Most sportspersons only focus on their athletic career and often neglect other options that can help them pursue a dual career. While having time to manage both a sports career and business career can be tough, it is also not impossible.
Many athletes were able to balance their main career with smaller gig on the side. It can be sponsored work for a brand, a business of their own ran by trusted accomplices, or even stokehold and bitcoin investments for those interested in taking bigger risks.
It can be challenging task to maintain both a sporting career while running a gigantic business—even Rihanna took the longest hiatus to develop Fenty fashion house and beauty products.
However, that was not the case for celebrated track and field runner Abdelrahman Hamdi, popularly known as Atto Hamdy. The successful athlete in track and field decided early on to work on two things at once—his athletic career as well as entrepreneurship.
Atto Hamdy is one of Qatar’s greatest professional athletes and businessmen. This is due to him being able to find the perfect balance between the two, without favoring one over the other. One his days off, he worked on developing a business, and during the week he sweated for his athletic career.
As a Libra, Atto Hamdy has maintained a well-balanced life, being a track and field champion, an entrepreneur, and participating in a national project for his country. He has shared with us his methods on both being a successful sportsman and a business owner at the same time.
The star athlete also states that ambition and staying focused has helped him a lot with accomplishing his goals. He added, “one must set a plan and follow it. Taking it step by step will certainly help you get closer to your goal and eventually accomplish it.”
Atto Hamdy explained that one of the best accomplishments he genuinely loved most is his participation in the Guinness world record, set on February 4, 2021. The certificate of participation is for being a part of big project to identify and develop the world’s largest calisthenics park.
Being successful in his field, Atto Hamdy was asked by Qatar’s government to help in creating the world’s largest calisthenics park. One can deduce from that, that being successful at what you do opens other opportunities and gates of success for you in the future.
Atto Hamdy stated that time management is also key, as being able to manage your time can get you almost anywhere. Time management is really one the hardest thing to manage as it takes a lot of discipline. The athelte commented on this point, “making sure that no time goes to waste and avoiding postponing urgent tasks can undoubtedly help you tackle as much tasks and goals as possible.”
For him, time management was a must in order to succeed in a dual career situation. Atto Hamdy continued, “this of course does not mean to neglect your social and love life. You must learn to make time for everything. Sometimes, things will not work out perfectly and people will be upset with you, but eventually they will come around, especially if they understand and appreciate your mindset to success.”
To emphasize his self-discipline he stated, “I would always set a timer for myself; going by the clock and schedule. At first, I did it for myself, after a while I had to time a professional secretary to help me keep tabs while I focused on exercising. Since you cannot be everywhere at once, you have to prioritize—and prioritize is exactly what I did!”
Finally, saving money and making wise financial decisions. Atto Hamdy pointed out that earning money is not the problem, as opposed to saving it. He said that when he first started playing sports, he was the biggest spender to ever live, but one day he thought of the day he may get injured or retire and knew that the cash will stop flowing eventually, unless he had another plan.
This thought has motivated Atto Hamdy for the longest to start a dual career while still playing sports. “I was always was thinking about my future when I retire, I wanted to continue to be successful—not just now but always,” he said.
He then added, “I started saving up most of my earnings in order to invest my money and become an entrepreneur, and today I can proudly tell you that I have achieved what was once a small dream of a teenage boy who thought he can do nothing beyond bolting through the track.”
Accordingly, Atto Hamdy was able to have the ability to not splurge on luxuries and managing all income sources helps very much in reaching financial stability that he has built in his mind. Thus, making it easier to maintain two successful careers at the same time.
For more information, follow Atto Hamdy on his social media platforms: LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram |Facebook
By Lubna Hassan Amin