Rob Johnson had a dream. It didn't involve the daily hustle and grind of a news room. Rob was working for An Orlando newspaper but he found peace on the tennis court. Rob just wanted to play tennis. He decided to ultimately quit his job and work at a resort as a tennis instructor. On paper this was great, he would charge $50 an hour the hotel would get 10% and Rob could get paid to indulge in his passion. He even invested $500 for custom "Coach Rob's EZ Tennis Academy" t shirts.
Now lets start with the good. Rob was chasing his passion or so he thought. He already got in good with the resorts, and he had a quasi brand in motion. He was actually addressing a need in the market.
Now the bad. Rob didn't take into account that most of his adult clientele would not seriously be interested in tennis but in the wasting time before they would venture off into other more popular resorts. As for his clientele that were children, they are children its hard for them to focus on tennis in the land of Disney World. Another thing he did not take into account was the weather of central Florida. tennis is an outdoor sport and the weather of Florida is quite sporadic, hot, humid and ultimately the average amateur tennis player won't want to play in it. Rob wanted to play tennis buts that's not what he was doing, Rob was in sales and education.
This article was a very real situation and showed the importance of doing research and planning before you jump into your "passion." Rob's lack of research and planning cost him money yes but ultimately 4 years of his life, and time is not something you can get back.
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