First Printed in the Sunday Independent 20/12/2015 A career as a professional sports star is something that children dream of. But what happens to sportspeople when age catches up with them? Last month, UFC fighter Conor Pendred announced his retirement, aged just 28, stating a lack of passion. “The time is right to close one door and open another,” he said. And making that decision may have been a tougher struggle than any of his cage fights. Closing one door can be painful but making the transition to another career can be helped if the skill sets used in sport can be used in the next competitive arena. If sport is competitive, so too is business, and the will to succeed in one area will often lead to success in the other. But are they directly transferable? Aidan McCullen, director of digital innovation at Communicorp, suggests that not all sporting skill sets may not directly map onto business. “I played 10 years of professional rugby and by the end I could do a mean spin pass off my left hand. I’m not sure that had deep resonance with the advertising industry.” McCullen’s joke masks a modest approach to his sporting […]