Too Smart to Be an Umpire

What do you do when your career aspiration is snatched away just as it’s about to be fulfilled? What happens when the dream you’ve pursued since childhood crashes and burns, leaving you broke at age 30?

You better have a damn good Plan B in place.

Jack Oujo spent eight years in the minor leagues pursuing the dream of becoming a major league umpire. This book takes you on his journey, from the decision to become an umpire, through the endless and often cramped travels, low pay, and interactions with players, managers and supervisory personnel, to his abrupt and callous release—by mail, no less.

What does someone do when their career vision becomes a nightmare? For Jack, this was no time for despondency. He was 30 years old, broke, and married with his first child on the way. He surmounted his disappointment and reinvented himself through a process of reeducation, mentorship, then starting a business on a bootstrap and ultimately growing it into a multi-million-dollar operation a decade later.

Jack Oujo CPA/PFS, CFP®, MS, is the founder of Oujo Wealth Strategies, one of the nation’s largest tax-focused wealth management firms. Jack’s journey to the top of his profession began, surprisingly enough, with an eight-year stint as a professional baseball umpire. He enjoyed numerous promotions, ultimately reaching the AAA level and winning the Joe Ryan Award as the highest-rated umpiring prospect in the minor leagues in 1985. Choosing umpires is subjective, however, and Jack was denied his ambition of becoming a major league umpire.

Undeterred, Jack used the setback as motivation for a successful business career. He had nurtured a Plan B while umpiring by working as an accountant in New York during the offseasons. This helped him make a seamless transition into the financial services industry, where he earned the Avantax Top Producer Award for 25 consecutive years and has been the brokerage’s leading advisor for the majority of the past decade.