Why Fantasy Football Prepares You for Entrepreneurship

I know what you're thinking. This has to be a joke.

But I can assure you - I could not be more serious. And if you bear with me, I'll explain exactly why fantasy football prepares you for entrepreneurship.

Winning a championship in fantasy football takes a wild combination of hard work, preparation, making tough decisions, and of course, a bit of luck.

Sound familiar? See, you're already convincing yourself that I'm not entirely crazy.

So now that you're warmed up, let's dive in. Here are five reasons why you'll learn how to be an entrepreneur if you're a part of a competitive fantasy football league.

1. Preparation is key

Entrepreneurship: This goes without saying. Whether you're trying to close a deal, getting started on your MVP, or even getting ready to make the leap to pursuing your venture full-time, you have to do your homework. You need to do your diligence and tailor your message, conduct market research and lay out a roadmap, or budget out how long you can last without a steady source of income. If don't prepare, you'll put yourself in a tougher position to find success.

Fantasy football: The same is true in fantasy football. If you don't do your research on players, follow the offseason closely, understand the kind of roster you'll need to succeed, and prepare a sound plan for your draft, you'll start with a poor roster and be at a disadvantage before the season even begins.

2. You have to be agile

Entrepreneurship: Maybe your first product didn't gain as much traction as you were anticipating. Maybe a sure-fire deal fell through at the last minute. Or maybe someone promised to come through, and you're left with your hat in your hand. Whatever the case may be, life as an entrepreneur is filled with unanticipated obstacles that can spring up at any moment - it's just the name of the game. But instead of sulking or wondering why things happened the way they did, we have to respond, make pivots, and make lemonade out of lemons. We have to be extremely agile and adapt to any given situation - it's crucial to our success.

Fantasy football: And wouldn't you know it, this holds true for fantasy football. Football is a rough sport - injuries happen all the time, and they happen to each and every team. A player who has been healthy all season can be out for the year in the blink of an eye, a guy who's supposed to go has to sit out right before the game starts, or a player due to come back in three weeks ends up sitting out of the rest of the year. That's just how it goes. Those who complain about it are the ones missing the playoffs; those who succeed not only don't complain, but actually anticipate the injuries and specifically construct a deep roster to combat them. In this year's semifinals and finals, two of my best receivers (Julio and Keenan for those of you fellow fantasy-ers), were down for the count, but I won because my backups were able to pick up the slack and then some.

3. Partnerships are immensely helpful

Entrepreneurship: Maybe another startup has a complementary service to what you're offering. Or maybe you can both benefit if you share your expertise in your respective space. Whatever the case may be, partnerships with other founders, advisors, or organizations can help you grow at a pace and or reach heights that may have otherwise been much more difficult to realize. As the oft-quoted African proverb says,

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

This couldn't be more true when you're working to make your dream come true as an entrepreneur.

Fantasy football: While this may seem counterintuitive in a fantasy football league where it's every person for him or herself, this is actually a sneaky way to have quite the competitive advantage. There will be many situations in which it would benefit your team and another to engage in a trade - maybe they've got better running backs while you're more than set at wide receiver, or perhaps they're playing for the future and have a player that can help you win right now (if you're in a dynasty league). And all too often, a trade doesn't happen because you're too scared to make the other team better or have too much pride to recognize that this is a make-or-break move for your team. I made three blockbuster deals throughout the course of this season, and had I not made them, I very well could have ended up with another painful ending.

4. You need to be hungry

Entrepreneurship: Again, this goes without saying. As an entrepreneur, nothing is given - you've got to earn every inch. You need to get out there, build relationships, sell your product/service, and make things happen. You have to get creative, think on your feet, and come up with unique strategies and tactics that will help you succeed.

Fantasy football: The same can be said of fantasy football. The rules are the same for everyone in the league, the information about players is equally available to all, and the players on the waiver wire are readily available for everyone. One of the best ways to differentiate in a fantasy football league is your will to win - you simply have to want it more than the rest of the bunch. Hound the waiver wire to pick up guys who could be helpful to have on your roster for future weeks, read up on your players with injuries and prepare for the worst accordingly, and have a backup plan for when someone inevitably picks up a player that you wanted to have. I quite literally woke up at 6am every Wednesday in the 2020 season to ensure that I could act if my plans, or backup plans, or backup backup plans, fell through, so that I knew I'd still have the right roster construction going into the following week. And Jeff Wilson Jr. - my starting running back in the playoffs and savior of my season - was a guy I picked up on the waiver wire the week before.

5. Some luck is involved

Entrepreneurship: In literally any interview ever with any successful entrepreneur, there will always be a mention of luck. And this is certainly not to be confused with a replacement for hard work - you have to put yourself in the position to be in the right place at the right time - but there's always going to be at least a bit of luck involved with the process. Whether you found the perfect co-founder, caught up with someone at the perfect time, or started offering a service right as someone you knew was in need of exactly that, any successful story will have a hint of luck.

Fantasy football: Of all of the points I've made, this is probably the most obvious with respect to fantasy football. Sometimes you get lucky and your team has less injuries than other teams. Maybe your opponent will be short of a player right before a critical matchup against them. Or perhaps you play a great team and just catch them in a bad week. But you can't luck your way to the top - you need to put in the work upfront, construct your roster in the right way, and put yourself in a great position to succeed and compete in the playoffs. And from there, luck certainly becomes a factor as you try to bring home a championship.

Conclusion

So if you've made it this far, I hope you've been thoroughly convinced that fantasy football is indeed much more similar to entrepreneurship than when you came across this seemingly-ludicrous post.

Or at least you got some amusement from the fact that I literally took time out of my day to try to convince you.

In any case, thanks for reading - I hope you enjoyed!