Who loves it more? The Pro or the Amateur?
Austin Aries: Photo by Shawn Savior
Years ago I read a financial book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki. In it Kiyosaki blew my bullshit into a million little pieces. He was talking about the game of business & real estate, but he was using golf as an analogy and he asked a question.
Who loves the game more?
The pro or the amateur?
Like most Independant wrestlers, I thought I loved the game more than the pro. After travel & meals most young Indy wrestlers come home with less money than they left with. We do it for the pure love, the passion for the game. The pros do it for money. Even if their motives started purer, for the love of the game, now they did it for money. It was their job.
Kiyosaki argued the pro loves the game more.
His arguments plagued me, because They made sense. I began to think of the pros I'd met in locker rooms over the years...... and it dawned on me. They ALL loved it more than I did.
Think of the pros you've met over the years, In any field really. If you love the game, you make it your profession. It's the best way to learn the craft, to give it the hours it demands.
Because it is a demanding bitch isn't it? A jealous mistress if you will.
The gym, supplements, tanning, eating clean, medical bills, chiro visits, miles & miles of road and the nagging aches & pains.
The pros I've met often took vows of poverty, because Being a pro doesn't necessarily mean you will be well paid for it. But pros make friends with uncertainty, wondering if they will be able to pay the rent this month. They take on roommates, Usually ones that share their madness. They give up comforts most wont. The pro realizes there are more than 40 hours in a week and uses them to make the job the hustle on the side, rather than making the game, the craft, the side biz.
I always wanted my comforts of security. My home, cash in my pocket, my vacations to Mexico in nice hotels, My 401k and pension. I couldn't give those up, I needed those. Because I was and am an amateur.
I was haunted by the thought I would go all in only to "fail." It pained me to see talented hard working guys like Austin Aries struggle financially, despite being one of the best damn wrestlers on the planet. I didn't want to be that guy. So I took the safe route of keeping the biz as the hobby.
There's nothing wrong with being an amateur. The wrestling business needs them as does any basketball court and golf course. But those amateurs golfing and shooting hoops on weekends don't claim to love the game more than Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. We Indy wrestlers believe that for a long time.
Sorry to break it to you as Kiyosaki did to me when I read that book at 30.... but that's bullshit. Its all bullshit.
I remember being on a show that had Shawn Daivari vs Petey Williams as the damn opening match. Try following that by the way, but I digress. As the main event began all the guys in the locker room got a seat hidden in the back and watched the great A.J. Styles work. Cabana, Chris Hero, Petey Williams, Jimmy Jacobs and Daivari surrounded me.
There were pros in there. THAT EVENING, I realized I was surrounded by people who loved the game even more than I did. Something I thought was unimaginable years before.
So ask yourself if your a pro or an amateur.
And ask yourself, who loves it more? Which are you? how much do you love the game? What are you doing that a pro does? What are you doing an amateur does? How many of your habits are one of a pro? and which of your habits are those of an amateur?
Something to think about.
Latin Thunder
