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| Image credit: James Sixsmith |
Despite playing in some of the best leagues in the world, James Sixsmith was broke. So he started a side hustle to create a life after the game.
James Sixsmith loved hockey, but in the end, hockey didn’t love him back.
Like many talented players who grind it out as a professional hockey player, he experienced none of the wealth or glamour of professional sports. After three years playing for second tier, AA and top tier, AAA minor-league teams, he was still living with his parents in the off-season and making $28,000 a year. Along the way, he’d collected more than a dozen broken noses.
Feeling pressure to make more money, he opted to play professionally in Europe in 2010. After stints in German and Austrian leagues, Sixsmith logged eight seasons in Scandinavia, mostly for Norway’s Lørenskog team, whose license wasn’t renewed in 2018 because of economic problems. While he loved playing, he knew he didn’t have a long-term future with hockey, let alone in a foreign country where he didn’t speak the language.
“I was a tweener — a good player, but not quite good enough to make it,” admits Sixsmith. “I had these moments where I wondered, ‘What the hell am I going to do for the rest of my life?’”
Sixsmith explains he quit his NHL dreams to ensure he wasn’t poor for the rest of his life. “I was scared, newly married with a kid on the way. The writing was on the wall — I was getting too old for hockey, and once you start playing in Europe, you’re not going back to the NHL.”
At a turning point with no clear path forward, Sixsmith didn’t panic. Throughout his career, he’d grown accustomed to confronting adversity by putting his head down, working hard, and surprising everyone.
‘Who the hell is that guy?’
As a teen, Sixsmith dreamed of playing at Harvard or Yale, but his 5-foot-9-inch, 140-pound stature raised enough doubts to nix any Ivy League scholarship offers. Instead, he headed to Worcester, Mass., and logged ice time for the Holy Cross Crusaders.
After college, he joined the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the top affiliate of the NHL’s New York Islanders. He spent the next three years ping-ponging mostly between teams affiliated with the Islanders and the Nashville Predators. The need to make more money drove him to Europe to play hockey, with his wife, Grecia, joining him. After playing for a year in Germany and another year in an Austrian league, impending fatherhood further fueled a drive to provide for his growing family.
During his downtime, Sixsmith began dabbling in day trading with his savings — buying and selling stocks in a single trading day. He liked that it gave him the freedom to continue playing hockey, and he found relief knowing he wouldn’t have to move back to the U.S. and start at the bottom of the corporate ladder in his 30s.
Still, just as he did in his school days as an undersized winger, Sixsmith had to prove himself in his new field.
“I did very poorly to start,” he recalls. “I was naïve and didn’t know what I didn’t know.” His inexperience caused him to lose tens of thousands of dollars, but Sixsmith relied on the discipline and responsibility instilled in him by decades of competitive sports.
Instead of spending his free time drinking with teammates or playing video games, he dedicated himself to learning the markets through books and online mentors. Eventually, he turned a corner and started consistently making money. He also began teaching other players. “The guys would see me in front of the screen in the locker room and ask what I was doing,” he remembers. “They labeled me the smart guy, and when any random question would come up, they’d jokingly say, ‘Go ask Sixer. He knows.’”
Take the risk — but keep your day job.
As he continued trading, teaching, and playing, Sixsmith realized two things: First, athletes make great traders. “Grit is the most important attribute of a good trader because the markets will punch you in the face,” he explains. “Athletes have grit, and they don’t quit.” He says regular people can benefit from developing this psychological fortitude before they begin trading — picking up a recreational sport or hard-to-master hobby can do the trick.
“Grit is the most impotant attribute of a good trader because the markets will punch you in the face.”
- James Sixsmith
Source: The Oracles | Entrepreneur
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