# Absolute Baller — Full Corpus > Absolute Baller — stories of people breaking the status quo. Interviews and features on the entrepreneurs, athletes, and creators betting on themselves. Tagline: Stories of People Breaking the Status Quo. Founded 2019. --- ## Travis Kelce's $12M Deal Is His Smallest Paycheck Now URL: https://absoluteballer.com/travis-kelce-business-empire/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-10-03 TL;DR: Travis Kelce re-signed with the Kansas City Chiefs for a 14th NFL season on a one-year, $12 million deal (up to $15 million with incentives), according to NFL.com, after weeks of retirement speculation. It's now the smallest number in his finances: Kelce and his brother Jason signed a three-year, $100+ million distribution deal for their 'New Heights' podcast with Amazon's Wondery in August 2024, and Garage Beer — the light-beer brand the Kelces became co-owners of in June 2024 — was valued at roughly $200 million after a September 2025 investment from Durational Capital Management. He also co-owns the Kansas City steakhouse 1587 Prime with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, which opened in September 2025. Celebrity Net Worth estimates his total net worth at $90 million, as of a July 2026 update. **$12 million.** That's what Travis Kelce just signed up to earn in 2026, re-upping with the Kansas City Chiefs for a 14th NFL season. It is, by a wide margin, the smallest check he's cashing this year. Kelce spent the weeks after Kansas City's 2025 season flirting publicly with retirement. He came back anyway — but the number that mattered more to his bank account wasn't the one the Chiefs offered him. It's the one attached to a podcast, a beer brand, and a steakhouse he built on the side. ## The Decision to Keep Playing Kelce's old deal — a four-year extension signed in 2020 — expired after the 2025 season, the same year the Chiefs missed the playoffs and Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL in Week 15. Kelce told reporters after Kansas City's Week 18 loss that a retirement call would "probably take some time." Head coach Andy Reid, asked about it weeks later, kept it simple: "As long as there's communication, I'm good. That means people want to move forward." Nearly two months after the season ended, Kelce made his call: back for a 14th season, on a one-year contract worth $12 million, with a chance to reach $15 million through incentives, according to NFL.com. It's a real number for one season of football. It's also smaller than every other check on this list. ## The Podcast That Out-Earns the Contract In August 2024, Travis and his brother Jason — the retired Philadelphia Eagles center — signed a three-year deal worth more than $100 million to bring their "New Heights" podcast to Amazon's Wondery, covering global distribution, advertising and merchandise rights. "We couldn't be more excited to team up with Wondery for the next phase of 'New Heights,'" the brothers said jointly. Wondery CEO Jen Sargent put the show's appeal plainly: "'New Heights' on the surface is a sports podcast... but it's become a cultural phenomenon." It's a joint deal split between two brothers and their production company, not a solo Travis Kelce payday — but it still dwarfs what either of them makes playing or coaching football at this point in their careers. ## Garage Beer, Now a $200 Million Company Travis and Jason became co-owners, investors and operators of Garage Beer, a light-beer brand, in June 2024. "It comes down to quality for me... being an owner of Garage Beer and heavily involved in making the best light beer is exciting, man!" Travis said at the time. Jason was blunter: "We are light beer drinkers and Garage is the best light beer." The bet paid off fast. In September 2025, private-equity firm Durational Capital Management took a stake in the company, pushing its valuation to roughly $200 million, according to The Drinks Business and Drinks Intel. CEO Andy Sauer told trade press the brand is on track for $60–70 million in revenue in 2025, up from under $20 million the year before, with sales volume up more than 400% over the past twelve months. Two beer-industry veterans — former Constellation Brands executive Bill Hackett and former Pabst Blue Ribbon chief growth officer Rich Pascucci — joined the board as part of the deal. Kelce doesn't own all of that $200 million; he's one owner among several, alongside Jason, Sauer, and now Durational. But it's still a company worth roughly 13 times his new NFL salary, built in a little over a year. ## 1587 Prime, With the Guy Who Throws Him the Ball Kelce's third active venture sits in downtown Kansas City: 1587 Prime, a steakhouse he co-owns with quarterback Patrick Mahomes in partnership with hospitality group Noble 33. The name combines their jersey numbers — Mahomes' 15, Kelce's 87. "Travis and I have become frequent visitors of Noble 33 restaurants in other cities, so it only made sense to bring something special to our own community in Kansas City," Mahomes said when the project was announced. It opened September 17, 2025 — deliberately timed to Mahomes' 30th birthday — inside the Loews Kansas City Hotel, a 10,000-square-foot, two-floor space with multiple private dining rooms and what's reportedly one of the largest wine collections in Missouri. ## What He's Actually Worth Net worth figures for active athletes vary wildly across the internet, and Kelce's case is no different — this site cites only Celebrity Net Worth's estimate, $90 million as of a July 29, 2026 update, treating it as one outlet's rough figure rather than an audited fact. A more documented number: Spotrac puts his career NFL salary earnings at $111,194,254 through the deal that just expired, a figure built from actual contract filings rather than a guess. Add his new $12 million (or $15 million) 2026 salary, and his on-field career earnings alone cross $123 million — before a dollar of podcast, beer, or restaurant money is counted. Kelce's public profile has only grown since his August 2025 engagement to Taylor Swift, and the brands betting on him clearly aren't worried it's a liability. ## The Bottom Line A $12 million NFL contract would be the headline of most athletes' year. For Kelce, it's the smallest line in a financial picture that includes a nine-figure podcast deal, a stake in a beer brand now valued at $200 million, and a steakhouse he opened with his quarterback. He came back to football for a 14th season. He didn't need to — the money had already moved on without him. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2026: No Women in Forbes Top 50](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) --- ## Giannis Antetokounmpo's $275M Heat Deal Waits Until January URL: https://absoluteballer.com/giannis-antetokounmpo-heat-trade/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-10-01 TL;DR: The Milwaukee Bucks traded Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat for Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakučionis, and a package of draft picks, first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania on June 23, 2026 and finalized July 6, 2026, ending Antetokounmpo's 13-season run as the Bucks' all-time leading scorer and a 2021 champion. Because he arrived via trade, NBA extend-and-trade rules bar the Heat from signing him to a new deal until six months after the trade closed — January 6, 2027, according to Hoops Rumors and ClutchPoints — regardless of any normal extension-eligibility date on the calendar. Once that window opens, he can sign a four-year, roughly $275 million extension if he opts out of his 2027-28 player option, or a shorter, richer-per-year three-year deal worth roughly $214 million if he opts in first. Giannis Antetokounmpo's next contract is already sketched out in dollar figures — four years and roughly $275 million, or three years and roughly $214 million, depending on which box he checks. Nobody can offer it to him yet. Not his new team, not anyone. The rule book says January 6, 2027, and that date doesn't move for anyone, three-time MVP included. It's an unusual kind of limbo for a player at the center of one of the biggest trades in recent NBA history: the money is real, the number is public, and the earliest possible signature is still months away. ## The Trade That Ended 13 Years in Milwaukee ESPN's Shams Charania first reported on June 23, 2026 — the eve of the NBA draft — that the Bucks were sending Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat. The deal became official on July 6, 2026, once the league's free-agency moratorium lifted, according to Hoops Rumors and NBA.com. Milwaukee's return: Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakučionis, the No. 13 pick in that week's draft (used on Nate Ament), two unprotected future first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2030 first-round pick swap, and a 2033 second-rounder, per Hoops Rumors and ESPN's trade breakdown. The Boston Celtics were the other finalist for Antetokounmpo, offering five-time All-Star Jaylen Brown and two first-round picks, according to TSN and NBC Sports Boston — a star-for-star swap the Bucks ultimately passed on in favor of Miami's younger, cheaper roster and draft capital. Antetokounmpo leaves Milwaukee as the franchise's all-time leading scorer, with 21,531 points — more than 7,000 ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's previous mark — and its career leader in rebounds and assists, according to NBA.com. He won two MVP awards, made ten All-Star teams, and delivered the Bucks' first championship in 50 years in 2021, scoring 50 points in the Finals-clinching Game 6 to claim Finals MVP honors. "The city of Milwaukee will always be in my heart," Antetokounmpo said in a farewell video released through NBA.com. "This is my home, and this is a place that I had my kids... It made me the man that I am today. No matter where I am, Milwaukee will always be my city, my team, my family." ## Why the Heat Can't Pay Him Yet Here's the part that doesn't show up in the trade graphics: Miami cannot sign Antetokounmpo to a new contract the moment he walks in the door. Because he arrived via trade rather than re-signing as a free agent, the NBA's extend-and-trade rule requires his new team to wait six months from the date the trade closed — pushing his real eligibility date to January 6, 2027, according to ClutchPoints and Hoops Rumors, regardless of any extension-eligibility date that would otherwise apply on the calendar. Until then, he's playing out the final guaranteed year of the contract he signed in Milwaukee: roughly $58.5 million for 2026-27, with a $62.8 million player option covering 2027-28 that remains entirely his call. Once January arrives, the math splits two ways. If he declines that option, the Heat can offer him a four-year extension worth roughly $275 million. If he exercises it first, he instead qualifies for a shorter three-year deal worth roughly $214 million — a smaller headline number, but a richer one per season, per reporting from ClutchPoints, Hoops Rumors and Protothema. It's the mirror image of the situation [Nikola Jokić](/nikola-jokic-contract-extension/) has set up in Denver, where the holdup is his own choice — he's letting a $278 million offer sit unsigned because waiting gets him more. Antetokounmpo isn't choosing anything. The trade already happened; the number is already public. He's just waiting on the calendar to catch up. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Nikola Jokić Turned Down $278M — He Wants $359.5M Instead](/nikola-jokic-contract-extension/) - [Connor McDavid's $12.5M Deal: Underpaid on Purpose](/connor-mcdavid-contract-extension/) - [Victor Wembanyama's $252M Extension: Turned Down $50M](/victor-wembanyama-contract-extension/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) --- ## Nikola Jokić Turned Down $278M — He Wants $359.5M Instead URL: https://absoluteballer.com/nikola-jokic-contract-extension/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-09-29 TL;DR: Nikola Jokić has been eligible for a four-year, $278 million supermax extension with the Denver Nuggets since June 14, 2026, and hasn't signed it, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin and Front Office Sports. It's the second straight summer he's passed on an extension — he also declined a three-year, roughly $212 million offer in July 2025, per the Associated Press. The reason is arithmetic, not cold feet: by waiting until he can hit free agency in the 2027 offseason, Jokić becomes eligible for a five-year, $359.5 million contract — the largest in NBA history, per ESPN — pushing his career earnings past $720 million. He has said publicly he intends to stay in Denver regardless; he's just in no hurry to sign before the bigger number is on the table. Nikola Jokić has a contract offer sitting in front of him worth $278 million. He hasn't signed it. Not because he's unhappy in Denver — he's said the opposite, repeatedly — but because waiting one more year gets him a bigger number. It's an unusual kind of leverage: a three-time MVP quietly making his own team wait, not to extract a trade or force a bidding war, but because the NBA's own contract rules pay patience. ## The Offer on the Table Jokić became eligible for a four-year, $278 million supermax extension with the Nuggets on June 14, 2026, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin and Front Office Sports' Alex Schiffer. He has not signed it, and by his own account doesn't plan to anytime soon. "My idea and desire is to stay in Denver. I'll probably sign next year," Jokić told reporters, per ESPN. "My desire is to play the rest of my life in Denver." This isn't the first time he's passed on a number. In July 2025, Jokić declined a separate extension worth roughly three years and $212 million, according to the Associated Press' Pat Graham. Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke, at the time, made clear the team understood the calculation at play: "I'm not sure if he's going to accept it or not, because we're also going to explain every financial parameter around him signing now versus signing later." ## Why the Wait Pays The math is straightforward once you see it. Jokić is currently under contract through the 2026-27 season, making roughly $59 million this year, according to Spotrac and Front Office Sports, with a $62.8 million player option for 2027-28. If he extends now, the NBA's rules cap how much a below-market extension can grow year to year. If he instead lets his contract run out and signs as a free agent in the 2027 offseason, he qualifies for a five-year deal calculated off a higher number — $359.5 million, according to ESPN, which would be the largest contract in NBA history. Factor in what he's already banked, and ESPN projects his career earnings crossing $720 million once that deal is signed. It's the inverse of the bet Connor McDavid just made with the [Edmonton Oilers](/connor-mcdavid-contract-extension/) — where taking less money now bought roster flexibility. Jokić isn't taking less. He's making Denver wait so he can take more. ## No Tension, By Design None of this reads as a threat to leave. Every report describes a calm, mutually understood delay rather than a standoff. Jokić has been public and consistent about wanting to finish his career with the only franchise he's ever played for, and the Nuggets have shown no urgency to lock in a lower number before they have to. The team's posture, described by Front Office Sports as unconcerned, reflects a front office that has watched Jokić turn down two extensions now without ever suggesting he'd play the leverage differently — because for a player of his caliber, there's little downside to waiting: the higher number is simply the one the rules make available to him next. He's given the front office every reason to be patient with the wait. His MVP résumé — 2021, 2022 and 2024 — puts him alongside a short list of players with three or more, and Denver's title in 2023 was built around him. ## What He's Actually Worth Net worth figures for active NBA stars are notoriously unreliable, and Jokić's case is worse than most: search his name and you'll find guesses ranging wildly across sites with no visible sourcing or methodology. The one figure from an outlet this site considers credible enough to cite is Celebrity Net Worth's estimate of $120 million — treat that as a rough, unaudited guess rather than fact, not an average of what's floating around online. ## The Bottom Line Jokić isn't hesitating, and he isn't leveraging a trade demand — he's doing arithmetic. A $278 million offer is substantial by any measure, and he's letting it sit unsigned because the NBA's own free-agency rules will hand him a bigger, record-setting deal if he's willing to wait a single year for it. Denver seems to understand that calculation as well as he does, which is why nobody involved is treating the delay as a crisis. The extension will get signed. It just won't be the one currently on the table. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Giannis Antetokounmpo's $275M Heat Deal Waits Until January](/giannis-antetokounmpo-heat-trade/) - [Connor McDavid's $12.5M Deal: Underpaid on Purpose](/connor-mcdavid-contract-extension/) - [Victor Wembanyama's $252M Extension: Turned Down $50M](/victor-wembanyama-contract-extension/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Connor McDavid's $12.5M Deal: Underpaid on Purpose URL: https://absoluteballer.com/connor-mcdavid-contract-extension/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-09-26 TL;DR: Connor McDavid signed a two-year, $25 million extension with the Edmonton Oilers on October 6, 2025 — an AAV of $12.5 million, the exact number he'd carried since 2017, and well below the $14 million his own teammate Leon Draisaitl makes or the $17 million Kirill Kaprizov just signed for in Minnesota, according to NHL.com's own reporting. McDavid proposed the number himself, freeing cap space Edmonton used the same day to sign defenseman Jake Walman. Five months later he led the NHL in scoring for the sixth time — 48 goals, 90 assists, 138 points — tying Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux for second-most Art Ross Trophies ever, behind only Wayne Gretzky. He still lost the Hart Trophy vote to Nikita Kucherov by just 10 points, the closest three-way MVP race since 1995-96, per NHL.com. Connor McDavid had the best case in hockey for asking for a raise. He didn't ask for one. On October 6, 2025, the Edmonton Oilers announced a two-year, $25 million contract extension for their captain — an average annual value of $12.5 million. That's the exact number McDavid signed for back in 2017, in the dead-cap-adjusted, salary-explosion NHL of a decade later. It's less than his own teammate makes. It's nowhere close to what the market had just proven a player of his caliber is worth. And McDavid came up with the figure himself. Five months after signing it, he went out and led the league in scoring for the sixth time. ## The Deal He Signed McDavid was entering the final year of the 8-year, $100 million contract he'd signed on July 5, 2017 — also a $12.5 million AAV — when he and the Oilers agreed to the new two-year extension, per NHL.com's own report. It kicks in for the 2026-27 season and runs through 2027-28, at which point McDavid becomes an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career. The number is strikingly team-friendly by the league's current market. Teammate Leon Draisaitl is in the first season of an 8-year, $112 million deal worth $14 million a year. Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov, coming off a monster season of his own, signed an 8-year, $136 million contract worth $17 million annually. McDavid — by most measures the best player in hockey — will earn less than both of them. He won't even be Edmonton's highest-paid player. "It gives us a chance to continue chasing down what we've been chasing down here with the core guys we have in here, and we have a little bit of money to work with too," McDavid said, explaining the two-year term. "It gives the core guys that have been here a really long time, and guys in this room that have come here, a chance to be a part of something special." Asked about the financial side of it, he was blunter still: "It's about winning, and that's always what I preached, and I think this deal gives both sides what we're looking for." The cap room wasn't hypothetical. The same day the extension was announced, Oilers GM Stan Bowman signed defenseman Jake Walman to a 7-year, $49 million deal — a move the extra flexibility from McDavid's discount made possible. Rival captain Auston Matthews, of the Toronto Maple Leafs, summed up the read around the league: "I think for him, it's all about winning." ## The Season That Followed If there was ever a case that McDavid can be trusted with less, the 2025-26 season made it. He played all 82 games and put up 48 goals, 90 assists and 138 points, finishing eight points ahead of Kucherov to win his sixth career Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer, according to NHL.com. That ties him with Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux for the second-most scoring titles in league history — only Wayne Gretzky, with 10, has more. It was also McDavid's sixth straight 100-point season and the third time he's cleared 130. Across his 11 NHL seasons, he now stands at 409 goals, 811 assists and 1,220 points, per Yardbarker's reporting on the trophy. What he didn't get was the Hart Trophy. Nikita Kucherov, who beat McDavid out with a league-leading 1.71 points per game across 76 games, won it instead — his second career MVP award. The margin was as thin as league voting gets: 1,436 points to McDavid's 1,426, a gap of just 10, with Kucherov edging him 72 first-place votes to 68. It was the first time since the 1995-96 season that all three Hart finalists cleared 25% of the first-place vote, per NHL.com — a three-way race with essentially no separation, decided against the player who'd just outscored the winner by eight points. ## Why the Discount, Actually None of this happens in a vacuum. Edmonton has made the last two Stanley Cup Finals and lost both — to the same team. In 2024, the Panthers beat the Oilers in seven games despite McDavid mounting a historic comeback from down 3-0 in the series; he still won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, just the sixth player ever to win it on the losing side. In 2025, Florida beat Edmonton again, four games to two, repeating as champions. The Oilers haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1990 — the one trophy missing from a résumé that already includes three Hart Trophies (2017, 2021, 2023), five Ted Lindsay Awards, a Rocket Richard Trophy and now six Art Ross Trophies. The two-year term is itself a message. Rather than locking in a long-term below-market deal the way some stars have, McDavid set a short fuse: three seasons, including this seven-year-old contract's final year, to finally win the one thing he hasn't, before he can test unrestricted free agency for the first time. Bowman, Edmonton's GM, downplayed any negotiation over the money at all: the conversations, he said, were "really more of a dialogue and a conversation throughout the last few months and really nothing to do with the contract itself." ## What He's Actually Worth Outside the rink, McDavid's endorsement portfolio includes Adidas, CCM, Rogers, Coca-Cola's BodyArmor and CIBC, among others — brand deals that are well documented but whose individual financial terms mostly aren't public. As for his overall net worth, treat any number you see with real skepticism. Celebrity Net Worth put it at $70 million as of his October 2025 extension; that's one outlet's estimate, built on undisclosed methodology, not an audited figure — the same caveat that applies to nearly every "net worth" number published about active athletes. What's actually verifiable is the contract math: $100 million over the eight years from 2017, followed by this $25 million two-year bridge at the same rate he's been paid since before he turned 21. ## The Bottom Line Most star athletes negotiate for the biggest number the market will bear. McDavid negotiated for a smaller one, on the logic that the team he plays for needs the room more than he needs the raise — and then he went out and proved, statistically, that he's still the best player alive at the same salary he was making in 2019. The Hart voters gave the MVP trophy to someone else by 10 points. The Oilers, with a three-season window and a captain who just left money on the table twice — first in the contract, then in the vote — will take the deal. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Victor Wembanyama's $252M Extension: Turned Down $50M](/victor-wembanyama-contract-extension/) - [NFL Team Valuations 2026: Inside the Record $9.6B Seahawks Sale](/nfl-team-valuations-2026/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) --- ## 2026 World Cup Prize Money: What Spain Actually Won URL: https://absoluteballer.com/2026-world-cup-prize-money/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-09-24 TL;DR: FIFA's December 2025 prize structure paid the 2026 World Cup champion $50 million, out of a $655 million performance pool and $727 million total federation payout. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time (Ferran Torres, 106') to win it; England beat France 6-4 for third, the highest-scoring bronze match in World Cup history. By July 2026, several outlets reported FIFA had quietly enlarged the pool again in April — to an $871 million total, with the champion's share at $51 million — after European federations pushed for more cost coverage; not every outlet agreed on the exact new tier figures. FIFA pays federations, not players, directly; each national association sets its own split. One anonymous Spain player reportedly gave his entire roughly €1 million bonus to Spanish federation staff. **$50 million.** That's what FIFA priced the 2026 World Cup championship at when it announced the tournament's prize structure in December 2025. On July 19, 2026, Spain collected it — beating Argentina 1-0 in extra time on a 106th-minute goal from substitute Ferran Torres, denying Lionel Messi a final shot at a second World Cup and handing Spain its own second star. By the time that check was actually being written, the number on the table had already moved. Several outlets reporting after the final put the champion's share at $51 million, inside a total pool that had grown from $727 million to a reported $871 million — and not every outlet's account of exactly how FIFA got there matches the others'. Here's what's solid, what shifted, and where the money actually goes once it lands. ## What FIFA Actually Set in December 2025 FIFA's own council approved the 2026 World Cup's financial structure on December 17, 2025, in a release confirmed independently by Al Jazeera the same day: a $655 million performance-based prize pool, inside a $727 million total contribution to the 48 participating federations. The per-finish breakdown: | Finish | Prize | |---|---:| | Champion | $50M | | Runner-up | $33M | | Third place | $29M | | Fourth place | $27M | | 5th–8th place | $19M | | 9th–16th place | $15M | | 17th–32nd place | $11M | | 33rd–48th place | $9M | Source: FIFA's own December 17, 2025 media release, cross-checked against Al Jazeera's coverage of the same announcement. Every federation was also guaranteed money before a ball was kicked — qualification and preparation funding on top of whatever it earned on the pitch — a real number regardless of a team's result. FIFA president Gianni Infantino called it "groundbreaking in terms of its financial contribution to the global football community." ## The Final, and the Bronze Match That Out-Scored It Spain's 1-0 extra-time win over Argentina is confirmed on FIFA's own match centre, and by ESPN, NBC News and Yahoo Sports: Ferran Torres scored the only goal in the 106th minute, on Spain's twelfth shot of the night to Argentina's zero. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez set a World Cup final record with 11 saves in the loss. The more chaotic result came a day earlier. England beat France 6-4 in the third-place match — the highest-scoring bronze-medal game in World Cup history, per ESPN's own match record and Fox News's recap — with Bukayo Saka scoring a hat trick. Kylian Mbappé, playing for fourth-place France, used the match to overtake Messi atop the tournament's Golden Boot race. ## Then FIFA's Own Number Moved Here's where the reporting gets messy. In July 2026, after the tournament ended, Fortune (via Associated Press reporters Luis Andres Henao and Graham Dunbar) and Sports Illustrated (Ewan Ross-Murray) both reported a larger total: $871 million distributed to all 48 teams, made up of $703 million in performance-based prize money and $168 million in guaranteed, non-performance funding. Both put the champion's share at $51 million and the runner-up's at $34 million. Fortune's reporting traced the jump to FIFA adding "$100-plus million" in April 2026, after European federations pushed for more cost coverage on top of December's structure. Fox Business, reporting the same week, cited the identical $871 million total — but paired it with December's original per-finish numbers ($50 million champion, $33 million runner-up), not the higher April figures Fortune and Sports Illustrated used. That's a real inconsistency in how outlets reconciled FIFA's own revision, not a rounding difference. Treat any single World Cup prize-money table, including the one above, as a snapshot of the best public reporting at a point in time — not an audited FIFA ledger. The one number every account agrees on is the direction: FIFA made this World Cup pay out more than it originally announced, not less. ## Where the Money Actually Goes: Federations, Not Players None of the figures above land in a player's bank account directly. FIFA pays prize money to each country's national football federation, according to Sports Illustrated — and it's each federation, not FIFA, that decides how much of it reaches the players who actually earned it. That split varies enormously. England's players donate their World Cup match fees to charity, a practice in place since 2007, according to Yahoo Sports — while carrying a separate, much larger performance bonus structure reportedly worth up to £500,000 per player had they won the tournament; they finished third instead. The U.S. Soccer Federation runs the opposite model: since a landmark 2022 collective bargaining agreement, men's and women's World Cup prize money is pooled and split equally between the USMNT and USWNT, regardless of which team actually earns it on the field. Spain's federation, the RFEF, reportedly paid each of its 26 champion-squad players a bonus close to €1 million — matching FIFA's per-federation payout for winning. One of those players didn't keep it. According to Spanish outlet AS, corroborated by Goal.com and Infobae, an anonymous member of the squad gave his full bonus to RFEF staff — the federation employees who spent nearly two months on the ground with the team across the U.S., Mexico and Canada — asking that his name not be attached to the gesture. ## The Actual Takeaway The safest number in this entire story is the one nobody disputes: $9.612 billion changes hands when a single NFL team is sold outright, and a World Cup champion's on-field prize — even at the higher $51 million figure — is a fraction of that. Most of the real money in men's soccer still sits at the club level, in transfer fees and wages, not in FIFA's tournament payouts. What the World Cup actually buys a winning federation is smaller and stranger than the headline totals suggest: a guaranteed nine-figure floor for showing up, a number that FIFA itself revised upward mid-cycle, and a bonus pool that 48 different federations will split 48 different ways before a single player sees a cent of it. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Lionel Messi Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.1 Billion Empire](/lionel-messi-net-worth/) - [Kylian Mbappé Net Worth 2026: Inside His ~$250M Fortune](/kylian-mbappe-net-worth/) - [NFL Team Valuations 2026: Record $9.6B Seahawks Sale](/nfl-team-valuations-2026/) - [Olympic Medal Bonuses 2026: Team USA Ranks Near the Bottom](/olympic-medal-bonuses-2026/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) --- ## NFL Team Valuations 2026: Record $9.6B Seahawks Sale URL: https://absoluteballer.com/nfl-team-valuations-2026/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-09-22 TL;DR: NFL owners unanimously approved the sale of the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks to a group led by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla for $9.612 billion on August 26, 2026 — a record price for any NFL franchise, surpassing the Washington Commanders' $6.05 billion sale in 2023. The deal landed in the middle of a league-wide valuation surge: Forbes' 2026 NFL team valuations put the average franchise at $9.5 billion, up 34% year over year, with the Dallas Cowboys the first team ever valued at $17 billion. Separate valuation series from Sportico and CNBC, using different methodologies, put the Cowboys at $15.5 billion and $16 billion respectively for the same year — a reminder that these figures are informed estimates, not audited prices, except when an actual sale like Seattle's sets one. **$9.612 billion.** That is what NFL owners unanimously approved for the sale of the Seattle Seahawks on August 26, 2026 — the highest price ever paid for a franchise in the league's history. The buyer is Vinod Khosla, the Sun Microsystems co-founder turned venture capitalist, whose wife Neeru becomes the team's controlling owner. He is buying the reigning Super Bowl champion. The Seahawks deal landed in the middle of the biggest single-year valuation jump the NFL has produced in years. Forbes' 2026 team valuations, published two weeks later, put the average franchise at $9.5 billion — up 34% from 2025 — and crowned the Dallas Cowboys the first $17 billion team in league history. Every one of the NFL's 32 franchises is now worth at least $8 billion, on paper. That last phrase — on paper — is the actual story here. Two other major outlets ran their own 2026 NFL valuations and landed on different numbers for the same Cowboys franchise, in the same year, by more than a billion dollars. This is what team ownership economics actually looks like: precise-sounding numbers that are really just competing estimates, until an actual buyer writes an actual check. ## The Real Number: What Khosla Actually Paid for Seattle Unlike every figure in the rest of this piece, the Seahawks sale isn't an estimate — it's a completed transaction. The Khosla family agreed to buy the team from the estate of the late Paul Allen, who had owned the Seahawks since 1997; his sister Jody Allen had managed the franchise since his death in 2018. NFL owners voted to approve the sale at a league meeting in Atlanta on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, at an enterprise value of $9.612 billion, according to the NFL's own announcement. That surpasses the previous record — the Washington Commanders' $6.05 billion sale to a Josh Harris-led group in 2023 — by more than 58%. Under the approved ownership structure, Neeru Khosla is the team's controlling owner, with the couple's son Neal also holding a leadership role, per Yahoo Sports. Vinod Khosla had to divest his roughly 3% stake in the San Francisco 49ers to clear the NFL's cross-ownership rules and complete the deal. "How often do you get to buy a franchise that just won the Super Bowl?" Khosla said, according to NFL.com. "We are incredibly lucky and humbled by this gift." The Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13 in February 2026 to win it. ## Forbes' 2026 List: Every Team Worth at Least $8 Billion Two weeks after the Seahawks sale closed, Forbes published its 2026 NFL franchise valuations on September 9, putting the league's average team value at $9.5 billion — up 34% from $7.1 billion in 2025, according to Forbes' figures as reported by Yahoo Sports. Ten franchises now clear the $10 billion mark, up from none just a few years ago. The Cowboys top the list at $17 billion, their 20th consecutive year as the league's most valuable team, driven by roughly $1.28 billion in 2025 revenue and about $677 million in operating income — a figure Forbes and Bleacher Report both describe as making Dallas the most profitable franchise in professional sports, of any league. | Rank | Team | 2026 Valuation | YoY Change | |---|---|---:|---:| | 1 | Dallas Cowboys | $17.0B | +31% | | 2 | Los Angeles Rams | $13.5B | +29% | | 3 | New York Giants | $12.0B | +19% | | 4 | New England Patriots | $10.6B | +18% | | 5 | San Francisco 49ers | $10.5B | +22% | | 6 | Miami Dolphins | $10.4B | +39% | | 7 | New York Jets | $10.35B | +28% | | 8 | Las Vegas Raiders | $10.3B | +34% | | 9 | Philadelphia Eagles | $10.25B | +23% | | 10 | Atlanta Falcons | $10.1B | +59% | | 14 | Seattle Seahawks | $9.6B | +43% | | 32 | Cincinnati Bengals | $8.0B | +52% | Source: Forbes' 2026 NFL valuations, as reported by Yahoo Sports (Sept. 9, 2026); top-four figures corroborated by Bleacher Report's separate report on the same Forbes list. The Seahawks themselves rank 14th on Forbes' list at $9.6 billion — coincidentally almost identical to what Khosla's group actually agreed to pay for the team, a rare case where an outlet's estimate and a real purchase price landed in the same neighborhood. The Bengals, at the bottom of the list, are valued at exactly $8 billion — a number that, per Forbes' own comparison relayed by Yahoo Sports, "would have tied for the league lead" as recently as 2022. The biggest movers by percentage weren't the league's marquee franchises. The Falcons rose 59% to $10.1 billion, the Bengals rose 52%, and the Seahawks — even before accounting for the actual sale — were up 43% on Forbes' model alone, reflecting both the Super Bowl run and rising NFL-wide media-rights revenue. ## When Three Valuations Don't Agree Here is where it gets less tidy. Forbes isn't the only outlet that runs its own NFL valuation model, and the others didn't land on Forbes' numbers. A Sportico-derived 2026 valuation reported by CBS Sports put the Cowboys at $15.5 billion — $1.5 billion below Forbes' figure — and pegged the league average at $9.34 billion, up 31% year over year, versus Forbes' $9.5 billion and 34%. CNBC ran its own separate valuation, crediting NFL business reporter Michael Ozanian, and arrived at a third number entirely: $16 billion for the Cowboys, with the Los Angeles Rams at $14.5 billion and the New York Giants at $12.5 billion — all higher than the corresponding Sportico-derived figures, but still below Forbes'. None of these three outlets is wrong in any provable sense, and none of them is simply copying the others. Forbes, Sportico, and CNBC each build proprietary models from a mix of revenue multiples, stadium economics, media-rights allocations, and recent comparable sales — and none of them, absent a team disclosing its books, has access to a franchise's actual financial statements. The result is what happened here: three credible outlets, three different price tags, on the same 32 teams, in the same month. That is exactly why the Seahawks sale is worth more attention than a line in a valuation table. $9.612 billion isn't a model's output — it's what NFL owners actually voted to approve, and what a real buyer agreed to actually pay. Every other number in this piece is an informed guess dressed up as a fact. That one is a receipt. ## Why This Matters Beyond Spreadsheets A rising valuation on paper doesn't pay a mortgage, but it changes what ownership itself is worth to the people who hold it — which is a big part of why [athletes are increasingly buying into franchises](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) rather than just cashing playing-career paychecks. Michael Jordan's $275 million Hornets purchase in 2010 looked expensive at the time; the team he eventually sold for roughly $3 billion is a fraction of what a single NFL franchise like the Seahawks just changed hands for, in a league where the bottom-ranked team is now worth $8 billion on the low end of anyone's estimate. The gap between three outlets' Cowboys numbers — $15.5 billion to $17 billion — is itself a useful reminder for anyone reading a "team X is worth $Y billion" headline anywhere in sports media: unless it's attached to an actual sale, treat it the way you'd treat any other expert estimate. Directionally useful, not literally precise. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Olympic Medal Bonuses 2026: Team USA Ranks Near the Bottom](/olympic-medal-bonuses-2026/) --- ## Victor Wembanyama's $252M Extension: Turned Down $50M URL: https://absoluteballer.com/victor-wembanyama-contract-extension/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-09-19 TL;DR: Victor Wembanyama signed a five-year, $252 million maximum rookie-scale extension with the San Antonio Spurs on July 10, 2026, according to the team's own announcement. He could have taken a 30% 'supermax' tier worth up to $303 million — ESPN's Shams Charania reported he deliberately chose the smaller 25% tier instead, a decision that costs him roughly $50 million and is intended to preserve the Spurs' salary-cap flexibility to build around him. The deal came weeks after Wembanyama was named unanimous Western Conference Finals MVP and the Spurs lost the NBA Finals to the New York Knicks in five games, including the worst blown lead in Finals history. In August 2026, ESPN reported Nike separately extended his shoe deal into a signature sneaker line, terms undisclosed. He just won Defensive Player of the Year, unanimously. He just led his team to its first NBA Finals in over a decade. And when the Spurs put a $303 million contract in front of him, Victor Wembanyama signed for less. Not a token amount less. Roughly $50 million less — money the collective bargaining agreement says he was already eligible for, that he handed back to give his own front office more room to build around him. ## The Deal He Signed On July 10, 2026, the San Antonio Spurs announced a multi-year contract extension with Wembanyama: five years, $252 million, running through the 2031-32 season with a player option in the final year. ESPN's Shams Charania, who first reported the agreement, said it came together after Wembanyama and the Spurs "went through multiple frameworks" before landing on the final structure. Per HoopsHype's reported breakdown, his base salary climbs year over year — from roughly $43.3 million in 2027-28 up to about $59.1 million in the option season. It is, on its own, one of the largest rookie-scale extensions in NBA history. It is also, deliberately, not the largest one available to him. ## The Money He Didn't Take Rookie-scale extensions are capped at 25% of the salary cap by default. There's a second tier — commonly called the "Derrick Rose Rule," after the player whose situation first prompted it — that unlocks up to 30% of the cap if the player earns a qualifying honor the following season: an All-NBA selection, Defensive Player of the Year, or MVP. Wembanyama had already cleared that bar. He was the unanimous Kia Defensive Player of the Year for 2025-26 and an All-NBA selection, which made him eligible for a supermax extension Charania reported could have reached $303 million. He signed for the smaller tier instead — a gap of roughly $50 million once escalators are included, according to ESPN's reporting, corroborated across Yahoo Sports, Bleacher Report and HoopsHype. The reasoning reported around the deal was straightforward: a bigger number for Wembanyama means less room under the cap for San Antonio to build a roster around him. At 22, with a rookie extension that already runs into his late 20s, he traded a portion of his own ceiling for the Spurs' flexibility to sign or re-sign the rest of the roster in the years ahead. ## What He'd Just Done to Earn It The extension didn't happen in a vacuum. On May 31, 2026, the NBA named Wembanyama the unanimous Western Conference Finals MVP after he averaged 27.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.7 blocks across a seven-game series win over Oklahoma City — the Spurs' first trip to the NBA Finals since 2014. "Winning the Larry O'Brien, it's a childhood dream," he said afterward. "It's a lifetime chance." He didn't get it that year. San Antonio lost the Finals to the New York Knicks 4-1, and the series is remembered less for the final score than for Game 4: the Spurs blew a 29-point lead and lost 107-106, the largest collapse in NBA Finals history. Wembanyama still averaged 26 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.6 blocks a game across the series. Five weeks after that loss, he signed a contract that gave money back to the team that had just fallen short with him on the floor. ## The Sneaker Deal That Followed The Spurs extension wasn't the only business news attached to Wembanyama this summer. In early August 2026, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Nike — his primary footwear and apparel partner, on a deal that had been due to expire that October — signed him to a long-term extension that includes his own signature shoe line. The financial terms were not disclosed, and no release date or shoe name has been reported yet. It builds on a partnership portfolio that already includes Louis Vuitton, where Wembanyama has been a brand ambassador since 2024, according to WWD. Between the shoe line and the fashion-house tie-in, his outside income is diversifying well beyond the court — even as the number on his own basketball contract is, by his own choice, smaller than it had to be. ## What He's Actually Worth Here is where this story has to stop being precise. Public "net worth" trackers for Wembanyama range from roughly $10 million to $55 million, a spread wide enough to be close to meaningless, and the sites publishing those numbers rarely show how they got there. None of them is corroborated closely enough to print as fact. What can be documented is simpler and, in its own way, more interesting: a rookie-scale salary through 2026-27, a $252 million extension starting the year after, and a player who had a larger number available and turned it down. ## The Bottom Line Most contract stories are about how much a star got. Wembanyama's is about the $50 million he didn't take — a voluntary discount, reported in detail by ESPN and corroborated across the NBA press corps, signed weeks after the worst loss of his career and the best individual honors of it. The Spurs got a max extension for less than the max. Wembanyama got to decide, for the first time in his career, exactly how much team-building flexibility his own game was worth. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Connor McDavid's $12.5M Deal: Underpaid on Purpose](/connor-mcdavid-contract-extension/) - [Nikola Jokić Turned Down $278M — He Wants $359.5M Instead](/nikola-jokic-contract-extension/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Stephen Curry Net Worth 2026: Inside the $240 Million Fortune Behind His Record $60 Million NBA Season](/stephen-curry-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Highest-Paid College Athletes 2026: $6.5M NIL Boom](/highest-paid-college-athletes-2026/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Olympic Medal Bonuses 2026: Team USA Ranks Near the Bottom URL: https://absoluteballer.com/olympic-medal-bonuses-2026/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-09-17 TL;DR: At the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, medal bonuses varied enormously by country. Singapore paid $788,907 for gold (per USA Today's 25-country survey), while Team USA's Operation Gold program paid $37,500—15th out of 25 nations surveyed. Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain pay no cash bonus at all. The U.S. gap is partly offset by a separate, non-competitive program: a $100 million gift from financier Ross Stevens now guarantees every U.S. Olympian $200,000 in long-term financial security per Games, regardless of whether they medal. **$788,907.