With Paul Rabil, it’s tough to tell which came first, the athlete or the entrepreneur.
On one hand, you’ve got the former No. 1 overall pick who was a four-time All-American in college, a two-time MVP and three-time champion as a pro, and a two-time world champion with Team USA. He’s widely considered the greatest lacrosse player in history. On the other, he can easily trace his entrepreneurial spirit back to his childhood and his Lebanese roots. His grandparents came to America via Ellis Island—one started a clothing shop, the other a cafe. As kids in Gaithersburg, Maryland, he and his brother, Mike, shoveled driveways in the winter and pitched lemonade stands in the summer.
But while innovation has always been in his blood, it was his role as an athlete—and the sad state of professional lacrosse early in his career—that brought it to the fore.
“I was an entrepreneur by necessity,” says Rabil, whose rookie wage in Major League Lacrosse in 2008 was a paltry $6,000. In 2011, when he was league MVP and led his Boston Cannons to the MLL title, he was paid just $15,000. “I had to figure out how to support myself with additional income to supplement my dream of being a full-time professional lacrosse player,” he says. “And that meant learning the sponsorship business, building a media company, and starting a camp and clinic business.”
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