In a particularly painful period of my high-schoolness, I sat staring into an empty browser window, and typed "why" into Google. The essay "Why Nerds are Unpopular" happened to be the second result. That's a pretty awesome use of a search engine, if you ask me.
This was one of the most memorable moments that year.
"Eventually, most of us work out that nerdiness tends to go hand-in-hand with higher-than-average levels of curiosity, creativity and enthusiasm. As such, nerds are not merely admirable but attractive. Nerds are cool."
No. Odds to success as a pro-athlete are little, the best pro-athlete money is way smaller than nerd's money (Gates), and you can't be a successful pro-athlete in your 40s.
Yeah... but ever see Andy Roddick play in front of a crowd? The girls are out there, in force. Sergey may have more money, but I suspect that Andy is having more fun.
But, seriously, it is a phantasmatic desire. You always overestimate things you don't have (Andy Roddick's social capital), and underestimate ones you do.
Given this it is not possible to fully and responsibly address the initial question. And when it comes to emotions, there is no unbiased answer. If you want valuable discussion, you have to use some rational framework. I chose the odds of success, which are in case of athletics too small to bother.
I was assuming you have the talent to be a top 10 player. You're completely right in your response, though. I was looking through prize money for the top 100 players, and it drops off fast. The bottom half of the list often have prize money in the 200-300K range. Endorsements might be more lucrative, but it drops off quick once you're not in the tiny upper slice of the sport.
This is why parents get nervous when their kids to go into (sports, film acting, rock music). If you miss being one of the top 100 surgeons in the world, and only make the top thousand, well, hardly a problem. If you software startup fails to become the next microsoft, there are still thousands of other good outcomes.
In tennis you can't make a living if you are outside of top 100 or 150. That is you don't eat if you don't have other sources of income.
Even if you are a very good amateur player and you easily beat most fellow amateurs, you would get destroyed (6-0, 6-0) by an aspiring pro (top 1000 in the world) playing minor leagues (satellite tour), spending his own or other people's money to stay afloat.
I've met many mediocre programmers making a nice, corporate paycheck, driving Audi TTs.
In a particularly painful period of my high-schoolness, I sat staring into an empty browser window, and typed "why" into Google. The essay "Why Nerds are Unpopular" happened to be the second result. That's a pretty awesome use of a search engine, if you ask me.
This was one of the most memorable moments that year.