** That is what Singapore pays an athlete for winning a single Olympic gold medal. **$37,500** is what the United States pays for the same medal. Same podium, same anthem, same flag raised—a 21x difference in the check that follows it home. That gap is the real story behind the medal table at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: not who won, but how differently the world's nations chose to pay for it. ## The Full Spread: Gold Medal Bonuses by Country USA Today's Mark Giannotto surveyed 25 countries that responded on the record about their 2026 Winter Olympics medal bonus programs, reporting the results via Yahoo Sports on February 16, 2026. CNBC ran its own comparison the same week, and Forbes' Brett Knight separately confirmed the top of the list—all three converge on the same broad picture, even where exact dollar figures differ slightly by a few thousand dollars (likely a function of which day's exchange rate each outlet used to convert local currency). | Rank | Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |---|---|---:|---:|---:| | 1 | Singapore | $788,907 | $394,497 | $197,292 | | 2 | Hong Kong | $767,747 | $383,877 | $191,938 | | 3 | Malaysia | $256,000 | $77,000 | $26,000 | | 4 | Kazakhstan | $250,000 | $150,000 | $75,000 | | 5 | Bulgaria | $150,000 | $120,000 | $60,000 | | 15 | United States | $37,500 | $22,500 | $15,000 | | — | Norway, Sweden, Great Britain | $0 | $0 | $0 | Source: USA Today's country-by-country survey, via Yahoo Sports (Mark Giannotto, Feb. 16, 2026), cross-referenced against CNBC (Feb. 16, 2026) and Forbes (Brett Knight, Feb. 7 and Feb. 22, 2026). Several countries in the full 25-nation survey are omitted here for length; USA Today's own analysis put the international average at roughly $123,737 for gold, $72,451 for silver, and $44,549 for bronze. Italy—host nation for these Games—paid its medalists in the same general range as Bulgaria, with outlets reporting figures between roughly $210,000 and $214,000 for gold depending on the exact conversion date. Poland's payment structure is genuinely disputed across outlets (reported gold figures ranged from roughly $211,000 to $355,000), but multiple sources agree Poland also throws in non-cash prizes on top of any cash bonus: a car, a furnished apartment, and jewelry, according to USA Today's survey. ## Team USA's Operation Gold, Explained The U.S. figures aren't a one-off number pulled from a news survey—they come from Operation Gold, the USOPC's standing medal-bonus program, administered in partnership with each sport's national governing body (NGB pages, including U.S. Paralympics Swimming's, list the same figures). At an Olympic or Paralympic Games, Operation Gold pays: - **Gold:** $37,500 - **Silver:** $22,500 - **Bronze:** $15,000 Those rates are unchanged from the 2022 Beijing and 2024 Paris Games. In non-Olympic years, Operation Gold pays out much smaller sums (roughly $6,250–$7,500 for a first-place finish at a world championship, depending on the year in the four-year cycle)—a reminder that the Olympic-year number is already the high end of what the program pays. Unlike Singapore's Sport Excellence Scholarship or Kazakhstan's state-backed bonus system, Operation Gold isn't funded by the U.S. government. The USOPC receives no direct federal funding for its operations, relying instead on private donations, sponsorships, and licensing revenue—one reason American commentators have long noted the U.S. bonus sits closer to the bottom of the list than the top, even as Team USA regularly tops the actual medal count. ## The Bigger American Number Isn't a Medal Bonus At All If you only compare gold-medal checks, the U.S. looks stingy. But in March 2025, the USOPC and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation announced a $100 million gift from financier Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Holdings Group—described by the USOPC as the largest single gift in its history. The resulting Stevens Financial Security Awards don't pay for medals at all. Every U.S. Olympian and Paralympian who competes at Milano Cortina 2026 becomes eligible for **$200,000 per Games**, split into two pieces: $100,000 "to Live," accessible at age 45 or 20 years after the athlete's qualifying Games (whichever comes later), paid out over four years; and $100,000 "to Protect," a guaranteed benefit paid to the athlete's family or named beneficiaries. An athlete who competes across three Games accumulates $600,000 under the program, whether or not they ever reach a podium. It runs through at least the 2032 Games, and athletes earning more than $1 million a year are not eligible. USOPC Chair Gene Sykes framed the problem it's meant to solve in the announcement: "As they approach the end of their competitive journeys—often as young as 25 or 30—many face a daunting reality: the lack of financial savings." Stevens put it more simply: "I do not believe that financial insecurity should stop our nation's elite athletes from breaking through to new frontiers of excellence." It is not a counter to Singapore's $788,907 gold-medal check, and it doesn't reach every athlete the way a per-medal bonus does—it pays out decades later, not on the podium. But it explains why the flat "$37,500 vs. $788,907" comparison, true as it is, doesn't capture the entire financial picture for a Team USA athlete in 2026. ## What This Actually Tells You Two things can be true about Olympic money at once. First: if you measure purely by what a country hands an athlete for standing on the top step, the spread is enormous and not remotely correlated with national wealth—Singapore and Hong Kong, two of the smallest delegations at Milano Cortina, out-pay the world's largest economy by more than 20x. Second: Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain, all consistently strong Winter Olympics performers, pay nothing at all in direct medal bonuses, funding their programs instead through pre-Games athlete stipends and federation support—proof that a $0 bonus line doesn't mean a country undervalues its athletes, just that it structures the value differently. The U.S. sits in an unusual middle position: a modest, decades-old flat-rate bonus system, now layered with a philanthropically funded, career-spanning financial-security program that no other country surveyed appears to have an equivalent of. Which system actually serves an athlete better—a bigger check the week they medal, or a guaranteed six-figure sum twenty years later—depends entirely on what they need money for, and when. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2026: No Women in Forbes Top 50](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/) - [Highest-Paid College Athletes 2026: $6.5M NIL Boom](/highest-paid-college-athletes-2026/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Caitlin Clark Net Worth 2026: Salary Raise vs. Nike Deal URL: https://absoluteballer.com/caitlin-clark-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-09-12 TL;DR: Caitlin Clark's WNBA salary jumped from $78,066 in 2025 to $528,846 in 2026, according to ESPN's Alexa Philippou — a 577% raise driven by the new WNBA collective bargaining agreement's 'EPIC' provision, built to fast-track breakout young players toward max pay. It is still a fraction of her outside income: her eight-year, $28 million Nike deal, signed in 2024, anchors an endorsement portfolio Sportico estimated at $16.1 million in 2025 alone. On October 1, 2026, Nike releases her first signature shoe, the 'Caitlin 1' — making Clark only the third active WNBA player, after A'ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu, with her own signature sneaker. **$78,066.** That is what Caitlin Clark's WNBA employer paid her in 2025, according to ESPN's Alexa Philippou. Her 2026 salary, under a brand-new collective bargaining agreement: **$528,846** — a 577% raise, and still the smaller number on her balance sheet. Clark's money story in 2026 has two separate engines. One is a league that just rebuilt its entire pay structure around keeping stars like her from being paid like rookies. The other is a shoe deal that was already paying her more before the league caught up — and is about to put her name on a sneaker box for the first time. ## The Raise the League Wrote Just for Her Clark's salary was on track to reach only $85,973 in 2026 under her original rookie-scale contract. Instead, she is making $528,846 — a jump ESPN attributed to a new CBA provision called EPIC, for "Exceptional Performance on Initial Contract," designed specifically to fast-track breakout young players toward near-max pay instead of making them serve out a fixed rookie scale while a league builds around their popularity for free. The provision exists because of a problem Clark made impossible to ignore: a first-overall pick who sold out arenas, drove record television ratings, and became the face of a league's fastest-growing season, all while earning less than a WNBA front-office assistant. The new CBA's answer was to write a rule that gets money to players like her faster, tied to performance rather than tenure. ## What the League Actually Rebuilt The raise sits inside a much bigger restructuring. The WNBA Board of Governors ratified a seven-year CBA on March 24, 2026 — running through the 2032 season — with the league's own announcement quoting Commissioner Cathy Engelbert calling it "the beginning of a bold new era of the WNBA." The WNBPA had ratified the deal the prior week, and the long-form agreement was executed May 22, 2026. The headline structural change, reported consistently across CBS Sports and NBC Sports: a revenue-sharing system, the first in league history, giving players roughly 20% of league revenue without requiring specific trigger thresholds to be hit first. The per-team salary cap jumps from $1.5 million to $7 million in year one, climbing toward $10 million by the deal's end. "It redefines what it means to be a professional in this league," WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said. Vice president Breanna Stewart called it "transformational... it's going to build and help create a system where everybody is getting exactly what they deserve." Clark's $528,846 is one line item inside that system. It is also, by a wide margin, still the smallest number in her income. ## The Nike Deal That Made the Raise Look Small Nike signed Clark to an eight-year, $28 million contract in April 2024, before she had played a single WNBA game — after she fielded competing offers from Adidas and Under Armour following the expiration of her college NIL deal. That contract alone pays out at roughly $3.5 million a year, more than six times her new, dramatically raised league salary. Sportico estimated Clark's total 2025 income at $16.1 million, almost all of it from endorsements rather than her WNBA paycheck — a gap that made her, by a wide margin, the highest-paid player in the league regardless of what she was scoring on the court. Her sponsor list beyond Nike includes Wilson Sporting Goods, State Farm, Gatorade, and several others, the same pattern this site has tracked across [the highest-paid female athletes of 2026](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/): the league check funds the career, and the brand is what actually compounds. ## The Caitlin 1s: Three Years in the Making On October 1, 2026, Nike releases Clark's first signature basketball shoe, the "Caitlin 1." She has described the design process as starting at the end of her senior year at Iowa — meaning the shoe on shelves this fall is the product of more than three years of development. "When I saw the final product, it was kind of one of those moments where you have those moments in life and you're like, 'Dang, like that's the one,'" Clark said, adding that she'd challenged Nike to build something she'd be "super, super proud of." It is a short list she's joining. As of this release, only two other active WNBA players — A'ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu — have their own Nike signature shoe. For a league whose commercial growth is still concentrated in a handful of breakout stars, Nike's bet on Clark's shoe is a bet on the same handful of names driving the WNBA's next stage of growth. ## What She's Actually Worth Annual income is not the same thing as accumulated wealth, and net worth estimates for an athlete three years into a pro career vary more than most. Celebrity Net Worth put Clark's fortune at roughly $20 million in 2026; other outlets estimate anywhere from $10 million to $30 million, a spread that reflects how much of her value sits in a Nike contract that pays out over eight years rather than in a bank balance today. There is no public filing that settles it, and this site treats every one of those figures as an outlet's estimate, not a fact. ## The Bottom Line Caitlin Clark's WNBA salary just went up nearly sixfold, and the new CBA that produced that raise is a genuine structural shift for the entire league. None of it changes who is actually paying her: a Nike contract signed before her rookie season still dwarfs her league salary by a factor of six, and the shoe it produces this October will likely outearn a full CBA-era WNBA season on its own. The league finally rebuilt its pay structure around players like Clark. Nike built hers first. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2026: No Women in Forbes Top 50](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Highest-Paid College Athletes 2026: $6.5M NIL Boom](/highest-paid-college-athletes-2026/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Lewis Hamilton Net Worth 2026: F1's First $100 Million Year URL: https://absoluteballer.com/lewis-hamilton-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-09-05 TL;DR: Lewis Hamilton earned an estimated $100 million in Forbes' 2026 measuring period—the first time any Formula 1 driver has cleared nine figures in a single year, beating the $82 million he made at Mercedes in 2021. The number arrived alongside his move to Ferrari, where his contract reportedly bundles a base salary, performance bonuses, a joint investment fund with Ferrari parent company Exor worth more than $272 million, and a clause directing roughly a quarter of certain salary components to Mission 44, the education charity he founded in 2021. None of that money came from results: Hamilton's first season in Ferrari red produced zero Grand Prix wins and zero podium finishes, the worst statistical season of his career. The Sunday Times Rich List 2026 puts his overall net worth at £435 million (his fortune rose roughly £50 million over the prior year), even as his on-track form lagged behind his earning power. **$100 million.** That is what Lewis Hamilton earned in Forbes' 2026 measuring period—the first time any Formula 1 driver has ever cleared nine figures in a single year. His car, in its first season wearing Ferrari red, did not win a single race. The two facts sit side by side in Hamilton's 2026 story, and neither cancels the other out. One is the product of a contract built more like a business plan than a driver deal—layered with bonuses, an investment fund, and a charitable-giving clause. The other is a reminder that Formula 1's biggest paycheck in history still had to be earned on a season where the results didn't come. ## The $100 Million Season Forbes credited Hamilton with an estimated **$100 million** over its 2026 measuring period, split roughly $70 million from his Ferrari salary and performance bonuses and $30 million from endorsements and outside ventures—a breakdown that places him tenth on [Forbes' 2026 list of the world's highest-paid athletes](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/), behind names like Cristiano Ronaldo, Canelo Álvarez, and Shohei Ohtani. The number matters beyond the ranking. It is the highest total any Formula 1 driver has ever recorded in a single year, surpassing the $82 million Hamilton made in 2021 during his final peak seasons at Mercedes. Motorsport has never produced a nine-figure earner before Hamilton, in any year, for any driver. ## Leaving Mercedes for a Childhood Dream Hamilton's record year is inseparable from the move that set it up. In February 2024, after 11 seasons and six of his seven world championships won at Mercedes, Hamilton announced he was leaving to join Ferrari starting in 2025. "I feel incredibly fortunate, after achieving things with Mercedes that I could only have dreamed of as a kid, that I now have the chance to fulfil another childhood dream. Driving in Ferrari red," Hamilton wrote in his announcement. "Mercedes has been a huge part of my life since I was 13 years old, so this decision has been the hardest I've ever had to make." It was also, commercially, one of the biggest trades in sports business history. Ferrari's stock rallied on the news, and the switch instantly became one of the most-watched storylines in Formula 1—a seven-time champion, still competitive, walking away from the most successful team in the sport's modern era to chase the one prize his career had never included: a championship in Ferrari colors. ## A Contract Built Like a Business Plan What Ferrari offered Hamilton went well past a racing salary. Formula 1 outlets including PlanetF1 and GPFans have reported that his deal runs through 2027, with a unilateral option to extend into 2028, and that his 2025 pay package alone was worth roughly $87 million—with the full multi-year agreement's reported value, including bonuses and business terms, running as high as $446 million. Two features of the structure stand out. Reports from Motorsport Week and PlanetF1 describe a joint investment fund, worth more than $272 million, set up through Exor—the Agnelli family holding company that controls Ferrari—with Hamilton serving as an ambassador for the fund's investments outside of racing. And Formula 1 outlets reported in December 2025 that roughly 25% of certain salary components in the deal are directed to **Mission 44**, the education and employment charity Hamilton founded in 2021 with an initial $20 million personal pledge to improve opportunities for young people from underrepresented backgrounds. Ferrari's payments to its driver, in other words, are structured to fund his philanthropy at the same time they fund his racing. It is a contract shape that has more in common with an equity-and-royalty deal than a traditional sports salary—closer to how [LeBron James built his business empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) than to how most drivers get paid. ## The Most Expensive Winless Season in F1 History None of that financial architecture showed up in the results. Hamilton's first season at Ferrari, in 2025, produced zero Grand Prix wins and zero podium finishes across 24 races—his worst full statistical season since he entered the sport. He picked up a single sprint-race win in China, scored 156 points, and finished sixth in the drivers' championship; his best Grand Prix result all year was fourth place, at Emilia Romagna. For a seven-time world champion who joined Ferrari specifically to chase the title the team was built to deliver, a winless year was a hard start. Results began to turn the following season—ESPN reported Hamilton recording back-to-back podium finishes at Ferrari in 2026, calling them "just the beginning." Whether that recovery closes the gap between what Hamilton is paid and what he has won in red is still an open question. What is not in question is that Ferrari, and Forbes, priced him as a $100-million-a-year asset before he delivered a single trophy in their colors. ## Net Worth: What the Sunday Times Says Beyond the annual earnings number, the Sunday Times Rich List 2026 put Hamilton's overall net worth at **£435 million**—roughly $550 million at prevailing exchange rates—up about £50 million from the year before and enough of a jump to move him 56 places up the list. Other outlets estimate his fortune anywhere between $450 million and $550 million; the spread is typical for athletes whose wealth is built mostly from privately negotiated contracts and investments rather than public salary figures. That fortune traces back further than the Ferrari deal. Hamilton has spent more than a decade building a commercial portfolio well beyond racing—fashion collaborations, a production company, and stakes across property and other ventures—on top of what is already, by any measure, the best-compensated driving career in the sport's history. The Ferrari contract didn't create Hamilton's wealth; it is the latest and largest layer on top of it. ## The Bottom Line Lewis Hamilton's 2026 is a study in how far athlete pay has drifted from athlete performance. He became the first Formula 1 driver ever to earn nine figures in a year, backed by a Ferrari contract that reads more like a diversified holding-company arrangement than a driver's deal—complete with its own investment fund and a built-in charitable-giving mechanism. He did it during the most disappointing season of racing results in his career. Ferrari bet $100 million a year that the seven-time champion still has more titles in him. So far, the business side of that bet has paid off handsomely. The racing side is still being decided. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Shohei Ohtani Net Worth 2026: Inside His $150M Fortune](/shohei-ohtani-net-worth/) - [Roger Federer Net Worth 2026: The Billion That Slipped](/roger-federer-net-worth/) - [Kylian Mbappé Net Worth 2026: Inside His ~$250M Fortune](/kylian-mbappe-net-worth/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Roger Federer Net Worth 2026: The Billion That Slipped URL: https://absoluteballer.com/roger-federer-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-08-27 TL;DR: Roger Federer's net worth is estimated at roughly $1.1 billion as of his March 2026 debut on Forbes' World's Billionaires List, built mainly on a 2.5–3% equity stake in Swiss sportswear brand On Holding (acquired in 2019), a 10-year, $300 million Uniqlo deal signed in 2018, and long-running endorsements with Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, and Lindt on top of $130.6 million in career prize money. He first crossed the billion-dollar line around August 2025. On August 11, 2026, On Holding's stock fell roughly 19% in a single session after the company missed quarterly sales expectations, and Forbes' real-time tracker put Federer's net worth at $952.4 million—knocking him back below the billionaire threshold and making him a case study in how equity-built athlete fortunes can be worth a billion dollars one week and considerably less the next. For a few months in 2026, Roger Federer belonged to one of the smallest clubs in sports: athletes who are also billionaires. Then, on a single Tuesday in August, a shoe company's earnings report took that title away. It is a strange kind of wealth story—not a scandal, not a bad investment, not even really bad news for the underlying business. Just a reminder of what it means when an athlete's fortune stops being made of endorsement checks and starts being made of stock. ## The $1.1 Billion Debut Federer made his first appearance on Forbes' official World's Billionaires List in March 2026, with an estimated net worth of roughly **$1.1 billion**. He had crossed the billion-dollar threshold on Forbes' real-time tracker roughly seven months earlier, in August 2025, joining a short list of athletes—among them [Michael Jordan](/michael-jordan-net-worth/), [LeBron James](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/), [Tiger Woods](/tiger-woods-net-worth/), and [Cristiano Ronaldo](/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/)—who have ever reached ten figures. What made Federer's path unusual is that almost none of it came from a paycheck. His on-court career earned him an estimated **$130.6 million** in prize money—a serious number, but a fraction of what [Canelo Álvarez made in a single year](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) recently. Federer's billion came from somewhere else entirely: a shoe company he helped build. ## The On Holding Bet In 2019, three years before he retired, Federer partnered with **On**, a small Swiss running-shoe brand, taking an equity stake reported at roughly 2.5–3% and lending his name and design input to signature footwear. It was an unusual move for an athlete at his level—most stars license their name to an established giant rather than take equity in a challenger brand. On went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 and grew into one of the fastest-expanding performance footwear companies in the world, with a market capitalization that has been estimated well into the tens of billions of dollars. Federer's early stake, worth relatively little at the time he signed, compounded into an estimated **$400–500 million** position by the time he crossed the billionaire threshold—the single largest asset in his portfolio, and the one that did the heaviest lifting in getting him there. ## The Rest of the Portfolio On is the headline, but it is not the whole story. Federer's other major income streams: - **Uniqlo.** After leaving Nike in 2018, Federer signed a 10-year clothing deal with the Japanese retailer reportedly worth **$300 million**, running through 2028—a contract that continues to pay out four years into his retirement. - **Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, and Lindt.** Long-running endorsement relationships that, at his commercial peak, were estimated to bring in significant annual income independent of tennis results. - **Team8.** In 2013, Federer co-founded the sports management company Team8 with his longtime agent Tony Godsick, giving him more direct control over his commercial deals than the traditional agency model allows. Team8's remit has since expanded into event ownership, including the Laver Cup, the team tennis event Federer helped create. The pattern echoes what other athletes on the [richest-athletes list](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) have done: convert athletic-era leverage into equity and infrastructure that outlasts a playing career. Federer's version is a shoe company instead of Jordan's Nike royalty or LeBron's Fenway stake—but the underlying move is identical. ## The August Wobble On August 11, 2026, On Holding reported second-quarter net sales of 850.4 million Swiss francs (about $1.04 billion)—up 13% year over year, a genuinely strong growth number. It just wasn't strong enough: analysts had expected roughly 878.4 million francs, and the market punished the miss hard. On's share price fell approximately **19% in a single trading session**. Because Federer's fortune is now concentrated in a single publicly traded stock, the drop showed up in his net worth almost immediately. Forbes' real-time billionaires tracker put his estimated net worth at **$952.4 million** as of that afternoon—a loss of at least $52 million in a matter of hours, and enough to knock him back below the billion-dollar line he had only recently crossed. Nothing about Federer's own finances changed that day. He didn't sell a stake, take on debt, or make a bad bet. A shoe company he owns a small piece of grew 13% instead of the growth rate Wall Street had priced in, and that was enough to erase, on paper, more money than most people earn in a lifetime. ## Why This Kind of Billion Is Different Compare Federer's fortune to [Michael Jordan's](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) $4.3 billion, built on a Nike royalty stream that pays out at roughly the same rate whether Nike's stock is up or down that week, or [Magic Johnson's](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) insurance-company fortune, which doesn't reprice every time a headline breaks. Federer's wealth is real, but it is also *marked to market* in a way theirs largely is not—which is exactly why a single earnings miss at a company he doesn't run can move his net worth by nine figures in an afternoon. That volatility cuts both ways. On's long-term growth story is what created Federer's fortune in the first place; a single bad quarter taking him back under $1 billion doesn't undo the underlying bet, and On's shares have room to recover the way they climbed in the first place. But it is a useful data point for anyone tempted to treat "billionaire athlete" as a permanent label rather than a snapshot—one more reminder, alongside [why so many pro athletes go broke](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) in the other direction, that paper wealth and cash flow are not the same thing. ## The Bottom Line Roger Federer's fortune—built on a shoe company bet almost nobody else in tennis was willing to make, a decade-long Uniqlo deal that outlived his career, and $130.6 million in prize money that turned out to be the smallest part of the equation—remains one of the more interesting wealth stories in sports. Whether Forbes counts him as a billionaire on any given Tuesday now depends less on anything Federer does and more on how On Holding's stock trades. As of August 2026, that number reads $952.4 million. It has been over $1 billion before, and given how it got there, there is no reason to think it won't be again. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Cristiano Ronaldo Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.4 Billion Empire](/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Lionel Messi Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.1 Billion Empire He Built Alongside Football](/lionel-messi-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Highest-Paid College Athletes 2026: $6.5M NIL Boom URL: https://absoluteballer.com/highest-paid-college-athletes-2026/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-08-22 TL;DR: Miami quarterback Darian Mensah holds the highest confirmed NIL valuation in college sports at $6.5 million, per On3's July 2026 switch to a deal-based model. He's followed by Kentucky's Milan Momcilovic and Louisville's Flory Bidunga (both $6M), Texas QB Arch Manning ($5.4M), and a cluster at $4.2M. The real story underneath the names: the House v. NCAA settlement now lets schools pay athletes directly, up to a $20.5 million cap in 2025-26, stacked on top of — not instead of — traditional brand-and-collective NIL money. **$6.5 million.** That's the confirmed NIL deal now attached to Darian Mensah, Miami's transfer quarterback — the highest valuation of any college athlete in America, ahead of players who've spent years building a national brand. Mensah threw his first pass for the Hurricanes this season. The number itself is startling. What's more startling is how normal it's become to see one. Two years after the House v. NCAA settlement cleared the way for schools to pay athletes directly, college sports has quietly built a compensation system that pays some 19- and 20-year-olds more than most NFL rookies — through two separate pipelines running at once, not one. Here's who's actually earning it, and why the math behind the numbers changed twice in the past two years. ## 1. Darian Mensah — $6.5 Million Mensah transferred to Miami as one of the most sought-after quarterbacks in the portal, and his $6.5 million valuation is now the highest confirmed figure On3 tracks in any sport. It carries a green checkmark in On3's system — meaning it's a verified contract number, not a projection of what Mensah could theoretically be worth to a brand. ## 2. Milan Momcilovic — $6 Million Momcilovic shot an NCAA-best 48.7% from three-point range at Iowa State last season, then took his name out of the NBA Draft and re-entered the transfer portal — a decision that turned into a bidding process between Kentucky and Louisville. Kentucky won, at a confirmed $6 million, making the 6-foot-8 forward the highest-valued player in college basketball. ## 3. Flory Bidunga — $6 Million Bidunga transferred from Kansas to Louisville at the same $6 million confirmed valuation, part of a roster Louisville is reportedly spending roughly $20 million to build. Two basketball programs paying seven figures for a single transfer is itself a marker of how far the market has moved since the first NIL deals were signed in 2021. ## 4. Arch Manning — $5.4 Million Manning's $5.4 million made him the highest-valued player in any sport heading into 2026, before Mensah's and the two big men's confirmed deals overtook it. As Texas's starting quarterback and the most recognizable surname in football, Manning's number reflects national brand value as much as on-field production — the same dynamic that made him a marketing story before he'd played a full college season. ## 5–6. AJ Dybantsa and Jeremiah Smith — $4.2 Million Each Dybantsa, a BYU forward, and Smith, Ohio State's star wide receiver, sit in a tie at $4.2 million — a reminder that basketball and football both produce top-tier NIL earners, even outside the quarterback position that otherwise dominates this list. ## The Part That's Actually New: Schools Are Now Paying Directly NIL money — brands and collectives paying athletes for their name, image and likeness — has existed since 2021. What changed in July 2025 is the House v. NCAA settlement: schools that opt in can now pay athletes directly out of athletic-department revenue, up to a capped amount. That cap started at roughly $20.5 million per school for 2025-26, calculated as 22% of average Power Five athletic revenue, and is projected to reach about $21.3 million for 2026-27 — climbing toward an estimated $32.9 million by 2034-35 as the formula compounds. A new oversight arm, the College Sports Commission, polices it. The settlement also required the NCAA and Power Five conferences to pay $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes who were barred from NIL deals before 2021. The critical detail most coverage glosses over: **revenue sharing didn't replace NIL — it stacked on top of it.** An athlete can now collect a direct school payment *and* sign outside deals with brands or collectives simultaneously. That's the actual reason valuations roughly doubled in a single cycle. It isn't that one pool of money got bigger. It's that two pools now run in parallel, and On3's methodology finally caught up to measuring both at once. ## Why On3's Numbers Suddenly Look Different On3, the industry's dominant tracker, switched its NIL Valuation model on July 1, 2026 — from an algorithm estimating an athlete's marketing potential to a deal-based model reporting confirmed contract value, flagged with a green checkmark when a number is verified. It's a meaningful shift: the old model measured what a brand *might* pay a given athlete. The new one measures what a school or collective *actually did* pay. That's why several of the numbers above read higher, and more volatile, than the NIL rankings from a year earlier — they're not the same measurement. ## The Outlier: Livvy Dunne's Money Has No Revenue-Share Behind It Every name above plays a sport that generates the media rights and ticket revenue funding direct school payments — football or basketball. LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne's $4.1 million valuation, the highest of any female college athlete by a wide margin, is built on a different foundation entirely: American Eagle, Vuori, Motorola, Nautica, and a multi-million-dollar partnership with the platform Passes. Gymnastics isn't one of the revenue-share sports, so none of that $4.1 million comes from a school check — it's pure brand value, assembled the same way [Coco Gauff and the highest-paid female athletes](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/) built theirs, just four years earlier in the career. LSU basketball guard Flau'jae Johnson, signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation and partnered with Puma and Amazon, leads women's college basketball specifically at $1.5 million. ## The Actual Lesson in the List None of these athletes have played a professional game. Several haven't finished a full college season at their current school. What they've already built — verified contracts, brand portfolios, in Momcilovic's and Bidunga's cases entire transfer decisions driven by valuation math most front offices would recognize — is the exact instinct that separates the athletes who [convert a playing career into lasting wealth](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) from the roughly 80% of NFL retirees who face financial trouble within two years of their last game. The players on this list are negotiating like professionals before they're eligible to be drafted as one. That head start compounds the same way [Michael Jordan's ownership stakes](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) did — except it now starts at 19, not 40. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2026: No Women in Forbes Top 50](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Kylian Mbappé Net Worth 2026: Inside His ~$250M Fortune URL: https://absoluteballer.com/kylian-mbappe-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-08-20 TL;DR: Kylian Mbappé's net worth is estimated at roughly $250 million in 2026, with public estimates ranging from about $180 million to $300 million. Forbes credited him with an estimated $95 million in earnings over its 2026 measuring period—about $70 million on the field and $25 million off it—ranking him 12th among the world's highest-paid athletes. His Real Madrid deal, signed as a free agent in 2024, reportedly carries a gross salary near €31 million a year (roughly €15–16 million net after tax) plus a signing bonus reported between $107 million and $134 million spread across the five-year contract, and—unusually for Real Madrid—lets him keep roughly 80% of his image rights. Off the pitch he earns from Nike, EA Sports, Dior, Hublot, and Oakley, and he is building an investment portfolio through his firm Coalition Capital, which owns an 80% stake in French club SM Caen and has backed Sorare, health insurer Alan, and the France SailGP team. At 27, in a World Cup year, he is one of the few active athletes on a credible path toward the billion-dollar tier already reached by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Kylian Mbappé's [Real Madrid](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) contract made headlines for what he *gave up*: he walked away from Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent in 2024, leaving a reported nine-figure loyalty bonus on the table, and took a pay cut to join the club he had wanted since childhood. So how is a player who took a pay cut still one of the dozen highest-paid athletes on Earth? The answer is that the salary was never the whole picture—and increasingly, it isn't even the most interesting part. ## Kylian Mbappé's 2026 Earnings, at a Glance Forbes credited Mbappé with an estimated **$95 million** over its 2026 measuring period, placing him **12th** on its list of the world's highest-paid athletes. The split, per Forbes: roughly **$70 million** on the field—salary, bonuses, and club image-rights agreements—and about **$25 million** off it, from endorsements, licensing, appearances, and his business interests. That off-field figure has been climbing: Forbes' earlier 2025 estimate put his off-pitch income at $20 million, so the $25 million mark reflects a genuinely growing commercial and investment footprint rather than a one-off spike. For context, he sits behind the sport's two established money machines. Forbes ranks [Cristiano Ronaldo](/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/) as the world's top earner from any sport at an estimated $300 million, with [Lionel Messi](/lionel-messi-net-worth/) around $140 million. Mbappé, a decade or more younger than both, is the next soccer name on the earnings curve behind them. ## The Real Madrid Deal: Smaller Salary, Bigger Ownership Mbappé signed a five-year contract with Real Madrid in the summer of 2024. His reported gross salary sits near **€31 million a year**—roughly €600,000 a week—which makes him the highest-paid player in La Liga. After Spain's taxes, that nets to an estimated **€15–16 million** a year, materially less than he was taking home in Paris. Two structural details explain why the move still made financial sense. First, the **signing bonus**. Real Madrid reportedly agreed to pay Mbappé a bonus of between **$107 million and $134 million**, spread across the length of the contract—a lump sum layered on top of the annual salary that softens the headline pay cut considerably. Second, and more telling, the **image rights**. Real Madrid is famous for pooling and controlling its players' commercial image rights; it is one of the club's most closely guarded policies. Mbappé reportedly retained roughly **80% of his own image rights**—an arrangement the club rarely grants. That concession is the quiet key to his finances: it means the endorsement empire he built in Paris travels with him, and the upside flows to *him*, not the institution. ## The Endorsement Portfolio If the Real Madrid salary is smaller than you'd expect, the off-field income is why it doesn't matter. Mbappé's endorsement roster spans categories rather than concentrating in one: **Nike** (footwear and apparel), **EA Sports** (gaming), **Dior** (fashion), **Hublot** (watches), and **Oakley** (eyewear), among others. Forbes pegged the off-field cash at roughly **$25 million** for the 2026 period. His Nike relationship alone is reported in the €14 million-a-year range—one of the richest boot deals in the sport. The broader strategy is high volume across many brand categories rather than a single mega-partnership, which spreads his commercial risk and keeps his face in front of audiences well beyond football. ## Coalition Capital: Building an Investor, Not Just an Endorser The most forward-looking part of Mbappé's finances isn't a sponsor logo—it's a balance sheet. He invests through **Coalition Capital**, his personal investment firm, structured under a holding company called **Interconnected Ventures**. Where many athletes lend their name to deals, Mbappé is increasingly taking equity. The portfolio so far: - **SM Caen.** In 2024, Coalition Capital acquired an **80% controlling stake** in the French club SM Caen, in a deal reported at €15–20 million—making Mbappé a majority club owner while still an active player, and putting him in the small club of [athletes who own sports teams](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/). - **Sorare.** He took an early stake in the licensed fantasy-football platform back in 2022. - **Alan.** He invested in the Paris-based health insurer Alan, a company that has since been valued in the billions—a bet well outside the usual athlete comfort zone of apparel and media. - **France SailGP Team.** Coalition Capital invested in France's entry in the global sailing league, extending his sports-ownership footprint beyond football entirely. Analysts describe the approach as strategic rather than passive—an athlete operating with the logic of a diversified fund. That distinction matters for his net worth: endorsement checks are income, but equity stakes are *wealth* that can compound long after his playing career ends. It is a very different playbook from the one that leaves so many stars broke; our feature on [why pro athletes go broke](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) is largely a catalog of the mistakes Mbappé is structurally avoiding. ## Why the Net Worth Number Is a Range, Not a Figure Public estimates put Mbappé's 2026 net worth at roughly **$250 million**, but you'll see numbers anywhere from about **$180 million to $300 million** depending on the source. That spread isn't sloppiness—it's honest uncertainty. Two of his biggest assets are genuinely hard to price from the outside. His retained image rights are a private, ongoing revenue stream, not a public salary line. And his Coalition Capital equity stakes—especially in fast-moving private companies like Alan—are worth whatever their next funding round says they're worth, which can move by tens of millions. Any single-dollar net-worth figure for a 27-year-old with a private investment vehicle should be read as a well-informed estimate, not a bank statement. ## On the Pitch: The 2025–26 Season Behind the Money Commercial value follows performance, and Mbappé kept delivering. In 2025–26 he won the **Pichichi Trophy** as La Liga's top scorer with **25 goals**, plus the league's Golden Boot—his second straight Pichichi, a back-to-back feat matched in La Liga over the past four decades only by Ronaldo and Messi. Across two seasons at Real Madrid he has scored 56 league goals in 65 appearances. The individual honors came despite a frustrating team campaign—Real Madrid lost the title race to Barcelona and exited the Champions League before the final—and despite Mbappé missing stretches with a knee injury. For sponsors, though, the story is simple: he remains one of the two or three most marketable footballers alive, entering a **2026 World Cup summer** as captain of France, with his global profile at its peak. ## The Bottom Line Mbappé's fortune is a snapshot of an athlete still on the way up. At 27, he earns an estimated $95 million a year, is worth somewhere around $250 million, and has quietly assembled the ownership structure—retained image rights, a controlling stake in a pro club, equity in tech and insurance—that turns a great salary into lasting wealth. He is not a billionaire, and he won't be tomorrow. But unlike the names he trails on the [Forbes list](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/), whose fortunes are built on twenty years already banked, Mbappé's biggest earning years are almost certainly still ahead of him. The pay cut he took to sign for Real Madrid may end up being one of the more profitable decisions of his career. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [2026 World Cup Prize Money: What Spain Actually Won](/2026-world-cup-prize-money/) - [Cristiano Ronaldo Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.4 Billion Empire](/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/) - [Lionel Messi Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.1 Billion Empire](/lionel-messi-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Shohei Ohtani Net Worth 2026: Inside His $150M Fortune URL: https://absoluteballer.com/shohei-ohtani-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-08-15 TL;DR: Shohei Ohtani earned an estimated $127.6 million in Forbes' 2026 highest-paid athletes measuring period—an MLB record—but only $2.6 million of it came from his Los Angeles Dodgers salary. The rest, a record-shattering $125 million, came from endorsements, appearances, licensing, and memorabilia, roughly $40 million ahead of the next-best figure in sports (LeBron James' $85 million). The gap traces back to his 10-year, $700 million Dodgers contract, in which Ohtani agreed to defer $680 million of his own money—without interest—until 2034 through 2043, a structure he proposed himself to give the Dodgers payroll flexibility and to shield the deferred income from California state tax if he later leaves the state. His estimated net worth of roughly $150 million looks small next to a $700 million contract because almost none of that contract has actually been paid out yet. **$127.6 million.