Interview with Johnny Damon, Retired Major League Baseball Player

Johnny Damon played Major League Baseball in America from 1995 to 2012 as an outfielder. As part of the home opening series for the Boston Red Sox, Johnny Damon met with Strategic Insight’s Boston office on April 6th, 2017, to take photos and to answer questions. The article provides a paraphrase of the question and answer session during the photo-op that I had with Johnny Damon. Read the article to learn his perspective on how to achieve success in baseball, and my perspective on how to achieve college financial planning success based on his responses.

Question 1 (Paul Curley, Editor of the 529 Dash & 529 Insiders):  Johnny Damon, welcome back to Boston. Obviously the career of a professional baseball player is difficult in traveling from one city to the next and then onto the next in such short time intervals. What has been your key to success and staying focused in performing at such a high level as a baseball player, and especially in light of playing so successfully for so many years? What has been your key to success?

Answer 1 (Johnny Damon, Retired Major League Baseball Player): For me, it was important to stay focused mentally in performing in the moment, and thinking almost like a robot day-in, day-out. In thinking and acting like a robot, I was not getting too high when times were good, or too low when times were difficult. Just like a robot, consistency is key and you are not impacted from outside things. Sometimes when you hit the ball your best, you get out. Sometimes when you think you hit the ball your worst, you get a hit. Whether you get out or get a hit, it just comes down to the situation, and so I do my best to stay focused through every situation to get the job done. Also, understanding the situation in that your role is to be your best as a hitter, and appreciate the pitcher too in that he is doing his best too to get you out. Therefore understanding the situation and refocusing the pressure and heated confrontational competition into better execution of the activity has been the keys to my success.

Editor’s Take: From a college financial planning perspective, saving and saving automatically through regular contributions of a certain amount every month or pay period throughout all market cycles and hardships will ensure that success is achieved. The focus is less on making one time contributions, and more on making automatic contributions every month or pay period. Therefore, automate your client’s way to success through all market cycles, and you can provide an extremely high level of value to your clients by ensuring that they are managed through the process of starting the automation and ensuring they don’t stop the progress towards success no matter how good or bad times get. Therefore, justify your value to your clients by having the college financial planning conversation today.

Editor’s Final Note: Thank you Johnny Damon for your time and insight. Last but not least, I would like to provide a special thank you to the readers for learning from your peers, for your support and your engagement. Learn more about college financial planning by subscribing to the 529 Dash e-newsletter or attending the 529 Conference 2017.