During his recent appearance on Chael Sonnen’s “You’re Welcome” podcast, former UFC Welterweight king Georges St-Pierre gave his advice on how fighters can get the most out of their careers.
“One thing I can advise the professional athlete in mixed martial arts, you have to take it in a way that, you need to see your career as a business,” said St-Pierre. “I’m not qualified, I’m not competent for business because I’m a martial artist. I am competent to fight. So, when it is time to negotiate deals, or deal with my taxes or lawyer, I’m hiring the best people. The people I could find most competent for the job.”
GSP continued, “I don’t try to do this stuff myself or to pick one of my friends. A lot of fighters, they got caught up in those kind of things and I did myself as well, I had a lot of problems, I got different law disputes and stuff like that, I lost a lot of money. I made a lot of money, but I could have made way more. I’m lucky because it happened in the beginning of my career, and I learned from those mistakes.”
St-Pierre also spoke about how fighters should be careful not to get mixed up with the wrong people, pointing out that on your way to the point, a lot of negative people try to latch onto you.
“The problem, when you are going up, you have a lot of fake friends, a lot of people who tell you ‘you can trust me,’ and this and that,” St-Pierre said. “It happened to me. I’m not better than anyone else. I got my share of mistakes as well. But I got lucky. You need good people around you to make the most and assure yourself a future.”
GSP concluded, “Nothing breaks my heart more in this world than to see an athlete who has an outstanding career and then when he is finished, he retires, he is broke. I heard that in newspapers, in documentaries. I’ve seen it many times in football and MMA and it broke my heart. Please guys, make sure you are well surrounded, not by friends but by competent people.”
On yeah, during the interview, GSP also spoke about aliens.
Talk about this on our official FACEBOOK page, or on our official TWITTER page. You can also talk about it in our popular FORUMS.