If you made $3.7 million last year, would you work at Finish Line??
Many people would answer no, but Baltimore Ravens safety Matt Elam is not like many people.
Elam, a former first round pick is spending his off season preparing for a future outside of football. Not only is he a potential NFL all-star safety, but he is also a future all-star in the business world.
Check out this awesome story that discusses that Elam has a dream of owning his own sports merchandise store and how he is putting in the work to learn that field now. By working at Finish Line he is looking into the future and learning as much as he can now so that when the time comes to start his own store, he will be ready.
“I just need to get retail knowledge,” Elam told the Baltimore Raven’s website. “That’s basically what I’m doing. I’m getting that knowledge for when it’s time.”
In a sport that sees 78% of its players go broke less that 5 years out of the league, Elam is setting himself up to be a part of the 22% that doesn’t see financial ruin.
No, the $8 per hour (or whatever he makes at Finish Line) will not keep him off the broke list, but the experience he is gaining now certainly will.
Elam is a great example of putting in time to work on your dream, even when you aren’t able to go full time. We can all learn from this.
“I know you can’t do football forever. I’m going to use it to benefit me when I’m doing so that my kids won’t have to worry about this,” Elam said. “I take a lot of pride in that because I feel like a lot of kids are blind to this, and don’t have these opportunities, and don’t have the knowledge. I hope I can open a lot of their eyes.”
Next time we think it doesn’t make sense to spend our free time working towards our future dream, we need to think again. And think of Matt Elam.
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