As you work toward being drafted by an NBA team, it’s imperative that YOU draft the right team – and that includes your agent!
Ricardo Housham once said:
Surround yourself with awesome, confident, positive and optimistic people who will encourage you to stretch, grow and achieve. The more positive energy you have around you, the more positive your world will be.
Surrounding yourself with positive people is essential to success and applies to all aspects of business and life – after all, our thoughts lead to feelings or emotions, which generate action or results. Your decision concerning agent representation should not be taken lightly. The right representation – correct team – and positive thoughts combined with talent and effort delivers the desired outcome. Take a few moments to reflect on the countless workouts you’ve experienced, the intensity, commitment and obsessive dedication. Would you consider any representation which doesn’t mirror your passion and courage to pursue your dreams – on and off the court? I didn’t think so!
The following values can lead to an exceptional and productive partnership between you and your agent:
- Authenticity – This is the person you will be working with, the person working for you. Leverage your intuition to determine if this potential agent is solely interested in their “cut” or if you believe there is motivation to see you and your family succeed, with the understanding that this enables you to build a legacy of positive and generational impact.
- Selflessness – This is about you and your career – not the agent. Although ego can be a wonderful thing and used as a tool, driving you toward continuous improvement/perfection (let’s be honest – there’s some ego on MARS!), ego can be detrimental if it gets in the way of asking for help, embracing alternate opinions and ideas while losing focus on the need to serve others.
- Showtime! – Your agent should have the ability and comfort level with performing on the big stage, on air and in front of the camera. You cannot afford to have an agent who gets overwhelmed by the big moment. Don’t undervalue the need for your agent to embrace the opportunity and the moment as this is also your opening and your time.
- Professionalism – Your agent is an extension and reflection of you. Consequently, the oral and written communication skills your agent demonstrates with the press, front office personnel, NBPA and everyone in-between can impact the perception of you and certainly influence your brand. Professionalism is obviously baked into availability, responsiveness and having an understanding of your values – the things that are most important to you during your journey.
- Professional Coaching – Imagine the benefit of having an agent that is a certified professional success coach. A success coach can understand the “stuff” that’s getting in your way (we all have “stuff”) that could be impacting your athletic performance. An effective success coach can also help you expand the mindset that results in peak performance. Success coaching provides guidance to your circle of influence, who can play a tremendous role in your path toward success and greatness!