** That is what Shohei Ohtani earned in Forbes' 2026 measuring period, the highest total ever recorded by a Major League Baseball player. **$2.6 million** of it came from playing baseball. The other $125 million—98% of his total—came from sponsors, appearances, licensing deals, and memorabilia. It is the largest single-year endorsement haul any athlete has ever posted, in any sport, and it is roughly $40 million ahead of the next name on the list. Ohtani's $700 million Dodgers contract made headlines for its size. What actually explains his finances in 2026 is the deal's structure—and the fact that almost none of that $700 million has been paid to him yet. ## Shohei Ohtani's 2026 Forbes Earnings, at a Glance Forbes credits Ohtani with **$127.6 million** over the 2026 measuring period, reclaiming the MLB earnings crown after Juan Soto held it briefly in 2025. The split: $2.6 million from his Los Angeles Dodgers salary and $125 million from endorsements, appearances, licensing, and memorabilia—an on-field/off-field ratio unlike anything else on the [Forbes top 10 highest-paid athletes list](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/), where he ranks fifth overall. ## The $700 Million Contract Nobody Else Would Sign In December 2023, Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers—still the largest deal in the history of professional sports. The number that actually matters for his day-to-day finances is a different one: $680 million of it, 97% of the total, is deferred. Under the terms, Ohtani receives just **$2 million a year** in salary from 2024 through 2033. The remaining $68 million he is owed annually does not arrive until 2034, and it pays out—without interest—through 2043, the year Ohtani turns 49. The structure was reportedly Ohtani's own idea, not the Dodgers'. Deferring the bulk of his salary let the front office spend freely on the rest of the roster without the full $70 million-a-year hit counting against the payroll in real time (for luxury-tax purposes, MLB values the deal at roughly $46 million a year, discounted for the deferral). Ohtani, by his own account, cared more about building a team that could win championships around him than about being paid on a normal schedule—and the Dodgers won the World Series in both 2024 and 2025. There is also a tax angle. Ohtani pays California state income tax on money earned while he plays for the Dodgers. If he lives outside California—or outside the US—when the deferred payments begin arriving in 2034, he could avoid California's 13.3% top marginal rate on all $680 million of it. Whether that plays out depends on where Ohtani is living a decade from now, but the possibility was part of the calculation from the start. ## A Record-Breaking Endorsement Empire If the Dodgers deal explains why Ohtani's *salary* is small, the endorsement side explains why his *earnings* aren't. Ohtani has roughly two dozen sponsors split between the US and Japan, a list that includes **New Balance**, **Japan Airlines (JAL)**, **Seiko**, **Kowa**, **Kosé**, **Hugo Boss**, and **Dip Corporation**—with probiotics brand **Kirin** added in December 2025, after the Dodgers' second consecutive championship. Forbes estimated the total value of that portfolio, plus licensing and memorabilia, at $125 million for the 2026 period—about $40 million more than the next-highest figure in sports, LeBron James' $85 million in off-court income. That gap is the real headline. Ohtani isn't just the best-endorsed baseball player alive; for one measuring period, he out-earned every athlete on the planet off the field, in any sport, by a wide margin. His commercial appeal spans two markets most athletes only reach one of—American baseball fandom and Japan's intense following of its biggest sports export—and his crossover as the sport's only elite two-way player since Babe Ruth gives sponsors a story no single-discipline star can match. ## Net Worth: Why $150 Million Looks Small Next to $700 Million Public estimates put Ohtani's net worth at approximately **$150 million** in 2026, up from around $50 million just a year earlier. Set against a $700 million contract, that number looks strangely modest—until you remember how little of the contract has actually been collected. Ohtani has been paid $2 million a year in Dodgers salary since 2024, plus whatever endorsement income he has banked along the way. The $680 million deferral is a future claim, not current wealth—it has no more effect on his net worth today than an unvested pension does on a worker's bank balance. His fortune right now is built almost entirely from endorsements, not from the contract that made him famous for being rich. That will change, on a fixed and predictable schedule, starting in 2034. Assuming the deferred payments arrive as structured, Ohtani stands to collect $68 million a year for a decade after his playing career winds down—a guaranteed post-retirement income stream most athletes, even elite ones, never have. It is a very different wealth curve from a boxer like [Canelo Álvarez](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/), whose fortune depends entirely on how many more times his body can absorb a championship-caliber fight, or a retired star like [Serena Williams](/serena-williams-net-worth/), whose net worth now compounds through venture investing rather than prize money. ## Back on the Mound: The 2025 Season That Changed the Math Ohtani's commercial value in 2026 is inseparable from what he did on the field in 2025—the first year he returned to pitching after 2023 elbow surgery had limited him to hitting only. He came back throwing harder than before: a career-high 98.4 mph average fastball velocity and a 101.7 mph max, touching 100 mph 49 times across the regular season and postseason. At the plate, he hit 55 home runs, and in October he delivered what many called one of the greatest single-game performances in postseason history—three home runs, six scoreless innings, and ten strikeouts in the game that clinched the NLCS against Milwaukee. He then reached base a major-league postseason record nine times in a single World Series game. The Dodgers repeated as champions, and Ohtani won his third consecutive MVP award. None of that shows up directly in the $127.6 million Forbes figure, which measures the 12 months before the ranking was published. But it is exactly the kind of season that keeps a $125 million endorsement portfolio growing rather than shrinking—sponsors pay for a two-way superstar who is actively rewriting what the position can do, not a name attached to a contract signed two years ago. ## What Happens When the Deferrals Start The honest answer is: nobody knows yet what Ohtani's finances look like in 2034, and that is by design. His camp built a structure that trades a normal salary now for a guaranteed, tax-advantaged income stream later—a bet that his off-field earning power in his 20s and 30s would outpace what a conventional $70 million annual salary could have delivered anyway. So far, the bet is paying off. Ohtani is, for now, the most commercially valuable baseball player who has ever lived, earning more from sponsors alone than most athletes earn in total. The $700 million number will keep making headlines for another eight years. The actual money—almost all of it—is still on its way. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Stephen Curry Net Worth 2026: Inside the $240 Million Fortune Behind His Record $60 Million NBA Season](/stephen-curry-net-worth/) - [Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: How Boxing's Highest Earner Built a $300M Fortune on His Own Terms](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) - [Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: Richest Female Athlete](/serena-williams-net-worth/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List URL: https://absoluteballer.com/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-08-08 TL;DR: A growing list of current and former athletes have converted playing careers into team ownership stakes rather than just paychecks. Michael Jordan turned a $275 million Hornets purchase into a $3 billion exit in 2023. LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Serena Williams, Kevin Durant, Patrick Mahomes and David Beckham all hold stakes in pro franchises across the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, NWSL, WNBA and Formula 1. The pattern: equity compounds long after a playing career ends; a salary does not. **$3 billion.** That is what Michael Jordan's stake in the Charlotte Hornets was worth when he sold it in 2023 — roughly ten times what he paid for majority control in 2010. The Hornets never won more than a single playoff series under his ownership. The team was still the best investment of his post-playing career, by a wide margin. Jordan is the most famous case, but he is no longer the only one. A growing roster of current and former athletes have quietly stopped treating team ownership as a retirement hobby and started treating it as the actual plan — buying equity in the leagues that made them famous while they still have the leverage, the relationships, and the capital to do it. Some hold outright control. Most hold a slice. All of them are betting the same way: that a stake in a franchise compounds long after the sport stops paying them to play it. Here is who owns what, and why it matters more than any single contract. ## Michael Jordan — The Blueprint Jordan bought majority control of what was then the Charlotte Bobcats in 2010 for $275 million, becoming the NBA's first former player to hold majority ownership of a franchise — and its first Black majority owner. He rebranded the team the Hornets in 2014 and ran it for 13 mostly unremarkable seasons on the court. None of that mattered to the exit. In 2023, Jordan sold his majority stake to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall — joined by Daniel Sundheim, Ian Loring, and investors including rapper J. Cole and country singer Eric Church — at an approximate $3 billion valuation. He kept a minority stake. The math: a 13-year hold that returned roughly 10x on the purchase price, on top of whatever he'd already made from Nike. (Full breakdown: [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/).) ## LeBron James — Buying Into Fenway James has never owned an NBA team. His ownership exposure runs through a minority stake in Fenway Sports Group, a partnership he entered in 2011 — years before "athlete turned owner" was a well-worn career arc. FSG's holdings include the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and part of RFK Racing's NASCAR operation. It is a smaller, quieter bet than Jordan's Hornets purchase, but it has compounded in the background for over a decade alongside his SpringHill Company and his lifetime Nike deal — together the reasons James became the first active NBA player to reach billionaire net worth. (Full breakdown: [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/).) ## Magic Johnson — The Deepest Portfolio in Sports No athlete-turned-owner has spread the bets wider than Magic Johnson. He was part of the $2 billion group that bought the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012, became a part-owner of the WNBA's LA Sparks and MLS's LAFC in 2014, and has since added stakes in the NWSL's Washington Spirit and — through Josh Harris's ownership group — a 4% stake in the NFL's Washington Commanders, having invested a reported $242 million when that $6.05 billion sale closed in 2023. Four leagues, four different sports, one portfolio. It's a major reason Johnson's net worth sits at roughly $1.6 billion today — ahead of several athletes who earned far more during their playing careers. ## Alex Rodriguez — From Yankees Contract to NBA Governor Rodriguez and business partner Marc Lore agreed to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx from Glen Taylor for $1.5 billion in 2021. What followed was a four-year fight: Taylor tried to back out of the deal, and the dispute went to arbitration before the NBA Board of Governors finally approved the sale to Lore and Rodriguez. Rodriguez is now the franchise's alternate governor, with Lore serving as governor — a former MLB star turned NBA decision-maker, sitting on the other side of the table from the front offices he used to negotiate against as a player. ## Serena Williams — Dolphins and Angel City FC Williams and her sister Venus have held a minority stake in the NFL's Miami Dolphins since 2009 — one of the longest-running athlete ownership positions in this list, and one that predates most of the current wave by more than a decade. In 2020, Williams joined the investment group behind Angel City FC, the NWSL expansion club that became one of the most valuable franchises in women's soccer within a few years of kickoff. (Full breakdown: [Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: Richest Female Athlete](/serena-williams-net-worth/).) ## Kevin Durant — Building Across Three Continents Durant bought a 5% stake in MLS's Philadelphia Union, later joined the ownership group behind Paris Saint-Germain, and expanded into women's soccer as part of the group behind NWSL's Gotham FC. It's a distinctly global bet compared to most of this list — Durant's equity sits across American soccer, European soccer, and the NWSL simultaneously, treating team ownership the way a diversified investor treats an index fund. ## Patrick Mahomes — The Kansas City Portfolio Mahomes has built the broadest local footprint on this list without leaving his adopted hometown: stakes in the Kansas City Royals (MLB), Kansas City Current (NWSL) and Sporting Kansas City (MLS), plus a stake in Formula 1's Alpine team and other investments including the Miami Pickleball Club. He is still an active NFL quarterback — the equity is accumulating well before his playing career ends, not after it. ## David Beckham — The Expansion Play That Paid Off Beckham took a different route: rather than buying into an existing franchise, he co-founded one. His 2007 LA Galaxy contract included an option to buy an MLS expansion franchise at a fixed, below-market price — a clause few noticed at the time. He exercised it in 2018, launching Inter Miami CF alongside Jorge and Jose Mas. The value of that early option became obvious in 2023, when Beckham's club signed Lionel Messi and Inter Miami's valuation jumped accordingly. (See how that move fits into [Messi's own business empire](/lionel-messi-net-worth/).) ## The Rest of the Roster The list keeps growing. Dwyane Wade holds stakes in the Utah Jazz, the WNBA's Chicago Sky, and Real Salt Lake. Shaquille O'Neal became a minority owner of the Sacramento Kings in 2013. More athletes join every offseason, across more leagues, earlier in their careers than the generation before them did. ## Why This Beats a Paycheck The pattern across every name on this list is the same one that shows up whenever an athlete builds wealth that outlasts their playing career: none of them are counting on a salary to make them rich. [Most pro athletes don't build lasting wealth at all](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) — nearly 80% of NFL retirees face serious financial trouble within two years of leaving the league. The athletes who avoid that outcome tend to share one habit: they stop thinking of their playing income as a wage and start treating it as capital to deploy. A contract pays out over a few years and then stops. An ownership stake in a franchise — especially one bought before a league's valuations take off, the way Beckham's Inter Miami option did or Jordan's 2010 Hornets purchase did — can keep compounding for decades after the last game is played. That is the actual lesson buried in this list: the biggest financial move most of these athletes ever made wasn't a contract negotiation. It was deciding to sit on the other side of the table. --- **Related reading on Absolute Baller:** - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: The $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.4B Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: Richest Female Athlete](/serena-williams-net-worth/) - [Lionel Messi Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.1 Billion Empire He Built Alongside Football](/lionel-messi-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [NFL Team Valuations 2026: Record $9.6B Seahawks Sale](/nfl-team-valuations-2026/) --- ## Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2026: No Women in Forbes Top 50 URL: https://absoluteballer.com/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-08-06 TL;DR: Coco Gauff led all female athletes with $33 million in 2025 earnings—yet fell more than $20 million short of the $54.6 million cutoff for Forbes' 2026 top-50 highest-paid athletes list, which had zero women for the third year running. WTA players dominate the women's earnings list, while the real growth story is on the endorsement side: Deloitte projects women's elite sports will hit $3 billion in 2026 revenue, up 340% since 2022. **$54.6 million.** That was the cutoff to make Forbes' 2026 list of the world's 50 highest-paid athletes. Coco Gauff, the highest-earning woman in sports, made an estimated $33 million in 2025—more than $20 million short. For the third year running, not a single woman made the list. It is not close, and it has not been close for a while. But the number that matters more than the shutout is the one moving underneath it: Deloitte projects women's elite sports will generate roughly $3 billion in revenue in 2026, up 340% since 2022. The gap at the very top is real. The gap in the money flowing toward women's sports overall is closing fast. Here is where female athlete earnings actually stand—and why the two headlines are both true at once. ## 1. Coco Gauff — $33 Million Gauff topped Forbes' female earnings list for the second consecutive year, with an estimated $25 million of her $33 million coming from endorsements rather than prize money. Her deals span New Balance, UPS, and Rolex, among others—brand partners betting on her as tennis's next long-term commercial anchor now that she is a multiple Grand Slam champion still in her early twenties. The split matters. Most of Gauff's income is not tied to how deep she runs at any single tournament—it is contracted, recurring, and largely insulated from a bad quarter on the court. That is the same principle that built the men's fortunes on [Forbes' highest-paid list](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/): earnings that outlast performance are worth more than earnings that depend on it. ## 2. Aryna Sabalenka — $30 Million The world No. 1 earned an estimated $30 million, with the bulk coming from tournament prize money befitting tennis's top-ranked player, supplemented by deals including Porsche and Gucci. Sabalenka's case is the clearest counterexample to the idea that female athletes only get paid through endorsements—when a woman's on-court results are dominant enough, the prize money alone competes with a mid-tier men's contract. ## 3. Iga Swiatek — $25.1 Million Swiatek's $25.1 million reflects a career built on sustained Grand Slam success rather than a single breakout year—she has been a fixture at the top of the women's game since 2022. Her income mixes prize money with a long-running On and Rolex portfolio, brand relationships built for durability rather than a single hot season. ## 4. Zheng Qinwen — $22.6 Million Zheng's $22.6 million marks the continued rise of Chinese tennis as a commercial force, echoing the market Li Na opened a decade earlier. Her Olympic gold in 2024 accelerated a sponsorship pipeline into one of the largest consumer markets in the world—proof that a single career-defining result can reprice an athlete's entire earning trajectory almost overnight. ## 5–8. Madison Keys, Naomi Osaka, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula Rounding out the top of the list: Madison Keys ($13.4 million), Naomi Osaka ($12.5 million), Elena Rybakina ($12.5 million), and Jessica Pegula ($12.3 million). Osaka's presence is notable on its own—years removed from her peak ranking, her endorsement book (Nike, Nissan, Levi's) has proven durable enough to keep her among the highest earners in women's sports on brand value alone, not just results. Six of the eight names above play tennis. Equal prize money at all four Grand Slams, a genuinely global WTA calendar, and decades of Title IX-driven investment in the sport in the United States give tennis a structural head start that most other women's sports are still building toward. ## The $20 Million Gap Nobody Is Closing Yet Line up Gauff's $33 million against Jannik Sinner's $54.6 million cutoff and the gap is stark: even the best-paid woman in sports would need to earn 65% more just to graze the men's top 50. That gap comes from two places. Team sports pay women through fundamentally smaller league structures—the WNBA's total revenue is a fraction of the NBA's, which caps what any single women's team-sport salary can be, regardless of talent. And outside individual sports like tennis and golf, prize money and appearance fees for women still lag the equivalent men's events in most disciplines. Neither of those structural gaps closes with one good season. They close with media rights deals, expanded broadcast windows, and league revenue—the same mechanisms that built the men's numbers over decades, not the same mechanisms that built any single athlete's individual paycheck. ## Where the Gap Is Actually Closing: The WNBA The more interesting number is not on the Forbes list at all. Caitlin Clark's reported WNBA salary is roughly $114,000—a figure that looks almost like a rounding error next to her estimated $16.1 million in 2025 endorsement income, anchored by an eight-year, $28 million Nike deal signed in 2024. Her league paycheck is not the story. Her brand value is. (Full breakdown, including the new CBA raise and her October 2026 signature shoe: [Caitlin Clark Net Worth 2026: Salary Raise vs. Nike Deal](/caitlin-clark-net-worth/).) Clark is not alone. Sabrina Ionescu, Paige Bueckers, and Angel Reese now each earn $9 million or more off the court—figures that put them in range of plenty of NBA rotation players, despite WNBA salaries that remain far below their NBA counterparts. That is the same mechanism that built [LeBron James's business empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) and [Michael Jordan's $4.3 billion fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/): the league check funds the career, but the brand is what actually compounds. Women's basketball is now running that exact playbook, just a few years into a market that is repricing in real time. Deloitte's math backs it up: women's elite sports are projected to generate roughly $3 billion in revenue in 2026, up 25% from 2025's $2.4 billion and roughly 340% since 2022. That is not top-50-list money yet. It is the pipeline that eventually produces it. ## Earnings Aren't the Same Thing as Wealth One clarification worth making: this list measures a single year of income, not accumulated net worth—the same distinction that separates [Forbes' highest-paid athletes](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) from [the richest athletes of all time](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/). On that longer measure, [Serena Williams](/serena-williams-net-worth/) remains the standard: Forbes put her career net worth at $400 million in June 2026, the largest fortune any female athlete has built, powered as much by her investment portfolio and business stakes as by anything she earned on court. Gauff, Sabalenka, and Clark are still early in that same arc. The women topping this year's earnings list are the ones with the leverage to start building the next Serena-style fortune—if they treat the current wave of brand money as capital rather than a paycheck. The shutout at the top of the men's list is a real number. So is the $3 billion moving beneath it. Both are true, and only one of them is standing still. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Highest-Paid College Athletes 2026: $6.5M NIL Boom](/highest-paid-college-athletes-2026/) - [Caitlin Clark Net Worth 2026: Salary Raise vs. Nike Deal](/caitlin-clark-net-worth/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: How She Became the Richest Female Athlete of All Time](/serena-williams-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Floyd Mayweather Net Worth 2026: Why Nobody Agrees URL: https://absoluteballer.com/floyd-mayweather-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-08-04 TL;DR: Floyd Mayweather's net worth in 2026 is genuinely disputed, with public estimates ranging from roughly $50 million to $1.2 billion. He is widely credited with over $1.1 billion in career fight earnings—more than any boxer in history, built on a $300 million 2015 Forbes measuring period around his Manny Pacquiao fight and a $260 million purse against Conor McGregor in 2017. But 2026 has produced two lawsuits that explain the wide estimate range: a February filing accusing Showtime and former executive Stephen Espinoza of helping longtime advisor Al Haymon skim $340 million from his fight earnings, and a May filing accusing former investment manager Jona Rechnitz and business partner Ayal Frist of a $175 million fraud scheme involving cash, jewelry, and real estate. Together the suits claim more than half a billion dollars of Mayweather's fortune is missing or misappropriated—money no outside estimate can account for either way. Look up "Floyd Mayweather net worth" and you will get an answer between **$50 million** and **$1.2 billion**, depending on which site you land on. That is not a rounding error. That is a billion-dollar spread on one man's fortune, and in 2026 there is finally a real explanation for it: Mayweather is in court accusing the people who managed pieces of his money of stealing more than half a billion dollars of it. Floyd Mayweather is, by nearly every account, the highest-grossing prizefighter who has ever lived. He is also, in 2026, a plaintiff in two separate fraud lawsuits that make the case for why his net worth is so hard to pin down—not because journalists are bad at math, but because a meaningful chunk of what he earned may not be where it is supposed to be. ## Mayweather's Net Worth in 2026, at a Glance Public 2026 estimates for Floyd Mayweather's net worth span **$50 million to $1.2 billion**, with most mainstream trackers landing between $400–450 million. Mayweather is retired from ranked competition, so unlike [Canelo Álvarez](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) or [Serena Williams](/serena-williams-net-worth/), he does not appear on Forbes' 2026 highest-paid athletes list. The unusually wide spread instead reflects the two 2026 lawsuits below, in which Mayweather alleges more than half a billion dollars was diverted or stolen by people who managed pieces of his fortune. See the [full 2026 rankings for athletes still competing](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/). ## The Purses That Built the Legend Mayweather's case for being boxing's all-time highest earner rests on two fights, a decade of leverage, and a name—**Money**—that he built his entire public persona around. Forbes credited him with roughly **$700 million** in career earnings heading into 2017. That year, his exhibition against UFC champion Conor McGregor added an estimated **$260 million** purse to the total—one of the largest single-fight paydays in combat sports history, for a bout most of the sport's own analysts expected him to win easily. Two years earlier, his long-delayed superfight against Manny Pacquiao anchored a 12-month Forbes measuring window in which Mayweather earned an estimated **$300 million**, enough to top that year's list of the world's highest-paid athletes outright, ahead of every soccer player, basketball player, and golfer on the planet. Add it up across a 21-year professional career, and the widely cited figure for Mayweather's total career fight earnings clears **$1.1 billion**—making him, by most accounts, the first boxer to cross that threshold in gross purses. Nothing about that number is disputed. It is the *net worth* figure built on top of it that has become impossible to state with confidence. ## The Leverage He Built to Get There Mayweather's purses got that large because, starting in 2007, he stopped letting other people negotiate them for him. That year, he bought his way out of his promotional contract with Bob Arum's Top Rank for a reported $750,000 and launched his own company, **Mayweather Promotions**. His longtime advisor, **Al Haymon**, guided the moves that followed: a 2013 deal that made Mayweather exclusive to Showtime on what was, at the time, the richest television contract in boxing history, and the negotiating position that eventually produced the Pacquiao and McGregor mega-fights. In 2015, Haymon separately launched **Premier Boxing Champions**, a venture that pushed high-profile fights onto network and cable television instead of pay-per-view alone—a sign of just how much influence he had accumulated across the sport by then. For nearly two decades, that partnership was the engine of Mayweather's earning power. Which is what makes 2026 such a strange year for his finances: the man credited with helping build the leverage behind a billion-dollar career is now the central figure in a lawsuit accusing him of quietly taking a piece of it that was never supposed to leave Mayweather's hands. ## The $340 Million Showtime Lawsuit On February 3, 2026, Mayweather filed suit against Showtime and the network's former Sports president, **Stephen Espinoza**, seeking to recover what the complaint describes as "hundreds of millions of dollars" diverted through a long-running scheme. The allegation: that Haymon, with what the suit calls "substantial participation and aid" from Espinoza and Showtime, arranged for money owed to Mayweather to be routed into accounts Haymon effectively controlled, rather than paid to Mayweather directly. Notably, Haymon himself is not named as a defendant—Showtime and Espinoza are. The complaint accuses them of aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, civil conspiracy to commit fraud, conversion, and unjust enrichment. Mayweather's team puts the missing figure at **"at least $340 million"** and says it remains unaccounted for. By claimed dollar amount, it is reportedly the largest civil lawsuit in the history of American boxing. ## The $175 Million Fraud Lawsuit Three months later, a second and unrelated case surfaced. In May 2026, Mayweather filed a civil complaint in Manhattan state court against his former investment manager, **Jona Rechnitz**, and **Ayal Frist**, who ran a Florida-based real estate and investment firm called Frist Apex Ventures. A third defendant, an attorney who handled a property refinance for Mayweather, is also named. The complaint is specific in a way the Showtime suit isn't yet required to be. It alleges a **$7.5 million** wire transfer sent for an investment that was never made, a **$15 million** unauthorized real estate settlement, and roughly **$100 million** worth of jewelry allegedly handed over to Miami-based jewelers in exchange for a payout of only about **$13 million**. Rechnitz and Frist's attorney has called the claims "utterly baseless" and says they will be refuted by Mayweather's own correspondence. Two lawsuits, two sets of defendants, two entirely different alleged schemes—filed three months apart, in the same calendar year, against people who each had access to a different piece of Mayweather's financial life. Combined, the claims put more than **half a billion dollars** of his fortune in legal dispute. ## Why the Net Worth Estimates Don't Agree This is the part every "Floyd Mayweather net worth" listicle skips: net worth and career earnings are not the same measurement, and for a fighter whose income arrived in a handful of enormous, unevenly taxed lump sums—rather than a steady salary—the gap between the two was already going to be large before any lawsuit was filed. Add allegations that a former advisor diverted $340 million and a former investment manager funneled another $175 million through jewelry deals and unauthorized settlements, and the honest answer to "what is Floyd Mayweather worth" stops being a single number and starts being a range with an asterisk. That is a genuinely different situation from, say, Canelo Álvarez, whose $300 million estimated net worth sits at roughly 40% of his $700 million-plus in career purses—a gap fully explained by taxes, training costs, and promoter splits in the years before he controlled his own leverage. Mayweather's gap is wider, and in 2026, a meaningful part of that width is now a matter of pending litigation rather than ordinary financial attrition. Neither lawsuit has been resolved. Until they are—or until the parties settle, as many boxing-adjacent financial disputes eventually do—any net worth figure attached to Floyd Mayweather is, at best, an estimate of what's left after two very large question marks get answered. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: How Boxing's Highest Earner Built a $300M Fortune on His Own Terms](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) --- ## Stephen Curry Net Worth 2026: Inside His $240M Fortune URL: https://absoluteballer.com/stephen-curry-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-08-01 TL;DR: Stephen Curry's net worth is estimated at approximately $240 million in 2026, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Forbes ranked him the NBA's highest-paid player for the first time in his career in its October 2025 rankings, with an estimated $159.6 million in pretax earnings over the prior 12 months—ahead of LeBron James ($137.6 million) and Kevin Durant ($104.3 million). His fortune rests on a 4-year, $215 million Warriors contract (the largest annual salary in NBA history when signed), two decades of endorsement income, and SC30 Inc., the brand, media, and investment vehicle behind Unanimous Media and stakes in Pinterest, TSM, and Guild Education. In June 2026, Curry signed a reported 10-year, $400 million deal with China's Li-Ning, ending his 12-year partnership with Under Armour and putting his independently owned Curry Brand under a new global umbrella. **$159.6 million.** That is what Forbes estimated Stephen Curry earned before taxes over the 12 months leading into its October 2025 highest-paid athletes rankings—enough to make him the NBA's highest-paid player for the first time in a 16-year career, ahead of LeBron James ($137.6 million) and Kevin Durant ($104.3 million). It capped a stretch that reshaped Curry's financial picture twice over. Eight months later, in June 2026, he signed a reported 10-year, $400 million deal with the Chinese sportswear company Li-Ning—closing the book on a 12-year partnership with Under Armour that had defined his off-court brand since he was a little-known Davidson product nobody else wanted to sign. His net worth is estimated at approximately **$240 million** in 2026, according to Celebrity Net Worth—a real fortune, but one still well short of the roughly $1 billion mark that LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi have each crossed. Here's exactly how it breaks down, and why 2025 and 2026 turned into the two biggest financial years of Curry's career. ## The $400 Million Deal That Ended an Era Curry's sneaker free agency began on November 13, 2025, when he and Under Armour mutually agreed to end their 12-year run. Under Armour released one final signature shoe under the deal, the Curry 13, in February 2026, and Curry kept sole ownership of the **Curry Brand**—the sub-label he had built inside Under Armour since 2020. For months afterward, Curry warmed up in other companies' sneakers, including a pair of Nike Kobe "Mambacita" shoes worn as a tribute, while his camp fielded offers. The answer came in June 2026: a reported **10-year, $400 million** agreement with Li-Ning, according to Forbes and ESPN's Shams Charania. The deal reportedly covers basketball footwear, an athleisure and lifestyle apparel line, and a full golf line, and—notably—gives Curry the ability to sign his own athletes to the Curry Brand under Li-Ning's global infrastructure. Curry reportedly turned down at least one competing offer worth more money, a decision reported to be influenced partly by how the Li-Ning shoes performed on his feet in testing, including signature models built for NBA veteran Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade. It is the second time in Curry's career that a shoe deal has functioned as a strategic bet rather than the biggest available paycheck. In 2013, he signed with Under Armour—then a distant fourth in basketball footwear—after Nike's own retention offer reportedly lowballed him. That first bet paid off spectacularly: Under Armour eventually made him president of the Curry Brand and handed him a $75 million stock grant designed, in the company's own framing, to extend the relationship "beyond his playing days." It didn't. But it built the platform that made the Li-Ning deal possible in the first place—Curry entered this negotiation owning a brand, not just a signature shoe. ## Record Money on the Court Curry's on-court earnings have their own separate record book. In August 2021, he signed a four-year, $215 million extension with the Golden State Warriors—the largest annual average salary in NBA history at the time, and the second $200-million-plus contract of his career, a first for any NBA player. His salary is $59.6 million for the 2025-26 season and is set to reach a reported $62.6 million in 2026-27, which would make him the first player in NBA history to earn $60 million in a single season. Layered on top of the salary is the endorsement income that pushed his total 12-month earnings to Forbes's $159.6 million estimate—the number that finally made him the league's top earner after years of trailing LeBron James and Kevin Durant on that specific list. Through Spotrac's career-earnings tracking, Curry's NBA salary alone is projected at roughly $532 million through the 2026-27 season, putting him third all-time behind James ($585 million) and Durant ($545 million). ## SC30 Inc. and the Business Built Off the Court Curry's off-court holdings run through **SC30 Inc.**, the company he founded in 2018 to house his brand partnerships, media ventures, investments, and philanthropy under one roof. Its most visible arm is **Unanimous Media**, Curry's production company, which struck a deal with Sony Pictures and has produced projects including the films *Breakthrough* and *Emanuel* and the documentary series *Jumpshot*, generally leaning toward family-friendly and faith-based programming. SC30 has also functioned as an early-stage investment vehicle, seeding companies including the AI-powered travel platform SnapTravel and the workforce-education company Guild Education. Curry has separately taken direct stakes in Pinterest and the esports organization TSM, part of a broader pattern of athletes moving early money into technology and media rather than waiting until retirement to diversify. Alongside the business ventures, Curry and his wife, Ayesha Curry, co-founded the **Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation**, an Oakland-focused philanthropy aimed at ending childhood hunger, improving access to quality education, and building safe places for kids to play—a cause tied directly to the city where Curry built his career. ## What $240 Million Actually Means Curry's $240 million estimated net worth puts him in rarefied company by almost any normal standard, but the gap between that figure and the billionaire tier occupied by LeBron James (~$1.4 billion), Tiger Woods (~$1.5 billion), and Cristiano Ronaldo (~$1.4 billion) is a useful reminder of how differently athletic wealth compounds. James built his fortune on equity positions—SpringHill Company, a Fenway Sports Group stake, Blaze Pizza—acquired while he was still in his mid-20s. Curry's biggest recent move, by contrast, has been converting brand equity he already owned (the Curry Brand) into a bigger distribution deal, rather than acquiring new outside equity positions at scale. That does not make the trajectory any less real. Curry went from the NBA's highest-paid player for the first time in his career to a $400 million decade-long endorsement commitment inside the same eight months—and he did it while still an active All-Star, with years of prime earning power still ahead of him. Whether the Li-Ning bet becomes his own version of Jordan's Nike royalty stream is the open question that will define whether Curry eventually joins the billionaire club his peers have already reached. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) --- ## Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: Richest Female Athlete URL: https://absoluteballer.com/serena-williams-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-30 TL;DR: Forbes estimated Serena Williams's net worth at $400 million in June 2026, making her the richest female athlete in history—surpassing the $325 million career mark Maria Sharapova held at her 2020 retirement. Williams's fortune rests on a WTA-record $94.8 million in career prize money, a two-decade Nike partnership that began with a $55 million deal in 2003, and Serena Ventures, her venture capital fund that has backed more than 85 companies and at least 14 unicorns including Coinbase and Impossible Foods. The milestone landed days before her wildcard singles return at Wimbledon 2026, her first competitive match in nearly four years. **$400 million.** That is Serena Williams's estimated net worth as of June 2026, according to Forbes—a figure that makes her the richest female athlete in history, surpassing the $325 million in career earnings Maria Sharapova had banked by the time she retired in 2020. The timing was not a coincidence. Forbes updated the number days before Williams walked back onto Wimbledon's Centre Court for the first time in nearly four years, entering the 2026 singles draw on a wildcard at age 44. Here is exactly how the $400 million breaks down—and why almost none of it came from a single paycheck. ## Serena Williams's Net Worth 2026, at a Glance Forbes put Serena Williams's net worth at **$400 million** in June 2026—the richest female athlete in history, ahead of the $325 million Maria Sharapova had banked at her 2020 retirement. See the [world's highest-paid athletes for 2026](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) and the [Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2026 leaderboard](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/). ## The Comeback That Framed the Number On June 30, 2026, Williams played her first competitive singles match since announcing in 2022 that she was "evolving away from" tennis. She lost in three sets to Australian player Maya Joint, 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3, in front of a packed Centre Court crowd that included her daughters, Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2. It was a first-round exit at the tournament where Williams has won seven singles titles among her 23 career Grand Slam singles championships—the most of any player in the Open era. But the match was never really about the scoreline. Williams said afterward that she had no expectations going in and simply wanted her daughters to see her play. The Forbes net-worth milestone, landing in the same week, made the comeback a business story as much as a sporting one: the richest female athlete of all time was returning to the court that made her famous, not because she needed the money, but because two decades of financial infrastructure had given her the freedom to play on her own terms. ## The $94.8 Million Foundation Williams retired from full-time competition with **$94.8 million** in career prize money, according to WTA Tour figures—the all-time record for a women's tennis player, more than double the total earned by her sister Venus, who ranks second. Her single best season came in 2013, when she won 11 titles, including two Grand Slams and the WTA Finals, for more than $12.3 million in prize money alone. Prize money, though, is the smallest piece of the $400 million. It is the floor the rest of the fortune was built on top of. ## Two Decades of Nike, Now Extending Past Retirement Williams signed with Nike in 2003 in a landmark deal reported at **$55 million**—a contract that, at the time, was among the largest ever given to a female athlete. The partnership has run for more than two decades since, and according to Nike's own VP of Global Women's Sports Marketing, the brand's commitment to Williams is a long-term one that will extend "beyond her playing days." That relationship has continued generating income well into her post-competitive career. In 2026 alone, Williams added endorsement deals with **Lingo** (a glucose-monitoring wearable), **Factor** (ready-to-eat meals), **Ritual** (supplements), and **Ro** (a telehealth platform for weight-loss medication)—on top of longer-running relationships with brands including JPMorgan, Armani, and Aston Martin. The pattern is deliberate: Williams has continued signing brand deals at a pace many active athletes would envy, years after her last full season on tour. ## Serena Ventures: The Business That Outgrew the Endorsements The largest and least visible piece of Williams's wealth is **Serena Ventures**, the venture capital firm she founded and runs as CEO. The fund raised **$111 million** for its first vehicle and has since built a portfolio of more than 85 companies, at least 14 of which have gone on to reach unicorn status—a valuation of $1 billion or more—according to Forbes. The unicorn list includes **Coinbase**, which went public on Nasdaq in 2021; **Impossible Foods**, the plant-based meat company; and **Noom**, the subscription weight-loss app, alongside investments spanning fintech (Esusu, Mercury), healthcare (Teal Health, Midi Health), and consumer brands (Kopi Kenangan). Serena Ventures is not a passion project run alongside a playing career—it is a functioning investment firm with a track record that would be notable even without Williams's name attached to it. That distinction matters. Most athlete-founded funds exist primarily to extend a personal brand into venture capital's orbit; Serena Ventures has produced enough unicorn-level outcomes that it competes on returns, not just visibility. ## Miami Dolphins and the Rest of the Portfolio Beyond the venture fund, Williams and Venus hold a minority equity stake in the **Miami Dolphins**, the NFL franchise—a smaller but symbolically significant position that places her among a short list of athletes who own equity in a major American sports league outside the one they competed in. Combined with her endorsement income and prize money, the equity positions are what separate Williams's $400 million from a simple sum of tournament winnings and sponsorship checks. Her total career earnings—prize money plus endorsements—are estimated at roughly $620 million before taxes and expenses; the $400 million net-worth figure reflects what remains after that spending, taxes, and the ordinary cost of running a career and a business simultaneously. ## What Separates the Number From the Rest of the Field Naomi Osaka has, in recent years, out-earned Williams in single 12-month windows measured by Forbes's annual highest-paid list. That is a real and separate accomplishment—but it measures something different from what made Williams's $400 million historic. Annual earnings capture who had the best year. Net worth captures who built the largest fortune across an entire career, held onto it, and kept compounding it after the majority of the earning window closed. Williams did both: she set the WTA's all-time prize money record while she was playing, then kept adding to her fortune for years afterward through a fund that now rivals traditional venture firms and endorsement relationships that outlasted her competitive career by half a decade. The Wimbledon comeback did not change any of that math. It simply put the richest female athlete in history back on the court that first made her one, in front of an audience that included her own kids. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: How Boxing's Highest Earner Built a $300M Fortune on His Own Terms](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) --- ## Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: Inside His $300M Fortune URL: https://absoluteballer.com/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-28 TL;DR: Canelo Álvarez's net worth is estimated at approximately $300 million in 2026, though Celebrity Net Worth's most recent estimate, updated in May 2026, puts the figure at $350 million — built on career fight purses exceeding $700 million pre-tax and a growing portfolio of Mexican businesses. His $170 million in 2026 Forbes earnings—second only to Cristiano Ronaldo—came almost entirely from a fight against Terence Crawford that paid him roughly $150 million. The defining financial fact of his career is not the size of the purses but how he came to control them: by breaking a $365 million DAZN deal in 2020 and rebuilding his promotional structure fight by fight, on his own terms. **$170 million.