Today we’d like to introduce you to Jorge Rivera.
Hi Jorge, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
In reality, I started at 17 years old, studying civil engineering in college. With just one year left to finish, I realized that it was not what I wanted to dedicate my entire life to, and mistakenly, at that moment, thought I was throwing away years of my life. After a lot of thought, I decided to change careers and I began to study physiotherapy. At that time, the only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to dedicate myself to something related to sports, my real passion.
In the second half of my career, I looked for an opportunity to practice what I had learned from the soccer team of my city and was denied the opportunity because I had very little time in the field. Fortunately, right across from that stadium was a stadium of what at that time was an almost unknown sport to me.
That baseball stadium was the only place that allowed me to be there and practice what I learned. Then, a few days later, they offered me a permanent job. That became the first team that I officially worked with almost ten years ago and that was the start of my professional sports experience. Due to political issues with the franchise, it came to an end so I shortly began to work with the basketball team which disintegrated due to political issues as well.
After I began to do my master’s degree at the school of osteopathy of Madrid, two years later I finished and opened a sports clinic where I put into practice a lot of the personal knowledge I gained while in the engineering career to further improve my performance of athletes coincidentally right in front of the same soccer stadium where years ago I had been rejected and later most of the players would be seen at.
I worked with the best players in my country from soccer, tennis, basketball, baseball, and many other sports. I came to the city of Miami due to personal circumstances and took the opportunity to study two specialties, kinesiology, and athletic trainer. While I was studying them, I sent my resume to an established clinic where without speaking a single word of English and with the owner’s wife doing the work of the translator, allowed me to work with them and while I was with them, did a lot of work with NFL, MLB, and NBA players.
Sometime later, COVID came around and the company shut down. Within my house, with everything closed due to the pandemic, I adapted to using what I had available. The pool, a small field, and the gym on the patio of the house became where many players from many sports would come to look for me and train. This would eventually end up becoming what would be my first independent project in the United States.
Once the city was adapting to the new normal, I began looking for another center to work with these players, which lasted a very short time due to my very particular way of working. This made me feel a bit rushed to establish my own space as soon as possible, specified to my needs, in my style, and above everything else, 100 percent for athletes. I currently work very happily in my center with the majority of clients who have become like family to me after many years of working together.
Many of them, ironically because of how this story begins, are Major League Baseball players. Many other players from soccer, tennis, and basketball from all over the world now travel to rehabilitate at our center and I hope to continue having this great opportunity to keep helping many athletes throughout the world fulfill their goals and most importantly their dreams.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are two big obstacles that I have had to overcome in this career so far. The first one that has accompanied me to this day and will surely end soon, is the age difference I have had with many players. In my earlier years, I was already working and had responsibilities with athletes who were mostly older than I was and that was always a complicated issue. Because they did not know my work, my credibility trembled.
The second obstacle of mine has been language, and I do not say it only as a matter of verbal communication but as a matter of understanding the way of thinking from another language and another cultural perspective so that I can properly empathize with the athlete. It is a little more complicated, but I have always believed that this is a key factor to the secret of success.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think there are two things that make me different from the rest.The first reason and the one that I am most proud of is my ability to empathize with others, to understand their feelings, and then take them almost as if they were my own. The second reason is that at an academic level, I am fortunate enough to have had a varied background since studying in different countries and areas, which gives me different nuances to look at the same problem and that is what makes me different from others.
We all have different ways of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is being one of that small group of privileged people who manage to dedicate themselves to what they are passionate about, which I am convinced of and why many times it has been like this. I would continue to do my work even if I did not receive any financial reward because impacting a persons life is much more rewarding than anything else for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rivera.biz/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jorgeriverapt?igshid=MTA0ZTI1NzA=
Image Credits
Sofia Sardi (instagram – @sofiasardistuio)
