Education is a controversial topic worldwide. In most cases, the opinion people have about education may be limited to their own experiences. However, at all levels, there’s a general discomfort with the way the educational system works.

But I am not here to tell you if going to college is worth it or not. At the end of the day, it depends on how you use the skills and time you got when you were a student. What I am here for is to share with you five important lessons I learned during my 18-year baseball career that school couldn’t teach me during my 22 years as a student.

Let’s start!

1. Dealing with adversity.

Although people tend to persevere to get good grades; they are only facing one enemy, the enemy within. In sports, it’s a whole different ball game. There are so many external factors that affect whether you are successful or not. Those include your teammates, weather conditions, referees, other teams, etc.

Back in the day, I remember playing in the Left Field and running to catch the ball, even a small rock could make the ball to go to a direction different than the one I expected; and that would mean, in the best scenario, giving the opposite team the opportunity to get really close to scoring a run (the equivalent of a goal or a point for baseball).

Learning how to deal with stuff life throws at you is an advantage when you start your professional career in any industry. It’s not a matter of getting things right anymore; now you have to try to succeed with weak market conditions, regulations, fervent competitors and sometimes, members of your team.

2. Competition is a good thing

The school environment is, most of the time, competition free. But the truth is, in the real world, we are competing almost all day long.

If you learn how to turn that fierce competition into a source for inspiration then, you are way ahead of the pack; and sports are all about competing to be at the top.

One thing I remember from my times as a baseball player is the rivalry one of the teams I played for had with another team. Those games were a crazy thing. Even though we were kids, we took it very seriously; and our parents too. I still can hear the sound of the drums the other team’s parents brought to the bleachers to cheer on their kids during a playoff game. We lost that game, and they ended up winning the championship. But you know what? The next year we got the trophy and even clinched to the regional series.

3. Thinking outside of the box

In baseball just like in any other sport and school, you follow orders. However, in the heat of the game, you have to have the ability to think fast and come up with a solution in a matter of seconds.

Let’s imagine you are in the middle of a play and something that wasn’t on your coach’s plans happens, you have two options fail or come up with a unique solution to take out the best outcome possible without the help or guidance of your coach.

Stuff like this happened to me daily at my job. Although my boss gave me some guidelines on how she wanted me to execute a particular task, there were hundreds of factors that could modify the initial plan. Right at that moment is when my problem-solving skills played a crucial role, and my decisions in those minutes could cost the company thousands of dollars.

4. Be humble

Everywhere you go, you will always find egos. Sports are full of them, and as the time passes by, you learn how to manage them, and more importantly, how to control your ego.

This is crucial in the real world. Countless people with excellent skills and potential but with an ego bigger than themselves have failed through history. Being humble is an art; actually, I called it the art of listening.

If you develop the ability to listen to your coworkers, analyze and respect competitors, and keep your feet on the ground; then you are on the path to success.

5. Fight for your dreams

I know a lot of people whose goal was to become a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer. And those are all legit dreams. But for me, academics were never a motivation because my dream was to become a Major League Baseball player. That’s the equivalent of playing in one of Europe’s soccer leagues, for those of you who may don’t care about baseball.

During those 18 years, I learned how to overcome obstacles, how to win the internal battle against my fears and doubts, and the most important thing I learned is that when you find something you love doing, and you put all your time and effort into it; eventually results will come.

Looking back at my childhood, if I were to born again, I would always go back to that field of dreams and play some ball. I firmly believe your experiences as a child can shape your forever, in my case, it’s clear I am who I am today (although there’s still a long way to go) because of the skills I developed as a baseball player.

Although I did succeed at school and didn’t achieve my goal in the baseball field, I proudly say that my years wearing a uniform were the greatest moment of my life. As learning, I can tell you:

Open your eyes, be ready to get involved in stuff other people don’t usually do, find your own path, and eventually, you will know yourself a bit better.