During the summer I had various jobs with tech companies and had a chance to work with people in the technology field and it taught me a lot about many things. I listened and absorbed as much information as I could and that helped me along the way when trying to start my company (Soforreal Web). However, it was not easy… I found a few clients through friends and built static normal business websites. It was nothing to jump up and down about but I was getting my foot in the door. I made mistakes and learned so much during this time.
Making mistakes in life helps you grow and learn a bit faster if you of course, learn from your mistakes and build upon in. So during the next basketball overseas season which would be my third. I had a chance to have internet connection at home and I was very happy. However, during that year I also took a technology adult course in Finland. There I learned how to build databases and more programming languages. I never wanted to stop learning and I used my time wisely while playing basketball abroad.
It is very important that I stress this to you. No matter how much money you are earning through playing basketball as a professional, tomorrrow is never really promised as things do happen. Planning your future or even working on things that you like while you’re overseas is important.
So during that year, I kept updating the website Basketball and Beyond and during my classes I also used a bit of time building the website. I was contracted by my current team in Finland to update the team website so it also gave me time to learn and build upon my portfolio at the time.
I did not earn much money, well hardly at all during the first year because of my lack of knowledge of obtaining clients. But it did not discourage me at all, however I kept at it.