I was always mad on sport. I played in the Norwich football academy until I was 12.
They released me. I wasn’t good enough for a career in football and that’s when I took up golf.
I became very passionate about golf. I ultimately won a scholarship to the University of Iowa in America where I studied communication.
I spent four years studying in the US while competing in the Big Ten Conference.
I had a fantastic experience there in a very good golf team.
The level of competitiveness was higher than I expected.
Although I tried very hard, I fell short in terms of the level required to be at the top in collegiate golf, which is the feeding ground for professional golf.
After graduation, I moved to Spain. I knew a golf coach who lived there that ran an academy.
I got a job working for him in the south of Spain, while I could train to see if I could improve my golf alongside.
It was about earning a living and to try and see whether I could go up through the ranks in golf, which was still my passion at that time.
It culminated in me receiving an invite to the M2M Russian Open in 2014, which is a European Tour event. I felt like I played quite well, but ultimately, I missed the cut.
The leader, David Horsey, was 11 under after two rounds, and I was six over after two rounds.
I think at that point, I realised that it was going to be an extremely frustrating career of constant disappointment, as I forever strived to reach a standard that was outside of my reach.
At the same time, I was getting more and more involved in running the business side of things for the academy.
We set up a junior tour, which I became director of and we substantially grew that academy and the junior tour.
An adviser to the academy ran a cross border, international wealth and tax management group.
He saw the potential in me and what I had achieved for the academy, so he offered me a job.
I had always been interested in finance, so I initially worked both jobs, but eventually, I gave more and more time to this company called Totus International.
I felt the advice proposition suited very well with golfers because they were earning money all over the world.
I thought: ‘great, this is it, this is the sort of thing that interests me’.
If I had been successful at golf, I would have needed these skills.
I saw that a lot of my contemporaries and some friends who had been successful really struggle with that element of their career.
They were having great success, earning a lot of money, but they were not really sure how to manage it or what to do with it.
The risks and rewards of advising sport professionals
After a couple of years, I asked to transfer to the London office.
I saw the need for me to take professional qualifications and have more of a structure around what I was doing.
I felt I needed to be in an environment where I had more training, more guidance, people with more experience that I could learn from.
I transferred to the London office, but ultimately, the business was going through a transition itself.
The accountancy firm and wealth management firm were demerging. They were handing back their licence to the Financial Conduct Authority.
About a year into that transition, I met David Cresswell who had worked at Totus in its various forms for 15 or so years. David is now the head of advice at David James Wealth.
Profile: ‘Helping high-profile clients get the unbiased advice they need’
We decided over lunch that it was an opportunity for us to start our own business.
I had run a business before, albeit in golf and he’d been an adviser for more than 20 years. We felt we had the skills and expertise to run a financial business with real purpose.
Ultimately, that’s what we did. We got the blessing of Totus. They had contingent liabilities. The clients needed servicing and David had been there for a long time. That was in July 2016.
Something that I learned from playing sport to a reasonably high level is that you’re constantly coming up against obstacles and barriers that you need to overcome.
You need to be willing to change and adapt if you want to improve.
That’s something that I’ve applied to running the business.
I also see with our advisers that have success with clients that they’re willing to adapt, to change and to work with clients in the way that best suits them, rather than having a one size fits all approach.
A big change I’ve seen is that there has been an understanding from us as an industry that we need to invest in good people to ultimately benefit from them longer term.
We give people an opportunity to learn, get qualified, become experienced and get to a stage where they can give valuable advice to clients.
When I joined, the industry was sort of a do or die space.
Financial planning is predominantly a desk-based job. I spent my whole life exercising and being outside.
There are times where I miss being outside all day.
But I also love the interaction and engagement that you have with people day to day. I find that thrilling and a real joy.
Being a professional sportsman can be very lonely, especially in golf where you’re on your own a lot of the time.
I play off scratch now. I probably enjoy it more now than I did when I played professionally, because there isn’t that pressure or need to perform to make a living.
I wish I could have performed to a higher level, but ultimately, I feel at peace knowing that I gave it my best shot and left nothing behind.
I think with sport, you realise sometimes that you have limitations, and you have to accept that.
I gave it everything I had, and I got to a stage where I felt I could have more success and enjoyment in other areas.
That was a hard decision to make, and we see that with our clients a lot.
The worst thing that we see is when clients haven’t prepared for that.
It can happen very quickly. They wish they had put themselves in a better position financially to have the space and the time that they need to make a transition into a career that they like.
Something that sport doesn’t prepare you for is when you retire.
There are skills you can transfer into a job, but if you don’t have the experience or the qualifications in that sector, you are effectively going back to ground zero.
That can be really challenging, because you’ve come from being an absolute superstar at the top of your game to making the teas and the coffees and potentially not being able to pay the bills.
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