Celebrated basketball player Marko Jarić has been living a completely secluded life for years, far from the media hype and the spotlight. He gives interviews extremely rarely, and even more rarely speaks about his private life, family, and what goes on in the mind of a top athlete when the lights in the arena go out. However, in one of his rare public appearances, Jarić opened his soul and spoke completely honestly, without holding back, about the dark side of success, arrogance, and the life lessons he had to learn the hard way.
The former NBA and national team ace reflected on the illusion most people have regarding fame and wealth.
When the adrenaline disappears
“Most successful athletes, or people in general, carry a dose of arrogance and selfishness within them. If it weren’t so, you wouldn’t even be successful. But no one tells you in that early stage that, as much as that trait brings you success, it simultaneously pushes away and destroys everything else in your life. Everyone thinks the path to happiness is being successful. You have a lot of money and all that, and then you reach that goal and ask yourself: Wait a minute, what is everyone talking about?” asked Marko Jarić, who was a guest of Neša Subotić, the owner of a company from the USA for which the former basketball player now works.
Jarić also vividly explained how brutal the transition is from professional sports, where everything is subordinated to the result, to ordinary, daily life: “People don’t understand it. Being a professional athlete means that your whole life, basically, you are programmed only for wins and losses. And then that suddenly stops. And you realize that daily life doesn’t work that way. You are left in wonder and ask yourself: What is happening here?”
What changed him the most and forced him to work on himself are his daughters, Valentina and Sienna, from his marriage to Adriana Lima. Jarić emphasizes that working on oneself and discipline is the most important thing a person can do.
“When they ask me what the best investment I’ve made in my life is, I always say – invest in yourself. Discipline is the highest form of self-love. To be humble and always try to do things the right way, with integrity. At the end of the day, it always pays off. I am so grateful to have my children. I don’t believe I would have had enough strength to push myself beyond my own limits and be so determined to change if it weren’t for them,” Marko Jarić admits.
The role of a father forced him to face his own flaws, aware that children absorb everything, even unspoken emotions.
Children as the greatest motive for change
“You can tell children whatever you want. They will, like a sponge, absorb exactly who you actually are. They absorb your stress levels, your (in)security… Everything! That’s why I really had to start working on myself. I had to go into those deepest, darkest corners of myself, just so they wouldn’t have to go through that,” Jarić said.
In the end, Jarić reflected on why the wealthiest, who fall into that “one percent” of the world, often make mistakes in life priorities: “We live in a world of delusions where everything is measured by money. Just because someone is successful and has earned a huge amount of money doesn’t necessarily mean they know what they’re doing at all. What is more dangerous, failure or success? The most dangerous thing is to think that money makes you smarter or better than others,” Jarić concluded.
Source: Sportal, Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski / Zuma Press / Profimedia