Roger Federer turned down Nike's $10M yearly offer and took a 3% equity stake with Uniqlo instead. That stake grew from $20M to roughly $600M, showing how betting on yourself in a deal can pay off far more than a straight contract.
Chapters
Roger Federer made $600 million off of the tennis court. How? He was one of the most dominant tennis players of all time. He won like 20 Grand Slam titles. But at Nike where he was, he wasn't one of their priority athletes. When they came back to renew his contract, they gave him 10 mil a year. So he took a risk and left the brand because of one word that made his contract worth 60 times more money because of this decision. So Federer went to Uniqlo. No one knew who they were. Everybody thought he was crazy. Why did he do that? Because he said skip your straight contract, give equity. Roger got a 3% equity stake in the brand. The company later went public and Roger's stake grew from 20 million to $600 million today. That's how deal making makes millionaires and billionaires. It's the power of betting on yourself. Sure, but it's knowing my favorite five letter word terms.