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That leads to my third point: Know yourself. Look carefully at your interests and skills. You need to understand what you’re good at and how you like to work. If you get energy from being around people, then you don’t want to be in a room with a computer because you’ll go nuts. You want to be in the action, around people, so you might look at sales or marketing or media relations or being an agent. If you’re more comfortable being by yourself, then you look at analysis, research, perhaps the numbers side of scouting or recruiting. You have to know yourself. You also have to manage your expectations. There is a lot of money in sports, but unless you are a star athlete, you probably won’t be making much in your early years. I’m not trying to be negative, but I want to be realistic. I’ve loved every minute of my life in sports. If you have a passion for sports and you can bring professionalism and quality work—and you understand your expectations—you can have a great career. Just like the athletes we admire, though, you have to prepare, you have to work hard, and you have to never, ever quit.

Series consultant Al Ferrer founded the sports management program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, after an award-winning career as a Division I baseball coach. Along with his work as a professor, Ferrer is an advisor to pro and college teams, athletes, and sports businesses.

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