James Haskell on Focus, Discipline and Building a Life After Sport

0:28I'm an eternally positive person. have gone through this but it's such a mind film i think a lot of people struggle i think a lot of people aren't happy with with you know the way things work out for them i think there's an initial period i think they find the real world kind of someone said the real world of corporate world is shit i think they meant i think they meant because they possibly didn't have the freedom to speak their mind i cannot underplay what a massive difficulty is transitioning from professional sport into a different life and there's everything that goes with it it's not really talked about i think it's very hard welcome to this special bite-sized episode of screw it just do it from our back catalogue of over 550 past episodes one of the types of people that would say you know one door closes and another one opens glass is always half full is that is that true to say um yeah i mean look i i'm an eternally positive person that doesn't mean that i don't have moments where i uh you know i kind of think to myself um you know what kind of what uh you know what shame uh you know i'm not going to world cup and you know i'd love to be playing you know and i'd love to be doing this etc um but to be honest with you i'm excited by the opportunities it's just in the real world uh in the corporate world real world there's a few things that everybody loves a meeting right which and it's a man's prerogative everyone wants to meet for a coffee or talk which can be done on an email which is i find really annoying uh the second thing everyone talks a huge game about everything um most 90 percent of the world is full of men wanting to earn money um or most people i think it's a male orientated thing of like you know let's make money let's do that's you know let's see we're let's be millionaires it's more millionaires you earn money and then lose it all again trying to make more money um so everyone's kind of talking a massive game and and you know I'm meeting lots of people everyone's got lots of brilliant ideas it's just actually getting stuff over the line being consistent uh I miss the structure so you know I I'm enjoying kind of the freedom but actually it is a bit of a bizarre situation to kind of to you know yeah and I totally get that I mean and I know it's not it's not me in my case it's like the the virgin name but you know if I had a pound for everybody who contacts me via you know LinkedIn or Twitter asking to meet for a coffee or to look at their business plan or to put on a joint event, that kind of thing, I'd be absolutely loaded.

2:52But, you know, the amount of coffees people want to have, and like you say, it's just it's an email or it's a LinkedIn message. It takes like 90 seconds normally instead of like a half an hour to 60 minutes to actually meet up and have a chat with somebody. Yeah, I know. I just I think, you know, it's one of those things I've got those bandages or a door handle thing that basically says, you know, I've survived another meeting that could have been an email. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is, you know, which is kind of, you know, it's frustrating. I mean, but do you know what? I'm very, very lucky with my wife because she's very organized, very good at cutting the crap.

3:31I'm kind of quite no nonsense. And before I met her, I would literally be driving around the country, um you know meeting people you know you know going to london for just one meeting or doing whatever and then coming home you know how now you know i've actually just got myself an assistant so i sound quite a big time but i've got a virtual assistant which is actually game changer for me and i'm trying my very hardest to to get everybody in one place and only meet you know i'm very like hard line with people on over email because honestly people just the worst thing is people meet you and go so you know love to work together you're like right and they're like well got any ideas like well you you wanted to well you know but how do you see that working so well i don't know you you tell you tell me i i up until today i didn't think about working you know so i just say to people listen what you know what you put put it down on email put your ideas down an email talk about let me come back to you because you know if someone says oh look you want to do a corporate speech i had this the other day and this is gonna and obviously it's a podcast and i'd you know obviously i like to think i have a certain level of of service that i'll bring but when people asked me to do so some guy was like oh we've got a massive exhibition we would love to have you speak so i said fine they were like oh well you know we could give a donation to a charity of your choice and i was like well i'd like to say 100 quid i was like i know i charge five grand for a corporate speech you know this is what this is what i do it's my living and they're like oh we can't afford that i was like well why are you asking me then well we just you might want want to do it and i went what are you doing this exhibition for free they're like no i said why do you want me to do it for free but there's this whole misnomer and bizarre thing when people throw charity and throw bits and pieces into places like no no everybody's earning everybody's earning out of something you can't you know if it was a direct charity thing i always do a lot of work for charity uh don't like to talk about it but do a lot of work for charity and and and um i just find it very bizarre that a lot of people just want to meet talk when just formulate your ideas bang it out in bullet points and go this is where we go and i go do you know what let's go and meet have the finer details let's get to know each other let's find out you're not a walter mitty let's do that but let's not rush around the country just meeting for coffee to have a meeting about a meeting about some ideas yeah and you know this i also think there's there's got to be a fair transaction without getting kind of you know this is the power of the universe and all woo woo like that but i i agree with you i think there's got to be a a fair transaction or otherwise one one part of those two parties are going to feel slightly jaded about it otherwise yeah i mean I just, look, I don't want to, as I said, I'm not mercenary.

