhood, everyone knew them, they seemed comfortable. Well, you have to take the bad with the good. I'd say look at how your friends treat other people who are not celebrities -- their families, other friends, people like waitresses, etc. -- to see what they're really like.
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Dr. Timothy Thompson
12-19-2008Hi Mr. Pencak. Sorry I've been away from my blog for so long. I wanted to respond to the point you made about being a friend. You make an excellent point that it's important to look at how a person treats everyone in his or her life. High profile athletes (or celebrities in general) who make sure to practice your suggestion will generally have an easier time discerning who's a true friend and who isn't. Unfortunately, however, I suspect that most top athleteshaven't had sufficient practice in building core human relations skills before reaching the high profile collegiate or professional level. And without that people-skills practice, it's not likely that they'll intuitively know to use your thoughtful approach, even though you and I know how basic and fundamentally sound it is. Thanks for your thoughts, and again, I'm sorry I allowed myself to get pulled away from this important subject matter.
Peace.
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