JJ Watt is one of the best defensive player’s in the National Football League today. However, he makes his presence felt both on and off of the football field. After being drafted 11th overall in the 2011 NFL draft by the Houston Texans, Watt won the defensive player of the year in 2012, 2014, and 2015. Although this is impressive in itself, what is even more remarkable is Watt’s efforts done off the field. Watt has been able to take the position of fame that he is in and use it to help the community surrounding him.

Relief After Hurricane Harvey

Disaster struck Houston in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey made landfall. This hurricane destroyed the city and changed the lives of many. Instead of sitting around, Watt took to his foundation, named after himself, and encouraged people to donate to help the town that he played for. The main goal for Watt’s foundation is to provide children the opportunity to participate in after school activities. This is a great goal, but he pivoted to contributing to the community as a whole when Harvey hit. When he first started this campaign, he had the goal of raising $200k. This was just a drop in the bucket to the amount that people actually donated through his efforts. In total, Watt was able to raise over $37 million through his foundation in relief efforts. Since then, this has been used to rebuild over 1,000 homes in the Houston area which is just the start. On top of this, over 900 childcare centers have been rebuilt and 239 million meals have been distributed to victims of the hurricane. These efforts earned Watt the Walter Peyton man of the year in 2017 which is awarded to the NFL player who makes a significant impact on the community that surrounds them.

Because of Watt’s entrepreneurial efforts, he was able to impact those around him and help those in need. Some athletes might have donated their own money, which would be great, but Watt wanted to do more and helped raise an insane amount of money for his community. Not many athletes would have been able to accomplish such a large task like this, but because of the platform that Watt had already established with his foundation, he was able to effect a large amount of people. I’m sure the city of Houston will always be appreciative for the efforts that Watt gave to their city.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/08/29/texans-jj-watt-hurricane-harvey-funds-homes-built-meals-houston

To people outside of the sneaker community, it can be baffling to see people buying shoes for hundreds or thousands of dollars. After a sneaker releases, it can be resold for higher amounts if they are limited in quantity or highly coveted by collects. Benjamin Kapelushnik started collecting shoes in his early teens and saw how much some were reselling for and was interested enough in shoes that he started doing it himself. His parents thought he was crazy for how much he would pay for a pair of shoes, but when he started doubling and tripling his profits, they soon understood that this wasn’t as wild as they first thought. He soon received the nickname of Benjamin Kickz and continued his sneaker reselling business.

How his business took off

Benjamin was introduced to producer DJ Khaled through mutual friends and the two began doing business with each other. DJ Khaled began putting Benjamin on his social media accounts which got him attention from other celebrities. In addition, after meeting and selling sneakers to DJ Khaled, he introduced Benjamin to other celebrities. He continued to work these networks that were being made with his clients and expanded his sellers to more and more people. Benjamin didn’t settle with where he was however, and he created a website to sell his sneakers on called “sneakerdon.com”. Through his website, he was then able to sell sneakers to anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

Where he is today

Today, Benjamin Kickz has over 1 million followers on Instagram. Benjamin has sold sneakers to celebrities like Drake, Post Malone, and Tik Tok star, Charlie D’Amelio. In addition, he has created a members exclusive website where members can buy sneakers for a reduced price and a website where you can buy accessories from shoe laces to lanyards. Even though some people didn’t believe in him, including his parents, Benjamin has made an empire out of his sneaker reselling business and he is only 21 years old. He has never been satisfied no matter how successful he has been and has continued to grow his business. This mentality has helped him to get to where he is now and is a great quality to have.

https://www.businessinsider.com/18-year-old-entrepreneur-makes-fortune-selling-rare-sneakers-to-celebrities-2018-1

Humble Beginnings

When Jacques Webster (Travis Scott) dropped out of college at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he had nothing. He asked his parents for money to buy textbooks, but he took that money and used it to fly to New York to pursue his dreams of becoming a rapper. Things did not work out in New York and he then went to Los Angeles quickly after. His luck increased in LA where he soon caught the eye of T.I. which led to him working with his idol Kanye West. Kanye took Scott under his wing and Scott released his debut mixtape Owl Pharaoh in 2013. Since then he has been gaining popularity at an exponential rate.

How He Became a Businessman

Travis Scott has used his success and has turned himself from an artist to a businessman. This first began when he started his own record label, Cactus Jack Records. His main goal of this was to promote young artists that he saw the potential in but were not getting enough exposure like his own situation. Scott has been able to bring artists like Don Tolliver and Shack Wes into the spotlight through this label. Next, his album, Astroworld, took the world by storm by the advertising that Scott did that has not been done before. Scott used his many platforms to show progress of the album and give sneak peaks to the songs

on it. Not only this, but he had a one-of-a-kind world tour that was more of an experience than a concert. Finally, he began selling his own designed merchandise that was flying off the shelves and selling for double the amount (if not more) on reselling platforms like StockX. In all, all these things factor together created an experience around an album never seen before. Finally, Scott does an amazing job of keeping his name in the news through his many sponsorships. Whether it be with Fortnite, Jordan/Nike, or even more recently, McDonald’s, Scott has partnered with massive brands to keep his name in the media and to keep people listening to his music even though he has not released a new album in two years.

Through these tactics, Scott has been able to go from a popular artist to a superstar through his innovative tactics. He seems to always be doing the things that nobody else is doing and he shows no signs of stopping as his popularity continues to increase.