The start of something usually determines its ending, and we are told that when you realize that you are heading in the wrong direction, you have to go back to know at which point you began making mistakes to correct them. Similarly, our childhood can shape us into the persons we become in future; like Christians read in their Holy Bible that train a child to follow a particular path, and he will never depart from it. Amare’s childhood is not one to boast about given that he rarely saw his mother who was in and out of jail, but that does not mean he has nothing to be proud of from his family. No family is perfect, and Amare’s credits his nuclear as well as extended one for helping him be the man he is today. Let’s see how Amare Stoudemire learned about business as a child and how it positively impacted his career.
Learning how to save from an early age
At times being born with a silver spoon in your mouth has its advantages, but so does being born into a family that has to work extra hard to put food on the table. Amare admits that his immediate family did not have much money, but his grandparents were financially stable; his grandfather was a winemaker while his grandmother was a seamstress and both had side hustles. When Amare was barely a teenager, he and his brother would go around their neighbor’s houses shoveling snow. Some would pay them with a cup of hot chocolate and others would give the boys cash. Of course at that age one is only thinking about spending money, maybe on clothes to impress the girls, but Amare saved up enough to buy a bike, although his mother chipped in a bit. Sometimes, money is not the only way someone can get paid for their work; the experience they say is the best teacher, and you cannot put a price tag on it. Therefore when Amare was with his father-his parents had divorced when he was young-, Amare would go to work in the lawn business that his father and uncles operated. Although he never got a penny working there, it must have taught him some business ethics he planned on applying in the future.
Money flows in through his NBA Career
Amare decided not to go to college fearing that if he got hurt, then his chance of ever being a professional basketball player would be gone for good. He, therefore, decided to pursue professional basketball and he got signed up with the Phoenix Suns in a two-year deal worth $3.5 million. Amare’s first paycheck was $300,000, and he spent it mostly on himself, his mother and his brother. However, after that, he became money-conscious and sought the services of a financial advisor as well as learning from Phoenix on how to run a business. He struck a gold mine when he signed his major contract at around the age of 22, and it was worth $89 million. Further, Nike also signed him up, and the money just kept flowing in his direction as he made history by becoming the highest paid forward/center to ever sign with Nike, at the time. Amare continued making money with his NBA career with contracts such as the New York Knicks where he had a 5-year deal worth $100 million, one-year contract with Miami Heat worth $1.5 million and Dallas Mavericks deal worth $477, 150.
Investing the money earned
Passion is the fuel that drives people to scale the greatest heights because someone once said that the most successful people do not follow paychecks but passion. Amare has always done his projects because, in his heart, it is what he wanted to do, not because he was looking to take the biggest salary. That is the reason among his many ventures after his successful NBA career, he became:
Interested in tech investment
Sometimes we lose, sometimes we gain, but the losses should not slow our momentum in pursuing our ambitions. In 2014, Amare was involved in getting the seed capital for an e-commerce platform named Tapiture, but after only one and a half years, the venture closed its doors. While it is not the first business that Amare had invested in and shut down, having had the experience of his own record label, Hypocalypto also closing down, Amare still is optimistic. His interest in tech investing has not been washed away by the failure, and he continues to forge multiple relationships with those in the tech world.
An art consultant
If there is one thing we can learn from Amare is to never go into business blindly, just because we think it is profitable. Amare always gets information first before investing, and that is what he did when he wanted to go into art. His love for art led him to ask Swizz Beats about how the art world revolves and to cut the story short; he ended up with Melech Collection. According to Amare, Melech is Hebrew for “king”, and he started it to inspire young artists and become a game-changer in the art world by offering them a platform. With his network of the high flyers in professional sports, he hopes to connect upcoming artists with his colleagues who have lots of dollars to spare. His interest in art has not gone unnoticed because Sotheby’s took him on board to be their brand ambassador.
A winemaker
When Amare relocated to Israel to play for Hapoel Jerusalem, little did he know that it would open up to a world of opportunities. Maybe the fact that his grandfather was a winemaker had sparked his interest in wine production, but after moving to Israel, he began talks with Israeli Wine Producers Association hoping to start making Israeli wine. In collaboration with Tulip Winery, Amare had his own line of wines labeled Stoudemire Private Collection. In his collection, there was a limited quantity of 100 bottles of high-end wine comprising Carbarnet Sauvignon and two blends of red wine with each bottle going for $244.99. Other wines produced 1,680 bottles of Stoudemire Grand Reserve and Stoudemire Reserve retailing at $59.99 and $99.99 respectively.
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