When he was just 11 years old – long before he played for the Sydney Swans at 19 and way before he began working at a bank at 15 – Tony Smith was running a business and employing staff. In his beautiful home town of Hervey Bay in Queensland there were strict water restrictions, which offered the nipper a golden business opportunity he took with both hands. "Yes, I had my first business at age 11," the successful ex-professional sportsman laughs. "I got a contract to water lawns at pensioner units for two dollars an hour. I started employing guys at one dollar an hour, so I was making a 100 per cent premium on their hourly rate." Four years later, when he worked for the bank in Hervey Bay as a teenager, Smith often wished he was one of the businesspeople on the other side of the counter putting large amounts of money into their accounts. And after three years playing AFL for the Sydney Swans he finally got his chance. Smith launched BreakFree Holidays in October 1988 and sold his first holiday in July 1989. He sold 190 holiday packages that year, and by 2002 was selling an amazing 50,000 holidays per year. After floating the company, Smith purchased 30 east-coast resorts and boosted the number of holidays sold to 400,000 annually. "I started the company with $70,000," Smith says. "In March 2005 we merged with [Australian investment company] MFS and the company suddenly had a market value of $220 million. Now the larger company, MFS, is touching $600 million in value." Smith's success story is far from uncommon in the world of sport. BRW says ex-pro golfer Greg Norman is worth $250 million, ex-basketballer Luc Longley $36 million and ex-tennis star Pat Rafter $35 million. Former motorcycling world champ Mick Doohan is worth $22 million and ex-league player Jarrod McCracken a sweet $15 million. Utilising the drive and determination that took them to the top in their chosen areas of sport, many athletes find similar success in the business domain. Performance psychologist and founder of The Business Olympian, Gavin Freeman, says top-level athletes have had experiences from which they've been able to develop a unique set of skills. "Think of what it is your everyday elite athlete has to do to be successful," Freeman says. "They need amazing time management skills and must be totally committed to a goal. They must be able to follow through, handle adversities and deal with setbacks. They require amazing concentration and focus." "Elite athletes know what losing feels like so they're not scared of it and they know how to deal with the emotional attachment to it. From a business perspective you need to be able to separate your emotions from facts – a lot of people struggle with that as a concept, but athletes are required to do it on an ongoing basis." Rugby union legend David Campese has built his fair share of businesses since playing his final game as a Wallaby in 1996. And, as a result, he has also experienced his fair share of business success. But recently Campese has had to draw on his sporting experience from his years on the top rungs of Australia's athletic elite to get back onto his feet after a fall. After giving up professional sport the rugby star built his single sports shop, Campo's Sports Store, into a chain of four outlets. He also launched Campese Management, which represented several high-profile sportspeople. Campese then branched into fashion retail with a Canterbury shop and café in Sydney's Rocks area. "For these ventures I had business partners and it was probably the worst thing I ever did in my life," Campese admits. "It was a bad business relationship and they destroyed the name 'Campese'. Getting rid of the partners has cost me a lot of money, then I had to re-invent it all." "Once you lose a game you ask yourself where you went wrong, and next time you make sure you don't make the same mistakes again. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes." Campese started over with a new shop in The Rocks called Goosestep, selling an exclusive range of clothing for men, women and children as well as rugby gear, books and other memorabilia. The Goosestep brand, Campese reckons, will become better known than his own name, but it will be another 12 months before he knows whether this business venture will be a financial success or not. Ex-professional iron man and triathlete Guy Leech, now CEO of sunglasses company Odyssey 20/20, agrees that choosing the perfect partner is a vital decision – particularly for a professional sportsperson entering the rough and tumble of the business world. "You get plenty of moths who are attracted to the bright light. They try to make themselves look better by hanging out with people who are famous and they only look at a situation to find out how they can personally make money out of it," Leech says. "You don't have much time because you're a professional athlete, so you need to choose someone you trust implicitly. The person I picked in my first venture was a childhood friend." During his sporting career Leech set up a chain of seven surf shops called Australian Surfer Headquarters. His focus is now turned mostly towards Odyssey 20/20 which, although it's only 18 months old, has a turnover in seven figures. Leech, who also owns a café in Manly and runs manufacturing, retail and training company Ozpaddle Australia, expects Odyssey 20/20 to reach an annual turnover of $10,000,000 within the next three years. "I learned through sport I have to stick with my strengths," Leech says. "Business is like racing. You strategise your strong and your weak points and you prop your weak points up by training harder. In business you do that by surrounding yourself with smart people who plug the holes." Freeman says this willingness to work in a team environment is another strength of many athletes, even those who compete in individual sports. "Individual athletes still have a team behind them," Freeman explains. "They have their coach, their physio, their psychologist. Someone like Michael Schumacher, for example, would have to be an amazing team player even though it's only him on the track." Elite athletes have enormous levels of motivation and confidence which in business, Freeman says, is half the battle won. The majority of athletes are not motivated by money but instead by success. Their motivation comes from an innate desire to be the best they can. "If you get someone who is confident enough to be an elite athlete," Freeman says, "you can predict they will be confident in almost any environment." Lisa Curry Kenny knows a thing or two about confidence. Since her last Olympic appearance in 1992 she and husband, ex-ironman Grant Kenny, have built a broad group of companies known as the Curry Kenny Group. These companies are involved in fitness book sales, speaking engagements, promotional services, property development and aviation. Two years ago BRW reported Grant Kenny had personal wealth of $23 million. "From sport I discovered to succeed you have to believe in yourself, have a great attitude and a strong work ethic," says Lisa, who is still competing and winning world championships in outrigger canoeing. "I've learned a heck of a lot, including how to cope with rejection and losing, how to push myself when I have not an ounce of energy left, how to have narrow focus when it's needed and peripheral focus when it's needed." "In business you have to find your passion and attack it as you would a race," she continues. "That's what you have to do if you want to be the best." And that's what it's all about for elite sportspeople in the business world - being the best. Business is not an arena in which they're inexperienced or threatened by those who've have more experience, it's simply a new competition, and competition is what they do best. "People like Lisa Curry Kenny have been able to bring across a core skill set and re-adapt it into a corporate environment," Freeman concludes. "They shift the competition to meet the environment they're in. Those types of people will continue to be successful simply because they know how to be." Tips From The Sporting Field Beach volleyballer Natalie Cook is a three-time Australian Olympian who won bronze in 1996 and gold in 2002. The Order of Australia holder is now the director of Sandstorm Sports. Here she shares her top five tips that she's taken from sport to business. 1. Passion and hard work – this is the driver for all things in life. If you're not passionate then it's difficult to be successful, and hard work is just a given. I eat, sleep and breathe beach volleyball and believe in its potential to be the number one summer sport in Australia . 2. 'No' is not an answer, it is only feedback! Ask lots of questions. What is the worst that can happen? You get a no! Get up, dust yourself off and go again. 3. Always look for a win/win situation. This might seem funny advice, because in sport there is only one winner, but I find that in business this really doesn't work! So it is important to ensure that the result works for both parties. 4. Always set lofty goals and reach for the stars. If you fall short you are still on top of the world. Don't settle for mediocrity. 5. Never ever give up. It really isn't over until the sun goes down, the whistle stops blowing and they drag you from the court. © Chris Sheedy/the hard word |
