For all his undoubted brilliance, former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting also caught some massive breaks early in his career.
The sporting future of the working-class kid from Launceston was far from certain.
The turning point came when national cricket academy coach Rod Marsh famously declared him the best 17-year-old batsman he had seen.
A two-week visit to the academy then turned into a two-year contract and Ponting was on his way.
So there is a personal side to Ponting's new role as a director in NSR Australia, a talent-scouting company that helps find places for junior athletes in the American college system.
"I always considered myself one of the lucky ones," Ponting told AAP.
"I was spotting young and my first stint at the cricket academy, a group of guys in Launceston put some money together ... and put me on a plane.
"That's when Rod Marsh saw me for the first time."
Ponting said NSR's priority was helping aspiring athletes gain college entries for sports such as soccer, golf, tennis and rowing.
Some will have scholarships, but plenty will fund their own way.
"If they don't make it as a professional athlete, they return to Australia with a great education," he said.
"It could just be the best four years of their life, whether they make it in their sport or not.
"I guarantee they'll have a lot of fun while they're there."
Ponting, well-known for being a wild child, wonders whether he would have made the most of American college life.
"It might have been too much for me," he said with a grin.
Ponting, his wife Rianna and their two daughters moved from Sydney to Melbourne nine months ago.
They are now expecting a third child, a boy.
Ponting has kept busy since he stopped playing late last year and was never going to be the ex-sportsman who pines for his glory days.
"I don't think I will ever be too bored, put it that way," he said.
"Once cricket was over, there were lots of great things I wanted to be involved in.
"This is something I'm really excited about, being a sportsman who had a lot of opportunities as a young bloke.
"I have plenty on my plate and if I don't that's fine as well."
