Groupe Adéquat, actor of the Tony Parker Adéquat Academy, will accompany the academics until they obtain their first job. Also, with this new “Sporting Word” section, you will find every month an interview with a top-level athlete who tells us about his journey, sometimes steep, to move from sport to the world of business.
A veteran basketball player of the Women’s League, she was appointed Deputy President of Lyon ASVEL Féminin last June by Tony Parker, President of the club and above all, a friend. The story of Marie-Sophie Obama’s journey, who has put her shorts and jersey away, but remains as passionate, spontaneous and energetic behind her desk as she is on the court!
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What did your high level sporting experience bring you when you first entered the professional world ?
“It brought me a lot of resistance, a real strong spirit and a rather important ability to rebound. Because when I converted, it was in a trade path at first, and we had to be persistent. So yes, my sporting experience has brought me a lot of resistance and more generally a psychological strength. The good side of the competitive spirit, never giving up, always believing in it… Because something good will always come out of effort and work. It’s something I’ll always have inside me!”
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How did you feel about your professional transition after your sports career? How did you prepare it?
“I’m freestyle, freestyle…. So I prepared it yes, because I never completely stopped my studies, I continued at the university or by the CNED while I was playing. But in the end, when I look now, my journey is nothing like what I could have predicted. Because I don’t forbid myself anything. And now, I can say it, the conversion is going pretty well…”
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What quality or skill acquired in sport do you use most today in the professional world ?
“When you want to succeed in top-level sport, you need so much work, rigour and discipline too… And physical effort leads to humility. We go beyond our limits as athletes, we will draw on our resources. And that’s really something that helps, in the world of work but also in everyday life. The ability to do everything possible to achieve a goal is something I have learned in sport and which is crucial in the world of work.”
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If you had to describe in one word the link between the world of sport and professionalism, which one would it be? Why do you need to?
“Complementarity, because sport really needs the professional world to develop and structure itself, and the professional world really needs sport to be inspired by its values of effort, team spirit, fighting spirit… The two sectors make each other grow.”
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We are talking about cohesion and team spirit in team sports, can these values be used to compare the company to a team or a club ?
“Completely! This is precisely what we athletes have to bring to the business world. The strengths of each person add up, in a team as in the company. From the moment we are all driven by the same objective, the company will be stronger. And it is the diversity of personalities, the strengths of each other, that make the company and the collective feel good.”
