Discussing goals both on and off the field, former AFL player Dane Swan delivered a talk on his journey from sport to business to a class of Craigieburn Secondary College students.
The talk was hosted by the school on Tuesday, September 17, as part of a VCE vocational Business Academy program.
Swan spoke to a room of senior school students about growing up in Westmeadows, his entry into AFL, challenges in his career, overcoming self-doubt, and how networking provided work opportunities after footy.
The VCE VM Business Academy is a program aimed at teaching students modern business skills, giving them the opportunity to build networks or start their own business, and helping them to secure traineeships or apprenticeships.
Talking of the importance of following your passions, Swan said he has invested in businesses that interest him, including bars, pubs, and a tattoo shop.
Despite his entrepreneurial success, Swan said that when he was first drafted into the AFL, his future career was not on his mind.
“When you’re a 17-or-18-year-old, you don’t really think about what your life’s going to be like when you’re 40 – you think ‘I’m just going to play footy forever,’ living in the moment,” he said.
Swan told the students that he gradually began to develop relationships with sponsors and business people during his time as a player.
“Once you guys finish this program and are out in the real world, if you guys have had relationships or networks with people who are in successful businesses that you guys enjoy – well there’s your first step into getting an apprenticeship or getting one-day-a-week work,” Swan said.
“Then, see if you enjoy that … then it progresses into two, three, four, five, then bang – in five or six years you’ve got a decent career or … owning a business in that … field that you enjoy.”
Swan discussed how he took lessons from his 2003 arrest, and how “sometimes the worst things that happen to you can actually be the best things.”
“When I got arrested, that was probably the thing that was a turning point for me. Now, I’m not saying everyone go and get arrested … but that was the turning point for me,” Swan said.
“I got told I was going to be sacked … I got given a chance … so I was like ‘I don’t want to waste the chance that I’ve been given,’ because we only get so many chances.”