** That is what Canelo Álvarez earned in the 12-month window measured by Forbes for their 2026 highest-paid athletes list—the second-highest figure of any athlete on the planet, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo's $300 million. And almost all of it, $160 million, came from a single fight. That is boxing at the top. It does not look like any other sport. Canelo Álvarez's estimated net worth in 2026 is approximately **$300 million** — Celebrity Net Worth's most recent estimate, updated in May 2026, puts the figure at $350 million. His career fight purses exceed **$700 million pre-tax**. The gap between those two numbers is not a failure of financial planning—it is the arithmetic of combat sports, where income is lumpy, taxable at the highest rate, and available only as long as your face can headline a pay-per-view card. What makes Canelo's story different from any other boxer's is not the size of those numbers. It is how he came to control them. ## Canelo Álvarez's 2026 Forbes Earnings, at a Glance Forbes' 2026 highest-paid athletes list credits Canelo with **$170 million** over the past 12 months—$160 million from fight purses (almost all of it the Crawford bout) and $10 million from endorsements. That is the second-highest total of any athlete on the planet, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo's $300 million. See the [full 2026 rankings and earnings table](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/). ## The Fight That Paid $150 Million On September 13, 2025, Canelo Álvarez walked into Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and fought Terence Crawford for the undisputed super middleweight championship. Crawford won by unanimous decision—handed Canelo the first defeat of his career at 168 pounds and took the title home. What did not transfer was the money. Canelo earned an estimated **$150 million** from the bout, making it one of the three largest fight purses in boxing history. Crawford, despite winning, earned approximately $50 million. The commercial logic of boxing rewards the attraction, not the outcome—and Canelo has spent a decade and a half becoming the sport's most bankable attraction. The Crawford fight was possible because of a deal Canelo signed earlier in 2025 with Riyadh Season—the Saudi-backed live entertainment operation that has become the new gravitational center of big-purse boxing. The reported value: approximately **$400 million** across four or five fights. Crawford was the first bout on that card. Forbes measured a total of $170 million for the full 12-month window, which includes the Crawford purse and $10 million in endorsements and outside income. The remainder of the Riyadh Season deal will settle in subsequent Forbes measuring periods. ## How the Purse Structure Works—and Why Canelo Has It In team sports, an athlete earns a salary guaranteed in advance. In boxing, there is no salary. A fighter earns a purse negotiated for each fight, and the size of that purse is a direct function of the commercial value the fighter is perceived to deliver to the promoter, the broadcaster, and the pay-per-view ecosystem. That structure means boxing is, financially speaking, a continuous negotiation. And it means the promoter has always held the leverage—until the fighter becomes bigger than the promoter. Canelo became bigger than the promoter. He spent the early years of his career under **Golden Boy Promotions** and Oscar De La Hoya, who managed his rise through Showtime and, eventually, onto the global stage. In 2018, Golden Boy and DAZN announced a five-year, 11-fight deal worth a guaranteed **$365 million**—at the time, the richest athlete contract in sports history, according to ESPN and CBS Sports. By 2020, that deal had collapsed. Canelo sued Golden Boy and DAZN, alleging breach of contract, and ultimately reached an agreement to exit the arrangement entirely. He returned to the market as a free agent—and the fight-by-fight purse negotiations that followed have dwarfed what the original DAZN structure guaranteed. The lesson was not lost on the industry: a boxer who can move pay-per-view at scale does not need a promoter more than the promoter needs him. That is where Canelo had arrived by 2020, and he has leveraged that position for every fight since. He has operated through his own promotional company, **Canelo Promotions**, for fights outside his broadcaster relationships—retaining the economics that would otherwise pass to a third party. Combined with **Canelo Espectáculos**, his entertainment production arm, the infrastructure he has built allows him to participate in revenue streams that earlier versions of his career would have paid someone else to collect. ## What He Earns Outside the Ring Canelo's Forbes off-field income of $10 million per year understates the commercial ecosystem he has built, most of which is not publicly disclosed and difficult to value from the outside. His main endorsement relationships include **Under Armour**, **Hennessy**, **Michelob Ultra**, **Everlast**, and **Tecate**—a beer brand from Monterrey that has been part of his commercial identity since the early years of his career. These are deals with companies that want to reach his audience rather than ownership stakes in the brands themselves. The ownership stakes are in Mexico. Starting around 2023, Álvarez has built what amounts to a consumer infrastructure business in western Mexico—grounded in **Canelo Energy**, a chain of gas stations he is expanding toward a reported 90 to 100 locations. Each station carries an associated **Upper** convenience store: there are roughly 20 Upper locations operating today alongside the Canelo Energy network. The gas station and convenience store expansion is the most operationally intensive thing on the list, and it is not an accident that he started there. Fuel retail in Mexico is a business that Álvarez can supervise from home, requires no US endorsement infrastructure to operate, and produces recurring revenue at scale once the location network reaches critical mass. Beyond the fuel and convenience play, his portfolio includes: - **VMC**: a tequila-based canned cocktail brand entering the ready-to-drink market - **Yaoca**: a sports drinks and supplements line - **I Can**: a fitness app - **Canelo Store**: an e-commerce clothing and merchandise operation - **El Pastor Del Rica**: a taquería in Guadalajara with a planned second location in San Diego The Mexican anchoring of most of these businesses is deliberate. Álvarez was born and raised in San José del Rincón, Jalisco, turned professional at 15, and has maintained his base in Guadalajara through the ascent to global stardom. His fan base is most concentrated in Mexico and the US Mexican-American community—which is also the most commercially valuable demographic for the sport. The businesses match the audience. ## Career Earnings vs. Net Worth: Where the Money Goes Canelo's estimated career fight purses of more than $700 million pre-tax compare to an estimated current net worth of roughly **$300–350 million**, per Celebrity Net Worth. That ratio is different from what you see in team sports—and the difference is structural, not mismanagement. A boxer with $700 million in career earnings who holds $300 million in net worth has not lost money. He has paid taxes at the highest marginal rate on income classified as self-employment earnings, funded a training infrastructure that runs year-round across two countries, compensated a management team and legal structure, and—in the earlier years of his career—shared economics with promoters who took their cut before the purse reached him. The comparison to LeBron James is instructive. LeBron's career NBA salary is approximately $400 million, and his net worth is $1.4 billion—roughly 3.5 times his playing earnings. The multiplier is possible because NBA income is spread across 20+ years with relatively low per-year tax drag, and because his equity investments in SpringHill, Fenway Sports Group, and his Nike lifetime deal were built on top of a steady income floor. Canelo's income is concentrated into a handful of massive events. The wealth preservation and compounding challenge is fundamentally different. The businesses he is building in Mexico are the instrument for creating the kind of recurring, non-fight income that gives his net worth a chance to compound independent of the ring. ## What the Numbers Actually Say Canelo Álvarez earned $170 million in 2026. He is 35 years old. He has been professionally fighting since he was 15. The fights will not go on indefinitely—they never do in boxing, and the sport exacts a physical cost that has no clean exit ramp. What will remain when they stop is the promotional infrastructure he built, the Mexican business portfolio he is constructing, and the brand value that two decades of headlining the sport's biggest cards have accumulated. On the Forbes richest-athletes list—the one that measures accumulated wealth, not annual earnings—Canelo does not appear. Jordan's $4.3 billion and the seven-athlete billionaire bracket are the product of royalty structures and equity compounding that have run for decades. Canelo's timeline is shorter, and the investment infrastructure he has built cannot produce that outcome at the same scale. But the framework is not wrong. Canelo spent the early part of his career earning what his promoters and broadcasters let him earn. He spent the back half earning what his own leverage allowed him to extract. The difference between those two phases is the entire story of how he turned a boxing career into a $300 million fortune—and the answer to what comes next. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) --- ## Lionel Messi Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.1B Empire URL: https://absoluteballer.com/lionel-messi-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-25 TL;DR: Forbes confirmed in June 2026 that Lionel Messi crossed the $1 billion net worth threshold, making him football's second active billionaire alongside Cristiano Ronaldo. His estimated $1.1 billion net worth rests on five pillars: a lifetime Adidas deal reportedly worth over $1 billion total (partnership since 2006), an Inter Miami contract with guaranteed compensation of $28.3 million annually, MiM Hotels (six European boutique properties launched in 2017 with Majestic Hotel Group), Más+ by Messi (his 2024 sports drink brand), and a real estate portfolio estimated around $300 million. He earned $140 million across the past 12 months—$70 million on-field, $70 million off—placing him third on the Forbes 2026 highest-paid athletes list. **$1.1 billion.** That is Lionel Messi's estimated net worth in 2026, according to Forbes—which confirmed the billionaire milestone in June 2026, making him football's second active billionaire alongside the rival he spent two decades racing across every major trophy in the game. Lionel Messi's estimated net worth is approximately **$1.1 billion** as of 2026. His annual earnings are estimated at **$140 million**—third highest of any athlete in the world, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Canelo Álvarez, and notable for being split almost exactly evenly between on-field income and off-field business. That 50/50 split is the number worth understanding. Most athletes in the global top ten earn the overwhelming majority of their income from a single contract. Messi has built a structure where the football salary funds the lifestyle and the business empire accumulates in parallel—quietly, without the kind of single-dominant-deal that defines Ronaldo's or LeBron James's wealth stories. Here is how the $1.1 billion breaks down. ## The Adidas Lifetime Deal: Four Decades in the Making Messi has worn Adidas since he was a teenager at Barcelona. The partnership formalized in 2006, when he was 19 years old. Twenty years later, it has grown into one of the most significant athlete-brand relationships in sports history. The deal has since expanded into a **lifetime agreement**—one of only a handful Adidas has signed—with a total reported value across its duration of over **$1 billion**. That places it alongside LeBron James's lifetime Nike deal as the most valuable long-term footwear partnership in existence. The structure matters. Messi is not simply paid to wear a boot. The partnership includes royalties on product lines, co-branded apparel collections, and global marketing campaigns that treat his name as a permanent asset rather than a short-term activation. Adidas's Messi product category continues generating revenue whether he is playing or not—which is the fundamental difference between a sponsorship deal and what Messi actually has. His annual income from Adidas alone is not disclosed, but his combined off-field earnings of $70 million suggest the brand partnership is carrying significant weight in the total. ## Inter Miami: The American Chapter In 2023, Messi signed with Inter Miami CF in Major League Soccer, joining a club co-owned by David Beckham and positioned as the sport's bridgehead in North America. The move was framed at the time as a homecoming to a city he had lived in, and commercially, as a calculated platform decision. The Inter Miami contract pays a **base salary of approximately $25 million**, with **guaranteed compensation of $28.3 million** annually. The full package—including commercial arrangements, equity-related benefits, and Apple TV+ partnership revenue tied to Messi's joining—is reported to range between **$70 million and $80 million** per year. That higher end of the range reflects an unusual deal structure: part of Messi's Inter Miami compensation is tied to the league's commercial growth in markets where his presence drives subscriber numbers for Apple TV+'s MLS Season Pass. He participates in the upside, not just the salary. His contract runs through the **2028 MLS season**. He is the highest-paid player in MLS by a substantial margin, and the attendance, broadcast, and commercial revenue he has brought to the league since 2023 has materially outperformed projections. ## MiM Hotels: The Property Business He Built Without Anyone Noticing While Messi's football career was generating the loudest headlines in sport, he was quietly building a hotel business in Europe. **MiM Hotels** launched in 2017 in partnership with Majestic Hotel Group. The portfolio currently spans **six boutique properties**: Sitges, Ibiza, Mallorca, Baqueira, Sotogrande, and Andorra. The hotels operate in the lifestyle luxury segment—curated design, Mediterranean locations, positioned for the affluent traveler market rather than the mass tourism segment. MiM is not a celebrity vanity project built on the strength of a famous name. The hotels are operationally managed by Majestic, generating revenue as functioning hospitality assets that Messi has a stake in. The exact ownership percentage and valuation are private, but the portfolio is one of several Messi business holdings that have been running for close to a decade—long enough to have compounded significantly from the original investment. The real estate dimension of Messi's wealth extends beyond the hotel chain. His personal property portfolio—spanning residences in Barcelona, Miami, and Rosario, Argentina, plus more recent purchases including a **$10.8 million waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale**—is estimated at approximately **$300 million**. ## Más+ by Messi: The 2024 Brand Play In 2024, Messi launched **Más+ by Messi**, a sports hydration drink competing in the same category as Gatorade and Bodyarmor. The brand entered a market that was already crowded, which is precisely the point: Messi's commercial team chose it because hydration is a category with genuine mass market scale, a clear performance-sport positioning, and high repeat purchase rates. The brand is early stage. But the playbook—introduce a consumable product in a high-volume category using athlete equity and brand recognition to acquire distribution—mirrors what Patrick Mahomes, Steph Curry, and others have attempted in similar categories. Execution will determine whether Más+ becomes a material asset or a footnote, but the category selection shows sophisticated commercial thinking. His production company, **525 Rosario**, is developing in a similar direction. Named after his childhood address in Rosario, Argentina, the company—co-founded with Smuggler Entertainment—produces documentaries, branded content, and entertainment projects. The Apple TV+ documentary *Messi's World Cup: The Rise of a Legend* was an early output from that content relationship. ## UE Cornellà: Becoming a Club Owner In April 2026, Messi added a credential that almost no active player holds: **club ownership**. He acquired **100% of UE Cornellà**, a Spanish football club based outside Barcelona, in an outright purchase that made him the sole owner of the club while still playing professionally. The club competes in the lower tiers of Spanish football. The acquisition is not primarily a commercial investment at current scale. It is a strategic positioning play—an active player learning the operations side of club ownership before retirement, using a lower-risk environment (a modest club in Spain's regional leagues) to build knowledge that will inform the larger decisions that come when the playing career ends. This is a page directly from the LeBron James playbook. James, who has stated publicly his intention to own an NBA franchise, acquired his Fenway Sports Group stake in 2011 while still in his prime. Messi's UE Cornellà move is structurally similar: low-cost entry, long time horizon, operating knowledge that compounds. ## What the $1.1 Billion Actually Means Messi's billionaire status is significant not just as a number but as an achievement within a particular set of constraints. He has spent his entire career in European football, which—unlike Ronaldo's Saudi structure or LeBron James's American commercial market—operates in a high-tax, regulated environment with far fewer of the structural financial advantages the others have accessed. His Adidas deal is nominally competitive with LeBron's Nike deal but was built in a lower-leverage market. His real estate is held across multiple countries. His hotel and brand businesses are mid-scale by billionaire standards. Despite those constraints, he crossed $1 billion by doing one thing consistently: converting the value his career generated into equity positions rather than lifestyle expenditure, and holding those positions long enough for compounding to work. Ronaldo reached approximately **$1.4 billion** by betting heavily on a single, extraordinarily lucrative contract and the CR7 brand's consumer product extensions. LeBron reached approximately **$1.4 billion** through a small number of large equity bets—Nike, SpringHill, Fenway—made early and held. Jordan built **$4.3 billion** from a single royalty stream that has grown for 40 years. Messi's $1.1 billion is more distributed than any of them—across time zones, asset classes, and business categories—and more modest in its individual headline numbers. There is no single deal that explains it. There is only four decades of disciplined conversion, running in the background while the world watched him play football. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [2026 World Cup Prize Money: What Spain Actually Won](/2026-world-cup-prize-money/) - [The World's Richest Athletes by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Cristiano Ronaldo Net Worth 2026: How Football's First Billionaire Built a $1.4 Billion Empire](/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire He Built While Still Playing](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) --- ## Cristiano Ronaldo Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.4B Empire URL: https://absoluteballer.com/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-23 TL;DR: Cristiano Ronaldo's estimated net worth is $1.4 billion in 2026, according to estimates from Forbes and Bloomberg—making him football's first active billionaire and the sport's highest-earning player for four consecutive years. His wealth rests on five pillars: his Al Nassr playing salary (reported at around $235 million per year, paid in a zero-income-tax jurisdiction), a Nike lifetime partnership reportedly worth over $1 billion in total, a 665-million-follower social media platform generating estimated $3M+ per sponsored post, a hotel joint venture with Pestana Hotel Group spanning six cities, and his Insparya hair restoration business. **$1.4 billion.** That is Cristiano Ronaldo's estimated net worth in 2026, according to Forbes and Bloomberg—making him football's first active billionaire and one of only seven athletes in history to cross the threshold. Cristiano Ronaldo's estimated net worth is approximately **$1.4 billion** as of 2026. His total annual earnings are estimated at **$300 million**—which Forbes has ranked as the highest of any athlete in the world for four consecutive years. Both numbers are remarkable. Neither tells the full story. Ronaldo is the best-paid active footballer on the planet and has been for the better part of a decade. But the Al Nassr salary that generates so many headlines is almost the least interesting part of how this billion-dollar fortune was built. The more important question is what he built around it—and when. Here is exactly how the $1.4 billion breaks down. ## Al Nassr: The Largest Active Playing Contract in Football History In January 2023, Ronaldo signed with Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr, with his contract reported at approximately **€208 million per year**—roughly $235 million at current exchange rates. In June 2025, he signed a contract extension that runs through June 2027. The headline salary is extraordinary. What makes it more extraordinary is the jurisdiction. Saudi Arabia levies **no personal income tax**. That means Ronaldo's take-home figure is essentially identical to his gross salary. A player earning $235 million in England would retain roughly half after tax; in Spain or France, somewhat more but still significantly less. In Riyadh, Ronaldo keeps all of it. By the time his Al Nassr contract concludes in June 2027, Ronaldo will have collected an estimated $700 million in playing salary from the Saudi deal alone—more than many of history's greatest athletes earned across their entire careers. His total career earnings from playing salary and endorsements are already estimated to have crossed **$1 billion**—a first for any footballer in history. ## The Nike Lifetime Deal: A Foundation Built in Lisbon Ronaldo's relationship with Nike dates to his arrival at Sporting CP in Lisbon in the early 2000s. His first professional boot deal was with Nike. His first major global endorsement was Nike. The commercial relationship has never broken. In 2016, Nike extended that relationship into a **lifetime partnership**—making Ronaldo one of only two active athletes to hold a Nike lifetime deal alongside LeBron James. The deal is reported to be worth over **$1 billion** across its term, with Ronaldo earning an estimated base of $18 million per year plus royalties on CR7-branded merchandise sold through Nike's distribution network. The royalty structure is what separates this from a standard endorsement. Ronaldo does not simply cash a check for appearing in campaigns. Every CR7 Nike boot or kit sold globally generates royalty income that compounds with Nike's commercial scale. It is a fundamentally different financial relationship than being a paid spokesperson—closer to a revenue share than a flat fee. The Nike deal is the clearest example of a pattern that runs through Ronaldo's entire business career: convert fame into ownership or revenue participation, not just fees. ## Instagram: 665 Million Followers and What They're Actually Worth Cristiano Ronaldo is the most followed person on Instagram. As of 2026, his account has over **665 million followers**—more than any other individual in the platform's history. That audience is a commercial asset that generates income entirely independently of any game he plays. Ronaldo publishes an estimated 50 or so sponsored posts per year. Industry estimates put his rate at **over $3 million per sponsored post** at current follower scale and engagement rates, placing his annual Instagram income in the range of **$100–150 million**—a figure that rivals his Nike deal in total value. This matters for two reasons. First, it generates real cash that supplements both his playing salary and his equity positions. Second, and more importantly, it is an asset that depreciates slowly. Ronaldo's football-playing career will end; his audience size will decline gradually, not immediately. The commercial power of a 500- or 600-million-follower account—even in retirement—remains enormous, and the deals available to it dwarf anything achievable by most traditional media companies. His social media platform is not a marketing channel for his brand. It is a revenue-generating business in its own right. ## Pestana CR7: A Hotel Empire Across Six Cities Ronaldo's most tangible physical business is the Pestana CR7 hotel chain, a joint venture with Portugal's Pestana Hotel Group—one of the country's largest hospitality operators. The partnership gives Ronaldo an estimated **50 percent equity stake** in the venture, with properties in Lisbon, Madeira, Madrid, New York, Marrakech, and a 151-room flagship hotel in Riyadh announced for early 2026. The Riyadh opening reflects a deliberate geographic alignment: Ronaldo's Saudi presence has driven significant tourism and commercial interest in the country, and the hotel positions the CR7 brand at the center of that momentum. The chain's properties are branded mid-to-premium lifestyle hotels rather than budget properties. They carry a style aesthetic tied to Ronaldo's personal brand—an important distinction because the hotels market to the same demographic that follows his Instagram, buys his jerseys, and aspires to the lifestyle he represents. Annual revenue across the chain is estimated at **€50–80 million**, with Ronaldo's equity position representing one of his most durable long-term assets. Hotel real estate appreciates on its own timeline, generates operating income independent of sports performance, and is fully owned—not licensed, not sponsored. ## Insparya: The Healthcare Business Nobody Talks About Less widely discussed than his hotels but arguably more strategically interesting is Insparya, the hair restoration clinic chain Ronaldo co-founded. Insparya operates **13 clinics** across Portugal, Spain, Italy, and the Middle East, with a Riyadh branch opened to align with his Saudi footprint. The company employs over 400 medical and support professionals and carries an estimated market value of **$107 million**. The business sits at the intersection of two macro trends: the growth of aesthetic medicine globally and the normalization of hair restoration treatments among professional and high-income men. As a co-founder who can market the clinics to his own audience at zero marginal cost, Ronaldo occupies a structurally advantaged position that no pure financial investor could replicate. Insparya is currently a private company. If it reaches scale and pursues any kind of exit—a sale, a merger with a larger aesthetic medicine group, or a public offering—Ronaldo's stake could generate a return that rivals the hotel venture. ## CR7 Consumer Brand: Clothing, Fragrance, Underwear, Gyms Beyond the flagship businesses, Ronaldo operates a consumer portfolio under the CR7 brand: clothing, underwear, fragrance, eyewear, and CR7 Crunch Fitness gyms—a co-branded fitness franchise expansion. The CR7 consumer brand is estimated to be worth between **$250 million and $400 million** in total, generating an estimated $30–50 million in annual operating profit. These businesses are smaller individually than the hotels or Insparya, but they matter collectively: they keep the CR7 brand commercially active across multiple consumer categories, generate their own marketing flywheel, and create the platform from which larger deals—new licensing, new geographies, eventual brand monetization—can be structured. ## What the $1.4 Billion Actually Means The comparison that puts Ronaldo's financial achievement in clearest relief is not with other footballers—it is with Michael Jordan. Jordan's estimated net worth of **$4.3 billion** (see the [full richest-athletes rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/)) rests primarily on Nike Air Jordan royalties, which generate approximately $275 million per year indefinitely, long after his playing days ended. His basketball career was the foundation. The Nike brand was the actual asset—one that Jordan did not fully control but benefited from enormously through a structure that was unusual for 1984. Ronaldo looked at that model from a different era, with different leverage, and built something parallel—but with significantly more ownership. His Nike deal, his hotels, his clinics, his social media platform, and his consumer brand are all things he owns equity in, not just things he licenses his name to. That equity accumulates differently than a salary or a standard endorsement fee. LeBron James took the same equity-first approach (see [how LeBron built his $1.4 billion empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/)). The parallel is not coincidental. Both James and Ronaldo recognized, earlier than most, that athletic fame is a depleting asset—and that the only way to make it permanent is to convert it into ownership while it is at peak value. Ronaldo started that conversion earlier than almost anyone in team sports. His Nike lifetime deal, his hotel venture, and his consumer brand were all established while he was still at his athletic peak. The $1.4 billion is the result of those decisions compounding for more than a decade. The football will end. The brand already runs without it. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's Richest Athletes by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire He Built While Still Playing](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) --- ## Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.5B Fortune URL: https://absoluteballer.com/tiger-woods-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-21 TL;DR: Tiger Woods's net worth is estimated at $1.5 billion in 2026, according to Forbes—making him only the second active athlete, after LeBron James, to cross the billionaire threshold. His fortune rests on a PGA Tour-record $120,999,166 in prize money, more than $500 million from a 27-year Nike partnership that ended in January 2024, an equity stake in his TaylorMade-backed Sun Day Red apparel brand, the PopStroke mini-golf chain, and TGL, the golf league he co-founded with Rory McIlroy. **$1.5 billion.** That is Tiger Woods's estimated net worth in 2026, according to Forbes—making him only the second active athlete in history, after LeBron James, to cross the billionaire threshold while he was still competing. Woods's PGA Tour prize money—a record **$120,999,166**—is the number most fans know. It is also, by Woods's own financial history, a relatively minor line item. The bulk of the fortune was built the way most of the athletes in this cluster build theirs: through equity, not paychecks. And the most interesting chapter of that story happened after his most famous sponsor walked away. ## The Prize Money Is the Smallest Part of the Story Woods's official PGA Tour winnings total **$120,999,166**—the most any golfer has ever earned in tournament play. It is a genuinely historic number in the context of the sport. It is also, relative to his total fortune, a rounding error. Multiple financial estimates place Woods's cumulative career earnings—prize money, endorsements, appearance fees, and business income combined—at more than $1.7 billion before taxes and agent fees. On that basis, tournament winnings account for well under 10% of what Woods has actually earned across three decades in golf. The other 90-plus percent came from brand deals, equity stakes, and ventures built alongside the golf, not from the golf itself. ## The Nike Deal: 27 Years, More Than $500 Million Woods turned professional in 1996 and signed with Nike on a five-year, $40 million rookie deal—a number many in the industry considered wildly inflated for a golfer with no professional wins yet. Nike was right. The contract was renewed and expanded repeatedly over the following two decades, including a five-year, $100 million deal in 2001, a reported $320 million contract, and a $200 million, 10-year extension signed in 2013. Across its full run, the Woods–Nike partnership is estimated to have paid Woods more than **$500 million**—one of the most valuable individual athlete-brand relationships in sports history. It ended in January 2024, after 27 years, when Nike and Woods parted ways without renewing. ## Sun Day Red: Trading an Endorsement for Equity A month after the Nike split, Woods announced **Sun Day Red**, a new golf apparel and footwear brand launched in partnership with TaylorMade in February 2024. The brand's logo—a leaping tiger with 15 stripes—references his 15 major championship titles. The structural difference from the Nike years matters. Woods was Nike's endorser; by most accounts, he holds an actual equity stake in Sun Day Red. That is the same shift LeBron James made with his Nike deal and Michael Jordan made with Jordan Brand: converting a famous name into ownership of the business built around it, rather than a fee for the right to use it. (See how James and Jordan structured similar shifts: [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) and [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026](/michael-jordan-net-worth/).) ## TGR Ventures and PopStroke Woods's broader business interests run through **TGR Ventures**, the holding company that houses his golf course design practice, real estate projects, and other investments. Its most visible consumer-facing bet is **PopStroke**, a chain of upscale mini-golf and dining venues that has expanded into a genuine multi-location business rather than a novelty side project. PopStroke's growth is a meaningful part of why Woods's estimated net worth climbed from roughly $1.1 billion in 2023 to $1.5 billion by 2026—a reminder that, as with the rest of this cluster, the biggest wealth swings rarely come from the sport itself once an athlete is past their peak playing years. ## TGL: Betting on a New Format With Rory McIlroy In 2025, Woods and Rory McIlroy launched **TGL (The Golf League)** through their jointly founded company, TMRW Sports—a tech-driven, simulator-based team golf league built for prime-time television rather than a traditional course. TGL has been reported to carry a valuation of roughly $500 million, with outside investors buying into individual teams. It is Woods's most direct bet yet on owning a piece of golf's next format, rather than simply being paid to play the old one. ## The Pattern Holds Woods's $1.5 billion looks, on paper, like a golf fortune. It is not, really. It is a fortune built from a rookie shoe deal that compounded for 27 years, an equity stake taken when that deal ended instead of a replacement paycheck, a mini-golf chain, and a bet on a new television format—layered on top of a genuinely historic but comparatively modest pile of tournament winnings. That is the same architecture running through [Michael Jordan's $4.3 billion](/michael-jordan-net-worth/), [LeBron James's $1.4 billion](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/), and the rest of the [world's richest athletes](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/): the sport opens the door. The equity is what actually pays out. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) --- ## Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: The $4.3 Billion Fortune URL: https://absoluteballer.com/michael-jordan-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-18 TL;DR: Michael Jordan's estimated net worth is $4.3 billion in 2026—roughly 47 times his $90 million career NBA salary. The gap comes from a single Nike deal signed in 1984 that now generates an estimated $275–300 million per year in royalties, compounded by a 10x return on the Charlotte Hornets and a portfolio of ownership stakes built long after his playing days ended. **$4.3 billion.** That is Michael Jordan's estimated net worth in 2026, according to Forbes—the highest of any athlete in history, active or retired, and roughly 47 times his career NBA salary. Michael Jordan's career NBA salary across 15 professional seasons totaled approximately **$90 million**. His estimated net worth in 2026 is approximately **$4.3 billion**. That gap—47 times his lifetime playing earnings—is the most revealing number in the history of professional sports finance. It tells you everything about how the wealthiest athlete in history actually built his fortune, and almost none of it happened on a basketball court. Here is the full breakdown. ## The Nike Deal: Michael Jordan's Nike Royalties, Explained On September 15, 1984, the Chicago Bulls' 21-year-old rookie signed a five-year deal with Nike worth $500,000 per year plus royalties. Nike was, at the time, primarily a running shoe company. Jordan wanted Adidas. Adidas passed. Nike offered. Jordan and his mother Deloris Jordan took the meeting. That meeting produced the most valuable athlete-brand deal in history. The original contract gave Jordan a royalty on every Air Jordan sneaker sold. The first Air Jordan released in 1985, generated $126 million in sales in its first year—a figure that stunned the industry and validated a model neither Jordan nor Nike fully anticipated. The shoe line became a cultural institution. By the early 1990s, it had evolved into a brand within a brand, operating with its own design philosophy, its own marketing voice, and its own devoted consumer base that extended well beyond basketball. Nike formalized that evolution in 1997 when it spun Jordan Brand out as a distinct subsidiary. Today, Jordan Brand is one of the most recognizable apparel businesses in the world, generating approximately **$7.3 billion in annual revenue** even in a down year—down 16% from its peak in fiscal 2025, but still operating at a scale that produces extraordinary royalty income. Jordan's royalty rate is estimated at approximately **5% of Jordan Brand revenue**. On $7.3 billion in sales, that translates to roughly **$275–300 million per year**—every year, with no expiration date, without Jordan touching a basketball or attending a single meeting. Since 1984, Nike has paid Jordan an estimated **$2.35 billion** in cumulative royalties. The number continues to grow. Air Jordan releases still sell out. The cultural cachet that Jordan built across six championships, six Finals MVP awards, and 15 seasons has never depreciated in the way that athletic performance inevitably does. Nike bet that a person could become a brand that outlasted the career. That bet has paid out at a scale no one in the industry predicted in 1984. The royalty structure—not an endorsement fee, but a perpetual percentage of revenue—is the single most important financial fact in Jordan's biography. Being paid for access to your name generates income once. Owning a percentage of what that name produces generates income indefinitely. ## The Charlotte Hornets: Michael Jordan's $275 Million-to-$3 Billion Franchise Bet In 2006, Jordan purchased a minority stake in the Charlotte Bobcats. In 2010, he led a buying group that took majority control of the franchise for approximately **$275 million**. At the time, it was a modest NBA franchise in a mid-sized market, not widely considered a trophy asset. Jordan held the position for 13 years. During that time, NBA franchise values appreciated at a pace that outpaced nearly every other asset class. The league's global television rights, its expansion into streaming, and the broader recognition of sports franchises as scarce, inflation-resistant equity drove valuations across the board. In 2023, Jordan sold his majority stake to a group that included rapper J. Cole and musician Eric Church at a reported franchise valuation of **$3 billion**—roughly **10 times his original purchase price**. The transaction represented one of the largest wealth events in Jordan's financial career outside of Nike. The Hornets investment illustrates a pattern that runs through Jordan's post-playing financial life: buy scarce assets, hold them, let appreciation do the work. He did not attempt to optimize the Hornets' business. He did not attempt to trade into a more prestigious market. He held a position in an appreciating asset class for over a decade and collected the return. ## 23XI Racing: Michael Jordan's NASCAR Ownership Stake In 2020, Jordan partnered with NASCAR driver and team owner Denny Hamlin to co-found **23XI Racing**. The team—named for Jordan's iconic number 23 and Hamlin's number 11—launched for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. Jordan's entry into NASCAR was significant beyond the business itself. He became one of the few Black majority owners in the sport's history, and his involvement brought immediate national attention to 23XI. The team has expanded since its launch, adding cars and drivers as its competitive program developed. The NASCAR investment fits the ownership model Jordan has applied consistently: acquire a stake in a sports property, bring name recognition that increases the value of that stake, and benefit from the long-term appreciation of the asset rather than trading near-term financial returns. ## Cincoro Tequila: The Ownership-First Brand Jordan is a co-founder of **Cincoro Tequila**, launched in 2019 alongside four NBA franchise owners: Wes Edens (Milwaukee Bucks), Jeanie Buss (Los Angeles Lakers), Wyc Grousbeck (Boston Celtics), and Bob Myers. The brand produces ultra-premium tequila and positions itself squarely in the luxury market—bottles start at $75 and go significantly higher. Cincoro expanded its ownership group in 2024, bringing in Derek Jeter, Serena Williams, Michael Strahan, and several co-founders of DraftKings as additional investors. The expansion added both capital and cross-promotional infrastructure. Jordan owns a stake rather than functioning as an endorser—a distinction that runs through everything on this list. He is not paid to be photographed with Cincoro. He profits from what the company earns. ## Grove XXIII: The Private Club Jordan opened **Grove XXIII** in 2019, a private golf club in Hobe Sound, Florida. The name references his jersey number and the land's history as an orange grove. The club caters to elite membership and has become one of the more discreet luxury hospitality assets in the Jordan portfolio. Golf occupies an unusual position in Jordan's business life: it is simultaneously his most public personal passion and a legitimate commercial enterprise. Grove XXIII reflects both. ## DraftKings: The Digital Sports Bet In 2020, Jordan acquired an equity stake in **DraftKings** and joined its board as a special advisor. The investment gave him a position in the online sports betting and daily fantasy market—a sector that has expanded significantly as legal sports betting has spread across US states. The DraftKings stake is smaller in financial impact than the Nike royalties or the Hornets sale. But it follows the same principle: equity in a growth-stage business operating in a sector Jordan can credibly influence through his network and profile. ## Michael Jordan's Nike Royalties in 2026: Jordan Brand's Second Straight Decline Two threads of Jordan's post-playing portfolio moved in opposite directions in 2026. Nike's fiscal 2026 annual report, covering the year ended May 31, 2026, put Jordan Brand revenue at **$7.034 billion**—down 3% on a reported basis from fiscal 2025's $7.27 billion, and the second straight year of decline after the brand peaked above $8.7 billion in fiscal 2024. The royalty income tied to that revenue still runs to hundreds of millions of dollars a year, but the multi-year slide is now an established trend rather than a single down year. 23XI Racing had the opposite kind of year. After more than 15 months of litigation and an eight-day trial, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports settled their antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR in December 2025. NASCAR conceded two of the teams' central demands in the settlement: permanent, "evergreen" charters that guarantee the teams a place on the grid, and a larger revenue share for all charter teams. For Jordan, whose ownership stake had been operating under charter agreements that could theoretically expire, the settlement converts a legal fight into a structural change in what his NASCAR ownership position is actually worth. ## What the $90 Million vs. $4.3 Billion Gap Actually Means Jordan's career playing earnings were approximately **$90 million** before taxes and agent fees. His net worth is approximately **$4.3 billion**. The ratio is not a rounding error—it is the architecture of a completely different financial model. Most professional athletes treat their playing income as the wealth itself. Jordan treated it as the foundation for the wealth he was going to build. His career opened a door with Nike that produced a royalty stream most business executives will never construct. That royalty stream, held intact for four decades, is the engine behind everything else. The comparison point is instructive. LeBron James, the first active athlete to cross the billionaire threshold, built his $1.4 billion primarily through SpringHill Company, Fenway Sports Group equity, and a lifetime Nike deal that mirrors—though it does not replicate—the structure Jordan pioneered in 1984. (Full breakdown: [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/).) Jordan's $4.3 billion is nearly three times LeBron's $1.4 billion, and LeBron is still playing. The gap is not primarily a function of Jordan being a better basketball player or a more famous athlete, though both are defensible arguments. It is a function of timing, structure, and the specific terms of a deal signed when Jordan was 21 years old—a deal that gave him an indefinite percentage of an asset that turned out to be worth tens of billions of dollars. The 1984 Nike meeting lasted about an hour. The royalty it produced has been running for 42 years. At the current pace, it will outlast Michael Jordan by decades. That is what a wealth-building deal actually looks like. ## Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: The $500 Million Jump Forbes' 2026 world billionaires list, published in March, put Jordan at **$4.3 billion** — roughly **$500 million above its 2025 estimate of him**, placing him inside the world's 1,000 richest people and keeping him, by a wide margin, the wealthiest athlete in history. The increase is worth pulling apart, because it did not come from the obvious place. Jordan Brand revenue *fell* across the fiscal year in question, as the section above sets out. What moved instead was the rest of the portfolio: NBA franchise values, which lift the minority Hornets position he retained when he sold majority control in 2023; the NASCAR charter reclassification described below; and appreciation across the DraftKings and Cincoro stakes. That is the point of the structure Jordan built. In a year when his single largest income source contracted, the net worth still rose, because the fortune is no longer a royalty cheque — it is a portfolio that happens to have a royalty cheque in it. He also took a job in 2026, of a sort. Jordan joined NBC Sports as a **special contributor** for the network's return to NBA coverage, debuting an interview series, *MJ: Insights to Excellence*, at halftime of the 21 October 2025 season opener — the first on-air role of his life, more than two decades after his final game. NBC has not disclosed terms, and nobody should assume it moves the $4.3 billion. It matters for a different reason: it is the first time Jordan has agreed to be the on-camera product rather than the licensed name on someone else's. ## What the NASCAR Settlement Did to the Value of Jordan's 23XI Stake The settlement covered above did more than end a lawsuit. It changed what a NASCAR team is as an asset, which is why it belongs in a net-worth breakdown rather than a sports section. Since the charter system was introduced in **2016**, a charter had been **revocable by NASCAR**. A revocable licence to enter races is a cost of doing business — it cannot be reliably valued, borrowed against, or sold as a permanent right. The settlement made charters "evergreen", and returned the **six charters 23XI and Front Row Motorsports hold between them** for the 2026 season; 23XI runs three cars, for Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Riley Herbst, and had spent the previous season racing under a preliminary injunction that recognised it as chartered while the case ran. Attach a permanent, transferable right to a guaranteed grid position to a revenue share NASCAR simultaneously agreed to enlarge, and the thing stops being a licence and starts being equity. The asset class Jordan bought into in 2020 was legally reclassified underneath him. The settlement figure was never disclosed, but the trial record shows the scale that was in play: an economist testifying for the teams put NASCAR's damages to 23XI and Front Row at **$364.7 million**, and calculated that the sport had shorted its 36 chartered teams **$1.06 billion between 2021 and 2024**. Jordan sold nothing. He litigated the terms of an asset he already owned until they were better — the same move as holding the Hornets for 13 years, run through a courtroom instead of a market. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: How Boxing's Highest Earner Built a $300M Fortune on His Own Terms](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) - [Floyd Mayweather Net Worth 2026: Why Nobody Agrees](/floyd-mayweather-net-worth/) - [Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: Richest Female Athlete](/serena-williams-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [How Successful Entrepreneurs Manage Their Money](/how-successful-entrepreneurs-manage-their-money/) --- ## LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.4B Empire URL: https://absoluteballer.com/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-16 TL;DR: LeBron James is the first active NBA player to achieve billionaire status, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion in 2026. His fortune rests primarily on a lifetime Nike deal (reported at over $1 billion), SpringHill Company (valued at $725 million), a Fenway Sports Group equity stake worth roughly $90 million, and early investments including Blaze Pizza—none of which required him to step onto a basketball court. **$1.4 billion.