Hi, I’m Jeremy Wolf. I'm a former professional and Olympic baseball player, union advocate, and writer. Most of my work comes down to supporting creative people and the communities they lead.
During my career, I’ve felt most at home as an operator. The person who organizes people, creates processes, and gets work off the ground. It’s been a fun, purposeful, and effective excuse to try new things. Today, I lead Customer Success and Broker Operations at Thatch Health where I work on an amazing team building the future of healthcare. We just raised a $38m Series A, read more here.
A few years ago, I founded More Than Baseball, a nonprofit that helped form the Minor League Baseball Players Association. In some ways, I still can’t believe we got to do this work. Today, the MiLBPA is the largest union in professional sports.
In 2021, I co-founded MindReady to help provide athletes with mental performance coaching and education. As someone who has dealt with mental health issues stemming from experiences on and off the field, the work I do with MindReady provides me with solace and comfort knowing athletes have the resources I wasn't afforded.
Things I believe
You can build quickly and methodically at the same time
You learn more per unit of time because you make contact with reality more frequently
Going fast makes you focus on what's important ("think, build, execute, evaluate, repeat")
Time is your most important resource
Seek advice from experts
Connect with people with more experience than you; age does not equal experience
Experts can take you from point A to point B more efficiently
Mentors will present themselves when you are ready
Trust your gut
We know less than we think
The best leaders listen
Mistakes are truly the best lesson
Many of the things we believe are wrong
We are often not even asking the right questions
The cultural prohibition on micromanagement is harmful
Great individuals should be fully empowered to exercise their judgment
"Done is better than perfect"
Say more with less
Smaller teams are better
Faster decisions, fewer meetings, more fun
No need to chop up work for political reasons
No room for mediocre people
Where do you get your dopamine?
The answer is predictive of your behavior
Better to get your dopamine from improving your ideas than from having them validated
It's ok to get yours from "making things happen"
You can do more than you think
The laws of physics are the only limit
Work hard and great things present themselves
Things I'm reading
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
A World Without Email by Cal Newport
The Billionaire Who Wasn’t by Conor O’Clery
Open Space by Elias Tebache and Mick Aure
Things I do
I'm a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences where I discuss decision making, mental health, building and an amazing team culture
My work has been featured in Forbes, Los Angeles Times, The Athletic, and the Wall Street Journal
You can email me at hello@jeremywolf.co
Every week, I write essays on the intersection of sports, business, and popular culture. Join a few thousand friends and get notified the next time I publish new words.