A Year Ago I Had Five People and a Crazy Dream
I'm building a project for athletes. I'm saying it out loud, because a year ago I was practically whispering it. I was sitting in my car, had my first few collaborations behind me -- five people -- and one maybe slightly naive goal in my head: help five hundred athletes.
Not after their career. Now. During it. In the moment when sports are still going full throttle, but there's also time to think ahead.
But first, I had to answer a question that was holding me back right from the start.
Does This Even Work?
This is a question everyone who wants to help people has to ask. Not whether they have a good idea. Whether it works.
Because the internet is full of good ideas. Videos, books, courses, advice. And yet plenty of athletes have no idea what comes next. They don't know what they're good at outside the rink, the pitch, or the track. They don't know how to talk about themselves. They don't know what they want.
So I stopped worrying about how to scale it and started figuring out whether it even makes sense. I gave it as much time as I could. Collaboration after collaboration. Feedback. Adjustments. Again.
The most important thing at the beginning of any project isn't marketing or content. It's the question: can you actually help people? And if so -- how?
Forty Athletes. What That Means in Practice.
Today I have about forty athlete collaborations behind me. That's not a number that looks particularly impressive. But behind each one is a real person with a real problem.
There was a hockey player who didn't know how to write a resume -- even though he had ten years of elite sports, two international stints, and responsibility for a team behind him. Then a track athlete who thought she had no skills outside of sports. Or a young soccer player who was afraid that without a sports career, nobody would take him seriously.
These are real issues. They're not someone else's problems. I went through them myself.
And this is also why the project works -- because it doesn't come from theory. It comes from the experience of someone who lived sports, left, struggled, and gradually figured out how to navigate it.
What Athletes Need Most
- Understand what skills they have thanks to sports -- and how to name them
- Know how to talk about themselves outside the sports environment
- Have a direction, not necessarily a perfect plan
- Someone who's been through it and will tell them straight
No complex psychology. No fifty-page personality tests. Straightforward things that work.
Why Helping Individuals Isn't Enough
Five hundred athletes isn't a number I can reach through individual collaborations alone. I get that. One person, one session -- that matters, but it's not enough for bigger impact.
That's why I'm now working on bringing this help into sports clubs and schools. Talks. Workshops. Long-term partnerships.
A system where athletes get this during their career -- not at the moment when sports leave them and they're standing at the start with empty hands.
The sooner an athlete knows what they're good at and where they're headed, the better they handle it -- on and off the field. This isn't preparation for leaving. This is stronger performance now.
Phase One Is Done. What Happened?
The biggest collaboration so far: a talk at one of the largest sports schools in the country. A room full of young athletes. Questions that told me this topic matters to people -- that they've been waiting for it.
That was the moment I understood the path is right. Not because it was a big success. But because the reactions were real. People weren't sitting around waiting for it to end. They were asking questions. Thinking. Wanting more.
That's proof enough for me, more than any number.
What's Next?
Phase two looks like this:
- Expanding into clubs and schools -- regular workshops, not one-off events
- A system that works without me being there -- materials, methodology, structure
- Track what works -- and throw out what doesn't
None of this happens overnight. And that's fine. The goal of five hundred athletes isn't a sprint. It's a marathon -- and I'm at home in those.
Why I'm Saying This Out Loud
I could do this quietly. Just work, collect results, come back in a year with what I've accomplished.
But I decided to share it as I go -- because the athletes I'm doing this for need to see that it doesn't go smoothly even like this. That even a project backed by a real person with real experience needs time, adjustments, and patience.
If you think that everything you want to do outside of sports has to wait until your career ends -- this is proof that it doesn't. I built this alongside. Step by step. Forty people instead of five. And someday five hundred.
Sports taught you to work toward a goal even when results aren't immediate. The same approach works here. No need to change it -- just use it.
This Is Just the Beginning
If I had to describe the first phase of the project in one sentence, it would be this: I found out it works. And now I know how to do it better.
I have behind me a first collaboration with a sports school, forty athletes who moved forward, and a pretty clear picture of what comes next.
I'm not at the finish line. But I know which way I'm going.
If you're curious about how I think about what athletes know and why they don't see it -- check out the article Transferable Skills From Sports. It's the foundation of everything this project stands on.