Sean Wroe | From Athlete to Broker

On Sean Wroe’s desk in his Byron Bay house sits not Olympic memorabilia or Commonwealth Games medals. Instead, a serviette covered in scribble serves as a daily reminder of his passion and purpose post athletics.

On the serviette is the advice of a friend and successful businessman, who mapped out what it meant to be a finance broker whilst out for sushi with Wroe. It was enough for the former 400-metre star to commit to the industry, and now four years into running his own business, it’s fair to say Wroe’s move was a success.

But the transition from elite sportsperson to full-time work was a challenge that extended over several years.

“At 28 my coach told me I was no longer an elite athlete and that we were going to do athletics part-time, and that I was going to fit it in around full-time work and commitments,” he said.

“I learnt very quickly that standing on your feet all day and learning retail wasn’t working, and my athletic performance wasn’t indicative of where I was at.”

This was the lesson learnt whilst working as a store manager for UNIQLO, where Wroe played a role in the company’s introduction to Australia. Nonetheless, Wroe pursued the job for a further 18 months as he attempted to fill the hole left in his life by the absence of athletics.

After dabbling in network marketing and spending upwards of $50,000 on short courses and seminars, Wroe was struggling to find his niche and had all but lost his identity.

“Identity was the biggest challenge. I hated the job I was doing and I didn’t have sport,” he said.

“Everyone knew me as Sean Wroe the athlete, Sean Wroe the Olympian or Sean Wroe the 400-metre runner.”

One day when riding his Vespa, Wroe crashed in slippery conditions – skidding over ten metres across the wet road and luckily evading the traffic. Describing his life at that point as “generally unhappy” and seemingly at a crossroad, Wroe looked to his strengths as an athlete for answers.

“That was probably the moment I decided I had to do whatever I needed to do to be wherever I wanted to be,” he said.

“Athletics is one of those sports where because you have a bit of an individual mindset and have to manage yourself as a small business essentially, that has been embedded into me at a relatively young age.

“Naturally, I think working for myself and being my own boss has been important for me.”

Sakura Finance is the product of that decision - Wroe’s finance broking business that is travelling strongly after the former Olympian tapped into his mindset as an elite athlete and implemented a similarly attacking approach in everyday life.

“The disciplines and the things you learn through training and being an elite sportsperson, if you just apply yourself to whatever you want to do next, you’re going to outperform most of the general population,” he said.

“When I wake up, going to work doesn’t feel like work for me – it just feels like being an athlete and doing whatever I need to get done to succeed that day. My obsession and my focus that I had as an elite athlete has transferred directly into my life now.”

It’s been a long journey for Wroe from athlete to broker, but he now concedes that the skills and experiences gained on the world stage have set him up to keep on winning for a long time to come.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 18/5/2021