** That is LeBron James's estimated net worth in 2026, according to Forbes—making him the first active NBA player ever to reach billionaire status, built almost entirely on business equity rather than his playing salary. LeBron James's estimated net worth in 2026 is approximately **$1.4 billion**. His career NBA salary total across more than two decades in the league is roughly $400 million before taxes. The gap between those two numbers is where the real story lives. James is the first active NBA player to achieve billionaire status. Forbes confirmed the milestone in 2026. He got there not by earning more on the court than anyone else—Cristiano Ronaldo makes more than twice what James does—but by consistently converting athletic fame into permanent equity at an age when most professional athletes were still signing whatever endorsement deal their agent brought through the door. Here is exactly how the $1.4 billion breaks down. ## LeBron James's Nike Lifetime Deal: The Foundation Everything Else Rests On In December 2015, LeBron James signed a lifetime endorsement deal with Nike—the largest in the company's history at the time. The deal is reported to be worth over **$1 billion** across its term, paying an estimated $32 million per year with equity participation that grows with Nike's business. The critical difference between this deal and a standard endorsement contract is the equity participation. James does not simply cash a check; he holds a stake in Nike's long-term commercial performance. That distinction—between being paid for access to your name and actually owning a piece of what that name generates—runs through every major financial decision James has made. He began his career, like most NBA stars, as a traditional endorser: Nike, Sprite, Coca-Cola, State Farm. By his late 20s, he had started thinking about those relationships differently. The lifetime Nike deal was the first public result of that shift. ## SpringHill Company: The Business Empire Built to Outlast Basketball SpringHill Company is the media and entertainment business James co-founded with longtime business partner Maverick Carter. It is named after the apartment complex in Akron, Ohio where James grew up. The company produces content for Netflix, Disney, and other major platforms, operating across film, television, and branded entertainment. Its reported valuation stands at **$725 million**, with investors including Nike, RedBird Capital (the sports-focused fund run by Gerry Cardinale), Epic Games, and Fenway Sports Group. James and Carter retain majority ownership. SpringHill is structurally important to understand because it is not a celebrity passion project. It is a functioning media company built on the premise that athletes with significant cultural audiences can produce content that competes with traditional studios—without ceding ownership to those studios. James and Carter identified that leverage early and built infrastructure around it rather than licensing it for a fee. The company's valuation at $725 million represents one of the most significant athlete-owned media businesses ever assembled. It generates revenue that is entirely independent of anything LeBron James does on a basketball court. ## Fenway Sports Group: The $6.5 Million Bet That Turned Into $90 Million In 2011, LeBron James paid approximately **$6.5 million** for a small equity stake in Fenway Sports Group. At the time, the investment attracted notice—not because it was large, but because it gave him a minority position in one of the most valuable sports ownership groups in the world. FSG controls the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, and NASCAR's RFK Racing, among other assets. It operates at the intersection of American and European sports markets in a way that almost no other ownership group does. By 2026, James's FSG stake is estimated to be worth roughly **$90 million**—approximately a 14x return on his initial outlay, without accounting for any distributions along the way. Liverpool's valuation alone has climbed into the multi-billion dollar range since 2011. The FSG investment is instructive for what it required of James. He did not buy a franchise. He did not run a team. He wrote a check at 26 years old, held the position, and let compounding do its work. That discipline—buying quality, not trading it—defines how he has deployed capital. ## Blaze Pizza: The Early Restaurant Bet In 2012, James and Carter invested **under $1 million** in Blaze Pizza, a then-small fast-casual restaurant concept. Their stake gave them ownership in the chain and, later, the Blaze Pizza franchise rights for Los Angeles—a market they operated directly rather than collecting a passive royalty. Blaze expanded rapidly over the following decade, reaching hundreds of locations. James's stake generated returns that significantly exceeded the original investment and, more importantly, demonstrated his investment model at the earliest stage of his business career: get in early, own equity, hold. ## LeBron James's Endorsements and the Broader Investment Picture Beyond the flagship holdings, James's portfolio includes endorsements with Beats by Dre, PepsiCo, Taco Bell, and Richard Mille, each of which produces income without requiring the equity participation that defines his most significant wealth-building decisions. His active Lakers contract—still earning at an elite level while he remains in the league—funds his operating expenses and provides the cash flow that allows him to hold longer-term positions without pressure to liquidate. The combination is unusual: most athletes' investment portfolios are built from career savings, which requires them to sell winners to fund operating costs. James structured things so the basketball contract handles the bills while the equity compounds. ## What LeBron James's $1.4 Billion Business Empire Actually Means LeBron James's net worth is roughly **ten times his estimated total NBA earnings** across his career. That ratio is the single most important number for understanding what he has actually built. Michael Jordan provides a useful comparison: Jordan's net worth of approximately $4.3 billion (see the [full richest-athletes rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/)) rests largely on Nike Air Jordan royalties that generate an estimated $275 million per year, indefinitely. His playing career was the door opener. The brand was the asset. Jordan, largely by accident of timing and Nike's own desperation in 1984, ended up with the equity version of that relationship. James studied that model and replicated the logic deliberately, across multiple assets, before the career was over. He has said publicly that he intends to own an NBA franchise. When that happens—and at his current capital base, the financing is not the barrier—it will represent the next phase of the same strategy he has been executing since his mid-20s: accumulating ownership positions while the name is still generating maximum leverage. The basketball will end. The assets will not. ## The 2026 Ownership Reversal: Why the Las Vegas Plan Stalled That franchise ambition ran into a real obstacle in 2026. James had long been positioned as a likely owner of an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas, in part because Fenway Sports Group—his equity partner since 2011—looked like his natural financing vehicle for a deal that league governors were expected to price in the $7–10 billion range when they voted in March 2026 on whether to formally explore expansion into Las Vegas and Seattle. FSG reportedly stepped back from the NBA expansion bidding process in 2026 as that price tag climbed, removing James's most obvious path to financing a franchise. By mid-2026, James said publicly he was not interested in Las Vegas ownership "at all"—a reversal from years of stated intent. The retreat does not close the door permanently. NBA expansion timelines run in years, not months, and James's FSG equity keeps him inside sports ownership regardless of whether a Las Vegas franchise happens on his terms. But it is a concrete 2026 data point against the assumption—repeated throughout years of coverage of his finances—that a team purchase was the inevitable next step in the business empire he has built. ## LeBron James Earnings 2026: $137.8 Million, and Only $52.8 Million of It Was Basketball Forbes' 2026 highest-paid athletes list, published in May 2026, put James fourth in the world at **$137.8 million** — behind Cristiano Ronaldo ($300 million), Canelo Álvarez ($170 million) and Lionel Messi ($140 million), and still the highest-paid player in the NBA at 41. The split inside that number is the part worth reading twice. Forbes credited James with roughly **$52.8 million on the court and $85 million off it** — about 62% of a year's income arriving from endorsements and investments rather than from playing. Forbes named DraftKings, Hennessy and Richard Mille among the partners behind the off-court figure. Only three of the ten highest-paid athletes in 2026 earned more away from their sport than in it. James is one of them. Shohei Ohtani is the extreme version of the same pattern — $125 million of his $127.6 million came from outside his Dodgers salary — and Stephen Curry is the third. Everyone else on the list is still being paid mostly to compete. (Full list: [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/).) That ratio is not a quirk of one accounting year. It is the design. ## The 76ers Contract: LeBron's Playing Salary Just Fell by More Than 90% On 24 July 2026, James agreed to a **two-year, roughly $8 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers**, with a player option on the second year — the smallest salary of his career, and a move East after eight seasons with the Lakers. He had exercised a **$52.63 million** player option with the Lakers for 2025-26; the new deal pays him something closer to $4 million a year. "This is my last decision," James said. "I'm not going for money." Read as a financial event, the sentence is almost literally true. The Forbes 2026 figures say a 90%-plus cut to his playing salary removes roughly $49 million from a $137.8 million year — painful for almost any other athlete on that list, and close to a rounding error against the $85 million his off-court holdings produced in the same period and the $1.4 billion balance sheet underneath it. This is what two decades of converting fame into equity actually buys: the ability to price a basketball contract on where you want to finish rather than on what you need to be paid. The Nike royalty stream, the Fenway stake and the media company do not care which jersey he wears, or whether he wears one at all. ## Fulwell Entertainment: What Happened to the SpringHill Company The **$725 million valuation** attached to SpringHill throughout this article is a real number with a specific date on it: it comes from the 2021 funding round led by RedBird Capital. The company has since changed shape. In November 2024, SpringHill agreed to merge with **Fulwell 73** — the British production company behind *The Late Late Show with James Corden* and a large slate of unscripted and music content. Both sides described it as a combination of equals rather than an acquisition, with no money changing hands between them and existing shareholders committing roughly **$40 million** of fresh capital into the combined business. The deal closed in 2025, and the merged group now operates under the **Fulwell Entertainment** umbrella, with SpringHill's Maverick Carter and Fulwell's Leo Pearlman as joint chief executives. The investor list that came across is the tell: RedBird Capital Partners, Nike, Fenway Sports Group, UC Investments, Epic Games and Main Street Advisors from the SpringHill side, plus Eldridge Industries from Fulwell's. Nike and Fenway Sports Group are, separately, James's largest endorsement partner and the ownership group he bought into in 2011. His media company, his shoe deal and his sports-equity position are not three investments. They are one interlocking set of relationships. No valuation has been disclosed for the combined company, so **$725 million remains the last public mark on the SpringHill side rather than a current figure for what James's media holding is worth today** — a distinction most net-worth coverage of him ignores. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: How Boxing's Highest Earner Built a $300M Fortune on His Own Terms](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) - [Floyd Mayweather Net Worth 2026: Why Nobody Agrees](/floyd-mayweather-net-worth/) - [Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: Richest Female Athlete](/serena-williams-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [The World's Richest Athletes by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) --- ## Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings URL: https://absoluteballer.com/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-14 TL;DR: Michael Jordan is the wealthiest athlete in history at an estimated $4.3 billion—built primarily on Nike Air Jordan royalties of roughly $275 million per year. Seven athletes have crossed the $1 billion net worth threshold: Jordan, Magic Johnson, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi, and Roger Federer. **$4.3 billion.** That is Michael Jordan's estimated net worth in 2026, according to Forbes—the highest of any athlete, active or retired, in history, and the clearest answer to "who is the richest athlete in the world." The Forbes highest-paid athletes list gets a lot of attention every year—and deserves it. But annual earnings and accumulated wealth are two very different numbers, and confusing them produces a distorted picture of who has actually built lasting financial security. Canelo Álvarez [earned $170 million in 2026](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/). That is an extraordinary number. But Magic Johnson earned a fraction of that per year during his entire playing career and now sits on a net worth roughly ten times larger. The gap between what athletes earn and what they keep and grow is where the real story lives. None of the seven billionaires below are women—the economics of endorsement deals and league salaries have historically favored men's sports. But [Serena Williams](/serena-williams-net-worth/) is the closest any woman has come: Forbes put her net worth at $400 million in June 2026, making her the richest female athlete of all time, even though she sits well below the billionaire threshold that defines this list. The same gap shows up on the annual earnings side, too: [not a single woman made Forbes' 2026 highest-paid athletes list](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/), and the highest-earning woman in sports fell more than $20 million short of the cutoff. Here is where the seven billionaire athletes actually stand in 2026—and why. ## 1. Michael Jordan — ~$4.3 Billion Jordan is the wealthiest athlete in history, and the gap between him and everyone else is significant. Forbes estimates his net worth at approximately **$4.3 billion** as of 2026. The source of that wealth is not complicated: Nike. His 1984 deal with the brand, signed for $500,000 per year plus royalties, evolved into what is now a standalone sub-brand generating roughly $7 billion in annual revenue. Jordan's estimated royalty rate of approximately 5% translates to **roughly $275–300 million per year**—every year, indefinitely, without him stepping on a basketball court. His cumulative Nike income since 1984 now exceeds $2 billion. The other major wealth event: Jordan bought the Charlotte Hornets in 2010 for approximately $275 million and sold his majority stake in 2023 at a reported $3 billion valuation—roughly a 10x return on the original purchase. Jordan's model—a perpetual royalty stream from the world's largest athletic brand, combined with a sports franchise bought and held for appreciating equity—is unlikely to be replicated exactly. But the lesson it contains is not complicated: the richest athletes own assets, they do not just cash endorsement checks. (Full breakdown: [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/)) ## 2. Magic Johnson — ~$1.6 Billion Earvin "Magic" Johnson earned approximately $40 million in total salary during his years with the Los Angeles Lakers and collected less than $4 million a year in endorsements at his commercial peak. By modern athletic earnings standards, those numbers are modest. His net worth in 2026 is estimated at approximately **$1.6 billion**. The gap explains everything about how financial legacies are actually built. Johnson's fortune rests primarily on his majority stake in **EquiTrust Life Insurance**, a company he took over in 2015 that manages approximately $34 billion in assets. He holds minority ownership positions in four professional sports franchises, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Commanders, each of which has appreciated significantly since his entry. Johnson spent his post-playing career acquiring equity stakes in businesses the financial mainstream had overlooked and building infrastructure in underserved communities. His wealth is built on ownership, not endorsements. It is arguably the most instructive model on this list for any athlete who wants to understand what financial longevity actually requires. ## 3. Cristiano Ronaldo — ~$1.4 Billion Ronaldo became football's first active billionaire in 2025, crossing the threshold on the back of his Al-Nassr contract—reported at $235 million per year in salary—and his CR7 brand, which spans clothing, hotels, fragrance, and gyms across multiple continents. His estimated **$1.4 billion** net worth is built on two reinforcing pillars: the most lucrative playing contract in football history and a branded product empire that earns independently of where he plays. The Saudi deal was widely dismissed as a vanity paycheck when it was announced. What it actually represents is the most efficient late-career monetization in the history of professional football. (Full breakdown: [Cristiano Ronaldo Net Worth 2026: How Football's First Billionaire Built a $1.4 Billion Empire](/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/).) ## 4. LeBron James — ~$1.4 Billion James became the first active NBA player to achieve billionaire status, with an estimated net worth of approximately **$1.4 billion** as of 2026 according to Forbes. The figure rests on layered infrastructure, not a single income stream. His lifetime Nike deal, reported to be worth over $1 billion across its term, is the foundation. Beyond it: SpringHill Company, his media and entertainment business co-founded with Maverick Carter; a stake in Fenway Sports Group, which controls the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, and NASCAR's RFK Racing; and his early equity position in Blaze Pizza, among other holdings. (Full breakdown: [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/).) What distinguishes James's wealth-building is timing. He began constructing business equity while still in his mid-20s, treating his playing career as capital to be deployed rather than income to be spent. That decision, made while most observers were watching his on-court production, is why his net worth is roughly ten times his estimated lifetime NBA salary. ## 5. Tiger Woods — ~$1.5 Billion Woods earned an estimated $120,999,166 in career PGA Tour prize money—the record in professional golf—against total career income (prize money, endorsements, appearance fees, and business income combined) estimated at more than $1.7 billion before taxes and agent fees. His net worth is estimated at approximately **$1.5 billion** in 2026, up from roughly $1.1 billion in 2023, making him only the second active athlete ever, after LeBron James, to cross the billionaire threshold. Two factors define the current number. First, his 27-year Nike deal, which ended in January 2024, was replaced by an ownership stake in his own **Sun Day Red** apparel brand through a joint venture with TaylorMade—a deliberate shift from endorsement model to equity model that parallels what others on this list have done. Second, his course design and real estate business TGR Ventures, along with the PopStroke mini-golf and dining chain, has generated substantial returns. (Full breakdown: [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/).) Woods's wealth story is inseparable from his cultural weight. At his competitive peak, independent analysts estimated he generated over $1 billion per year in economic value for the PGA Tour and corporate sponsors. He has converted a significant portion of that leverage into positions he owns outright. ## 6. Lionel Messi — ~$1.0–1.1 Billion Forbes reported in June 2026 that Messi had crossed the **$1 billion** threshold, joining his longtime rival Ronaldo in the billionaire bracket. His career earnings at Barcelona were reported at over $600 million before taxes; subsequent contracts at PSG and Inter Miami added further on-field income. His off-field portfolio includes a long-term Adidas partnership, equity in the **Más+ by Messi** beverage brand, positions in MiM Hotels in Spain and Andorra, restaurant ventures in Argentina, and a minority stake in Inter Miami. Several of these holdings are privately valued, which is why estimates range from $850 million to $1.1 billion depending on methodology—but his entry into the billionaire bracket is now widely accepted. (Full breakdown: [Lionel Messi Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.1 Billion Empire He Built Alongside Football](/lionel-messi-net-worth/).) ## 7. Roger Federer — ~$1.1 Billion Federer's billionaire status is primarily a function of a single equity decision. His estimated 2.5–3% stake in **On**, the Swiss running shoe brand that went public in 2021, is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars at On's current market capitalization—the brand has grown into one of the fastest-expanding athletic footwear companies in the world. His career peak endorsement income—an estimated $100 million per year at his commercial height from Uniqlo, Rolex, and Mercedes—generated significant cash flow. But it is the On stake that converted him from a well-compensated endorser into a billionaire equity holder. The distinction matters: an endorsement check spends once. An equity stake compounds—but it also swings with the stock. A 19% single-day drop in On's share price on August 11, 2026 briefly knocked Federer's real-time estimated net worth down to $952.4 million, a reminder that his is the least stable of the seven fortunes on this list. (Full breakdown: [Roger Federer Net Worth 2026: The Billion That Slipped](/roger-federer-net-worth/).) ## What Separates Wealth From Earnings Every athlete on this list made the same foundational decision at some point in their career: they converted athletic leverage into **ownership**. Jordan's Nike royalty. Magic's insurance company. Federer's On stake. LeBron's Fenway equity. Messi's hotel business. The mechanism varies; the principle is identical. Being famous and being paid to be famous are two different business models. The first builds generational wealth. The second builds a career. The Forbes highest-paid list reflects who had the biggest year. The net worth rankings reflect who built the biggest business with the years they had. Those are not always the same athletes—and the gap between the two lists tells you almost everything you need to know about why some athletes retire wealthy and others do not. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: How Boxing's Highest Earner Built a $300M Fortune on His Own Terms](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) - [Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: How She Became the Richest Female Athlete of All Time](/serena-williams-net-worth/) - [Lionel Messi Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.1 Billion Empire He Built Alongside Football](/lionel-messi-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [Stephen Curry Net Worth 2026: Inside the $240 Million Fortune Behind His Record $60 Million NBA Season](/stephen-curry-net-worth/) - [How Successful Entrepreneurs Manage Their Money](/how-successful-entrepreneurs-manage-their-money/) - [Highest-Paid College Athletes 2026: $6.5M NIL Boom](/highest-paid-college-athletes-2026/) - [Olympic Medal Bonuses 2026: Team USA Ranks Near the Bottom](/olympic-medal-bonuses-2026/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [Roger Federer Net Worth 2026: The Billion That Slipped](/roger-federer-net-worth/) --- ## The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026 URL: https://absoluteballer.com/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-11 TL;DR: Cristiano Ronaldo tops the Forbes 2026 list at $300 million—six times overall—while the top 50 athletes combined for $4.1 billion. Four athletes have crossed the billionaire threshold while still competing: LeBron James (2022), Tiger Woods (2022), Ronaldo (2025), and Lionel Messi (June 2026). **$300 million.** That is what Cristiano Ronaldo earned over the past 12 months, according to Forbes—the most of any athlete on the planet and the answer to "who is the highest-paid athlete in the world in 2026." Every May, Forbes drops its annual list of the world's highest-paid athletes. Every year, the numbers get harder to believe. The 2026 edition is no different. The top 50 athletes combined to earn an estimated **$4.1 billion** over the past 12 months before taxes and agent fees. One man alone accounted for $300 million of it. Four active athletes have now crossed the billionaire threshold by net worth. And the gap between what the elite earn and what everyone else takes home has never been wider. Here is the full breakdown of the ten biggest earners in professional sports right now—and what their numbers tell us about how wealth is actually built at the top of the game. ## The Full 2026 Earnings Table Every figure below is Forbes' estimate for the 12-month period ending in May 2026, split into on-field (salary, prize money, fight purses) and off-field (endorsements, appearances, licensing) income. | Rank | Athlete | Sport | Total | On-Field | Off-Field | |---|---|---|---:|---:|---:| | 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Soccer | $300M | $235M | $65M | | 2 | Canelo Álvarez | Boxing | $170M | $160M | $10M | | 3 | Lionel Messi | Soccer | $140M | ~$70M | ~$70M | | 4 | LeBron James | Basketball | $137.8M | $52.8M | $85M | | 5 | Shohei Ohtani | Baseball | $127.6M | $2.6M | $125M | | 6 | Stephen Curry | Basketball | $124.7M | $59.7M | $65M | | 7 | Jon Rahm | Golf | $107M | not broken out | not broken out | | 8 | Karim Benzema | Soccer | $104M | $100M | $4M | | 9 | Kevin Durant | Basketball | $103.8M | ~$54.8M | $49M | | 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Formula 1 | $100M | $70M | $30M | Messi's and Durant's on-field figures are derived from Forbes' own "close to even split" characterization of their income rather than independently published exact figures; Forbes does not break Jon Rahm's LIV Golf total into an on/off split. ## 1. Cristiano Ronaldo — $300 Million Ronaldo tops the Forbes list for the **sixth time overall** and the **fourth year in a row**. No active athlete comes close. The breakdown: $235 million from his Al-Nassr contract in Saudi Arabia and $65 million from endorsements. He sits roughly $130 million ahead of the second-place finisher. His career playing earnings have now pushed his net worth to approximately **$1.4 billion**, making him the first active footballer to enter billionaire territory. The Saudi deal, widely mocked when it was signed, has turned out to be the most lucrative contract in sports history. Ronaldo is not just cashing checks—he is leveraging the platform to expand his CR7 brand globally, particularly across markets in the Middle East and Asia that European clubs could not reach. ## 2. Canelo Álvarez — $170 Million The Mexican boxer earned an estimated $170 million, with $160 million of that coming directly from his fights. Canelo is the rare athlete whose on-field earnings dwarf his off-field income—he is a reminder that in combat sports, the purse is still the primary product. His ability to negotiate fight-by-fight deals and own his promotional infrastructure has given him financial control that most athletes in team sports never achieve. (Full breakdown: [Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: How Boxing's Highest Earner Built a $300M Fortune on His Own Terms](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/)) ## 3. Lionel Messi — $140 Million Messi's earnings split nearly evenly between on-field and off-field income—a sign of how effectively he has built a commercial brand that operates independently of where he plays. The move to Inter Miami extended his reach into American markets and activated an entirely new set of sponsorship opportunities. At 38, Messi continues to generate top-three revenue in professional sports. The commercial machine he built over two decades at Barcelona does not slow down just because his club changed. ## 4. LeBron James — $137.8 Million James is the **highest-paid player in the NBA** and the fourth-highest-paid athlete on the planet. His $137.8 million includes an active Lakers salary alongside his lifetime Nike deal—reported at over $1 billion—plus endorsements with companies including Beats by Dre, PepsiCo, Taco Bell, and Richard Mille. The more important number is his **net worth: approximately $1.4 billion**, making James the first active NBA player to achieve billionaire status. That fortune was built not just on basketball, but on deliberate infrastructure: his SpringHill Company (valued at $725 million at its last funding round), an ownership stake in Fenway Sports Group (which includes the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, and NASCAR's RFK Racing), and his early Blaze Pizza investment. (Full breakdown: [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/).) James has spent two decades turning athletic fame into permanent capital. The on-court earnings were seed money. ## 5. Shohei Ohtani — $127.6 Million Ohtani reclaimed the MLB earnings crown with an estimated $127.6 million, recapturing the top spot after Juan Soto held it briefly in 2025. His 10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers is the largest contract in baseball history, and its deferred structure means his per-year number will eventually climb further. Ohtani's commercial appeal has expanded steadily, particularly across Asian markets where his crossover between two elite skill sets—pitching and hitting—has made him one of the most marketable athletes in the world. (Full breakdown: [Shohei Ohtani Net Worth 2026: Inside His $150M Fortune](/shohei-ohtani-net-worth/).) ## 6–7. Stephen Curry and Jon Rahm Curry's income splits nearly evenly between his Warriors salary and his endorsements with Chase, Google, and Rakuten. His original deal with Under Armour, signed in 2013, was a landmark moment in athlete-brand partnerships; the two sides parted ways in November 2025, and Curry has since signed a reported $400 million deal with Li-Ning. (Full breakdown: [Stephen Curry Net Worth 2026: Inside the $240 Million Fortune Behind His Record $60 Million NBA Season](/stephen-curry-net-worth/).) Rahm's appearance in the top ten reflects the ongoing disruption in professional golf. His move to LIV Golf delivered a contract worth reported hundreds of millions, compressing what would have been a decade of PGA Tour earnings into a shorter window. ## 8. Karim Benzema — $104 Million Like Ronaldo, Benzema's decision to join Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad transformed his earning trajectory in the final chapter of his career. The French striker collected an estimated $104 million, more than he would have made at any European club at this stage. The Saudi Pro League has become the defining market for veteran elite footballers extracting maximum late-career value. ## 9. Kevin Durant Durant's income mixes a large NBA salary with off-court ventures that reflect his business ambitions beyond basketball. His media company Boardroom and partnerships with CeraVe, Dick's Sporting Goods, and FanDuel round out an income profile that increasingly resembles an entrepreneur's as much as an athlete's. ## 10. Lewis Hamilton — $100 Million Hamilton collected an estimated $100 million over the past 12 months—a new personal record and the highest figure ever earned by a Formula 1 driver, surpassing the $82 million he made in 2021 while still at Mercedes. His move to Ferrari, his ambassador work with global luxury brands, and his growing investment portfolio put him firmly in elite company outside of motorsport, even though his first season in Ferrari red produced zero wins. (Full breakdown: [Lewis Hamilton Net Worth 2026: F1's First $100 Million Year](/lewis-hamilton-net-worth/).) ## What the List Actually Tells You The most instructive thing about the Forbes top 10 is not who earns the most—it is **how** they earn. Ronaldo's gap over the competition comes from a contract structure almost no team-sport player could replicate. But for everyone else on the list, **off-field income is where the real differentiation happens**. LeBron's $137.8 million includes his salary, but his billionaire net worth is built from equity, not paychecks. Curry's Chase deal and Durant's Boardroom are not just sidelines—they are parallel careers that will produce income long after both players retire. Annual earnings are also not the same thing as accumulated wealth. Four athletes have crossed the billionaire net-worth threshold while still competing: LeBron James got there first in 2022, Tiger Woods followed later that year, Ronaldo crossed in 2025, and Messi joined them in June 2026. Ronaldo and LeBron sit at an estimated $1.4 billion apiece, Woods at $1.5 billion, Messi at $1.1 billion—but none of them is the richest athlete alive. That distinction still belongs to Michael Jordan, whose Nike royalties have pushed his estimated net worth to **$4.3 billion** more than two decades after his last game. Retired greats Magic Johnson and Roger Federer round out the group, for seven billionaire athletes in total. (Full rankings: [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/).) The pattern is consistent across the list: athletes who treat their playing career as a launchpad—not a destination—are the ones whose financial lives outlast their athletic ones by a wide margin. The sport gets them in the door. The business is what keeps them rich. --- **More from Absolute Baller:** - [Cristiano Ronaldo Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.4B Empire](/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/) - [Canelo Álvarez Net Worth 2026: How Boxing's Highest Earner Built a $300M Fortune on His Own Terms](/canelo-alvarez-net-worth/) - [Lionel Messi Net Worth 2026: Inside His $1.1B Empire](/lionel-messi-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Shohei Ohtani Net Worth 2026: Inside His $150M Fortune](/shohei-ohtani-net-worth/) - [Stephen Curry Net Worth 2026: Inside the $240 Million Fortune Behind His Record $60 Million NBA Season](/stephen-curry-net-worth/) - [Floyd Mayweather Net Worth 2026: Why Nobody Agrees](/floyd-mayweather-net-worth/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [Serena Williams Net Worth 2026: Richest Female Athlete](/serena-williams-net-worth/) - [Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2026: No Women in Forbes Top 50](/highest-paid-female-athletes-2026/) - [Highest-Paid College Athletes 2026: $6.5M NIL Boom](/highest-paid-college-athletes-2026/) - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [Lewis Hamilton Net Worth 2026: F1's First $100 Million Year](/lewis-hamilton-net-worth/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps Draining Million-Dollar Careers](/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/) - [Olympic Medal Bonuses 2026: Team USA Ranks Near the Bottom](/olympic-medal-bonuses-2026/) --- ## The Court Scout: A Directory That Refuses to Rot URL: https://absoluteballer.com/alejandro-rioja-the-court-scout-directory-that-refuses-to-rot/ Section: Business · Published: 2026-07-11 Court directories share a predictable life cycle: someone scrapes a bunch of listings, launches, and stops paying attention the day it ships. Alejandro Rioja, who runs the Austin pickleball facility Pickleland, got tired of being on the other end of that decay. "Every pickleball directory gets scraped once and left to rot," Rioja says. "Wrong numbers, courts that closed years ago. I built agents that check every club weekly instead. Living directory, not a snapshot." That became [The Court Scout](https://thecourtscout.com), a verified directory covering pickleball, padel, tennis, and badminton courts, built and run by the same team behind Pickleland. The mechanism is the unglamorous part most competitors skip: instead of a one-time research pass, agents revisit every listing on a set cadence and confirm details against primary sources, so a wrong phone number or a shuttered court doesn't sit there silently for years. "Verified court directory — pickleball, padel, tennis, badminton," he says. "Difference is freshness. Most directories are a one-time scrape. Ours gets re-checked weekly against primary sources. What you see is true right now, not whenever someone last hit Google Maps." Rioja draws a straight line between this project and [Courtlines](https://courtlines.com), the club operating system he's also building. "Same itch as Courtlines," he says. "I don't fix things halfway. A directory that's wrong half the time isn't hard to beat — you just have to keep checking instead of walking away." The Court Scout started in Texas and has expanded state by state on purpose, since each new market means a fresh wave of manual verification behind the scenes. Rioja isn't optimizing for size first. "Want it to be the default — not the biggest list, the most current one," he says. "Same team running Pickleland runs this. Not a side project we forgot about." Zoom out across Pickleland, Courtlines, and The Court Scout, and the pattern repeats: Rioja finds the part of an industry everyone's quietly agreed to phone in, and does that part properly instead. **Follow The Court Scout:** [thecourtscout.com](https://thecourtscout.com) · Alejandro Rioja: [alejandrorioja.com](https://alejandrorioja.com) --- ## Courtlines: The Club OS Alejandro Rioja Built Himself URL: https://absoluteballer.com/alejandro-rioja-courtlines-club-os-runs-on-its-own-recommendations/ Section: Business · Published: 2026-07-11 Alejandro Rioja didn't set out to become a software founder. He set out to run a pickleball facility, and Pickleland — his indoor court operation in Austin — turned into the hardest business he's built. High fixed costs, hands-on customers, no room to coast. What broke his patience wasn't the pickleball, it was the software running the business underneath it. "Every booking system out there is the same — CRUD screens, a dashboard, good luck," Rioja says. "None of it's AI-first. I wanted something that runs itself and gets better on its own, not something I babysit." That complaint became [Courtlines](https://courtlines.com), a club operating system Rioja built for racquet and court-sport facilities — pickleball, tennis, padel, squash, badminton, with room to stretch into volleyball and CrossFit. Booking, memberships, point-of-sale, and scheduling all live in one place, which isn't the differentiated part. The differentiated part shows up every morning: an AI advisor reviews a club's numbers overnight and hands the operator specific, ranked actions — reopen this time slot, adjust that price, reach out to these lapsed members — instead of a dashboard he has to interpret himself. "Favorite part's the AI advisor — every morning it tells you what to actually do with your numbers instead of just showing you a dashboard," he says. "Software that improves itself, not software you babysit." What separates Rioja from most founders building club software is that he isn't guessing at the workflow from the outside. He was the customer first. "I wasn't guessing at the pain points — I was living them," he says. "Different kind of insight when you're the operator, not just building software for one." Pickleland runs on Courtlines end-to-end — not a pilot, not a demo account — and has posted roughly a 25% revenue increase since the switch, a number he credits as much to the morning recommendations as to the booking flow itself. The roadmap doesn't stop at racquet sports. "Short term, club OS for racquet sports," Rioja says. "Long term I want this running any small business that lives on time slots and memberships — gyms, salons, whatever. Started with courts because that's the world I know. But the itch was never just pickleball, it's 'why is this software so dumb.'" Courtlines is early, and Rioja knows it. Pickleland is the proof of concept. The real test is whether an AI advisor built on one operator's data holds up across clubs he's never set foot in. **Follow Courtlines:** [courtlines.com](https://courtlines.com) · Alejandro Rioja: [alejandrorioja.com](https://alejandrorioja.com) --- ## Why Pro Athletes Go Broke: The Financial Traps URL: https://absoluteballer.com/why-pro-athletes-go-broke/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-09 TL;DR: Most pro athletes go broke within a few years of retirement due to short career windows, lifestyle inflation, bad advice, and poor financial education. The ones who build lasting wealth treat their athletic income as seed capital—not a salary. **78%.** That is the share of former NFL players who face significant financial stress or bankruptcy within two years of retiring, despite many having earned millions during their careers. Imagine earning $10 million a year and still going broke. For most people, that seems impossible. For professional athletes, it happens at an alarming rate. Studies consistently show that approximately **78% of former NFL players face significant financial stress or bankruptcy within two years of retiring**. In the NBA, around **60% of players are broke within five years** of their last game. Athletes who spent a decade earning more money in a single season than most people see in a lifetime end up broke, bitter, and bewildered—wondering where it all went. The "Broke" documentary from ESPN put this crisis on the national radar over a decade ago. The problem has not gone away. If anything, the gap between what athletes earn and what they keep has widened as lifestyle costs escalate, bad actors multiply, and financial education remains an afterthought in sports culture. So what actually happens? Here are the five financial traps that drain million-dollar careers—and what the sharpest athletes do to avoid them. ## The Career Window Is Brutally Short The first trap is arithmetic, not behavior. The average NFL career lasts **3.3 years**. The average NBA career runs **4.8 years**. MLB players average about **5.6 years**. Most professional athletes retire before their 35th birthday, leaving 40 or more years of adult life to fund without a paycheck from their sport. The athlete earning $5 million a year for four years doesn't have $20 million to work with forever. After taxes, agent fees, and basic living costs, that number shrinks fast. The window for earning elite-level athletic income is brief; the runway that money has to cover is enormous. Elite performers in any other high-paying profession—law, medicine, finance—typically build income over 30+ years. Athletes get a fraction of that time. Treating a four-year peak earning window as though it will last indefinitely is the foundational mistake everything else builds on. ## Lifestyle Inflation Sets In Immediately The moment a player signs their first major contract, the lifestyle often scales to match—and then exceed—it. Luxury cars, designer clothes, large homes, and private travel are not just purchases; they are status signals in professional locker rooms. The pressure to look the part is real and relentless. Then comes the entourage. Family members, childhood friends, hangers-on—people who knew the athlete before the money arrive expecting to share in it. Buying houses for relatives, financing business ventures for friends, covering expenses for an ever-expanding social circle: these obligations feel like loyalty but function like a slow financial drain that never turns off. Antoine Walker illustrates the pattern. The former NBA All-Star earned more than $108 million in salary during his professional career. He filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Walker later said he was supporting more than 70 people at various points in his career. The math was never going to work. ## The Wrong Advisors Make Everything Worse Athletes become wealthy young, often without the financial experience to evaluate the people managing their money. That makes them natural targets. Vince Young earned approximately $26 million over six NFL seasons. His financial planner reportedly misappropriated millions of that money, leaving Young in a hole he spent years digging out of. Young is not an isolated case. Across professional sports, predatory advisors, fraudulent investment schemes, and outright theft have stripped athletes of fortunes they worked their entire lives to earn. The advisors who approach newly signed players are not always the ones with their clients' best interests at heart. In an environment where everyone around an athlete stands to benefit from their spending, objective financial guidance is hard to find and harder to keep. ## Bad Investments Compound the Damage Beyond outright fraud, athletes routinely lose money in poorly chosen ventures. Restaurant businesses. Car dealerships. Real estate projects in markets they know nothing about. Startup investments pitched by friends. The common thread is deploying large amounts of capital into industries the athlete has no expertise in, often on the advice of people with a financial stake in the deal. Legitimate investments require due diligence, diversification, and patience. Athletes often arrive with the capital but without the knowledge base or the networks to evaluate whether a deal is sound. The result is a series of expensive lessons learned too late. ## Financial Education Doesn't Come With the Draft Pick Professional leagues are beginning to address this, but for most of sports history, the players entering the league at 21 or 22 years old had spent their entire formative years focused on their sport—not on tax strategy, investment portfolios, or estate planning. Many athletes have never had a conversation about compound interest, tax liability, or the difference between an asset and a liability. They arrive in professional sports with elite physical skills and very little else to protect the money those skills generate. ## What Smart Athletes Do Differently The athletes who build lasting wealth approach their playing income as seed capital, not a salary. They live well below their means during their earning years, build diversified investment portfolios, and hire advisors who charge transparent flat fees rather than commissions tied to product sales. The smartest ones also start building income streams before retirement arrives. LeBron James is the clearest modern example. His SpringHill Company, his stake in Fenway Sports Group (which owns Liverpool FC and the Boston Red Sox), and his lifetime Nike deal have made him the first active NBA player to achieve billionaire status—not because of his on-court contract, but because of the business infrastructure he built around it. (See [how James built the $1.4 billion](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) piece by piece.) Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods all followed similar paths: using athletic prominence to open doors into business ownership, real estate, and media—then building those interests into fortunes that far exceed anything their playing careers alone could have generated. (Full rankings: [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/); see also [how Woods rebuilt his fortune after Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) and [how Jordan's $90M salary became $4.3 billion](/michael-jordan-net-worth/).) The lesson is not that athletes should think less about their sport. It is that the window for athletic earnings is too short and too unpredictable to be the only plan. The athletes who come out ahead treat every off-season and every free moment as a business building opportunity, not just a recovery period. The money follows the mindset. --- **Related reading on Absolute Baller:** - [Athletes Who Own Sports Teams: The 2026 List](/athletes-who-own-sports-teams/) - [The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in 2026: Forbes Rankings Revealed](/highest-paid-athletes-in-the-world-2026/) - [Richest Athletes in the World by Net Worth: 2026 Rankings](/richest-athletes-in-the-world-net-worth/) - [LeBron James Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.4 Billion Business Empire](/lebron-james-business-empire-net-worth/) - [Michael Jordan Net Worth 2026: How the $90M Career Salary Became a $4.3 Billion Fortune](/michael-jordan-net-worth/) - [Tiger Woods Net Worth 2026: Inside the $1.5 Billion Fortune He Built After Nike](/tiger-woods-net-worth/) - [How Successful Entrepreneurs Manage Their Money](/how-successful-entrepreneurs-manage-their-money/) - [Why Skipping Traditional Education May Be Your Best Chance at Self-Made Success](/why-skipping-traditional-education-may-be-your-best-chance-at-self-made-success/) - [Business Lessons Aspiring Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Poker](/business-lessons-aspiring-entrepreneurs-can-learn-from-poker/) --- ## Sarah Kugelman Sold Gloss.com Weeks Before the Crash URL: https://absoluteballer.com/sarah-kugelman-all-golden/ Section: Money · Published: 2026-07-06 Sarah Kugelman has been building and exiting beauty companies since before most of the industry's current founders had a business email address. In 1999, with an MBA from Columbia Business School and a cum laude degree from Tufts already behind her, she raised $5 million and launched Gloss.com — one of the first online beauty retailers, selling 125 brands alongside a digital magazine. The company raised $25 million total, grew to 100 employees, and sold to the Estée Lauder Companies after just one year. The timing turned out to matter as much as the execution: Kugelman closed the sale two weeks before the April 2000 internet crash wiped out much of that era's dot-com valuations. She didn't stop there. In 2005, Kugelman founded Skyn ICELAND, a clean, indie skincare brand built around a specific thesis: stressed skin needed its own category of treatment, distinct from the anti-aging and acne categories that dominated the shelf. She ran it for nearly two decades, growing it to $25 million in global revenue and navigating the 2008 financial crisis by restructuring the business rather than shutting it down — a decision that let her relaunch in 2012 and keep building until the brand's acquisition by Amerikas in October 2024. Most operators would treat back-to-back multi-decade exits as a natural stopping point. Kugelman used hers to launch a third: [ALL GOLDEN](https://allgolden.com), a skincare and haircare line she debuted in September 2024 aimed squarely at women over 45 — a demographic the beauty industry has historically either ignored or marketed to with thinly veiled anti-aging shame. ALL GOLDEN's approach leans on patent-pending technology and a direct confrontation of industry ageism, rather than the usual euphemisms. Kugelman's influence now extends past her own companies. She sits on Tufts' Derby Entrepreneurship Center Executive Board and served as a 2023 Columbia Business School mentor for Latino entrepreneurs — putting the same pattern-recognition that got her through two crashes and three companies to work for founders earlier in the timeline she's already run twice. **Follow ALL GOLDEN:** [allgolden.com](https://allgolden.com) · Instagram [@allgoldenbeauty](https://www.instagram.com/allgoldenbeauty/) --- ## Darren Darnborough Built the Platform Actors Needed URL: https://absoluteballer.com/darren-darnborough-weaudition/ Section: Culture · Published: 2026-07-03 Darren Darnborough's entrepreneurial story starts, unusually, inside an acting career that was already working. The British-born, Los Angeles-based actor turned professional at 16 after cutting his teeth in amateur musicals, built a résumé on London stages and in UK television and commercials, then relocated to the US and picked up television credits on 2 Broke Girls, True Blood, Magnum PI, MacGyver, Truth Be Told, and Roots, along with film roles including the lead in Groundswell opposite Lacey Chabert, the Sundance selection Jamojaya, and Abruptio. That's a career most actors would treat as the whole story. Darnborough treated it as market research. Every actor eventually needs scene partners to prep an audition and a way to earn between roles — and the tools available for both were, in his experience, unreliable or nonexistent. So he co-founded [WeAudition](https://www.weaudition.com), a platform connecting actors, casting directors, and industry professionals through video chat and in-person events, built around a specific mechanic: actors can access on-demand scene partners when they need to prep, and earn income as readers for other actors' self-tapes in between their own auditions. It's not his first business built inside his own industry — he previously co-founded StuckForStaff before WeAudition. The throughline across both is a philosophy he traces back to Richard Branson's multi-industry approach: build things that create genuine win-win value for a community you're already part of, and don't let the pursuit of scale strip out what made the work enjoyable in the first place. WeAudition's bet is that the acting industry's gig-economy structure — thousands of working actors with irregular schedules and a constant need for reliable scene partners — is exactly the kind of fragmented, high-friction market a well-built platform can fix, provided it's built by someone who has personally felt the friction from the audition-room side of the table. **Follow Darren Darnborough:** [weaudition.com](https://www.weaudition.com) · Instagram [@darrendarnborough](https://www.instagram.com/darrendarnborough/) --- ## Kerrie Campbell Left Corporate HR to Coach Burnout URL: https://absoluteballer.com/kerrie-campbell-live-your-sensational-life/ Section: Culture · Published: 2026-06-30 For 25 years, Kerrie Campbell was the person other people's burnout landed on. As a global human resources executive, she spent her career inside the corporate machinery of people development and coaching — advising leaders, building programs, and, along the way, relocating her family from Australia to the United States for a job opportunity while serving as the sole income earner after her husband left his own career to raise their two teenage children. Eventually the job she'd built a career managing for other people caught up with her directly. Campbell hit burnout and adrenal fatigue despite, by every external measure, succeeding — a disconnect that's common enough in high-performing executives but rarely acted on as decisively as she acted on it. She resigned from her corporate role, took real time for reflection, and went back to school for certifications in transformational coaching methodologies most HR departments never touch: Human Design, PSYCH-K®, clinical hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom Technique, NLP, and Akashic Records work. That combination now underpins [Live Your Sensational Life](https://liveyoursensationallife.com), the coaching practice Campbell runs today, currently offering one-to-one coaching with group and virtual programs in development. The work centers on helping clients identify purpose, dismantle limiting beliefs, and build lives that feel fulfilling rather than just externally successful — the exact gap Campbell spent 25 years watching other executives fall into without a framework to climb back out. Her client base so far has grown almost entirely through personal network and referral, which tracks with the nature of the work: this isn't a service people find cold through an ad, it's one they get pointed toward by someone who watched a friend or colleague change visibly after going through it. Campbell describes her own approach as bridging spirituality with practicality — a positioning that reads less like branding and more like the actual dividing line in her own career, between the HR executive managing everyone else's development and the coach who finally did the work on her own. **Follow Kerrie Campbell:** [liveyoursensationallife.com](https://liveyoursensationallife.com) · Instagram [@CoachingbyKerrie](https://www.instagram.com/coachingbykerrie/) --- ## Precious Williams: From Homeless to Coaching Google URL: https://absoluteballer.com/precious-williams-perfect-pitches/ Section: Business · Published: 2026-06-26 Precious L. Williams's résumé reads, on its surface, like a straight line: a Spelman College English degree, a Rutgers Law degree, a brief run practicing law, and then a pivot into founding, speaking, and training. The actual path was considerably rougher — and it's the roughness that makes her current work land differently than the average corporate-training pitch. Williams's first venture, Curvy Girlz Lingerie, launched in 2011 with -$400 in her bank account — not a low balance, an actual negative one. What followed included a period of homelessness and a stretch of serious personal difficulty that led her into a two-year life-transformation program. She's now been sober for more than five years, a fact she doesn't treat as a footnote to her business story but as inseparable from it. Out of that rebuild came Perfect Pitches by Precious, her current business: corporate training, professional speaking, and pitch coaching built around a skill she's demonstrably mastered — she's a 13-time elevator-pitch champion. The client list backs up the credential. Williams, who goes by the "#KillerPitchMaster," has trained teams inside Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Harvard, appeared on Shark Tank, and been covered by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. She's also a four-time #1 bestselling author and was featured in a Mastercard "Priceless" commercial. What separates Williams from the broader field of pitch coaches is the credibility gap she closes just by existing: most communication training comes from people who've never had to pitch their way out of an actual crisis. Williams has more than 200 testimonials on LinkedIn from people who came to her after watching someone survive negative $400 and homelessness to end up training rooms full of Google engineers on how to communicate under pressure. **Follow Precious Williams:** Instagram [@perfectpitchesp](https://www.instagram.com/perfectpitchesp/) --- ## David Nelson Is Building Appalachia's Startup Scene URL: https://absoluteballer.com/david-nelson-foundersforge-appalachia/ Section: Culture · Published: 2026-06-22 Most founder profiles are about a single company. David Nelson's is really about an entire regional economy that didn't have the infrastructure to support founders like him — so he built it. Nelson had already started six companies by the time he launched [FoundersForge](https://foundersforge.com) in 2020, a nonprofit entrepreneur center serving Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, and the surrounding Appalachian Highlands. He'd moved through multiple accelerators and startup ecosystems over the course of his career, and what he noticed in his own backyard was a familiar problem: promising founders with nowhere structured to go for mentorship, funding connections, or peer community, in a region investors and accelerator networks routinely overlook. The timing — launching a physical-community nonprofit in the middle of a pandemic — was about as difficult as startup timing gets. Four years on, the numbers suggest it worked anyway. The number of high-growth startups in the region grew from 16 in 2016 to more than 76 by 2024. FoundersForge now accounts for 88% of dedicated entrepreneurship programming in the Appalachian Highlands, and 57% of small-business support activity when the scope widens beyond high-growth startups specifically. In 2023 alone, the organization raised $384,000 in grant funding to keep that programming running. The centerpiece of Nelson's work is the Startup Mountain Summit, a conference he built from nothing that drew nearly 200 attendees from five states in its 2023 edition. By 2024, it was pulling in speakers like AppSumo CEO Noah Kagan — a sign that a region without a major tech-hub reputation was starting to register on founders' radar as somewhere worth paying attention to. Nelson's approach reflects a broader shift worth watching: ecosystem-building as its own category of entrepreneurship, distinct from company-building but just as consequential — the kind of work that doesn't show up on a cap table but determines whether the next 76 startups in a region get the support the last 16 didn't have. **Follow FoundersForge:** [foundersforge.com](https://foundersforge.com) · Instagram [@myfoundersforge](https://www.instagram.com/myfoundersforge/) --- ## Anna Cobb Turned a Near-Fatal Reaction Into a Brand URL: https://absoluteballer.com/anna-cobb-rejuvenation-plant-based-energy/ Section: Business · Published: 2026-06-18 Anna Cobb was 20 years old when an energy supplement she bought at GNC nearly closed her throat. What followed was a hospital stay that included time on a ventilator — and, once she'd recovered, a deep dive into exactly what was in the energy products she and her peers were drinking every day. What she found didn't sit well with her. That research became the seed for Rejuvenation, the plant-based energy drink brand Cobb founded and now runs as CEO. The pitch is straightforward: sustained energy from plant-based ingredients, without the artificial additives that filled the products lining GNC shelves — and without the jitters-then-crash cycle that comes with them. Cobb built the company the way most first-time founders actually do, which is to say: unglamorously. During her senior year at Tuskegee University, she started with a campus plant-based catering business to test the market and build a customer base close to home. When COVID-19 pushed her graduation online, she used the moment to formally launch Rejuvenation — manufacturing her earliest batches in her mother's kitchen with basic equipment, working multiple jobs simultaneously to keep the operation funded. That kitchen-table start has scaled into a real regional operation. Rejuvenation now has a manufacturing team of eight women and is stocked in 13 grocery stores across the Washington, D.C. metro area, where Cobb is based — modest by national-beverage-brand standards, but a meaningful foothold in one of the country's more competitive retail markets, built without the outside capital most beverage startups lean on to get there. **Follow Rejuvenation:** Instagram [@rejuvenationbyvqc](https://www.instagram.com/rejuvenationbyvqc/) --- ## Scott Keever Turns Search Results Into a Reputation Strategy URL: https://absoluteballer.com/scott-keever-reputation-pros-seo/ Section: Business · Published: 2026-06-14 Scott Keever started his career the way a lot of digital marketers do: in SEO, chasing rankings and traffic for clients who wanted more visibility. What changed his trajectory was a pattern he kept running into from an unexpected source — law firms and family offices calling after they'd already won. A lawsuit resolved, a settlement reached, and yet the internet still surfaced years-old negative coverage every time someone searched a client's name. That gap between legal outcomes and search-engine reality became the founding idea behind [Reputation Pros](https://reputationpros.com), one of four agencies Keever has since built alongside [Keever SEO](https://keeverseo.com), ASAP Digital Marketing, and Pool Pros Marketing. Where traditional SEO optimizes for growth, reputation management optimizes for damage control — suppressing outdated or unfair negative content, building out positive search presence, and running the kind of PR placements and crisis response that keep a client's name search from becoming their biggest liability. Keever's stated approach leans toward the audit-first end of the industry: rather than waiting for a crisis to trigger reactive scrambling, he pushes clients toward proactive reputation audits, identifying vulnerable search terms and content gaps before they become a problem. It's a philosophy that treats a founder's or executive's search results the way a CFO treats a balance sheet — something to actively manage, not just react to. The four-agency structure lets Keever's team move fluidly between disciplines that usually live in separate shops: local SEO for a small business, strategic PR placement for an executive, and full reputation defense for a client facing an active crisis, all under people who've done the work together for years. For high-profile founders and business owners — the exact audience Absolute Baller covers — that's often the more useful question than "how do we rank higher": how do we control what's true and visible about us, at scale, before someone else does it for us. **Follow Scott Keever:** [scottkeever.io](https://scottkeever.io) · [keeverseo.com](https://keeverseo.com) · [reputationpros.com](https://reputationpros.com) --- ## Kimberly Boulos Rebuilt Elite Training for Women URL: https://absoluteballer.com/kimberly-boulos-root-performance-wellness/ Section: Business · Published: 2026-06-10 Kimberly Boulos spent her career on the other side of elite sport — as a professional athlete, then as a strength and conditioning coach working alongside top women's soccer coaches and Olympic gold medalists. It was a good vantage point for noticing a gap that most performance programs never addressed: what happens to an athlete's training when her body is doing something a standard program was never built around, like a menstrual cycle, a pregnancy, or a postpartum recovery. She found the gap the hard way. After her third consecutive ACL surgery, Boulos tried to return to professional soccer while also navigating postpartum recovery — and ran into a system that had plenty of answers for rebuilding a knee, and almost none for rebuilding a body that had also just given birth. That collision became the founding premise of [Root Performance & Wellness](https://rootperformance.org), the integrative wellness practice she now runs. Root treats pelvic floor health, menstrual cycles, pregnancy, and postpartum recovery as performance variables, not side notes. The practice combines massage therapy, energy healing, pelvic floor coaching, strength and conditioning, and birth doula services, built around a simple operating rule: every client gets treated like an elite athlete, regardless of what "elite" means for them on a given day. A new mother relearning how to run and a former Olympian rebuilding after surgery get the same rigor, adjusted for where their body actually is. That client-first instinct shapes how Boulos has grown the business, too. Rather than chase rapid client acquisition, she's kept Root's growth deliberately slow — prioritizing the depth of care for people already in the practice over scaling fast for its own sake. In a wellness market crowded with volume-based studios and app-driven programs, that's a bet that retention and outcomes matter more than top-line growth. Boulos's own athletic history — three ACL reconstructions, competitive-level soccer, coaching at the level of Olympic athletes — gives her a credibility with clients that's hard to manufacture. She isn't asking clients to trust a philosophy; she's asking them to trust a body of experience she's lived through herself, repeatedly, at the highest level of competitive sport. **Follow Root Performance & Wellness:** [rootperformance.org](https://rootperformance.org) · Instagram [@rootyourperformance](https://www.instagram.com/rootyourperformance/) --- ## Inside Pickleland, Austin's #1 Pickleball Facility URL: https://absoluteballer.com/pickleland/ Section: Business · Published: 2024-02-19 Austin's pickleball scene has a new home base. [Pickleland](https://pickleland.com/), a state-of-the-art pickleball complex in the Pflugerville area of North Austin, is open — and it was built from the ground up to be the premier pickleball destination in Texas. The 22,000-square-foot, fully air-conditioned facility at 21427 Martin Lane houses nine indoor, tournament-caliber pickleball courts. But the top-notch play is only the start. “Pickleland is the #1 place for pickleball in all of Austin and across Texas,” said founder and owner [Alejandro Rioja](https://alejandrorioja.com/). “Our courts and top-tier amenities make this the gold standard for pickleball facilities.” Beyond the courts, the complex is built around an upscale player experience: - A spacious viewing lounge mezzanine to watch the action - A pro shop stocked with equipment, gear, and swag - Private lessons and clinics from experienced instructors - Ample on-site parking Surrounded by residential neighborhoods in North Austin, Pickleland draws players from across the region — a true destination for both recreational and competitive play. Ready to get on the court? Book a session or become a member at [pickleland.com](https://pickleland.com/). --- ## B2B Networking: An Invaluable Crowdfunding Tool URL: https://absoluteballer.com/traditional-business-to-business-networking-as-an-invaluable-tool-for-investment-crowdfunding/ Section: Business · Published: 2023-11-05 Here on the Absolute Baller, we’ve covered many successful individuals like [angel investor Anmol Singh](/anmol-singh-entrepreneur-stock-trader-author-and-angel-investor-discusses-the-path-to-success/) and serial entrepreneur Bob Mangat. However, they’re the rare few. In reality, it takes a lot of work and capital to get a business venture off the ground. This is the reason why investment crowdfunding has revolutionized startups and small businesses in recent years. Normally, crowdfunding involves sending money to help someone with a goal — say, paying for medical treatment or publishing a book — and crowd funders don’t really expect anything back. Investment crowdfunding similarly makes it easier for businesses to raise capital by allowing others to invest in said business, with expectations of a return. And while the law prevents investors from putting more than 5% of their annual income in crowdfunding sites, connecting with a large group of investors can help your business meet its financial goals. **So why network?** ![Business professionals networking at a corporate event](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/traditional-business-to-business-networking-as-an-invaluable-tool-for-investment-crowdfunding/business-3152586__340.jpg) [According to The Balance’s guide on business networking](https://www.thebalancemoney.com/what-is-business-networking-and-what-are-the-benefits-2947183), the term simply means establishing a relationship beneficial for all business, clients, and customers involved. The most apparent benefit of this is that putting yourself out there through seminars and networking can put you into contact with potential clients, customers and valuable people who can support your vision. Even something as simple as attending a business lunch can make you visible and keep your business front and center. Remember, the more people you have on board for your project, the better. And as an article on online business advertising by AskMoney notes, the digital age has allowed businesses to attain additional exposure. With an online presence, you can promote your investment crowdfunding efforts and reach more people for free. Email, social media or blogging platforms, Google My Business, and YouTube are all ways to expand a professional network significantly. By connecting with fellow businesses online, you can find potential investors for your work. **The best ways to do it** Of course, there are different things you must consider when trying to attract investors. Below are some things to keep in mind when networking. **Do communicate where you’re coming from** ![Entrepreneur sharing their story with potential investors](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/traditional-business-to-business-networking-as-an-invaluable-tool-for-investment-crowdfunding/business-2884023__340-1.jpg) [One of Entrepreneur’s many tips to successful crowdfunding](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288277) is to share your story. This means detailing to potential investors not just how your product or service can benefit them, but also how you came up with the idea and why you’re passionate about it. This helps forge an emotional connection and reinforces the message that you’ve put thought into your idea, thereby lending the project additional legitimacy. Using visuals can be of great assistance here, but it’s important they’re appealing and crystal-clear. **Take the initiative to get what you want** [Inc. writer Malak Saleh’s article on the best ways to make connections](https://www.inc.com/malak-saleh/networking-tips-founders-project.html) places emphasis on always being confident, operating with a sense of urgency and being cutthroat in what you want. This doesn’t mean pressuring your contacts, but rather not letting too much time pass before following up on them (48 hours is ideal). She also notes that it doesn’t pay to beat around the bush about what you want as entrepreneurs realize they could be doing the other person a disservice by not being upfront. **Give regular updates** ![Business partners reviewing an investment agreement](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/traditional-business-to-business-networking-as-an-invaluable-tool-for-investment-crowdfunding/agreement-2365811__340.jpg) Networking doesn’t stop when backers are on board. On the contrary, project backers need to be updated so that they don’t lose interest. This will also go a long way in preserving your reputation in the investor community, which can make it easier to attract financial backing later on. Above all though, you must be honest and transparent with your backers. Networking is at its most effective when you can actually deliver on your promises. --- ## Pranav Arora’s Passion and Drive as a Businessman URL: https://absoluteballer.com/pranav-aroras-passion-and-drive-as-a-successful-businessman/ Section: Business · Published: 2022-09-30 A person who takes chances in their endeavors is said to be a successful business owner. They take financial risks to further their business ideas and potential success. An excellent, effective business leader takes risks and then moves on to the next project investment. Additionally, they constantly grow and never get tired. ## Who is Pranav Arora? [Pranav Arora](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranav-arora1/) is a great example of a successful entrepreneur who pushed his limits to become who he is today. In addition to his methods, which he has worked hard to develop through years of experience in business, he is committed to approaching business from a fresh perspective that involves building ideas from scratch. In 2012, when he was 16 years old, he began his entrepreneurial journey by assisting his parents in building an international lifestyle business. Over the ensuing few years, he played a key role in making the company a major player in the global licensing industry. He also founded the sister firm of his initial company due to his unrelenting drive to advance and unbounded passion. It was a successful eCommerce company that sold fan-driven pop culture items. The key to Pranav Arora’s success may be a secret to us, but like many other entrepreneurs, he had humble beginnings. His sole drive and passion for being better is what allowed him to become a successful businessman. ## About His Education [Pranav Arora](https://www.pranavarora.com/) was born and raised in Wooster, a tiny town in Ohio, where he also attended high school. He developed a reputation as a less-than-stellar student during his time at school. There was just one class he succeeded in: a curriculum designed to cover all the fundamentals of running a business. This piqued his interest because it was something he was already so passionate about. One standout memory he had from school was continually having to stay after class because his teachers would find him trading stocks on his laptop. He hated being in detention, but it didn’t stop him from doing what he knew he had to do to enter into the world of investing. He would sometimes even sneak his laptop into detention to continue expanding his stock portfolio. Pranav grew up watching as his parents managed their own business. He was always eager to lend a helping hand when he could. He was inspired by their drive and tenacity to pursue their objectives, and this is what made him realize he wanted to achieve the same objectives when he was older. It was then that he knew he was destined for entrepreneurship. He was always trying to start the next big thing and spent the majority of his time coming up with business ideas and potential company names. ## Pranav Arora’s Entrepreneurship at a Young Age When he was a middle school student, Pranav opened his first business. He would buy boxes of bubblegum and pencils and sell them to his classmates before and after their classes. From here, his entrepreneurial ideas and passion continued to expand until he was old enough to start his own business. When Pranav Arora first became an entrepreneur, he faced many challenges. His two greatest obstacles as an entrepreneur have been learning to accept failure and deal with the lack of encouragement he got from others around him. Entrepreneurship was a rollercoaster of successes and setbacks. With all honesty, bouncing back from disappointments is always the hardest setback to overcome. However, he said that it is crucial to understand that failure shouldn’t deter you; rather, it should inspire you. He prompts entrepreneurs to take detours and never give up on their ambitions when obstacles appear. Additionally, he encourages others to follow the same counsel when they don’t get their expected assistance. You will come across individuals along the way who do not share your same perspective or who will support your aspirations. In those circumstances, you must find the drive that keeps you going and encourage yourself to continue pursuing your goals. ## What is his motivation? Fear is one of the motivating factors that help Pranav Arora persevere in the face of difficulties. He has experienced a lot of worthwhile lessons and major setbacks throughout that time. Reflecting on where he started and his current position makes him feel rather proud. However, the fear of returning to those early days motivates him to continue pushing forward. To aspiring entrepreneurs, Pranav advises you to give it your all if you discover something you are genuinely passionate about. When he first started, he wished someone would have taught him that failure was an inevitable part of entrepreneurship. He reiterates that your definition of success is up to you. The only person who can get you there is you. Having your own time and opportunity to provide care at home is one of his definitions of success. Additionally, it is about ensuring a stable economic outlook and becoming debt-free. Every one of us has a unique story about how we came to be where we are. You’ll be surprised at how much more focused you can become with that easy exercise. When fully focused, we quit fumbling on attempting to create an online business independently. We search for solutions and locate people who have them. At that point, you can recognize the prosperous business owner has been within you all along. --- ## Inside JB's Fantastic Finds With John Basedow URL: https://absoluteballer.com/john-basedow-brings-treasures-to-life-with-jbs-fantastic-finds/ Section: Interviews · Published: 2022-05-18 Gifted entrepreneur and master of many trades John Basedow is sweeping Facebook Media with his latest creation, **JB’s Fantastic Finds**, a live auction show where viewers can bid on jewelry, trinkets and treasures from every corner of the earth. As an accomplished TV personality, Basedow’s role as JBFF host is what several say sets the show apart from its competitors. ![John Basedow hosting JB's Fantastic Finds live auction show on Facebook](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/john-basedow-brings-treasures-to-life-with-jbs-fantastic-finds/img3-1-819x1024.jpeg) *“There are a lot of shows on Facebook, but I choose John’s because it’s so much fun. He’s knowledgeable, friendly and a natural entertainer who really knows how to turn it into a fun experience full of joy and laughter. For me, watching JB’s Fantastic Finds can turn a bad day around. It’s so interactive and everyone is friendly. Their jewelry is amazing and John makes it even more so with his factual research. I get the shopping and the fun out of it,” *said viewer Janice Marek. Basedow’s skyrocketing success with JB’s Fantastic Finds seemed to come out of nowhere, though peeping back into his past can make sense of the acquired skills that brought him to such a point. His first foray into fame began when he graced our TV screens flexing ‘biceps, triceps and even abs’ on those ubiquitous **Fitness Made Simple** TV commercials that ran 24/7 in the early 2000s. While most just continue along the road of their initial breakthrough, Basedow opted for a different path. ![John Basedow, entrepreneur and TV personality known for Fitness Made Simple](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/john-basedow-brings-treasures-to-life-with-jbs-fantastic-finds/img4-1-1024x1024.jpeg) “I define success as the ability to do what you love, make a living at it, positively impact others and be at the mercy of no one. Various things can do that while bringing you joy in the process, so your first career success doesn’t need to define the rest of your life. Other folk will try to pigeonhole you based on it, but I don’t play that,” said Basedow. As a man who believes in unlimited possibilities, John went on to pursue many different paths following Fitness Made Simple, including one as a news reporter. This reporting role helped create a skillset that would later benefit him tremendously with JB’s Fantastic Finds. Basedow’s ability to research what he calls ‘gem lore’ and find facts about the various trinkets and treasures he shows on JBFF is deemed to be one of the top assets he brings to the show… to the point that many viewers refer to him as ‘NatGeo John.’ *“When I stumbled upon John and JB’s Fantastic Finds, I was surprisingly impressed by the elaborate knowledge he had to share. In all my years in this sector of business, it was rare to come across someone who taught me something I didn’t know about a very popular stone called Labradorite. It was so intriguing and refreshing. He’s a vibrant and unique individual, definitely someone that’s meant to draw an audience, but he actually comes with the facts, and that’s what impresses me. He brings meaning to it, and as a consumer you want to know what you’re buying. With NatGeo John, there can be no doubt in the authenticity of his words, yet he is humble enough to say what he does not know, which is a rare treasure to be celebrated all on its own,” *said long time gem and jewelry entrepreneur Christine Drawdy.* * ![John Basedow presenting gem and jewelry treasures on JB's Fantastic Finds](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/john-basedow-brings-treasures-to-life-with-jbs-fantastic-finds/img1-1-708x1024.jpeg) Viewers of JB’s Fantastic Finds have consistently come across treasures that impacted them beyond simple aesthetic pleasure, which is very apparent throughout the JB’s Fantastic Finds Facebook Group. To watch and participate in the show, one must first request to be a member of the JB’s Fantastic Finds Page, on which they can see the positive impact it has made for so many viewers. *“In all seriousness… This is THE ring that is about to become an engagement ring. A little story to warm the heart cockles… My oldest son Jonathan met a Ukrainian American girl in Germany. While her home country is being torn apart, he is leaving for Germany this summer to go see her with this beautiful piece. It truly is some JBFF magic! Thanks John Basedow. PS… His name is Jonathan Bradley. We called him JB when he was little. I like to think our paths crossed for a reason,” *wrote viewer Christy Lynn Jones. While viewers rave about the treasures they acquire during show time, many cite Basedow and the community he has created with JB’s Fantastic Finds as the main reason they keep watching. *“My favorite part about the show is easily John. He is an exceptional human. I was there in the beginning as a buyer. I kept watching continuously because John just has a way of making all of the viewers feel so special. JB’s Fantastic Finds has everything I could want to enjoy from the comfort of my own home, and I’ve made so many wonderful friends from it that I now speak to on a regular basis. I never miss a show, and I think everyone should watch at least once to experience what a positive impact it has created for so many of us. It has brought so much good into my life and I can’t thank John enough for that,” *said viewer Gaye Koutrelakos. Though it’s still rapidly growing, JB’s Fantastic Finds saw its largest increase in members when Basedow made the bold and unprecedented decision to create a ‘discover your treasure’ themed TV commercial that brought cable television watchers to Facebook Watch. His use of traditional media to market new media proved successful as JBFF members increased from 400 to over 25,000. This trailblazing move turned Basedow’s ‘lil show,’ as he calls it, into an impactful empire full of happy viewers, once again proving his pioneer spirit can change lives. ![John Basedow with a featured treasure from JB's Fantastic Finds](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/john-basedow-brings-treasures-to-life-with-jbs-fantastic-finds/img2-1024x1024.jpeg) *“I was originally drawn in by the commercial, and I haven’t missed a show since. JB’s Fantastic Finds is a safe zone where you never feel judged, you can joke with others and create real friendships on top of the beautiful artifacts. John is always so enthusiastic and everyone is always reciprocating that and very supportive. I love to share the happiness of JB’s Fantastic Finds with others. We’re a tight knit family that is happy to be growing,” *said viewer Sonia Engle Murphy. To become part of the JB’s Fantastic Finds family and witness Basedow bring treasures to life for yourself, [click here](https://www.facebook.com/groups/401390047705742/). --- ## Griffin Kapelus: A UVM Student Looks to the Future URL: https://absoluteballer.com/griffin-kapelus-university-of-vermont-student-looks-to-the-future/ Section: Interviews · Published: 2022-05-11 Griffin Kapelus has been focused on making a difference for as long as he can remember, inspired by his family and the city he grew up in. After high school, he found himself volunteering often, which he attributes to the social work he saw his Mom doing throughout his childhood. His interest was further piqued after taking two college classes that created lasting impressions. One class allowed him the opportunity to write an argumentative paper on gentrification and displacement in Harlem, which coincided with his developing interest in urban issues and inequality. The other class, Approaches to Religion, provoked some of the deepest reflections in his life, thus far. This was the time when [Griffin Kapelus](https://goodmenproject.com/business-ethics-2/leadership-2/griffin-kapelus-shares-his-greatest-influences-and-sources-of-inspiration/) began to think about what lay ahead for his career in the long term. He started to be a bit more aware of his intellectual and academic interests and learned more through reading about the many topics in the realm of social issues that he knew he cared about but had never explored before. During this period, he began to grow the interest in an intersection between academics and the world around him that he sees in himself today. After transferring to The University of Vermont during the COVID-19 pandemic, he further explored his academic interests through new classes. A geography course on race and ethnicity in the United States further solidified his interest in the academic exploration of social issues, but he also felt a desire to contribute to solving those issues that he was exploring in the classroom.  The pandemic was so destructive to so many lives, and with his previous experience volunteering, he felt like it was a good time to do so again. Griffin Kapelus started volunteering at West Side Campaign Against Hunger, a food pantry in New York City.  After moving to Burlington, Vermont to continue his studies at the university, Griffin Kapelus began volunteering at an organization called Feeding Chittenden. It was focused on tackling food insecurity in Chittenden, the county in which Burlington resides. He found it to be a really interesting contrast to the larger-scale operation in New York.  He also took a job at a homeless shelter in town. It was his first time as a paid employee doing social work, and he had far more responsibility than he ever could in a volunteer capacity. It has corresponded with an even greater appreciation of this socially important work: the ability to interact in a more significant way with the homeless population in Burlington has brought a deeper and more nuanced perspective of related social issues than he could get in a classroom or as a volunteer.  Griffin Kapelus is focused on continuing both his volunteer work and his job at the homeless shelter. He looks forward to considering his academic interests in real-world scenarios.  We caught up with Griffin Kapelus who told us about everything from his favorite sport to the best $100 he recently spent.  ## What are you most excited about? I am extremely excited that I will have the opportunity to continue with my job while I attend school this semester.  The opportunity to work with the homeless community while also considering these issues in my classes on a more academic level should be really interesting. ## How do you handle difficult coworkers? The homeless shelter I work at is a small and tight-knit group, and I very much like my co-workers. It is often an emotionally draining environment in which to work, but we all support one another as a team.  When I’ve had difficult coworkers in the past, the stakes felt much lower, but I found that voicing frustrations is far more constructive than keeping them in, as long as you approach people in a kind way. ## What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why? I get a lot of value out of working out, and lifting weights tends to be my go-to method. Around the time the pandemic began, I bought a used weight bench and a set of dumbbells with plates that can be taken on or off to adjust the weight.  This turned out to be an incredibly useful investment and one that I continue to use when I do not have enough time to get to the gym. ## What is your favorite sport? Why? I grew up playing soccer and was pretty good at it. When I reached the age where I had to choose one sport for a travel team, soccer was it. I played throughout all four years of high school, spanning the time I spent at two Manhattan schools – Beacon School and York Prep School. I also played on a travel team from the ages of 9 to 17. While I still play when I can, I now consider myself to be more of a fan and hopefully a coach in the future. I am a diehard fan of the British team Manchester City, a club I started to follow around the age of 12 when I first saw one of their matches on TV. I liked their light blue home jerseys and their style of play. “Man City” became my team from that point forward. My fan devotion grew around age 16 when I started following the team more closely, watching every game on the weekends and catching as many as I could from New York that were aired on TV during the week.  I started to read soccer websites daily, and study highlight videos. My father and I actually went to England when I was 17-years-old and watched a match in person. We watched Bournemouth v Manchester City at the Vitality Stadium (Bournemouth’s ground in Bournemouth on the South Coast), a small stadium that seated only about 11,000 people. We were in the away section with the other City fans. Manchester City won the game 4-0 I believe.  As I became more invested as a fan, my interest in soccer tactics grew. I would read articles and watch videos discussing different formations, deep match analysis, and top coaches’ philosophies.  My goal is to involve myself in soccer at the University of Vermont if I can. **We want to thank [Griffin Kapelus](https://startup.info/griffin-kapelus-on-volunteerism-and-community-service/) for sharing his time and insights with us today and wish him the best of luck wherever life takes him!** --- ## Nick Jordan Helps SaaS Companies Build Content Teams URL: https://absoluteballer.com/seattle-native-entrepreneur-nick-jordan-helps-saas-companies-build-content-teams-with-new-startup/ Section: Interviews · Published: 2022-04-20 Born and raised in Seattle, Nick Jordan was never a great student. He dropped out of college and moved to Rio De Janeiro to pursue his dream of becoming an entrepreneur and founding a startup. And then failed. He moved back to America and tried again. And failed. Again. After many ups and downs, he realized that he had made the mistake of founding startups before he had employee experience. At a Hacker Live meetup, he started talking with a startup founder. Nick didn’t even know what he was talking about, with all kinds of “enterprise” stuff and technology involved. He got a job interview, and eventually, got hired as the employee. He was negotiating, closing, and going to market with companies like Rackspace, GoDaddy, Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and all of their peers across Canada, EU, and APAC. In four years, they grew to 200 employees without raising money. Then everything imploded. He burnt out, and spent 6 months on a beach after resigning. Sitting on a beach sounds great, but it’s pretty boring. And after a few months he joined an SEO agency to help with marketing and sales. He grew the company blog from 0 to 100,000 organics/month in 13 months and continued developing SEO skillset through smaller, less ambitious internal projects. Then he left and bought ContentDistribution.com on a credit card and began hustling to pay it off. ContentDistribution has taken 4 more projects from 0 to 100,000 organics/month, with the biggest one growing to 1.5 million organics/month. All this success meant only one thing — that ContentDistribution needed to grow. They needed to hire writers, editors, content managers. With little to no experience in hiring, Nick and his team managed to grow the agency from 0 to 35 full time team members in less than two years. Nick noticed that there’s a lack of specialized tools that help companies build content teams at scale. So, he made one. Years and years of startup founding and failure led to Workello, the only tool hiring managers need to hire high-quality content teams. [Workello](https://workello.com/) was born in summer 2021 in a Barcelona apartment when Nick and his co-founders realized that starting a SaaS company is their dream. So how did Workello happen? ## The key to hiring content teams According to Nick, every word is a liability when it comes to content. If the writer doesn’t care, they can create a liability. If the editor doesn’t care, they will let it slip. If the content manager doesn’t care, they will let it go live. The next thing you know, you have a company blog filled with misinformation, outdated content, irrelevant sections, or just plain lies. Every single word is a chance to create a PR disaster. And if you’re a founder, a director, or a CEO, you don’t have time to go over each and every piece of content your freelancers submit. You don’t have time to edit, polish, and QA articles every day. You have a business to run. So, the key to hiring [content teams](https://workello.com/content-team-job-descriptions/) and actually getting to a point where you can focus on business development is to hire people who care. And you hire people who care by offering them a smooth, respectful, and fast hiring process and onboarding. “Your best candidates are evaluating you as much as you’re evaluating them”, says Nick, “Which is why Workello is designed to keep your most invested candidates engaged”. Having been on both sides, both as an employee and as an employer, Nick Jordan was able to gauge the very specific details of a hiring process that guarantees that both parties can have a pleasant experience, and ultimately have a smooth collaboration. After a long and successful run with SEO, this Seattle-native is taking over the world in SaaS and giving back to the community that embraced him by giving away all of his secrets and providing a tool that can actually help people get 1.5 million organic visitors and grow their businesses, just like Nick did not too long ago. Just like SEO is not as hard as famous gurus would like you to think, hiring is the same. To do good with SEO, you don’t need to figure out what the 200 ranking factors are. You just need content velocity and high-quality content. To get high-quality content and achieve content velocity, you need to hire a lot of writers and editors. And to hire a lot of writers and editors, you need to show your candidates that you care, that they can build their career with you (and not just do a short writing gig), and that they can rely on you to develop their skills, progress, and do bigger and better things. SaaS companies love Workello because of Nick’s unique approach to hiring and recruitment, and they regularly meet with the team for product feedback and knowledge transfer from Workello team to theirs. It seems that Nick is unstoppable in his newest startup quest. It doesn’t seem that he will spend months and months chilling on a beach anytime soon., And it definitely doesn’t look like he’s moving to Rio de Janeiro. It appears that Workello really was his ultimate goal and the purpose all the failures in the past were leading him to. **Written by: Nick Jordan from Workello.