Imagine you work your entire life to make your dreams of playing professional baseball a reality just to have that dream be plagued by injuries. To many, this could crush their spirits and might even extinguish their drive to pursue other dreams. Fortunately for Ryan Kalish and the people he now supports in his life after the pros, it did the exact opposite.
A dream riddled with countless injuries and 14 surgeries
Ryan began pursing his dream of playing in the major leagues at just 9 years old, the age which he realized he was gifted in baseball. For the nearly 10 years he trained relentlessly until he was drafted out of high school to the legendary Boston Red Sox MLB.
After playing in 153 major league games over seven seasons, Ryan earned himself two MLB world series championships. Unfortunately for Ryan, his professional baseball career also earned him countless injuries and 14 surgeries which would ultimately contribute to his decision to close up his baseball career.
An opportunity to prevent others’ injuries
Reflecting back Ryan explains how he wishes he had been smarter in the way that he recovered from injury. His life-long mentality of never giving up and the disobedience to his body led to the demise of his career.
After one of the last knee surgeries of his career, Ryan began using pilates as a means for rehabilitation. During that period he learned of new ways to support his body through pilates and realized the significance it can have on the physical health of athletes, especially baseball players. Before long, Ryan had fallen in love with the method and completed his instructor training with the world renowned Body Arts and Science International (BASI) program.
Ryan continues to instruct others to improve their physical health and prevent injuries through the use of pilates. In his free time Ryan expresses his creativity through invention and is in the process of creating a machine, inspired by pilates, that trains the body in three dimensions like it never has before.
An opportunity to improve the status of humanity
Ryan’s story of injury to opportunity doesn’t stop there. After retiring from baseball, Ryan began his journey as a novice entrepreneur and quickly gained clarity that he was meant to spend the rest of his life participating in philanthropy.
Since then, he has become an impact investor in order support his mission of equipping those in need with the tools to live a healthy life filled with love, happiness, and great mental health. He focuses specifically on inequality and looks for investment opportunities which actually make a difference in improving the status of humanity.
A major project Ryan is working on is supporting a school in Sumbawa, Indonesia where the students are paying their tuition in plastic. The children are learning permaculture and English so they can take the knowledge home to their families. Ryan is working to create circular economy within the school through a farm and coffee shop in order to keep the school sustainable.
An inspiration to others
So now imagine you work your whole life turning your dream to reality, just to realize that was only one small chapter and there are countless opportunities and new dreams available to you. Ryan Kalish is an incredible example, role model, and inspiration to others that it is possible to turn the end of one dream into an opportunity to explore and pursue countless new dreams.
This is a Contributor Post. Opinions expressed here are opinions of the Contributor. Influencive does not endorse or review brands mentioned; does not and cannot investigate relationships with brands, products, and people mentioned and is up to the Contributor to disclose. Contributors, amongst other accounts and articles may be professional fee-based.