Back-tracking a little

Well, I said I was going to post again about the content of the class, but I was so exhausted for the entire week, I didn't actually do so! ^^;; Unfortunately, since I was, as I said, tired during the class, my notes and my memories of the class aren't that great--not a good thing for this blog, nor for the test I have next week! ^^;;

Anyway, the class was about "the business of hockey", which included marketing and merchandising, although Kevin's lecture, from my notes anyway, was mainly about the history and workings of the NHLPA. It was pretty interesting because I was partway through Bruce Dowbiggins' book "Money Players" at the time, so the lecture reinforced what I'd read, as well as adding some details I was unaware of. I didn't know, for example, that when Eagleson negotiated Bobby Orr's last contract, he didn't tell Orr that the Bruins had offered him a share of the team to thank him for all his years with the team. It's really sad, because Orr thought he wasn't wanted and signed with the Blackhawks (the owner, Bill Wiertz(?) just happened to be one of Eagleson's cronies) instead.

Our guests were basically from the marketing/merchandising side of things, and it was especially neat for me because they were all doing things I've wished I could do: Hersh Borenstein runs the collectible store Frozen Pond, and Kerry Goulet and Jens Castens founded Premier Hockey, which is producing a magazine, as well as running training camps, etc. Okay, so maybe I've never been interested in training camps, being the lazy, unathletic person that I am, but I've always thought it'd be cool to own a collectibles/card store (although I was thinking more along the cards line, like Untouchables), and if I had any talent for articles or publishing, I would've loved to write or edit for a magazine.

So yeah, it was neat to hear about how they got started. Actually, I've been noticing a kind of trend in the guests' stories about how they got into their respective businesses: a lot of them seemed to just fall into it, or have positions open up while they were pursuing their passions. The Bauer Nike catalyst guy, for example, just happened to meet up with someone who remembered him from his days at a retail sports store (I'm assuming here that he worked in that retail store in the first place because he had a passion for sports), and Hersh said he just got to know people from his efforts selling cards, and one day ended up being asked to show Pavel Bure around for a day and therefore got the chance to get Bure to autograph a bunch of things for him, and voilà! Oh, and the trainer guy volunteered with the Canadian Hockey Federation (or whatever it was called before it went back to Hockey Canada) and got noticed when he offered to help carry some equipment to a team bus or something like that. Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I wonder if things really still work that way? I know a lot of stuff comes from connections and networking still, but I wonder if jobs really just open up that way without someone really looking of pushing for one?

I'd rather like to think it could still work that way, since I know one of my faults is that I'm not aggressive or opportunistic enough. Sure I make an effort (like going to the ACC job fair last summer and going through the screening, handing in a resumé etc.) but generally when I reach a closed door, I turn around and look for one that's open. ^^;; It's a flaw, I know, but so far I haven't been able to change that. Ah well, I've rather digressed from my topic, and I don't know if I can pick it back up again, so I'll stop here.