When should a college athlete turn pro? Not until he has earned all he can in college as an amateur.
I've returned to being an amateur without any ties or strings attached, which gives me a freedom I never had before.
It is a misfortune of the times that all of us must needs be amateur economists-including, and perhaps especially, the professionals.
I've never looked at my Facebook page or my website, because I'm fundamentally an amateur.
I felt I could play in maybe a dozen tournaments a year as an amateur.
I play the piano, but I'm not classically trained.
I received a lot of criticism early in my career, but people didn't realize that I'd only been training for three years when I turned pro.
It's different today than it was then. In those days we were strictly amateurs. If I had wanted to stay in for the '80 Olympics, my parents couldn't have afforded it.
I think of myself as an amateur filmmaker, not a professional, in the sense that "amateur" means love of something, for the form.
You see, I've never really studied acting.
People ask me, 'Would you ever want to play professional golf?' And I'm like, 'No. No, no, no, no. Just because I can hit a good shot every now and then doesn't make me a pro.'
I never was an amateur wrestler.
I'm very, very amateur, which is funny because I'm not in the amateur leagues.
It started as a hobby when I was a kid, and I'm finishing as a hobby.
I almost didn't turn pro at all. I was tempted to be a career amateur. I worked as an investment banker for nine months after I got out of school, and the money was fantastic and promised to get even more lucrative.
I don't want players coming in from the college level that are either trying to avoid a suspension, declare themselves ineligible on their own, hire an agent and decide, 'I'm going to enter into the NFL.'
Sometimes, I wish we were all amateurs again. I'd play for nothing. Ab-so-lute-ly free. But that's not the system.
It's almost scary how amateur I am when it comes to musicals - I'm a musical goer, but I am not as obsessed with musicals as perhaps some of my theatrical friends are.
As an amateur, I couldn't get many fights. No one would fight me when I was a schoolboy.
You know what, I was one of the top 25 amateurs in the world. I had a pretty good college career.
I'm not a real producer, so if someone asks me to produce, it's only because they like my sound. I'm not a professional, all I have is my own way of doing things, my little tricks.
When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.
I've been studying on my own. I'm not really trained. I went to school for about a year and a half. I never really studied music, but, I mean, I did. I studied for two years, maybe.
I am an amateur and I intend to stay that way for the rest of my life.
I'm not really a piano player, but I play enough to get away with it.
