Everybody wants to be in the 1%.
The 1% of earners.
The 1% of athletes.
The 1% of entrepreneurs.
The 1% of performers.
Because the majority of the rewards go to the 1%.
But there's something I learned spending years around professional athletes:
The standards are disproportionate too.
Everybody sees the game.
They don't see the thousands of boring repetitions that happened before it.
They see the contract.
They don't see the years when nobody was paying attention.
They see the success.
They don't see the failure, doubt, injuries, bad performances and mornings when you still had to show up and do the work.
The same thing applies outside of sports.
You don't get uncommon outcomes by consistently making common choices.
You have to be willing to:
- Work when you don't feel like it.
- Stay disciplined when nobody is watching.
- Do the boring work long after it's stopped being exciting.
- Delay gratification.
- Fail publicly.
- Learn.
- Adjust.
And show up again tomorrow.
You don't get 1% results with 99% habits.
Everybody wants the reward.
Far fewer are willing to live by the standard required to earn it.
15 years in baseball I always knew exactly who I was. Now I've got so many things to be grateful for... and honestly some days I still feel a little lost. The transition is the part nobody prepares you for. Grateful for @PAC_Athletes helping players through it. 🙏🏼
I snapped and yelled at my 9-year-old daughter yesterday… And honestly, I don't feel bad about it.
Ok maybe a little. 😅
Not because yelling is good parenting.
Because sometimes your kid needs to hear: Enough.
Enough complaining.
Enough demanding.
Enough acting like every "no" is some massive injustice.
My daughter is incredibly fortunate. She has two parents who love her more than anything and try really hard to give her a great life.
But at 9 years old, she doesn't have perspective yet.
That's my job to teach her.
You're allowed to be disappointed, but you're not allowed to be disrespectful.
You're allowed to want things, but you're not entitled to get them.
And the people who love you the most shouldn't get the worst version of you.
Our job as parents isn't to make our kids happy every second.
It's to raise good humans.
I just got invited to another venture meetup.
Made me think about what I wish I knew fresh out of the game:
As a pro athlete, you focus on performing. Then the game ends and you enter a new world: dinners, pitch decks, friends with "the next big thing."
A $25K or $100K check feels easy when smart people tell you how big it'll get. But write enough of those into single early-stage startups and you're tied up in highly speculative bets that take years to prove out.
**Venture is a portfolio business.** It should be 1-2% of your strategy, max.
It’s not about picking the next unicorn. It’s about diversified exposure alongside established teams with real track records.
**Your first job after the game is to protect your capital.** Not chase shiny decks to double your money.
**That’s how athletes go broke.**
If nobody told you that yet, I just did.
I played on some incredibly talented teams that didn’t win.
And some teams that weren’t as talented that just felt different.
Guys showed up early.
Worked their ass off.
Had good attitudes.
And had each other’s backs.
Talent was everywhere in the big leagues.
Great culture wasn’t.
Now I own F45 studios and see the exact same thing.
Same brand.
Same workouts.
Same equipment.
Completely different results.
Culture is one of the few competitive advantages you can’t copy. It has to be built internally.
@thesportsontap I absolutely love this story. Most guys today are sitting out that doubleheader and protecting the average. Especially if the games don’t mean anything. Having the guts to put .400 on the line and going 6 for 8 is exactly why this guy is a legend!!
My dad took me to a Rays game when I was 12 and said "that could be you out there someday, but you gotta want it."
One sentence gave me a vision I chased for 15 years.
My daughter is 9 now. I think about what words I can give her that do the same thing.
Everybody wants to fix Kyle Tucker's swing. Including Kyle Tucker…
But after 14 years in the big leagues I can tell you his swing is fine, the guy knows how to hit.
What people don't see is the pressure and stress that come with the big contract. We all think, he’s crazy rich, what does he have to be stressed about?! He’s set for life!!
But that high expectation, especially on himself, to produce extremely high results can create massive stress, so much so that it can make you go crazy. You lose sleep, which affects your focus and recovery. You tense up, which affects your mechanics. Your brain literally doesn’t operate normally.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is take a break, a couple days of rest and a chance to reset helps. You play your best baseball when you're relaxed and confident. But that’s much easier said than done!!
15 years in baseball and the guys who made it weren't always the most talented. They were the ones who could block out the noise when it mattered. Same thing running businesses now. The distractions just look different.
At 12, I knew exactly what winning looked like: make it to the big leagues.
At 42, building businesses, that's a much harder question.
Baseball gave me a scoreboard, a next level, and a clear path.
Life after baseball doesn't.
You have to figure out what winning looks like after the game - and build towards it.
Played with some of the most talented guys on the planet for 15 years. The teams that won were never the most stacked. They were the ones where the leadership was evident. Running F45 studios now it's the exactly the same thing.
🚨Introducing the very first Universal Rating System - the first standard that defines what good means.
Using objective, time-based assessments, our platform can now evaluate a player's ENTIRE skillset in ways that were previously impossible.
Link ⬇️
Pumped to see Plate Intelligence go live! @PeloteroApp
Too many players don’t know what to pay attention to in-game and this will change that.
Highly recommend all players and coaches to check it out 💯👇
Hitters need to understand why they’re making outs to have any chance at being great. Too many players don’t know what to pay attention to.
Today we are launching Plate Intelligence to address exactly this. @PeloteroApp
https://t.co/jLJWl7sY6D