** Nick Jordan is an entrepreneur and founder of Workello, a new startup that helps ambitious startups hire remote roles. With a background in SEO, Nick drove 4 projects from 0 to 100k organic visitors/month, with the biggest one generating 1.5m. Now he helps others get the same results **City where you’re from:** Seattle **Favorite quote:** Careers are measured in decades, not months or years **Social accounts** [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickfromseattle/) [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/nickfromseattle) --- ## Rob Terell Releases His New Book, Finance The Dream URL: https://absoluteballer.com/music-mogul-rob-terell-releases-his-latest-book-finance-the-dream/ Section: Business · Published: 2022-02-20 Serial entrepreneur Robert Terell started his career in the corporate world as an unpaid intern and climbed his way up to become a top business executive. He is best known as a celebrity business manager but works many different jobs as well. Rob is also a motivational speaker, a film director, a financial strategist, and now, a published author after writing a book called “Finance The Dream.” As a business manager, Rob specializes in monetization and brand development, using his creativity to reach far beyond the realms of business. He has a vivid imagination and wisely uses his intelligence to achieve success in whatever he chooses to do. Despite his busyness because of his countless ventures, Rob is a family man who makes sure he gives ample time to spend with his children. Rob is often referred to by his friends and colleagues as the “Official Dealmaker” due to his ability to close deals in record time. He’s currently leading a total of thirteen companies, five of which are inactive but monetized at profitable levels, while nine are active and producing income. In all his businesses, Rob makes sure that he fosters new ideas and desirable values to bring each company to its targeted outcomes. Some companies where Rob serves as CEO are Wealth Nation, a business consultancy firm, and a multi-media company called Industry Certified. Artist Rewards, a national membership network brand loyalty program, is another company where he’s at the helm. Rob has started more companies recently, including Good Money Group and MoguLyfe as holding companies, and Musicnomics, an online service for new artists. In 2020, Rob started venturing into motivational speaking with Live Legendary, using his sincere passion for encouraging other entrepreneurs. In addition, he wanted to give back to the community, so he started a nonprofit called Faith Champions. As a platform for celebrating individuals who believe in their work, Faith Champions promises to support aspiring entrepreneurs in achieving their goals. Rob understands the value of educating others with financial and business management. He has written books to guide others to become successful. His latest book is called “Finance the Dream,” which talks about investing in one’s goal to achieve it. With “Finance the Dream,” Rob is able to not only make people aware but also encourage others to venture into business. Before becoming a published author and successful business mogul, Rob spent 25 years dominating the music industry. He’s also a verified artist who knows what it takes to earn people’s support and how to have longevity in the industry. He has flourished in almost all of his projects, and he’s showing no signs of stopping. Rob’s plan is to continue dominating the business industry as an entertainment executive, music mogul, and celebrity business manager. He also aspires to be a multi-billionaire while helping young actors and actresses, sportsmen, and other entities reach their dreams. People can check out Rob’s[Instagram](https://instagram.com/robterell) and[Facebook](https://m.facebook.com/robterell) page and also his[website](https://officialdealmaker.com/bio/) to know more about his accomplishments and plans for the future. --- ## Business Lessons Aspiring Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Poker URL: https://absoluteballer.com/business-lessons-aspiring-entrepreneurs-can-learn-from-poker/ Section: Business · Published: 2021-06-28 For most people, poker is synonymous with fun, entertainment, and excitement. But if you look more closely, the game can actually be a professional pursuit that can teach invaluable lessons — in life and in business. In fact, some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs play poker. [David Einhorn](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/18/hedge-fund-billionaire-einhorn-places-sixth-in-major-poker-tournament.html), founder of Greenlight Capital, is not just a billionaire hedge fund manager. A regular attendee at WSOP events, he is also a skilled poker player with more than $5 million in winnings donated to charity. If you’re looking to follow in his footsteps, know that there are several kinds of poker you can try out. Texas Hold’em, for instance, has been the most popular variant of the game since the turn of the millennium, thanks to its straightforward rules and exposure on television. Omaha, meanwhile, is a close second, with a similar set of rules. The only difference is Texas Hold’em provides players two hole cards, while Omaha deals four hole cards. Also, to make the best hand in Omaha, you have to use exactly two hold cards and three community cards. But however you choose to play, poker has plenty to teach you in the world of business. Here, we list down lessons you can apply in your daily choices as an aspiring entrepreneur. ## Use information to your advantage A good game of poker requires players to have a grasp of what is going on around them. Being observant and understanding the data surrounding the opponents’ decisions can help in winning. If players can interpret how their opponents bet and act based on previous performances, they can adjust and change their strategy in real time. On the other hand, if players also know how they are perceived by their opponents, they can use that to their advantage, too. Similarly, in putting up a business, you must first know who your competitors are. In doing so, you gain knowledge on what is already existing in the market, and you can offer something new that solves a previously unaddressed need. As you build your reputation, you then gain more customers, and over time, as more competitors pop up, you continuously gather information to help improve your business. ## Take calculated risks “Know when to hold them, and know when to fold them” is a poker cliché everyone uses — and for good reason. Playing poker develops your risk-taking skills. Primarily, you have to know what makes your hand great and when to play your cards when the opportunity arises. The best players know how to plan in advance and when to take calculated risks, and these often lead to victory. Likewise, establishing your own business is already a big risk. But the risks do not end there. Apart from envisioning long-term success, you have to deal with short-term risks on a daily basis. Those range from the small decisions like restocking supplies to the tougher ones, like taking out loans. What move do you make, then, that will ensure both immediate and long-term benefit? ## Have a contingency plan If there is something poker and business both share, it’s unpredictability. Both are games of taking risks and getting returns, but poker can teach players on a relatively smaller scale how to plan for “what ifs”. Good poker players have a contingency plan in case what they are expecting and hoping for fails to happen. They always have a means of getting them out of trouble. Meanwhile, in business, losses are inevitable. This is especially true when you are putting up a small business that is still unknown to customers. In fact, [Fundera](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/361350) learned that almost 20% of small businesses fail in just their very first year. Although losing your capital is probably the last thing on your mind, it would not hurt to have a course of action should the worst happen. At least, you are prepared for anything. ## Experience matters Before becoming successful, poker players had to start somewhere. Some had to grab opportunities for free trials, while others had to play online first before going to brick-and-mortar casinos. Whichever path they took, they had to spend hours practicing in order to get the level of experience and success they are enjoying now. In parallel, entrepreneurs succeed because of their hard work and dedication. Anyone can craft a business proposal, but to get it off the ground successfully is a feat enjoyed only by a few. While you can pursue further studies in business, no amount of memorized facts can ever amount to the value of experience. As clichéd as it sounds, experience truly is the best teacher. Only the strong-willed can survive the vicious worlds of business and poker. Just a single misstep can ruin years’ worth of preparation and hard work. That is why remembering these takeaways from playing poker can greatly impact your plans of running a business. But above everything else, you should remember to always take accountability for your actions, may that be a disappointing loss or a glorious victory. Looking for business inspiration? Browse through more of our articles in our [Business Archives](/category/business/)! --- ## IT Expert by Day, Stuntman by Night: Jeffrey Marshall URL: https://absoluteballer.com/self-taught-it-expert-by-day-rising-star-and-indestructible-stuntman-by-night/ Section: Business · Published: 2021-06-09 > “Like all good actor origin stories, this one started in the 4th grade”. Jeffrey Marshall laughed about tackling his debut acting performance of a flower-loving bull in “Ferdinand the Bull.”. He never imagined that four decades later, his love of acting would take him to significantly more frightening pursuits than smelling flowers. Today, Jeffrey can be found spending time with his family, working as a computer engineer, or on-screen, imitating secret agents and jumping off buildings. Let’s say he’s not often bored. Through his fascinating life and triumphant return to acting in his forties, Jeffrey has learned a few pieces of invaluable advice. It’s never too late to chase your dreams. “You should always be ticking items off your bucket list. Your mind wants to quit far before your body needs to”, Jeff states before sipping his coffee. Here’s the (hugely simplified) journey of how he came to those realizations. Growing up in Upstate New York, Jeffrey loved acting in school theater and musicals. After high school, Jeffrey went on to study Criminal Justice for a year. Still, Jeffrey soon discovered he didn’t learn well in a classroom environment. Jeffrey dropped out of college, and in 1993 he joined the US Army, where he enjoyed the thrill of adrenaline and became a paratrooper. Jeffrey served in South Korea for a challenging but rewarding year in which he made lifelong friends and widened his perspective on life. Before leaving South Korea, Jeffrey picked up a magazine that was on a table. The cover had a headline about a strange thing called “The Internet” and “Information Technology.” He was so intrigued by the article; it changed his life and gave him a new calling. Jeffrey was struggling with money at the time, but he used the money his late grandma left him to buy a desktop computer. Not only was he broke, but the computer was constantly breaking. Being unable to afford someone to fix it, Jeffrey taught himself to do it himself. Soon, it became clear he was a natural with technology. Jeffrey started fixing his friends’ gadgets and picked up a part-time job as a telephone tech support technician for a printer company while still enlisted in the Army. He continued to read trade magazines and constantly tinkered with technology. He learned even more from volunteering for small computer companies. After receiving several awards for his service and a “Soldier of the Year” title, Jeffrey finally left the Army. He was then hired as a computer technician for a major technology company. On reflecting how he managed to break into an industry with only self-taught skills, he said, “Others constantly challenged my credentials. But I was able to prove my abilities. It was a struggle, but it pushed me to work harder and keep learning the newest technology.” > “Now, I’m a Senior VP at an IT company and work on everything from handheld devices to artificial intelligence.” Despite being incredibly proud of the IT career he had carved for himself, Jeffrey still had unfinished business with acting. After he put his acting passion aside to pursue his Army career, he focused on earning a reliable living and raising a family. He knew Hollywood would have to wait. It wasn’t until his mid-forties that Jeffrey seriously considered giving his dream a second shot. He joked that he lovingly refers to stunts, car racing, and acting as his midlife crisis. Some people settle down and try to live relaxing lives in comfort. Jeffrey opted for falling from high heights, action-packed training sessions, and facing harsh critics and the brutal world of acting auditions. In his typical style of bucking trends, Jeffrey managed to thrive in the entertainment industry when it was facing the unprecedented challenge of the coronavirus pandemic. He took advantage of the fact that he now had access to the world’s most sought-after acting schools. Each was now accessible to anyone with Zoom and started studying online with various coaches. Though 2020 was a horrifically devastating year in so many ways, Jeffrey managed to join the SAG-AFTRA actors union and got both a manager and an agent. His determination and hard work paid off. Remarking on his time in the Army, Jeffrey said it paved the way for his later work as a stuntman. > “The Army gave me a lot of confidence,” he said. “You start seeing what you are capable of, both physically and mentally.” One of the most challenging yet therapeutic aspects of starting acting was learning to show real and raw emotions to imaginary events. Jeffrey’s son had sadly died while he was serving in the Army. The trauma of that loss, some painful, botched military medical procedures, combined with his challenging experiences of serving in the military, forced him to suppress emotions. > “I learned to shut down emotionally at that point to some degree.  It was how my mind dealt with the trauma and was my coping mechanism,” Jeffrey said.“You hear people say that if you hold emotions in, they build up and eventually come out in one form or another. I think all my experiences, Army and non-Army, have helped me not only become a better actor but have been a therapeutic emotional release for me.” Through studying the wide-ranging emotional spectrum of humans, he learned to face his own buried emotions. He said he was glad to “let some of that go.” One powerful emotion he seemed to have control over was fear. While only just starting in stunts, Jeffrey has had his fair share of adventures. His favorites include stunt driving, stunt fighting, high falls, being lit on fire, racing cars, and scuba diving. He stressed that the stunts are all designed safely, well-rehearsed, and handled by highly-trained professionals. Some days he’s “banged up and bruised,” but that comes with the territory. Stunt work is a highly competitive and challenging field to break into. Jeff keeps working on his skills, networking with his peers and picking up stunt jobs when possible, Despite all the training stunt work requires, Jeffrey said, “the most challenging part of starting in stunt training is to fight your basic human response to danger.” > “You have to fight your mind’s natural reaction to tell your body ‘NO,’ like jumping off a building the first few times,” he said.“Then it gets easier over time. Same with fire; it takes a little getting used to feeling the flames wrap around you.” Serving in the Army, self-teaching IT engineering, and acting in several Hollywood movies is a lot for anyone to achieve, even without suffering personal tragedies. When asked what helped him keep set and accomplish his goals, Jeffrey said he ensures he is always working on adding and subtracting items on his bucket list. > “It doesn’t have to have record-breaking activities on the list,” he said.“For every item I take off the list, I add three back on. Once you have the list, prioritize; set goals and timelines.” ![Jeffrey Marshall, IT engineer, actor, and Hollywood stuntman](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/self-taught-it-expert-by-day-rising-star-and-indestructible-stuntman-by-night/Jeffrey-Marshall-9.jpg) Jeffrey has learned “to want your goals so badly that you can taste them.” Ensure you have a mix of easy and challenging goals, and then reward yourself with an easy one when you’re struggling or need some self-appreciation. He always has a “random act of kindness” on his list to keep for a rainy day. Balancing his many commitments has been the most challenging part of Jeffrey’s journey as a family man, a technologist, an actor, and a stunt person. But he makes it work. He always puts his family first, then takes classes and auditions on weekends and evenings. His day job has been generously supportive of his other career and has a flexible environment for a remote workforce. Through determination and grit, Jeffrey has even managed to merge his two lines of work. He recently had the opportunity to combine his engineering and acting skills by writing, producing, and acting in a promotion for the multinational technology company NVIDIA. To this day, he is still innovating the technology world, even without a degree. As for his future in the entertainment industry, Jeffrey holds a realistic level of optimism. That is to say, he obviously would love to act full-time but understands that it is a statistical longshot. Plus, he enjoys his computer engineering and feels he has the best of both worlds. > “Even if I don’t make it ‘big,’ I hope I can entertain someone, make someone laugh, make new friends and have fun. I like the camaraderie and support the acting and stunt community offer,” he said.“But if acting does take off, I wouldn’t say no to Tom Cruise-Like money.” After all, no mission is impossible. For more information on Jeffrey Marshall, please visit [www.jmacting.com](https://www.jmacting.com/) of on Instagram at @Jeffrey_A_Marshall --- ## NU Media’s Ada Hu on What Motivates Her URL: https://absoluteballer.com/nu-medias-ada-hu-on-what-motivates-her/ Section: Business · Published: 2021-05-25 Inspired by those without a voice, [NU Media](https://www.nu.marketing/) Founders and longtime friends Eva Jiang and Ada Hu are on a mission to help businesses with promotion. Especially in these unprecedented times, marketing services are needed now more than ever. ## What motivates you? **Ada Hu:** What motivates me the most is my team and seeing just how much NU Media has grown. It is incredibly inspiring to see the success we’ve all created. I always say that positivity encourages progress and I see our team flourish more every day. Every day I come into work with such excitement and joy because seeing the growth of all the NU Media team members makes me realize what it truly means to influence othes around you… ## How do you generate new ideas? **Ada Hu:** I constantly generate new ideas by learning and observing new things every day, even when I don’t mean to! I work hard to surround myself with others who think differently than I do and this allows me to recognize necessary changes and come up with innovative ideas. This industry is always changing and I am always looking for inspiration and motivation everywhere I go. I read everything I can, from newspapers to subway maps. I listen to podcasts and speeches and I try to experience all that I can, firsthand. I find that ideas flow best when I’m in situations that are unfamiliar for me. I read and observe. I am always observing the changes within the industry. ## What are some goals you’re currently focused on? **Ada Hu:** My goal in life has always been to empower others and to create a positive community. Regardless of where I am or who I am with, everyone deserves to be surrounded with positivity and empowerment. These values work best together, building upon each other and amounting to a goal that has powerful results. I’ll know that this goal has reached a pinnacle of success when I see positive effects within my company and community. ## What gets you most excited about the company’s future? **Ada Hu**: My team members are what get me most excited about the company’s future. NU Media wouldn’t be where it is today without all the hard work the team has put in. I am filled with excitement when I see growth in each of our team members. The business grows stronger every day because of the teamwork that we work so tirelessly for. Our four departments are Marketing, PR, Digital Design and Website Development. Together, we work to collaborate on projects and succeed as a community. NU Media’s future strives for inner-departmental growth and our individual teammates flourishing. Efficient and bustling, the work produced reflects our positive atmosphere. As we grow larger each day, the excitement builds and our goals are reached. The future for NU Media is bright and we attribute all our success thus far to our hardworking team. ## What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear? **Ada Hu:** I don’t have any fears at the moment. I’m fearless because I’m confident and always able to acclimate. I work hard every day and even harder when problems need solving. I never get down when I am stressed, I lean on my team. I don’t really have any fears, to be honest… I am fearless. ## What are your ideals? **Ada Hu:** My ideals reflect on the personal and professional experiences I have had. Throughout my career, my goal has been to help as many young women as I can possibly manage. I aspire to inspire because I am driven to help others grow. One of the biggest ideals I hold close is women helping other women. Another goal I have is to help as many companies as possible. Whether it be through setting up a business’ website and profile for increased visibility or writing a press release that can allow the public to learn more about them, I believe in helping businesses when we can. Ideally, I wish to help as many young women and businesses as possible in my career. ## How do you define success? **Ada Hu:** I find that success can be defined in many different ways that are personal and specific to each individual. Feelings of fulfillment and happiness are how I know I had a successful day. If I can look back on what I’ve done and smile, I would classify that as success. It can also be measurable by how far you have gone for a client. If you can honestly say that you’ve given your full effort, it can always be viewed as a success. I think success could be defined in many different ways. Being full-filled and happy is what I would call success. Get in touch with [NU Media](https://www.nu.marketing/)‘s Ada Hu and Eva Jiang by following them on Instagram: @adayoada_ and [@numedia.usa](https://www.instagram.com/p/COAzHKPFCp3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) Don’t miss more content by Ada, Eva, and their team! Check them out on [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/user91920295) and[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCussifHQJ4319afiVi29slA)!🔥 --- ## Career and Life Lessons You Can Learn From Stock Investing URL: https://absoluteballer.com/career-and-life-lessons-you-can-learn-from-stock-investing/ Section: Money · Published: 2021-04-19 Stock investing is [the most popular way](https://www.bankrate.com/investing/survey-favorite-long-term-investment-2020/) to build wealth and diversify income, with more than half of US households having some form of investment in the stock market. And while stock investing is indeed a great method for making your money work for you and attaining your financial goals, there are plenty of other things it can offer to individuals looking to succeed. With that in mind, this article will go through some of the most important career and life lessons we can all learn from stock investing. ## Always have a plan In everything you do, the most crucial factor to your success is having a plan. Whether it’s with regard to the stock market or your life in general, making time to sit down and craft a plan can help you become better at managing your energy and resources. A plan can also prepare you for uncertainties and help you manage risks better, helping you stay motivated and committed. A great plan usually starts with a clear set of goals: What exactly do you want to achieve, and by when? These goals can then be subdivided into chunks, which will be the basis of your general strategies and more specific plans of action. ## Be patient Good things come to those who wait. And true enough, [patient traders](https://www.thestreet.com/thestreet-fisher-investments-investor-opportunity/patience-the-most-underused-investing-skill) are usually the ones who report greater profits off of their investments. That’s because they didn’t let short-term hardships shake their resolve and cause them to act impulsively. Instead, they stayed calm, stood by their long-term plan, and gracefully dealt with the ups and downs of the market. In the end, they are able to achieve the rewards they are aiming for. To achieve greater things in life, you have to learn to believe in the power of delayed gratification and not let challenges throw you off course. ## Keep learning It may be a cliché, but knowledge truly is power. In stock investing, you can build your knowledge by reading books or listening to podcasts, or even working with a financial planner. Depending on your chosen [brokerage account](https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/learn/what-is-brokerage-account), you can get access to expertise that can help you with portfolio management and sound financial advice in exchange for advisory fees. But if you’re looking to save on brokerage costs, then it’s a good idea to choose a brokerage account without those services and do the research yourself. Either way, it’s important that you approach investing — and your career and life — with an open mind so you can make the most out of every experience. In addition to having an open mind, you can also become a perpetual learner by enhancing your skills through online courses and taking short-term projects outside of work. ## Decide based on logic not feelings According to a recent study, [behavioral biases](https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Behavioral+Finance+and+Wealth+Management%3A+How+to+Build+Optimal+Portfolios+That+Account+for+Investor+Biases-p-9781118046319) influenced by emotion can easily undermine effective investment decision-making. For instance, the fear of negative outcomes can keep an investor from switching out a poorly performing investment for a more promising one. To keep yourself from missing out on both investment and career opportunities, you have to learn how to decide based on logic and not feelings. Try engaging in mindfulness exercises so you’re more aware of what you’re feeling in every moment, and can move beyond fear and impulse. ## Believe in yourself No amount of technical analysis and market research, will give you the one “right” way to successful stock investing. The same principle applies to life, which is why it’s necessary for people to start believing in themselves. Sure, you can benefit from following the crowd, but you’ll be able to gain a lot more when you go against it and develop your own opinion about things. Strong self-belief can also help you stay level-headed and free you from anxiety, which can make you doubt your decisions and cause you to panic. To further improve your self-esteem and sense of self, take the time to familiarize yourself with your strengths and practice kind self-talk. ## Embrace your mistakes Mistakes are inevitable. At times, even with a lot of preparation, effort, and research, investors still end up picking the wrong stock and making the wrong investment decision. This is the reason why it’s better for individuals to embrace their mistakes, instead of trying so hard to avoid them. By looking at mistakes as learning opportunities that can make you a better investor and a better person, it will become easier for you to keep your composure and focus. Remember that as long as you manage your risk wisely and maintain a positive attitude, you will always have the opportunity to recover from your mistakes. ## Learn to let go In addition to making the most out of the mistakes you make, you also have to learn how to move on from them. If you dwell on the losses you make or the failed stocks you have invested in, you might end up quitting even before you get substantial returns, or worse, make a revenge trade. Revenge trading is when investors force a trade to recover from a previous loss. Sometimes, instead of trying to recover from a mistake, the best thing you can do is to let go and move on. It would be easier for you to let go of your mistakes if you recognize that they are necessary, forgive yourself every time negative thoughts cloud your mind. As you can see, there’s more to stock investing than monetary gain. If you take every market shift and stock investment as a lesson, you’ll be able to live a more fulfilling and mindful life. For more inspirational tips on making the most out of your career, business, and life experiences, [do explore our articles](/) here on Absolute Baller. --- ## Bob Mangat: From Broke to Serial Entrepreneur URL: https://absoluteballer.com/bob-mangats-millionaire-mindset-took-him-from-broke-to-success-as-a-serial-entrepreneur/ Section: Business · Published: 2021-04-06 His entrepreneurial mindset, drive, and commitment to himself were needed to create his ideal lifestyle. He has built an empire but started off with very little. His success is proof that one can do it, despite all odds. Let’s meet Bob Mangat. ## Who Is Bob Mangat? ![Bob Mangat, serial entrepreneur and founder of 1440 Ventures](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/bob-mangats-millionaire-mindset-took-him-from-broke-to-success-as-a-serial-entrepreneur/Bob-Mangat-Entrepreneur-1-683x1024.jpeg) Bob grew up with two immigrant parents, not having very much, and watched his parents struggle to make ends meet. His hardships continued in his youth as he hit rock bottom and then went from nearly homeless and dropping out of college to becoming near bankrupt. He envisioned the life he wanted for himself and changed his mindset, worked hard, relentlessly even. In that pursuit and hard work, he went on to create one of the most successful real estate companies, to date, in Canada and then years later a multi-million dollar empire. Bob was determined to create a life where he could have family, wealth, and a lifestyle that suited his needs and wants. As such, he changed his mantra for business to **“less clients, more money.”** “Remember 6 months of hard work and focus can put you 5 years ahead in life,” says Bob. ## Building Businesses and Helping Others Find Success After creating a profitable real estate company he built the invigo group, a marketing agency, and several other companies under one umbrella. With this, he had no capital to invest and started with zero credit. Within 5 years, with zero capital, that group became a phenomenal success, managing several businesses across North America and million-dollar campaigns He has worked with over 2000 companies, helping many of them turn a profit within 18 months. His passion for creating and helping others grow in today’s online space fuels him. He spent a long time perfecting the formula he has created and then tested it out over and over on the businesses he helped grow. It’s no wonder that his newest company 1440 Ventures, builds, acquires, and grows real estate, e-commerce, and technological companies. 1440 Ventures launched in January 2021 and has already acquired 5 different brands. All of which are generating revenues monthly and scaling upwards at an exponential rate. For example, look at one of his newest acquisitions, CartClicks.co CartClicks is an agency that scales e-commerce brands using their proprietary system of managing ads for online retail companies. They have seen their clients achieve 3 to 5 times their ROI and earn revenues beyond 6 figures within 30 days. ## The Future is Bright Along with company and business development, Bob Mangat has also been investing and building real estate companies since the early 2000s. As a result, he’s helped people invest in over $50 million worth of real estate, and secured over $200,000 in monthly positive cash flow. He’s developed and revitalized properties all across North America and is now focusing his efforts on new developments. At the end of the day, Bob’s portfolio is proof that he knows how to build brand authority towards profitability beyond one’s wildest dreams. Many of today’s and tomorrow’s entrepreneurs can see success by following Bob Mangat’s ideology and drive. With his ventures, past and present, Bob Mangat is laying out the path. Bob uses his [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/bobmangat) to share his successes and tips on how to grow monthly revenues online, and create wealth and profit through technology, resources, and tactics. Follow BobMangat.com for more inspiration. --- ## Anmol Singh on Trading, Investing and Building Wealth URL: https://absoluteballer.com/anmol-singh-entrepreneur-stock-trader-author-and-angel-investor-discusses-the-path-to-success/ Section: Business · Published: 2021-01-25 With so many advances and developments taking place around us, it is imperative to notice the kind of revolution the digital world is bringing about in every industry. This has paved the way for many young people to come up with new ideas and concepts, disrupting the current business landscape for the better. However, the journey to excel at such a rapid pace and reach one of the top positions is never a cakewalk for any individual. Every life journey comes with a set of problems and struggles that people need to face to further grow, not just professionally but as an individual as well. Facing the adversities and rising above them describes one such young man and entrepreneur, who chose to never give up but instead help others in their journey to achieve their goals; he is Anmol Singh, a renowned entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. But, there is more to Anmol than meets the eye. He is an online influencer in finance and investing, an author as well as a humanitarian. **From Humble Beginnings to World Class Investor** Anmol was born in Delhi, India, on April 23, 1992. After completing his high school education, Anmol studied abroad in London, gaining a degree in Business and Management from Brunel University. Very early in life, Anmol had realized that, to “make it big” in life, decisions had to be made so that he could commence his journey into entrepreneurship. To also support his family, he first entered the world of real estate and later developed an affinity for trading. He continued to work hard and hone in his trading craft, consistently advancing on his path to creating a real-estate portfolio. His trading career opportunities expanded quickly, and in a few short years he discovered a formula to help him trade profitably. *“The stock market always goes up. Up and down – but historically, it always goes up. The difference between profit and loss comes down to your understanding of how to trade and your ability to make logical and fast decisions based on constantly changing data.” – Anmol Singh* **Esteemed Author Helping Aspiring Entrepreneurs Achieve Their Life Goals** Anmol recently published *Prepping For Success: Ten Keys for Making It in Life*, an inspirational, light-hearted guide to help readers put their plans into action. It offers an understandable and relatable step-by-step approach to discovering one’s true self and achieving true personal success. In this book, he brings a unique view on success and shows how the same concepts that he has used to help million-dollar traders are applicable to the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, irrespective of the industry or career they are in. Anmol’s hard work and dedication have rewarded him with a strong company and the sense of accomplishment that comes with being able to positively affect thousands of careers. **Establishing a Reputation as a Successful Forex Trader and Entrepreneur** Anmol was able to acquire such admirable trading skills, and it wasn’t long before several investors identified his potential and hired him to do their trading for them. It was a milestone in his life, and propelled him as a top stocks and Forex trader. Meanwhile, Anmol continued to build a reputable portfolio in the real estate and automotive sectors. He became a well-known entrepreneur. In 2015, Anmol Singh, along with Jared Wesley, founded Livetraders.com, an educational institute that offers training courses not only for Forex trading but also for stocks and other forms of trading. Since its establishment, LiveTraders has helped more than 10,000 students. The platform even offers a live session where Anmol, along with his partners and students, trade live. Livetraders.com is considered the top-ranked Stock Market, Forex, and Options educational platform. “My team and I at Live Traders can show you how to ride the emotional roller coaster that trading can be. And for those that are patient, disciplined, and hardworking, the financial rewards are unbeatable. If you want to be a successful trader, we can show you how to execute trades, review the different scenarios you’ll be up against, and most importantly, how to remove the emotion from it” **Launching A Scholarship Program to Give Back** Singh stepped in the trading industry to achieve financial independence and to help his family, and he wanted to provide other people a similar chance. Singh had to face difficulties while he was becoming a profitable trader, but he wanted to change things for the younger generation. Two years after the platform was created, Livetraders.com announced a scholarship program. The program was an attempt to ‘give back to the financially less fortunate.’ Through this scholarship, deserving and qualified students get a chance to be a part of the training program for free or at great discounts. Today, at the age of 28, Anmol has achieved success in diverse fields as trader, educationist, entrepreneur, writer and angel investor, and stands as a true inspiration for many who are still dreaming of “making it big.” Anmol’s official website is [www.livetraders.com](https://livetraders.com/), where traders can learn successful strategies by enrolling in Live Traders’ various training programs. --- ## How Successful Entrepreneurs Manage Their Money URL: https://absoluteballer.com/how-successful-entrepreneurs-manage-their-money/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-11-23 To ensure the success and longevity of their business venture, entrepreneurs should learn fundamentals about how to properly manage their money. Studies show that only half of small businesses reach five years old, as most new business owners struggle with staying on top of their funds. [This article](https://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/business-failure.htm) on the many reasons why startups fail notes that financial issues such as misusing capital, premature expansion, and lack of a solid plan sink good organizations and budding businesses. If you’re a budding entrepreneur and want to learn some tips on how to manage your money to help your business succeed, we’ve listed some of the top money management tips to help you out. ## Set Achievable Goals In order to help you stay focused and have a clear path towards success, you should set clear financial goals for your business. By doing this, it gives you clear guidelines on what you need to do to ensure your business’ survival and growth. One key financial goal that every business should have is to generate bigger profits and sustain them. However, it’s important to be specific with the goals you set and base them on your personal priorities as a business owner. For instance, you can set “eliminating debt” as one of your primary goals if you’ve taken out a loan to start your business. There’s more to having a business than just increasing your profits, so be sure to set achievable financial goals that aim to improve other important aspects of your business. ## Learn How to Budget Of course, having a budget and adhering to it is a responsibility that all entrepreneurs should follow through with if they want their business to succeed. While budgeting is a deeply personal endeavor and should be structured depending on what your company needs, today’s financial experts recommend using the lean budgeting approach. In a nutshell, having a lean budget requires you to only work when necessary as it mitigates overspending. This allows you to maximize value, reduce wasting your resources, and helps bring down overhead costs. Furthermore, a lean budget helps you deliver your product or service to your customers with as little cost as possible. To create a lean budget, be sure to prioritize value streams over projects. This means that you should carefully figure out which steps to take to ensure that you’re providing value to your customers, and subsequently focus your budget on that. ## Know How to Track Your Money While it can be tiring updating your financial records and accounts with every expense that your business makes, it’s important that you stay on top of this so you track where your money is being spent. A lot of business owners find it hard to do record-keeping as the sheer amount of numbers and computations can get overwhelming. To make this easier for you, be sure to stay organized and consistently update your records so the work won’t pile up. Furthermore, you can use spreadsheet on Excel and Google Sheets or bookkeeping software to keep all your financial information in one place. ## Build Your Business’ Credit Score Just like with every financially active individual, your business has its own credit score. This is separate from your own credit score, although its standing might affect how banks perceive your finances. It’s important to build your business’ credit score so you can find money whenever your business needs it. Financial institutions look at your organization’s credit rating before approving a loan, so it’s best to be ready and have a positive credit history. To build your business’ credit score, be sure to pay your bills on time, eliminate existing loans as fast as you can, and meet payroll needs. ## Create a Clear Line Between Your Personal and Business Funds Seasoned business owners know how important it is to separate your personal and business funds at all times. Creating a clear distinction between your personal and business money eliminates any instances of potential money issues in your business as this prevents you from withdrawing your organization’s money for personal expenditures. Thankfully, this can be done right at the beginning of your business venture. Though most businesses start off as a sole proprietorship, one way to legally separate your business’ finances from yours is to set up a limited liability company. This relieves you of any personal liability in the event that your business goes bankrupt or runs into legal troubles. Additionally, it’s recommended that you open a separate bank account for your company and just pay yourself a monthly salary to separate your business and personal funds. If you want to see your business grow and achieve success, it’s advisable to practice good money management habits. Aside from using the tips we’ve listed above, you can also choose to use [the information from personal growth seminars](/be-your-own-boss-insights-from-danielle-amos/), not only to help manage your business’ money but to also become a well-rounded entrepreneur and boss. If you found this article information, check other great tips and guides here: - [Be Your Own Boss: Insights from Danielle Amos](/be-your-own-boss-insights-from-danielle-amos/) - [Why Skipping Traditional Education May Be Your Best Chance at Self-Made Success](/why-skipping-traditional-education-may-be-your-best-chance-at-self-made-success/) - [Adam Jacobs on Buying Failing Businesses and Turning Them Around](/adam-jacobs-on-buying-failing-businesses-and-turning-them-around/) --- ## Be Your Own Boss: Insights from Danielle Amos URL: https://absoluteballer.com/be-your-own-boss-insights-from-danielle-amos/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-11-04 Danielle Amos is a motivational speaker and mindset coach who focuses on business success as her main topic. She attended personal growth talks from world-renowned speakers such as Bob Proctor, Landmark, and Tony Robbins. Danielle commits herself to help others flourish by applying the techniques and concepts from personal growth seminars. She is the current owner and founder of Danielle Amos, Inc. Mind, Body, and Soul Coaching. People can find the same success as Danielle’s clients in making more money during the pandemic if they learn the right techniques from her insightful journey. ## Budding Struggles It can be a struggle to be successful amidst an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, struggling is part of the process. According to Danielle Amos, what led her to develop the idea of establishing Mind, Body, and Soul Coaching is because she was confident about doing it. Amos left her corporate day job to fulfill her goal of being an entrepreneur in network marketing. In the beginning, she assumed that it would be an easy task since she was previously successful in her past job. However, like any other starting entrepreneurs, Amos struggled as well. She became frustrated, mean, bitter, and questioned her techniques and methods for two and a half years until she found a material that guided her in the right direction. In 2015, her mom invited her to a Bob Proctor seminar on the human mind and success. It became Amos’ foreground when she started winning in life by tripling her income, garnering awards, having more opportunities to be a speaker, and overall grow better as a motivated and hardworking person. Amos noticed how her confidence flourished through her company’s success, which urged her, even more, to provide help to others, especially to women who are becoming frustrated for not being able to deliver their wanted results. ## Starting the Hustle The hustle Danielle Amos underwent is very inspiring. Many people are curious as to how she has been able to acquire such success with her business. The hustle for her business success started when Amos became a client of a particular material. She is fond of reading self-help books and attending seminars but found it useless after not seeing the results she wanted in her work. However, things changed when she eventually learned how to apply the work techniques to her life and think differently. Amos’ usual paycheck ranged from $2,000 to $2,500 in June, a month before attending the Bob Proctor seminar. She received as high as $4,000, while she also received as low as $1,500, which was never enough to cover her expenses. This crisis even made her incur debt with an amount close to $100,000. After six months, her paycheck became four times greater. She then started simultaneously working in the network marketing company and beginning the coaching business. With that, she received her first $25,000 paycheck by March of the following year. The increasing pay just kept on coming, in that she has earned $150,000 from February to May of the same year, and over a hundred thousand in a month of the following year. ![Danielle Amos, mindset coach and founder of Danielle Amos Inc.](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/be-your-own-boss-insights-from-danielle-amos/danielle-amos-1024x683.jpg) ## Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur Danielle Amos does company promotions through word of mouth. She believes that if she does an excellent job with the people she works with, others will notice it. Since she talks a lot about money and success, other people witness the improvement and get curious about it. During this pandemic, social media platforms’ fair use can help those who want to succeed as Danielle’s clients in making more money amid COVID-19. Amos considers that being one of Bob Proctor’s protégés is by far her most significant professional achievement. She is among the top ten of the company out of thousands of consultants worldwide. Amos looks up remarkably to Bob Proctor and believes it is a privilege and an honor to be directly working with him. She recalled how she knew nothing about Bob during the first talk and is now his protégé after three years. Danielle Amos advised young business owners who are seeking a more prosperous life in the new normal. To become successful, she said you need to be persistent, open-minded to new ideas, and dream big, like a creator of images. ## Being a Visionary Amos says that having good pacing and accepting change is a must. She reminds everyone to work smarter and more effectively by focusing on one’s mindset before taking action. As a visionary of her company, she shares her dream for Danielle Amos Inc. of taking it on the global stage. Amos wants to showcase her company in ways never done before. Moreover, it doesn’t matter where you came from or your past. By being proactive, you can make more money amidst COVID-19, even if you work from home. Amos envisions her company to grow into a multi-million dollar company that earns more and gives back more. With this, she wants to connect more people and promote support for communities. ## Planning the Future Amos noted that the difference between her success to other competitors is that she helps people go to the root cause of their current results. She guides clients through self-image and confidence work using her intuition. With this, clients can express what they want to change and given guidance to achieve their goals. In planning for the future, it is inevitable to encounter adversaries. Just like in this trying time of the COVID pandemic, it is an adversary in which many people struggle to make money. In making tough decisions at work, Amos says it is essential to think critically. As an entrepreneur, she is quick at resolving problems and has developed to follow her intuition. She believes that it should always be aligned to her vision and not conform to fit any other person’s expectations in doing coaching. --- ## From Prison to Prosperity: The LiveSotori Story URL: https://absoluteballer.com/from-prison-to-prosperity-behind-the-brand-story-of-jr-anthony-founder-of-livesotori/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-10-27 Some brands are born out of pure ingenuity. Others are born out of a need that someone identifies and then meets. Few are born out of one man’s battle for survival — that’s the story behind LiveSotori. Let’s take an educational trip into the not-so-distant past and look at the birth of LiveSotori and the lessons that we can learn from it. ## Down Doesn’t Mean Out Many people get discouraged when they hit a low patch in life. They believe that being down completely disqualifies them from succeeding in life. But down never means out. No one knows this better than Junior “JR” Anthony, founder of LiveSotori. He’s gone through some of the worst situations that life can throw at a person. One example was nearly freezing to death when he was locked in his car during a blizzard. The car (which doubled as his house at the time) was buried under snow, trapping him inside. No situation in life is permanent. You have to take control and change your narrative. Even if you’re down, you can still write a great comeback story. So, never give up in life, even if you’ve hit rock bottom. ![JR Anthony, founder of LiveSotori](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/from-prison-to-prosperity-behind-the-brand-story-of-jr-anthony-founder-of-livesotori/JR-ANTHONY-bbfa3acd-1024x699.jpg) ## Know Your Prison — and How to Break Out of It One of Junior’s regular places of abode was the jail cell. Though his stints were short, he still learned an important lesson: Prison is not made of physical walls. Real prisons are systems and mentalities that keep people from living their dream lives. Real incarceration is being trapped in a life that you know is not the one you’re meant to be living. In Junior’s words:  “The worst thing about being in jail was the feeling of knowing that I did not belong. I was surrounded by people who were in a completely different caliber of criminal; these people were in there for murder and drug trafficking, among other charges, while I was in there for a very minor shoplifting charge that I did not commit.” Let’s face it: Chances are that the life you’re living now is not the life you dreamed of as a child. It’s not the life that you pictured for yourself in your teenage years. The prison of mediocrity and an unfulfilling life has you in its cold shackles. How do you break out? ### Acknowledge That You’re in Prison First of all, you must acknowledge that you’re in prison. The life that you see others enjoying? That’s the life you could be living. So, stop looking through your prison windows at what could have been, and make it be. Until you realize that the life you’re living is not the best, you’ll be stuck at that level forever. It may be a painful process, but evaluating where you are and where you should be is necessary to change your life’s narrative. Self-evaluation is crucial if you’re to move from prison to prosperity. ### Change Your Mindset The second step to breaking out of your prison is to change your mindset.  