{"id":2574,"date":"2013-01-12T08:31:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-12T12:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=2574"},"modified":"2013-01-12T08:31:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-12T12:31:10","slug":"build-it-and-they-will-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=2574","title":{"rendered":"Build It and They Will Come"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"JayGoldberg\"<\/a>
Jay Goldberg, owner of Bergino Baseball Club<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Does it surprise you that a majority of workers are unhappy in their jobs?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those were the findings of \u00a0a 2012 report by the Conference Board, a business and research membership group.This troubles me.\u00a0So I\u2019ve gone in search of happy workers. I\u2019m starting a series of\u00a0<\/em>profiles of people who love what they do. I\u2019ll run these profiles intermittently throughout 2013. (I want to hear your story, too, so don\u2019t be bashful. What works for you? Please, send me a note).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not aiming to unveil the underpinnings of his or her finances.\u00a0The people you will meet inspire me. My hope is that you can learn lessons from their career stories to help you make your work life more satisfying, too.<\/p>\n

A Love of the Game<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jay\u00a0Goldberg\u2019s passion for his work was fueled early on. Goldberg was 3 years old when his dad, an avid baseball fan, took him to his first baseball game. The year was 1963, and Whitey Ford was pitching.<\/p>\n

Goldberg, now 52, spent most of that day crawling under seats looking for bottle caps with pictures of professional ball players glued onto the cork linings.<\/p>\n

Read Post at Forbes<\/a><\/p>\n

He admits, though, that his first real memory of the game is from the following year, when he clutched a Mr. Met doll and clung to his dad\u2019s hands as they walked down the huge Shea stadium concrete concourse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A prescient moment. Today, Goldberg is the\u00a0owner of\u00a0New York\u00a0City\u2019s\u00a0Bergino Baseball Clubhouse<\/a>\u00a0in Greenwich Village.<\/p>\n

After graduating from New York University, he kicked off his career as a political consultant working with legendary political guru David Garth for six years.<\/p>\n

It was a tremendous experience, but it was the sports world that called to him. With a little legwork, he managed to redeploy his political strategy skills to a position as a professional sports agent. \u00a0That gig lasted for about 15 years (first with a big firm, and then several years on his own).<\/p>\n

But to be an agent you have to be driven by money, not passion, says Goldberg. \u201cIt actually took away my great passion of being a sports fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step up to the plate.\u00a0<\/strong>He knew in his heart he couldn\u2019t be robbed of\u00a0his love for baseball. He swung for the fences.<\/p>\n

In 2001, Goldberg started a business manufacturing and wholesaling a line of baseball-related gift items. Admittedly, he was an ing\u00e9nue. He didn\u2019t, for example, realize at first that his customer was ultimately a woman buying a novelty gift for a man, not a man buying for himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about manufacturing,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how to make a baseball. I didn\u2019t know I was getting into the gift business.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he did know was that he didn\u2019t enjoy what I was doing as an agent. \u201cI had this idea, and I started,\u201d he remembers matter-of-factly. \u201cThe first baseballs we made looked terrible,\u201d he admits with a laugh. \u201cThey were like squashed oranges.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But he was tenacious. And in time, his products were widely sold in boutiques, department stores and museum shops around the country.<\/p>\n

Missing the team spirit.\u00a0<\/strong>One downside: It was solitary work. His main interaction with people and customers was at the big trade shows\u2013which only came around a handful of times each year.<\/p>\n

About three years ago, Goldberg decided he needed a change. He didn\u2019t necessarily want to abandon the business, but he had a serious itch to do something else. He toyed with becoming a designer\u2013 took a few classes at Parsons to feel that out\u2013 but that wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he decided to take his existing business in a new direction and opened a retail store, event space and art gallery all focused on baseball. One of the upsides of the recession was that retail rents were low, so he got a good deal on space.<\/p>\n

Why retail? \u201cI would go into a store to see how the baseballs were displayed and get upset,\u201d Goldberg recalls. \u201cI thought, I can do this better.\u201d<\/p>\n