I read a lot.
Each day I spend about half an hour browsing around online with the sole purpose of just reading. Business, innovation, and leadership posts have become a preferred topic of mine. Often they are related to sport, but I find the best ones usually are not. Last week I found one that struck a chord.
It came from Medium. The site is essentially a platform to share ideas and stories. This particular post was called 'Stop Asking Me About Your Personal Brand, and Start Doing Some Work'. Right away, the title resonated with me.
The gist of Gary Vaynerchuk's post was building one's personal brand in a way that makes it relevant. It often seems that people are becoming so focused on where they want to go that they forget it takes something to actually get there.
I study sport management at Brock University. There are a lot of students here who dream of being a general manager in the National Hockey League. One former student, Kyle Dubas, is quite literally pushing that boundary right now.
A finance professor of mine spoke recently about how hockey is becoming more of a professional scene, one that employs numerous executives with playing backgrounds but is becoming more welcoming to so-called outsiders. That's great, and sport management students are learning how to grow into successful professionals.
A finance professor of mine spoke recently about how hockey is becoming more of a professional scene, one that employs numerous executives with playing backgrounds but is becoming more welcoming to so-called outsiders. That's great, and sport management students are learning how to grow into successful professionals.
The expectation that these things happen overnight is astounding.
Dubas came back to Brock recently to participate in the sport management program's alumni day and receive an award in recognition of his accomplishments at a young age.
Invest in your future seemed to be the central theme of Dubas's message to those in attendance. He has said those words before, and he should keep saying them.
***
I'm a pretty quiet guy. For the most part, I'm more of a listener. I used to think that being quiet held me back. That thought process is different now.
The very first sentence of Vaynerchuk's post: 'For the first decade of my professional career, I kept my damn mouth shut.' I nearly laughed out loud.
Age isn't something that's grown on me yet. Despite being pretty tall, I am incredibly raw in more ways than one. What has grown on me is the idea that working hard and not needing to open one's mouth every thirty seconds means learning more than one can expect.
Shortly after I turned sixteen, I was fortunate enough to find an opportunity with my local junior hockey club. There would be times during meetings and training camp when I felt glad to be called upon for my opinion. I wasn't that kid who was going to shoot his mouth off when there were people in the room with decades of experience. Sometimes it made me feel a little awkward; it's hard not to be when you're the youngest person by more than a few years in rooms full of skate-scarred bodies. I have realized that's perfectly fine.
Aligning with a different club when I left for university, I was put in a position of higher responsibility. I love challenges and the pressure it coincides with. But there's always something more to learn, and I feel it's really important to remember that.
Aligning with a different club when I left for university, I was put in a position of higher responsibility. I love challenges and the pressure it coincides with. But there's always something more to learn, and I feel it's really important to remember that.
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| Dubas's former team, the Soo Greyhounds. (OHL Images) |
Vaynerchuk goes on to say, 'So what the hell was I doing?' As it turns out, he was working. He was learning. Hard.
I went to speak with one of my professors recently. After being invited to take a seat in his office, we talked for roughly twenty minutes. I told him I didn't want to talk about his class. Instead, I asked him about the best sport management students he's seen. What did they do to succeed, I asked.
In saying those words, I was absolutely terrified.
I've spoken to NHL personnel and scouting directors, CHL general mangers, and been in the same small rooms as many executives I look up to. I usually don't get too nervous. Admittedly, I've probably looked like I don't care. I simply just don't react outlandishly in those situations. Normally, I just do my best to listen.
This time, I was doing the talking and driving the conversation. We talked about what I have done so far and where I am trying to go. When I walked out of the office, I immediately started questioning myself, if I had really made a good decision in going in there and, basically, shooting my mouth off. I've already stated that I don't really do that. It was stepping outside my comfort zone.
This time, I was doing the talking and driving the conversation. We talked about what I have done so far and where I am trying to go. When I walked out of the office, I immediately started questioning myself, if I had really made a good decision in going in there and, basically, shooting my mouth off. I've already stated that I don't really do that. It was stepping outside my comfort zone.
I read Vaynerchuk's post a couple days later. I felt better.
Vaynerchuk discusses how 'there is no substitute for honest hard work.' This season, I didn't work for a team, I didn't write for a website, and I didn't take buses and cabs to rinks every other day. I chose not to. Instead, I wanted to get better by stepping away. I feel that was the right choice. Despite my current tendencies, I wanted to become a better listener and a stronger communicator.
People say you become a better writer when you read. When it comes to speaking with value, I'd suggest one can become better at that by listening.
***
Being a sport management student, I'd like to think it's practical application that allows for development. Even though the textbooks look nice - and price themselves accordingly - they aren't what make a sport management student learn.
A lot of students in sport management state that the reason they've chosen to study in this field is because they have a 'passion for sport'. As a student myself, I can say with confidence that I'd like to see those words adjusted to say 'passion for working and developing in sport'.
Alex Anthopoulos didn't get a degree in sport management. He studied economics at McMaster University. Now the senior vice-president of baseball operations and general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, he came to Brock in 2011 and spoke to students.
"I walked in, I had a tie, I had a shirt, I dressed right, I sat in the corner, I shut my mouth and my goal was I was going to be the best fan mail guy these guys have ever had or seen. If you have to go get coffee, be amazing at it. If you have to go make photocopies, be amazing at it."Vaynerchuk wrote that 'once you become a brand, the work never stops'. Sport management students are a brand in progress. Sure, our actions and choices now affect the way we're consumed, if you will, in the future. But if our brand follows the steps of a ladder, we're just getting started.
These years are our time to learn, both through academics and experience. It's not a sprint up that ladder.
Most of us haven't truly started our climb yet.