5:59I just think, you know, so people would have you over a barrel doing everything left, right and centre. I mean, you know, I find, you know, the limited kind of exposure I've had in the public eye is that, you know, people want, literally want the shirt off your back in my case. And at some point it's like, well, where do you draw the line? And you could honestly, I could honestly go to London and have six meetings and have achieved absolutely nothing, cost me 130 quid in fuel and come away, when the beauty of email is you can formulate ideas. And I don't think, you know, it's still an old school business practice.

6:35It's something that my dad, you know, his generation still, you know, the old school business thing of when, you know, which I think some of it's great, you know, when you used to be able to talk to your bank manager, you used to actually be able to talk to people face-to-face, you had a relationship, and relationships are key in business in any walk of life, you know, know in this whole call center this whole nonsense where you're you know 7 000 degrees of separation from actually ever meeting someone you're supposed to be talking to i think it's great however you know there's a lot of there's a there's a couple of middle ground bits where we can get some stuff done see if there's any synergy we can have a call but i mean you know i also find it in corporate was every time you're planning an event or planning anything you've got to have a conference call and there's 17 people on the conference and someone's got a bit to do because nobody can take responsibility Nobody wants to put their head above the parapet in case they get fired.

7:21You've got compliance. You've got HR. You've got all these people. And again, you literally could have told me over an email in 10 lines, what do you want me to do? I don't need to speak to everyone. And I just find it so – I find it laughable because in my world of sporting world, we hate meetings. We try to dispense with all this over-talk and over-launcers. We're much more action-orientated. Yeah, yeah. You can just cut to the chase, can't you? Yeah, 100%. yeah and and i suppose from your point of view especially if you're going to be doing any um media work over the world cup this autumn i'm assuming off the back of that you probably prepare yourself for getting inundated with even more offers of doing business with people yeah i mean potentially look i think it's a great place to it's a great place to be in fact that people are interested i think as a retired sportsman you actually have a you know a very short window to capitalize uh i think a lot of players a didn't prepare for that uh or or b if they did um you know they suddenly find themselves selling you know online antivirus software which i can imagine that you know when they were running around as a as a player with their future head and they never thought they wanted to send and you know sell antivirus software um you know there's people who get into these weird situations where i remember talking to someone from goldman sachs who sent sending me emails and i and i had to say what you know right half of the day i said sorry mate i look i really appreciate offering to help but when did i ever turn around and say that i wanted to work in the city i can't think of anything worse and he was like oh well i just assumed you know sports i said no no i don't i don't want to do those kind of things um so i think you know it is exciting but you have to a you have to do some some some you know one or two things really well or you'll do 10 things badly be pulled between pillar and post and actually that's a surefire way for depression and everything else because you um you know you you you aren't doing what you want to do and you find it very frustrating and have you got former players who've retired a couple of years ago that you you've spoken to or know that you could you could speak to and see what see what they've gone on and done and the experience they've had yeah I mean I think um you know there's a lot of there's a lot of people that you know I've I've spoken to who um you know who I think have gone through this but it's it's it's such a mind field I think a lot of people struggle.

9:40I think a lot of people, you know, aren't, aren't happy with, with what, you know, the way things work out for them. I think there's an initial period, I think they find the real world kind of, well, if someone said the real world or corporate world is shit, I think they meant, I think they meant because they possibly didn't have the freedom to speak their mind. They have to jump through a lot of hoops. You can't, you know, you can't share that kind of change room mentality of someone turns, it turns up with a terrible haircut. is completely out of shape and wearing crap shoes you can't start getting into them because suddenly your fate your fate you're sitting in an hr department meeting which talked about so i think that there's that element but i also think it's because lads didn't prepare and they suddenly find themselves doing a job they didn't like and i thought there's a massive i think i i cannot underplay what a massive difficulty is transitioning from uh professional sport into a different life and there's everything that goes with it it's not really talked about i think it's very hard Still one of the most interesting episodes I've recorded, I think, because I caught Hask a really interesting point in his life.

10:45He's also the first person to swear on the show. I think I clocked up about five F-bombs in the first sentence. And look, his advice, ignore the noise, keep reinventing, own your next chapter of your life. You only get one chance, remember, only one shot of this life to make it a good one.