A chance encounter with an elderly inmate was Junior’s first step toward changing his mindset. Upon hearing the old man’s regrets about the choices he’d made that had led him to being incarcerated for 15 years, Junior made a decision to never walk the same path. However, the biggest encounter Junior had that led to him realizing the power of a positive mindset was with Vishen Lakhiani, when listening to a [Mindvalley](https://www.mindvalley.com/) webinar. This led to an adventure into the study of spirituality, which then led Junior to discover that the soul grows in two ways: - Kensho. This is growth that’s inspired by pain. - Satori. This refers to growth that comes about as a result of insights gained. Falling in love with the word satori, Junior knew that he had stumbled upon the name of his next venture. He replaced the “a” to make it sotori, as this reminded him of his short stint as a musician.  This journey to discover the spiritual side of life made Junior realize that his mindset was his most significant limiting factor. Up until that point, getting a client that paid $1,500/month was a pie-in-the-sky dream. His biggest mindset shift was to know that he was more valuable than money. That revelation changed the course of his life, as he soon landed his first $1,500/month client.  The universe rewards you according to the value that you place on yourself, not the value that society has placed on you. So, discover your true self and change your mindset. ### Work Toward Your Goals One thing that you’ll learn on the journey from prison to prosperity is that it takes a great deal of grit and hard work. As someone who didn’t know much about Facebook ads and digital marketing, Junior knew that he had to learn fast if he was to bring in results for his clients. He had to work harder than other digital marketers. Don’t let anyone fool you; the road to success is not easy. You must put in the work before you can start reaping the fruit. ## Use Your Experiences to Help Others Out of Their Prisons With a handful of clients under his belt, Junior was doing pretty well for himself. Life couldn’t be any better than this — or so he thought. But a big shift in his life and business was about to come from an unusual place. While trying to help his friend break into affiliate marketing, Junior purchased an affiliate offer that led to him joining a Facebook group of affiliate marketers. It was in that group that he realized that many people were clueless about most things digital marketing. Seeing a need that had to be met, Junior decided to set aside time in his schedule to help other group members get the same results that he was getting with his campaigns — all for free. That was the rebirth of LiveSotori, even though he didn’t know it at the time. Soon, Junior’s classes moved from one person at a time to over 20 students. With so many students asking for mentorship, Junior realized that he had to change his model if his students were to get the most value out of his knowledge. That’s why he launched his 2- Day Live Workshop. This is an intensive two-day program where he teaches his students how to succeed online, particularly with affiliate marketing. LiveSotori has evolved into a powerful platform and community where Junior raises “sharks.” One of the program’s unique aspects is that most students come to him when at the cusp of giving up on their dreams of making money online. Having spent tons of money on courses that yielded no results, most are surprised at how Junior’s tips change their lives and businesses. ## LiveSotori: It’s More Than a Program, It’s Your Life One of the reasons LiveSotori students get tremendous results is that they receive more than just a course. They are part of a family that’s committed to seeing them achieve their goals. An important lesson Junior teaches his students is that the value of your life is not in money, but in helping others.  Some classes take on a more personal note, as students share their deepest fears, traumas, and feelings. This emotional release helps develop more grounded entrepreneurs, who can then take on any challenges that come their way. LiveSotori’s mission is to help people transition from prison to prosperity. No matter your prison, no matter how down and out you may consider yourself to be, there’s hope for you. Junior has made it his mission to help you find yourself and orchestrate your own prison break. Few brands have a backstory as colorful as LiveSotori. With all the lives being changed by the programs, the brand’s story just keeps getting more colorful. --- ## Why Skipping College May Be Your Best Shot at Success URL: https://absoluteballer.com/why-skipping-traditional-education-may-be-your-best-chance-at-self-made-success/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-10-13 Bill Gates. Mark Zuckerberg. Steve Jobs. Michael Dell. What do these men have in common besides wealth, entrepreneurship, and knowledge about computers? None of them have a college degree. They never completed their classes, but still managed to change the world of technology and business forever. But they’re not the only successful school dropouts. Other people like Oprah Winfrey, Soichiro Honda, Richard Branson, Steven Spielberg, Mary Kay Ash, Avril Lavigne, Muhammad Ali, and Madam C.J. Walker, America’s first self-made millionaire, never received a college degree. For most of America’s history, college degrees have been the traditional path toward education. If you wanted to make it in the world, you needed to get an education. However, the costs of colleges keep rising, and students find themselves in a never-ending cycle of student debt. College tuition[increased by 8% a year](https://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20tuition%20tends%20to,the%20child%20matriculates%20in%20college.) on average, which is much higher than the standard inflation rate. This number means that tuition effectively doubles every nine years.   The average student owes[$32,731 in loans](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/02/03/student-loan-debt-statistics/#18c9ca1281fe) – a total of $1.56 trillion. What’s it all worth in the end? A[study](https://www.aacu.org/leap/public-opinion-research/2015-survey-results) from The Association of American Colleges & Universities found that 58% of employers believe that universities aren’t preparing students for entry-level jobs. Similarly, one-third of business leaders also think that schools aren’t giving graduates the necessary job skills, according to a 2013[Gallup poll](https://news.gallup.com/poll/167630/business-leaders-doubt-colleges-prepare-students.aspx). With all this in mind, is college still worth it? Is there another way out? ![Young entrepreneur pursuing success outside the traditional education system](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/why-skipping-traditional-education-may-be-your-best-chance-at-self-made-success/untitled-7977-2-bd37d662-819x1024.jpg) ## Non-Traditional Education Most people think college dropouts end up becoming poor people who work low-skill and minimum wage jobs. They’re derided as having no ambition, money, or talent. Yet, there are plenty of successful people proving this idea wrong every single day. Take Rasmus and Christian Mikkelsen, for example. These identical twins had no ambition throughout high school. They spent most of their time watching YouTube and playing video games. After they graduated high school, they took up part-time jobs to help pay for their one-bedroom apartment. “If people from my high school were to see where we are right now, no one would believe it,” said Rasmus. “No exaggeration; we were the most invisible and insignificant kids through high school.” It was one night when reality hit Rasmus like lightning. He wondered how people would react if he died. Who would miss him? Would anyone even notice? The Twins both decided this worry wouldn’t become their reality. They immediately decided to enroll in college and get straight A’s. They spent almost every waking moment studying or working. They wanted to prove to themselves that it was possible, so they made it happen. But then another sobering thought hit them: entering the workforce. That’s what was waiting for them at the end of the road – working a tedious nine-to-five corporate job until age 65. “When we were 21, and we looked into the future envisioning what life would be like if we stuck with the traditional college to corporate job path, it was terrifying,” said Christian. “If that’s the life I am going to live the rest of my life, I might as well be dead. The thought of a future like that was so painful that there was no way we would ever put up with that.” The Mikkelsen Twins made another major decision: they dropped out of college to start a business. They experimented with a few different business ideas until one landed: self-publishing books on Amazon. Their business model is simple: find a niche where demand is higher than supply. Then, create a book for people looking for that subject matter. The Twins started out writing the books themselves since they didn’t have any money. Rasmus wrote about fitness, and Christian wrote about becoming a 4.0 student. “Amazon’s incredible print-on-demand system allows you to publish a print version of your book,” said Rasmus, “When anyone buys it, Amazon will print the book and ship it to the customer without you having to lift a finger. It all happens on its own. Any customer support, delivery, or printing issues are handled entirely by Amazon. And because it’s print-on-demand, they never run out of stock.” Fast forward a few years later, and the Mikkelsen Twins are on top of the world. They spend a lot of their time traveling worldwide to places like Japan, Spain, Bali, Mexico, and Hawaii. They hire a handful of remote workers to write, proofread, and edit, while Amazon takes care of the rest. ![Rasmus and Christian Mikkelsen, founders of PublishingLife and Audiobook Income Academy](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/why-skipping-traditional-education-may-be-your-best-chance-at-self-made-success/untitled-9001-029e9cd8-1024x1024.jpg) ## Learning Entrepreneurship “I think the things that are most important to be successful in life aren’t taught in school,” said Rasmus. “For example, one foundation of achieving anything great has strong habits that you consistently follow every day for years. I think people need to be taught what valuable habits look like and how to stick to them. If you really want to set people up to be successful and productive, teach them that. But it’s rarely ever discussed throughout a child’s education.” Once the Mikkelsen Twins discovered they didn’t need a traditional college education, they sought new ways to educate a younger generation. If they could make an empire without a college degree, so too can others. They founded PublishingLife, an online platform aimed at teaching students about how to replicate the Mikkelsens’ successful publishing business. Their flagship product is Audiobook Income Academy 2.0, which offers a comprehensive step-by-step course on publishing and selling e-books, print books and audiobooks. This course isn’t just any course, though. The Twins poured their heart and soul into it. They put everything they knew into AIA, knowing that their knowledge would benefit anyone who watched it. To the Mikkelsen Twins, quality is the most crucial aspect of any business venture. They ensure that every book they publish is top-notch and error-free. Their online course is the same way. “Instead of creating four different courses as some people have suggested, we have remade the same course four times in two years,” said Rasmus. “Every time we remake it, it is truly ten times better than the previous version. The only way a competitor could create a program as good as ours is by remaking it four times.” The idea of non-traditional education is daunting to most people. Most Americans believe that merely getting a college degree will ensure future success, yet[many graduates remain underemployed](https://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2018/06/08/underemployment-persists-throughout-college-graduates-careers/#5f5288627490) and underpaid. Perhaps it’s time for more young people to break the mold and try something radically different. “It is the alternative education in the form of online self-education and traveling that has really changed our life,” said Rasmus. “The impact has been a hundred times that of what I learned in 15 years of school.” --- ## Willy Lin on Building a Profitable Amazon Business URL: https://absoluteballer.com/let-willy-lin-show-you-how-to-create-a-profitable-amazon-ecommerce-business/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-10-13 Willy Lin, a specialist based in Singapore, saw the potential of the eCommerce industry and this inspired him to create his 5 Step eCommerce System Coaching Programme. Willy eliminated over $300,000 in debt using his own strategy and eventually, he was generating over a million dollars in profits annually. Willy Lin launched the [WAH Academy](https://wah-academy.com) in 2014. From that time he has been inspiring new entrepreneurs to make use of the Amazon FBA to build profitable eCommerce businesses. ## The WAH Academy As per Willy, the WAH Academy stands for the “Work-At-Home” Academy. As his eCommerce Amazon business began to take off, he got a lot of requests from contacts asking him to share the strategies of his work at home business. They wanted to set up their own eCommerce business in their spare time. Seeing the potential opportunity here, Willy began his company to share his knowledge about creating an eCommerce business that was profitable. Willy always firmly believed he made the right decision in helping entrepreneurs start work at home businesses using his Work-At-Home Academy. He found this approach much more rewarding than any other job that he had done before. Willy found it freeing and satisfying that he was able to help others succeed with their eCommerce business. Willy Lin really feels he’s making a positive impact on the world with his teachings. ## Expanding His Empire When Willy first started his business, his main method of promotion was by a word of mouth and then he expanded into using websites like Meetup.com. Eventually, he started to market his eCommerce business using ads on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. WAH Academy or the Work-At-Home Academy started to get a name for itself since Willy will help entrepreneurs achieve their financial goals. He would get amazing testimonials from the students he helped and those testimonials resulted in even more people reaching out to him. This began to increase the image of the company in the eyes of potential clients. The WAH Academy has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. Now, you will have to qualify before you are accepted into the coaching program. They are students who used Willy’s program to grow their successful eCommerce business and now they have become part of Willy’s coaching team. This provides a powerful learning experience for the coaches and the students, who will learn and grow together. ## His Biggest Success Came When He Went Viral Willy said that he can go viral on platforms like [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/theWAHacademy) by just openly sharing his skills and knowledge. This also results in increased sales. He would provide valuable pieces of information on the Facebook and YouTube ad platforms on strategies like “How to collaborate with influencers to launch your private label products on Amazon.” These are valuable tips that people can apply instantly to increase profits for their business. Potential customers can instantly see that they’re getting value and not just someone boasting about how much money their business is making. As a result, the WAH Academy began getting more credibility and respectability over the years. ## Amazon Marketing Tips You will find some great tips on how to use Amazon to drive sales of your products and services, but what Willy has discovered is that it’s more profitable to use influencers to market your products and services to their followers. If those followers find value in your product or service, they will then refer your products or services to their friends. This concept is scalable and you have a way to reach beyond the Amazon market, which is better than using just Amazon.com advertising. In the long term, Amazon sponsored ads are not the most effective form of advertisement due to costly investment. During the busiest shopping times throughout the year, it will be very costly to keep your Amazon ads running. ## Outperforming Other Training Companies The WAH Academy has outperformed other training companies because they are very selective on who they allow on the team. Willy knows it’s vital to have the right attitude when starting an eCommerce business and this is vital to the ultimate success of the student. If a student is determined to make this a success, he or she will inspire others to also become successful. This way, everyone can learn and advance as one. This is the goal that Willy wanted to achieve for his WAH Academy, a positive learning environment where all of the students can rest their financial potential. This is one of his primary objectives and promise he makes to the students who enroll in the WAH Academy. Willy set up a “strategy call” for potential students to interact with his team to see if the student would be a good fit. This helps to maintain the integrity of his community of students. This approach helps to eliminate those who are not yet serious about building a successful eCommerce business. The WAH Academy continues to produce outstanding results by only taking on people who will fit into the Academy’s philosophy. When a student is accepted into WAH Academy, the Academy mentors them until they have a profitable business. ## Willy’s Biggest Life Lesson To Date Willy Lin stated that the most important lesson he learned about becoming a successful entrepreneur is to have determination and consistency. Any entrepreneur will fail if they don’t believe in what they are doing and have the determination to get through any roadblock. Problems will arise, it is if you get up and push on that will determine your success. ## What Willy Sees Ahead Willy Lin sees that people will want to set up their own eCommerce business. He also sees himself playing a vital role in helping these entrepreneurs reach their financial goals. He knows that people will see the huge value that the WAH Academy provides and will seek out his coaching. Willy Lin wants to keep working with talented entrepreneurs to help them reach their full potential. One of Willy’s favorite quotes is by Bill Phillips and it goes, “The difference between who you are and who you want to be, is what you do.” --- ## Adam Jacobs on Buying and Fixing Failing Businesses URL: https://absoluteballer.com/adam-jacobs-on-buying-failing-businesses-and-turning-them-around/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-09-17 Is there anything more thrilling than being [an entrepreneur](/julian-kuschner/) or business owner? The feeling of contributing something unique and valuable to the world, doing something you love, and, ideally, making money while you’re doing it? I’ll never forget the feeling of when I started working with [Bubblegum Casting](https://www.bubblegumcasting.com.au/). I’d been passionate about helping people since seeing how it lit up my sister’s life when we were growing up. After she passed away, working with Bubblegum Casting was a way to remain connected to her. It turns out the helping people dream’s come true was my dream come true.  But what do you do when you’re not sure what kind of business you want to build? Or if you don’t have the time to dedicate to starting something from the ground up but still want to experience being in business for yourself? Buying failing businesses is a great way to get started as a business owner or an entrepreneur. You get to help someone else out at the same time, as an added benefit.  **How To Succeed When Buying Failing Businesses** Entrepreneurship, running a business, flipping… these are all different approaches and goals for buying failing businesses. These have been in the headlines non-stop for at least the last 10 years, as we all seek out side hustles and grinds, passive income and, ultimately, our dream careers.  The thing of it is, is that alternative business models is still business. Like with [Hunter Talent](https://www.huntertalent.com.au/), where we connect models, influencers, and creatives with powerful and influential brands. Running a talent agency is fun. It’s creative. It’s challenging. It’s rewarding, as you meet fascinating, talented people from all over the world.  It’s also an intense amount of work. It’s a good thing that I love it more than anything, as there’s no way I’d have stuck with it to see it become the success it has, otherwise.  **1. Start With Market Research** No matter what kind of business you’re getting into, you’ll want to do some research before you get involved in earnest. You wouldn’t want to sink a bunch of money to buy a business to discover that there are already a dozen of them in town. Doing your due diligence will also help you get an understanding of the industry you’re hoping to get involved with. This should help give you a ballpark estimate of how much businesses run for, roughly. This way you’ll recognize a good deal when you see it.  Researching your business will also help give you a rough idea of how much it will cost to operate your business. While you don’t necessarily need to save up two years worth of operating expenses like the conventional business wisdom, you’ll still want to make sure that you can keep the lights on while you’re waiting for income to start coming in.  **2. Make A Business Plan** As you’re researching your business and calculating expenses, you should start to get an idea of what running your business might look like. You’ll get an idea of what kind of funding you’ll need to come up with. You’ll have a rough idea of what your expenses are going to be.  You should take all of this knowledge and put together some sort of business plan, however rough. For one, simply laying it out on paper will help clarify your thoughts. It will take things from being formless and vague to clear-cut and concrete. This way, when you do have your business you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.  **3. Decide On Personnel** Are you going to have employees? Will you be running the business yourself? If you’re going the soloproneur route, you’ll need to make sure that you really have the time, energy, and resources to make your business a success. Running a business takes a tremendous amount of work.  That’s another advantage of buying a failing business. There may be people who work there already. While this does put you in the position of deciding if you want to keep the staff that’s already there or if you’re willing to give them the boot, it also means you have the potential to learn from their collective wisdom. You could, theoretically, save their jobs and save the day, as a nice side perk.  **4. Meet With Customers** One of the advantages of buying a failing business is that it often comes with a built-in customer base. Maybe not a huge one, otherwise it wouldn’t be a failing business. But there are bound to be some loyal, steady customers. And that is a rare and precious commodity in today’s world.  If you’re operating a physical space in any regard, you should try and meet the existing customers while the original owners are still in business. They might be able to introduce you to their regulars, making an introduction as smooth, easy, and pleasant as possible.  You should try and ease your customers’ minds that they’re still going to get the same great service they’re used to. You might even consider giving them a special deal or incentive to thank you for their loyalty.  It is infinitely easier to keep a customer than it is to find a new one. Remember that when you’re going to buy a business for sale, and you’ll be grateful for every little thing that comes your way.  **Want To Learn More About Building A Business?** Buying failing businesses is just one way you can get into business for yourself. There have never been so many useful, accessible, powerful tools and resources available for small- and independently-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.  If you’ve got any questions or a tip for a story that would inspire our readers, [contact us today](/contact/)!  Adam Jacobs is the incredibly busy Managing Director of Bubblegum Casting, and Hunter Talent He works with some of Australia’s biggest brands, media properties and agencies to secure talented children to work in Television, Film and Modelling roles. They’ve recently launched an office in LA too. ![Adam Jacobs, Managing Director of Bubblegum Casting and Hunter Talent](https://images.absoluteballer.com/posts/adam-jacobs-on-buying-failing-businesses-and-turning-them-around/Adam-Jacobs-BW-4d9faa09-1024x683.jpg) --- ## Hello August Rush: A New Supplement Alternative URL: https://absoluteballer.com/hello-august-rush-providing-people-with-a-new-supplement-alternative-2/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-08-19 The health and wellness industry has experienced a boom in the past decade as more and more people start to value their overall well-being. Riding that wave and looking to provide people with a layer of protection during a worldwide pandemic, entrepreneur Arthur Butler has launched Hello August Rush, a premier line of vitamin supplements, CBD products, and super powder mix. The initial inspiration for this new venture is the growing threat that coronavirus poses to the world. As the world suffers the detrimental health and economic effects of the pandemic, Hello August Rush hopes to play its role in keeping people healthy and safe. This solution is one people welcome, most notably those seeking natural remedies with proven results. One of Hello August Rush’s bestsellers has to be the August Rush Neuro Plus, a powerful complex that supports clarity, memory, and focus. The supplement has many benefits, such as stress reduction capabilities, memory, and cognitive health boosters, mental balance, energy boosters, and performance enhancement. Hello August Rush also carries an innovative approach to CBD products, introducing the natural supplement in the form of gummies that have exceptional flavor, leaving people wanting more of the CBD packed gummies. Other Hello August Rush products include an August Rush variant of turmeric with ginger supplement, vitamin B-12 drops, vitamin C+ elderberries, magnesium supplement, beets, greens, red, and collagen, to name a few. Hello August Rush comes at a timely juncture as supplements have been one of the most in-demand products since COVID-19 blew up globally. Today, people look to other means to boost their immune system and help them cope with the worldwide crisis, economic downtrends, and mental stresses on the human body. Hello August Rush hopes to be a means by which people cope with those adverse effects today. The company’s founder, Arthur, maintains how his lifestyle is a testament to Hello August Rush’s benefits. As an active entrepreneur with many businesses to operate, he regularly turns to his product to keep up with the taxing demands of entrepreneurship. Arthur is an innovator and visionary who wears many hats. In six years, he has launched multiple businesses that have grown to become massive successes in the marketplace. Hello August Rush stands as living proof of Arthur’s entrepreneurial skill and capacity. Moreover, it reveals his real heart as a business start-up expert to create solutions to people’s greatest needs and find ways to make those solutions available to them. With a pure desire to be a positive influence on others, Arthur hopes that Hello August Rush, just like all his other ventures, will help people and create an impact on their lives. Arthur was born in Indianapolis but raised in Nashville. As an entrepreneur, he is unafraid and more than willing to take risks. In all he does, he gives his very best and goes the extra mile for a customer or client. Any patron of Hello August Rush will know the culture of integrity, passion, transparency, and compassion the company holds. All this reflects the company’s owner and founder, which stands as a foundation for his unprecedented success in business and life. **Company Name:** Hello August Rush **Email:** info@helloaugustrush.com **Phone:** 347.494.0634 --- ## Julian Kuschner: Entrepreneur, Investor and Speaker URL: https://absoluteballer.com/julian-kuschner/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-07-18 [Julian Kuschner](https://www.instagram.com/juliankuschner/?hl=en) was born on November, 4th 1992 in Newark, NJ. He is an investor, an entrepreneur, and a motivational speaker. In other words, he is truly a man of many talents. This still may be an understatement to address Julian’s many talents. He is able to help people from all walks of life hone their skills to become better at whatever work they do. > **“I HAVE DIRECTLY IMPACTED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MEN AND WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD.** **I HELP PEOPLE DEVELOP SKILLS THAT RANGE FROM SALES TO INTERNET MARKETING AND I AM ON THE JOURNEY OF SHARING WHAT I HAVE LEARNED WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS I CAN SO THEY TOO CAN ACHIEVE FINANCIAL INCREASE AND PROSPERITY!”** EXCLAIMS JULIAN. Julian currently uses numerous platforms to reach all different audiences. His goal is to truly help people through the trials of being an entrepreneur, which many people have been experiencing as entrepreneurship becomes a common route that many people are taking now. > **“ONE OF THE COMPANIES I AM A PARTNER OF OFFERS EDUCATION, LIVE TRADING SESSIONS, AND TOOLS THAT HELP PEOPLE BUILD A SKILL SET. IF CUSTOMERS DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO LEARN, THEY CAN FOLLOW THE EXPERT TRADERS TO SEE RESULTS IN THE FOREX, STOCK, AND CRYPTO CURRENCY MARKETS.”** STATES JULIAN. If you think that this is the end to Julian’s expertise and goals in life, you would be wrong. In addition to helping others achieve their potential, he is also an entrepreneur himself! He began his entrepreneurial journey by starting a Luxury Concierge Business. Now, he is working on a CBD business called [Reliefly](https://relieflycbd.com/), which sells premium CBD products. > **“I CO-FOUNDED RELIEFLY TOGETHER WITH MY PARTNER TO SOLVE AN ONGOING PROBLEM IN THE MARKETPLACE. ALTHOUGH THERE ARE MANY EXISTING CBD COMPANIES, MOST OF THEM DON’T PUT OUT PREMIUM PRODUCTS. MANY COMPANIES LAUNCH SOLELY OFF THE FOCUS OF PROFIT MARGIN AND MARKETING OPPORTUNITY. I WANTED TO CHANGE THAT BY PROVIDING PREMIUM AND LAB-TESTED PRODUCTS AT A COMPETITIVE PRICE, AND GIVING A PORTION OF THE PROFITS TO CHARITY.”** SAYS JULIAN. What makes Julian unique in all of his endeavors is that he truly cares about his customers more so than any other entrepreneur out there. For his fellow entrepreneurs, Julian tries to help them come up with a unique approach that will help them be successful in business no matter what they do. For his own businesses, Julian makes sure that his customers receive full transparency about his products. > **“I AM ALL ABOUT COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY AND DON’T WANT TO HIDE ANYTHING FROM THE LOYAL BUYERS OF RELIEFLY. STARTING A BUSINESS IN THIS DAY AND AGE SOUNDS EXCITING AND “SEXY” ACCORDING TO A LOT OF PEOPLE, BUT MOST OF THEM DON’T TRULY KNOW WHAT IT TAKES AND WHAT FOUNDATION YOU NEED TO LAY IN ORDER TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL COMPANY. I WILL TRY AND FIX THIS PROBLEM.”** RECOUNTS JULIAN. A lot of Julian’s methods for making people successful come down to honing one skill in particular: social media. For Julian, this tool can make or break a good business in that it is an excellent way to reach customers. These days, everyone is on social media, so if you can access these customers and people, you can create a successful business. > **“I CAN PINPOINT A LOT OF SUCCESS IN MY BUSINESS AND PERSONAL BRAND TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGIES. WITH SOCIAL MEDIA BOOMING THESE DAYS AND NEW PLATFORMS COMING OUT, SOME PEOPLE CAN GET CONFUSED AND OVERWHELMED. FEAR NOT, THE TIPS I SHARE CAN BE USED ON ANY AND ALL PLATFORMS, BOTH PRESENT AND FUTURE.”** JULIAN COMMENTS. To find out more about Julian, you can follow him on Instagram [@juliankuschner](https://www.instagram.com/juliankuschner/?igshid=9lyx1bgtn5ob). You can also check out his website at [juliankuschner.com](https://juliankuschner.com/). In addition, his CBD business can be found at [relieflycbd.com](https://relieflycbd.com/). --- ## Derrick Grace II on Building a More Educated Culture URL: https://absoluteballer.com/derrick-grace-ii/ Section: Culture · Published: 2020-07-18 The world of business and finances can be incredibly intimidating and ruthless for uneducated people trying to get by. It takes a good amount of knowledge to successfully navigate the real world, and unfortunately, much of the information needed to become successful and financially adept isn’t taught by traditional education mediums. Thankfully, we have people like Derrick Grace II in the world, who has put a great deal of effort into educating the masses. Grace is a serial entrepreneur, launching several different business ventures and reaching a level of success many never see. Grace got his first major start after selling one of the highest-rated apparel apps on the Google Play store, and went viral, gaining millions upon millions of views and growing a massive social media presence. While building great success for himself and his family, Grace has developed curriculum and educational processes that would enable others to do the same. > Grace is a #1 best selling author, selling over 50,000 books independently, covering a wide range of topics from child education, co-parenting, gun education, and curriculum. Further pushing important education to the public, Grace also launched a board game called “In Home Banking”. The game is meant to be an entertaining, educational experience, and covers topics from financial literacy to small business ownership within the gameplay. Grace has sold over 8,000 copies of “In Home Banking” so far, quickly selling out. Taking a more direct approach to educating the masses on important life skills, Grace went on to launch a movement he calls “The Unlearn and Relearn Movement”. Taking a focus on financial independence, self will, ownership, and family business, Grace has pushed this movement to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers and created the Independent Unlearn and Relearn Academy to further fortify his movement. The Unlearn and Relearn Movement continues to expand, helping more and more people to understand how to achieve financial freedom. Find Derrick Grace II on Instagram here: [https://www.instagram.com/derrickgracetwo/](https://www.instagram.com/derrickgracetwo/) Visit Derrick Grace II’s website here: [derrickgracetwo.com](https://derrickgracetwo.com/) --- ## David Soares Built Portugal's Top Forex Consulting Firm URL: https://absoluteballer.com/david-soares/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-07-18 [David Soares](https://www.instagram.com/davidgyt_/) better known as DavidGYT on social media knew since he was a child that he was going to do great things. As a little kid, he would come up with business ideas and ways to get rich in his head before he fell asleep every night. Today he owns a multimillion dollar company in his home country of Portugal. David is from Faro, Portugal, where he grew up with his parents. His father owns a small home appliances store, which was passed down to him by David’s grandfather, and his mother owns a beauty clinic and a hair salon that she fought a lot to get, as she came from a poor family. > **“FOR MOST OF MY LIFE, I DREAMED OF GREATER THINGS. I WANTED TO GET TO A PLACE WHERE MONEY WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT A PROBLEM. EVEN THOUGH MY LIFE WAS DECENT AND MY FAMILY DIDN’T REALLY HAVE MANY FINANCIAL STRUGGLES, I KNEW THERE WAS STILL MUCH MORE TO BE ACHIEVED.” DAVID SHARES.** But David’s parents were very strict and clear–they wanted him to be a lawyer or a doctor. When [David ](https://www.instagram.com/davidgyt_/)would mention his dreams of making money and buying sports cars, they would call him crazy. > **“I DID END UP GOING TO LAW SCHOOL AND GETTING MY DEGREE WITH AN AVERAGE GRADE. BUT I NEVER GAVE UP MY REAL AMBITIONS–I WAS CONSTANTLY THINKING ABOUT WAYS TO MAKE MONEY AND START MY PATH TO SUCCESS.” DAVID SAYS.** During law school, [David ](https://www.instagram.com/davidgyt_/)discovered his love for financial markets. He immediately began studying them, but after he found out about the forex market and saw its potential, he started to focus only on it and gave it everything he had. > **“I STUDIED DAY AND NIGHT AND AFTER MY FIRST YEAR, I WAS ALREADY MAKING GOOD MONEY.” DAVID RECOUNTS. “AFTER TWO YEARS, I DECIDED TO START A CONSULTING BUSINESS, WHICH LATER EXPANDED TO FINANCIAL EDUCATION AS WELL.”** David runs Global Youth Trading, a financial consulting firm that focuses on the forex market and provides education services. It is the biggest forex consulting company in Portugal. They help people understand the market and teach them how to trade, while also sharing their side positions with their clients. > **“STARTING THE **BUSINESS** WASN’T ‘HARD’ FOR US BECAUSE WE ENJOYED WHAT WE DID A LOT. ALL THE EFFORT CAME ALMOST NATURALLY. IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU’RE DOING, BELIEVE ME, IT BECOMES WAY MORE DIFFICULT.” HE SHARES. “FOR EXAMPLE, I DIDN’T DO THAT WELL IN LAW SCHOOL BECAUSE TO ME, ALL THAT STUFF WAS BORING. I BELIEVE I TRULY FOUND MY CALLING IN THE INVESTMENT WORLD AND WHEN YOU’RE DOING WHAT YOU LOVE, IT ALMOST DOESN’T FEEL LIKE WORK.”** Moreover, for [David ](https://www.instagram.com/davidgyt_/)every entrepreneur’s experience is different. This is why he believes there isn’t one piece of advice that necessarily works for everyone. What works for him might not work for someone else. > **“THE BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE IS TO LIKE WHAT YOU’RE DOING BECAUSE ALL THE WORK AND EFFORT WILL BE SUBSTANTIALLY LESS DEMANDING.” DAVID STRESSES.** It is also important to be conscious of obstacles that may be in your way. One of these is fear, which if you can control it, David believes it can be a good advisor, but if you let it control you, it will be your greatest enemy. He also has a few things to say about mindset. > **“MINDSET IS A TRENDY CONCEPT THESE DAYS, BUT IT REALLY ISN’T EXPRESSING ANYTHING NEW.” DAVID STATES. “IF YOU BELIEVE YOU’RE GOING TO FAIL, YOUR CHANCES OF FAILING INCREASE. IF YOU KNOW YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES, YOU’LL KEEP TRYING UNTIL YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT.”** But at the end of the day, real day-to-day decisions depend more on common sense than on mindset This is something that differentiates [David](https://www.instagram.com/davidgyt_/) from his competition: he has very good instincts. > **“MOST OF THE TIME, I CAN RUN AN IDEA THROUGH MY MIND AND I’LL INTUITIVELY KNOW WHAT ASPECTS OF IT WILL WORK AND WHICH WON’T. MY INSTINCTS HAVE NEVER LET ME DOWN.” DAVID ADMITS. “I AM GOOD AT PUTTING MYSELF IN OTHER PEOPLE’S SHOES AND GETTING A SENSE OF WHAT THEY ARE THINKING. TO KNOW HOW THOUGHT PROCESSES WORK AND HOW PEOPLE RESPOND TO THINGS GIVES ME AN ADVANTAGE.”** This allows [David](https://www.instagram.com/davidgyt_/) to provide the services people need and are looking for, and frame them in a way that makes them more appealing and approachable. According to David, this is also a great asset in the market, since charts are basically the collective thoughts and emotions of traders represented in visual form. This is why after five years leading Global Youth Trading, David believes he is successful, but that he does not want to stop. For him, success is a process–there is still a lot for him to do and if he stopped now, he wouldn’t feel successful anymore. At the moment, Global Youth Trading is working on cementing themselves as the best provider for forex investment training in Portugal. To do this they are preparing something substantial to improve their education program. To find out more about David go [here](https://www.instagram.com/davidgyt_/). --- ## Aaron Ware: From High School Dropout to $20M a Year URL: https://absoluteballer.com/aaron-ware-is-a-high-school-drop-out-with-nothing-now-an-entrepreneur-making-20-million-annually/ Section: Business · Published: 2020-07-18 TL;DR: He left high school with nothing. The full play-by-play — every bet, every miss, and the run that changed the score. Aaron Ware’s story is not your typical #TGB but nonetheless is nothing short of a miracle. From a nobody to one of the most successful entrepreneurs, Aaron had only his dreams, to begin with. But with hard work and utmost dedication, he accomplished the impossible. Aaron made up his mind that by sacrificing his teens and all the cool things that his friends and people his age enjoyed, he will be steps closer to his dream. Aaron recalled that he started working at a tender age of 11 years as an electrician’s assistant. He said that this was his first taste of financial freedom. He eventually dropped out of high school and worked his way in mining and construction. This was where he met people who were earning so much and yet had nothing. “*I don’t want to end up like this*,” Aaron said to himself. ## Giving Up His Twenties – To Retire In His Thirties Aaron experienced first-hand how regular hardworking folks lived—working themselves to the bone, missing out important family milestones, and sacrificing their personal pleasures all for a meager wage. He decided that he can’t live this way. This was not the life he wanted for himself. “*I gave up my twenties to retire in my thirties*.” Aaron had the dream of earning his first million by the time he turns 30. Everyone thought this was impossible, but Aaron proved them wrong. In just the past three years, his business thrived from half a million to a company earning 20 million annually. ## A Small Sacrifice For The Ultimate Goal Aaron Ware’s transformation from a high school drop out to a successful entrepreneur was not smooth sailing. There were times he wanted to give up, times when he reached a point that he didn’t know what to do. He recalled the times when he and his best friend drove around, knocking on doors and asking people if they had electrical work that needed to be done. He begged and pleaded to anyone for work. He even had times he had no idea where he can get work the next day. Aaron kept on pushing and eventually landed jobs for big projects. He was finally making ends meet and had money to start his own business finally. Aaron bought Pedley’s Electrical Services with a couple of hundred thousand dollars, all the money he saved. Slowly but surely, he transformed his business into a thriving company that’s making more than eight figures. Success was also coupled with some drawbacks. Aaron revealed that he went through a lot of pain and issues that double in size month after month, year after year. The young entrepreneur admitted that he made the following mistakes: - He hired the wrong people. - He trusted the wrong people. - He bought the wrong things. - He spent money in the wrong areas. - He wasted money on marketing and ads. - He never had systems. - He never had training. - He never had a culture. - He never had goals or tracking. - He never understood accounting. But Aaron never let anything get in the way of his success. He managed to use all these negative things, all obstacles, to improve his business. ## Getting Help Along The Way What helped him most was learning all about obstacles that may be blocking his way. He focused on these hurdles to systematize his business. Aaron said: “*Now that I look back on it all and kinda have it all figured out, I’m thinking you know what? It didn’t have to be that hard. I remember waking up in the middle of the night with heart palpitations from all the stress and nearly having break downs…and I just know deep down inside me it didn’t have to be that hard.*“ He took negative reviews and comments from customers and used these to become a better business owner and eventually improve his business. ## Sharing His Success & Blessings Aaron admits that he also had some regrets. He once said that if he had known all these techniques a few years earlier, he would have earned more than 20 million dollars yearly. Aaron wants to share his business growth and personal passion with young people like him. He is very active in social media platforms like [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/aaron_ware_/?igshid=13ppg8odhgt94) and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPtfhUU-GZ4mtzO70ni7sLQ), where he regularly updates his followers with business ideas and entrepreneurial skills. Aaron also wrote **Trade Made**, a book about how to grow a business. This book is [available online here](https://www.amazon.com.au/Trade-Made/dp/B0858VHQ16/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=). Another way Aaron extends his help is through online training classes. These classes target people in the trades and construction business but are also available to anyone. Aaron invites people who want to move past all obstacles and conquer their dream to be part of his classes. Interested people may follow Aaron through social media for online training updates. ---