Most hoopers are like lottery winners who go broke

Want to hear the craziest fact that I've ever heard?

Nearly 1 out of every 3 lottery winners goes broke within 3-5 years of winning. 

That's absolutely INSANE to think about.

I've spent countless hours thinking about what my life would look life if I won the lottery:

• the house(s) I would buy
• the car(s) I would own
• all of the people that I would take care of
• the ways I would invest to make sure that my money doesn't get flushed down the drain...

For the most part, it seems like winning the lottery would solve all of life's problems. And I know I'm not alone in that thought.

But yet, so many people who win eventually lose it all...

And in some ways, that might leave them worse off than they were before. Think about it, you win millions of dollars and immediately see all of your problems disappear.

But then, something happens:

• you get scammed or someone steals from you
• you make a bad investment
• you spend money on everything you could possibly spend money on

And now, you have nothing except the regret of your choices and the pain of all your problems (that you though were gone forever) that are now back with a vengeance.

That sounds absolutely horrible, right? So why does it happen so much?

My take is this:

You are who you are.

If you're someone who makes poor financial decisions, having more money won't change that. It will only amplify it.

If you're someone who doesn't do a good job at planning for the future, money won't change that. It will only amplify it.

These people who win the lottery might FEEL different when they win and get all that money. But at the end of the day, they are still the same person. Meaning they are going to have the some motivations and many times will make the same choices that they made when they had no money.

Which is okay if they usually make good choices, but very very bad if they normally don't.

So what does that have to do with you as a hooper?

What I've learned over the years, both as a player AND as a coach working with thousands of players around the world is that the problem isn't the things that you have or the things that you do.

It's not about the workouts. It's not about how many shots you put up each day. It's not about the team you play on. It's not about your coach.

It's about who you are.

You see, the lottery winners who go broke don't go broke because of the fact that they won the lottery (it's not cursed lol).

They don't go broke because of the fact that they don't have good influences around them.

And they don't go broke because of a lack of knowledge.

At it's core, they can't handle having money because of who they are.

• the habits they have (or don't have)
• they way they think and the beliefs they have
• the principles they live by

They aren't the person who is able to handle having money.

And here's the difficult truth you need to face if you aren't where you want to be as a basketball player:

It's because you aren't the person capable of handling the success you want yet.

There is no other root cause. At it's core, you don't have what you want because you aren't the PERSON that you need to be.

Notice I didn't say PLAYER. This isn't about the workouts or drills. This isn't about the team you play on. This isn't even about how hard you work or how tall you are or whether you can dunk or not.

I've been around insanely talented players who accomplished almost nothing in their careers. I've been around insanely talented teams that have ultimately won nothing. And every single time it's because those players aren't the PEOPLE that they need to be in order to see success.

In basketball (and in every single other area of life) it will always be PEOPLE > players.

So what are some of these characteristics that you need to have in order to be a PERSON deserving of success, on and off the court? Let's go through a few and then I'll tell you how you can start to develop them.

1. Confidence in yourself as a person
2. A desire to make the people/places/things around you BETTER
3. The ability to handle adversity and things going wrong and being difficult
4. The ability to show up and give your best effort/attitude every day
5. The ability to constructively critique yourself and the ability to take criticism from others
6. The ability to take responsibility for your mistakes and short comings AND to take responsibility for others as well (asking yourself: "what more could I have done?")
7. The ability to think big and take risks and be okay with the fact that when you swing for the fences, you might strike out sometimes

This is just to name a few things, but chances are that covers at least one area that you could be better in (as I sit and write this, best believe I could be A LOT better in more than one of those areas).

So now how do we become better in those areas? Well the first thing is to actually ignore that question and ask a better one.

The better question is, how do we become that person?

How do I become a person that has confidence in myself? How do I become a person who has the desire/ability to make the people around me better? How do I become a person who handles adversity and difficulty better? How do I become a person who is willing to take risks and TRY even though I might fail? How do I become a person who can handle criticism from others better?

For any of the areas we listed above, think about what might apply to you.

And then here's what you should do if you really want to become a new person...

READ.

This is so simple but I promise you it's life changing.

What I've noticed in my own life is that the times that I by far experience the most growth are the times when I read books. Sometimes it's a book on business or marketing or confidence or training.

Regardless, it completely changes the way I think about certain topics. When I read a good book on marketing, it completely changes the way I think and the beliefs I have...therefore it completely changes me as a person.

I normally notice that it also leads to me being more motivated and inspired to do the right things and chase after my goals.

The average American reads about 5 books per year (which is waaaaay more than I would've guessed).

My guess would be that among basketball players, that number is probably less than that.

Compare that to the reading habits of some of the most successful and world changing people in modern history:

Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Phil Knight, etc. have all gone on record talking about the hours upon hours they spend reading each week (and for some of them, each day).

Books allow you to see the world differently. They give you a new perspective and different beliefs. They make you a new person.

And with that, reading has even more benefits beyond what the subject matter is about:

• improved speaking and communication ability
• increase in IQ and emotional intelligence
• improved mental health and ability to handle stress

And that's just to name a few things.

So my advice to you is this:

If you aren't where you want to be as a basketball player, find books on these things.

It's as simple as going to Google and typing in "books on self confidence" or "books on taking risks" or "books on handling adversity" or any of the things we've gone through.

And then commit to reading a book on that thing that you want to make a part of you.

And that will change you as a basketball player more than any drill or workout I could give you. And as a nice byproduct, it'll also change the rest of your life too.

And if you're someone who doesn't like to read, well you've made it this far so what that tells me is that you do read when it's something that interests you!

So find something that interests you!

And there's audiobooks if you truly can't bear to do it in the traditional sense. I personally love using Kindle and keeping all my eBooks in one place.

The most important thing for you to remember is that ultimately, if you want to become the player that you dream of being, you need to first become the PERSON who is worthy of being that.

If you live your life with that understanding, there is no limit to the things you can accomplish.

Most players (really most people in general) are intimidated when it comes to reading books. The reality of it is, you just need to start! Just open a book and don't overthink!

You'll start seeing the benefits of it almost immediately. Try it, I promise.

If you made it this far, I appreciate you and I hope that this resonated with you.

Have a great rest of your day!

- Ethan

And if you want to dive deeper...

💎 Go through our FREE hour long basketball IQ masterclass

💎Start the FREE two week elite scorer program

💎 Make the most out of your off-season with The Perimeter Scorer System