It is a must to have an attitude like yours for success in anything you do. Working for a small time international basketball agent, an important thing I learned about the business of sports agenting is that it is not as glamorous a life as most people make it out to be. Those people are usually the ones who don’t know anything about the business, or are people like scott boras and drew rosenhaus, who have an overwhelming deal of clout. From what my boss told me he pampers his clients a lot, and it seems like he doesn’t get equally compensated for the long hours he puts in for his clients. After that he told me that most agents are like him, they represent all the people that you have never heard of. As in any other business, the top agents are the ones that make the money that kids like you and I dream of making, and all the others are hustling their asses off just to live comfortably. I guess my main point and what I want to convey to all the young aspiring agents out there is that the business is not as glamorous as you probably think it is, and if you are lucky enough to become a practicing agent, you would be even luckier to get one BIG MONEY client in your entire working career as an agent unless that client is your boy or a relative.

The truth is, even if you have the connections but don’t bring anything to the table, then you really aren’t very valuable and your chances of sticking around with pay are slim. This applies to the working world in general but even more so to the sports industry. You have to offer something that makes you indispensable to a firm or even partnership with an agent.

Another truth is, that hard work is not enough these days. Yes, hard work is extremely important. It requires great diligence and perseverance in the face of great adversity, because as stated, the odds are against you. However, hard work is no longer enough. You may kill yourself working hard to gain connections and networking and finally put yourself in a great position, only to see it fall short when a quick tenure.

The reality is that if you don’t or didn’t play collegiate athletics or have a background professionally in a sport(surfing, skating, snowboarding etc), then you are at a disadvantage. This is not to say that its impossible to break into the industry if you don’t, but you are at a disadvantage. Aside from the obvious connections made by being an athlete at that next level, someone without that experience lacks a certain understanding and knowledge level of the sport that they are trying to get into. If you have never played, how do you really know what its like to have someone else recruit you and the assorted pressures that follow? How do you really know what sort of subtle nuances take place in the coaching offices and film rooms that dictate whether or not you are going to have a chance to play or make an impact?

Without this background, you are going to see the sport, game, and field from a completely different perspective than those already immersed in it. If you have never played, I feel pretty confident that you will never see or understand the game on that same level that players and coaches do.

This is not such a bad thing though. The ability to bring a different dimension to the sport or field may be exactly what breaks you into the field. The point is, that you HAVE to bring that other dimension. Maybe you didn’t play college athletics, but you have a killer understanding of intellectual property rights or patents. Maybe that’s not a direct path towards being an agent, but you can bet its going to be a major asset to a franchise, which will then set you up along that path. Or perhaps you know how to sell and market things better than anyone you have ever met?

As Zach stated above, “be creative”, think outside the box, try something new and different because what’s the worst that could happen? If you already aren’t in the industry, trying something completely new and different or offering something new and different can’t hurt you since you only have access to gain.

So Sell Yourself and Bring Something to the Table!