Every day for nearly three decades now I have been answering questions from players, giving free initial conversations, and giving support to those who truly want to chase their dream.
Sometimes the questions come email, text message, social media message, phone calls, and still even the occasional snail mail. Many times, the questions are the same, or similar to the questions I have been asked for these many years.
If you want to change where you are, you have to change what you are doing.
It really is a simple concept. Yet so many cannot grasp that to go through and repeat what you have already done without positive results, is simply a recipe for another failure in the future.
If you continue to make a right hand turn at every corner, you will be back where you began after four right hand turns. This exercise works just as well for a left-hand turn.
Just last week I spoke to a family who for the last two years have gone to three “pre-draft” camps with the same three teams. Their reasoning was that the player made it to the “all-star” game in all three camps last year. So, they figured he would have a good showing again.
A reasonable line of thinking really. But flawed in its foundation.
If the player was of real interest, why didn’t the team stay in contact with him all last season? Why wasn’t he drafted? Why not get invited right to main camp? Without this information, why would you return to something that did not work?
Right about now there are a lot of players who are not where they set out to be this past summer. Right now, a lot of them are realizing they wasted an entire summer chasing what everyone else was chasing, and what they had chased before.
Right now, a lot of you should be saying to yourselves that this season and next summer are not going to be a repeat. A plan will be put in place and acted on. Acted on intelligently, and not in a panicked manner.
There are also some players right now thinking they know better than me. Some parents as well. Maybe you do. I wish you luck.
Right now, there are some players and parents thinking that they cannot afford an adviser. Maybe you can’t, maybe you can. You don’t know unless you look into it.
Right now, some players and parents are saying, “but my coach says I don’t need an adviser.” If that were true, you would probably be at the next level already.
Right now, some players and parents are thinking that their current coach is their “adviser”. Really? Coaches have a direct conflict of interest and cannot effectively advocate for a player when it does not benefit the coach. Kent Hughes, the GM of the Montreal Canadiens had to give up his agency practice because the same conflict existed.
Change What You Are Doing If You Want To Change Where You Are Going – When you are ready for change, I look forward to hearing from you.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
