Jason Robertson is a man of many gifts. As an young man, he was an All-American baseball player, drafted by the New York Yankees straight out of high school. He was also listed by Essence Magazine as one of the most eligible bachelors in America for his good looks and success. If that were not enough, Jason retired from baseball and re-invented himself as a leading, award-winning entrepreneur.

Besides being a model of success for his 3 sons and celebrating his engagement to fiance Marshawn Evans, Jason is on a mission to teach other young men how to make the transition from successful athlete to outstanding businessman. Black Voices got a chance to catch up with Jason.

1) What do you do for a living?

I own an industrial packaging company. We sell corrugated boxes, bags, films, pallets, and we also provide warehousing and storage.

2) You have an interesting background in athletics. Can you tell us about it?

I signed out of high school to play professional baseball with the New York Yankees, after turning down a full-ride scholarship to the University of Arizona. I played 8 years in professional ball, 7 with the Yankees and 1 with the Florida Marlins. I made it as high as "Triple A" which a level just below the big leagues. During my 8 year career I spent 6 spring training sessions with the Big League club, working out with all the guys on the Major League team.

3) How was your transition from being an athlete to being a businessman? Was it difficult emotionally?

My transition was smooth because I never let baseball define who and what I was. I always loved baseball and wanted to it to be my 1st profession, but I never allow it to become so much of my life that I couldn't live without it. I must admit, I didn't properly prepare myself for life after baseball by getting an education or learning a trade. But I always knew that I would work hard and be successful at something.

Emotionally, I was ok. It took me a month or so to get over the fact that I was no longer this phenom that everyone wanted to see play, but yet I was 27 years old, too old to play the game I starred at since I was 5 years old.

Business is flat right now, but in today's economy that's the NEW profit. I haven't lost any accounts, but I have seen sales fall because my customers aren't needing as much packaging because they aren't shipping as much.

I have been recognized by diversitybusiness.com the last 3 years (07', 08', 09') as one of the "Top Minority Owned Businesses". It's an honor to receive any recognition for your efforts, but it's really special to know that I'm doing well amongst minority businesses. MBE's are just as good as majority companies and it's a shame we don't get the same opportunities. I would love to see minorities combine their buying power and join companies to increase their capabilities, or even buy from minority owned companies. We can help each other, but we have to break the status quo way of doing things.

5) What skills as an athlete helped you to transfer over as you became a businessman? The one thing I think helped me the most wasn't a skill, it was how to handle failure. Baseball is all about failing. If you hit .300 you're a Hall of Fame player, but most don't realize that you failed 70% of the time. If you took that success percentage and applied it to any other profession, you'd be fired, released, or not even given a chance to participate. In baseball you have to learn to accept that all failures aren't your fault, because even when you do everything right you still can get out. Same applies with business, you can do everything right and still not get the account.

6) You speak to young athletes on a regular basis. What sorts of lessons do you share with them about your story, particularly as it relates to money?
I often stress how the wrong desire for money can drive you to make the wrong choices in life to get it. Kids often associate a profession with money and they never try to develop anything except the skill set to achieve in that profession. Many don't realize that they have a better chance to win the lottery than to make it in sports or entertainment. Many youth are never introduced to money, how it works, and the many ways to obtain it. Especially in the black community, we don't have a lot of male figures who make money to be examples for our youth.

7) What mistakes have you made along the way and what did you learn from them?
In my business I have made a few huge mistakes. I allowed a coworker to have access to a company credit card. That cost me about $15,000 but I learned not to trust anyone with your money. Also, I had a partner who almost bankrupted the company. I bought him out and vowed to never allow a partner to make decisions that can have such a huge impact on our viability. Third, I squandered lots of profits on personal liabilities. ALWAYS keep your personal expenses under control and NEVER use business funds to pay personal debts.

8) What do you plan to do in the future? My future plans are to continue to grow my packaging company and look for opportunities to grow and expand that business. I also want to explore the speaking circuit. People close to me feel that I can be good at it, but like many things, it may appear easy until you actually have to do it. I also want to explore so joint-ventures with my significant other on some marketing ideas. As you often mention, we need to create multiple revenue streams. Lastly, I probably will do something in the baseball arena as well.


This interview was conducted by Dr Boyce Watkins, Finance Professor at Syracuse University. For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com. To have Dr Boyce commentary delivered directy to your email box, please click here.