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4012 – Are You Lost In The Career Wilderness?
The foggy wilderness of career loss or change
Recently, while watching a segment on 60 Minutes Sports, I realized I know people who are experiencing the same thing as retiring NFL players - THE WILDERNESS. In December, 2013 the NFL launched The Trust, an arm of the league designed to help players transition from being players to real human beings like the rest of us. According to an article published by MMQB (Monday Morning QuarterBack), a Sports Illustrated property...
Launched last month, The Trust is an arm of the NFLPA that offers free amenities to former players in areas of health and nutrition, career transition and financial education. The $22 million a year budget (which will increase by five percent annually) was procured from the 2011 collective bargaining agreement with the league. “A big part of our negotiations had little to do with dollars or the salary cap,” says Kevin Mawae, the former NFLPA president who stepped down in 2012 . “It was about benefits and post-career options. So this was a huge victory for us.”
Retired NFL players interviewed in the 60 Minutes Sports piece commonly refer to leaving their playing days behind and entering into "the wilderness." It's a place that's foreign to them. They've played football for as long as they can remember. Now, they're not playing and many of them are lost. A few - seemingly, far too few (hence the need for the creation of The Trust) - think seriously about crafting a future beyond the game while they're still playing. According to an article written last year, 78% of retired NFL players will file bankruptcy within 5 years. The article cites 5 reasons why professional athletes go broke, but there are many more. And it's not just about money. It's about sense of purpose. It's about confidence. It's about figuring things out and finding your way. Mostly, it's about finding your way out of THE WILDERNESS.
Have You Lost Your Job - Your Career?
We don't need a recession like the ginormous one that hit in 2008 to cause job losses. Jobs are lost even in good times. They're lost when employees haven't a clue, too. Jack Stack is known as the father of open-book management. In 1983, while serving as the plant manager of an International Harvester facility in Springfield, Missouri, Jack got word the plant would be closing. That meant 119 people would be out of work. The problem was, he thought they were doing well. Truth was, they were - so far as they knew. The problem was, they didn't know what they didn't know. They didn't see the big picture in the game of business. Sparked by knowing they could lose their entire plant because they didn't have the whole picture, Jack opened up the books. Literally. He shared financial information with the people. The employees began to take on a much greater sense of ownership as they could now relate their specific jobs to the overall financial welfare of the company. Productivity and profitability soared, along with Jack Stack's celebrity in business circles. Today, The Great Game of Business is not only a book that Jack wrote, but it's an entire training system conducted by SRM Holdings. They help people find their way out of the wilderness, even if they don't know they're lost. Jack is still pretty motivated to help people avoid facing the disastrous and unexpected news of plant closings, department shutdowns and other financial woes that hit the unsuspecting. Maybe you've experienced the same frustration and consternation that Jack felt back in the early 80's. Maybe you've walked out of a place where you worked for years with nothing more than a cardboard box. Welcome to THE WILDERNESS.
Have You Lost Your Identity?
People commonly talk of not knowing who they are any more. That NFL player who has known nothing other than playing football since grade school suddenly isn't playing any more. Now what? The question that rings inside his head nags at him,
Who am I?
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By Randy Cantrell
4.7
1111 ratings
The foggy wilderness of career loss or change
Recently, while watching a segment on 60 Minutes Sports, I realized I know people who are experiencing the same thing as retiring NFL players - THE WILDERNESS. In December, 2013 the NFL launched The Trust, an arm of the league designed to help players transition from being players to real human beings like the rest of us. According to an article published by MMQB (Monday Morning QuarterBack), a Sports Illustrated property...
Launched last month, The Trust is an arm of the NFLPA that offers free amenities to former players in areas of health and nutrition, career transition and financial education. The $22 million a year budget (which will increase by five percent annually) was procured from the 2011 collective bargaining agreement with the league. “A big part of our negotiations had little to do with dollars or the salary cap,” says Kevin Mawae, the former NFLPA president who stepped down in 2012 . “It was about benefits and post-career options. So this was a huge victory for us.”
Retired NFL players interviewed in the 60 Minutes Sports piece commonly refer to leaving their playing days behind and entering into "the wilderness." It's a place that's foreign to them. They've played football for as long as they can remember. Now, they're not playing and many of them are lost. A few - seemingly, far too few (hence the need for the creation of The Trust) - think seriously about crafting a future beyond the game while they're still playing. According to an article written last year, 78% of retired NFL players will file bankruptcy within 5 years. The article cites 5 reasons why professional athletes go broke, but there are many more. And it's not just about money. It's about sense of purpose. It's about confidence. It's about figuring things out and finding your way. Mostly, it's about finding your way out of THE WILDERNESS.
Have You Lost Your Job - Your Career?
We don't need a recession like the ginormous one that hit in 2008 to cause job losses. Jobs are lost even in good times. They're lost when employees haven't a clue, too. Jack Stack is known as the father of open-book management. In 1983, while serving as the plant manager of an International Harvester facility in Springfield, Missouri, Jack got word the plant would be closing. That meant 119 people would be out of work. The problem was, he thought they were doing well. Truth was, they were - so far as they knew. The problem was, they didn't know what they didn't know. They didn't see the big picture in the game of business. Sparked by knowing they could lose their entire plant because they didn't have the whole picture, Jack opened up the books. Literally. He shared financial information with the people. The employees began to take on a much greater sense of ownership as they could now relate their specific jobs to the overall financial welfare of the company. Productivity and profitability soared, along with Jack Stack's celebrity in business circles. Today, The Great Game of Business is not only a book that Jack wrote, but it's an entire training system conducted by SRM Holdings. They help people find their way out of the wilderness, even if they don't know they're lost. Jack is still pretty motivated to help people avoid facing the disastrous and unexpected news of plant closings, department shutdowns and other financial woes that hit the unsuspecting. Maybe you've experienced the same frustration and consternation that Jack felt back in the early 80's. Maybe you've walked out of a place where you worked for years with nothing more than a cardboard box. Welcome to THE WILDERNESS.
Have You Lost Your Identity?
People commonly talk of not knowing who they are any more. That NFL player who has known nothing other than playing football since grade school suddenly isn't playing any more. Now what? The question that rings inside his head nags at him,
Who am I?