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Damjanich u. 51.

Budapest, Hungary, 1071

T 0036 30 222 9269

peter.szanto@be.co.hu

gallery.me.com/sznt

Peter Szanto

Thesis summary

My thesis is entitled Successful Sportsman, Successful Businessman. The title

of my thesis is its main hypothesis as well. The aim of my thesis is to examine

with a qualitative method - life course analysis that if somebody is successful

in his early years and achieves excellent results in sport, he can perform well at

other fields of life as well.

The chosen topic is a result of a long-term project. I had a chance to make an

interview with Lszl Fbin in co-operation with the Olympic Champions

Club and Corvinus University in Budapest in 2006. The study was conducted by

interviewing Hungarian olympic champions using course of life interview

techniques that have significance beyond journalism. Not only the champion as

a man was introduced, but also academic interest for further analyses, like

comparsion of sport or gender, was given.

To achieve my purpose studying the particular branches of science was essential.Sports sociology gives the frame of the essay. It determines the sports rudiments

and research areas. To gain a critical understanding, some sociological questions

had to be cleared as well. The capital theories demonstrate the role of relations

and knowledge, social background and mobility spotlight the idiosyncrasy and

facilities of the age.

The obtained information was elaborated upon w the methodology of life course

analysis. My hypotheses were set using the interview and the theoretical

backgrounds. I tried to examine such questions that are relevant to both

academics and practitioners. In my thesis I put significant emphasis on drawing

complete conclusions as well as drawing up some criticism. I used the interview

made with Lszl Fbin Olympic and World Champion pentathlete for it.

With analyzing Laszlos life course as a case study, I was able to achieve the

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aim of my thesis, so to confirm the hypothesis that a successful sportsman is

likely to become a successful businessman. I believe that the results of my study

could provide interesting insights into the life of all of us. Furthermore I hope I

could give a new approach for applying life course interviews and its relations to

theoretical backgrounds.

For example, by the interview with Lszl Fbin, interesting insights into the

life of an Olympic Champion were obtained. Family, faithfulness, royalty,

solidarity, friendship and playfulness were discussed. The concept of success

was explored more deeply and the study obtained that it is not only the greatest

aims that make people successful, but also the ones that may seem relatively

modest. The character of Lszl Fbin embodies all this and sets an example

for course of life stories or the people themselves.

The hypotheses set can be summarized as follows: Experiences acquired by

socialization accompany us in our lives and can help our career. Lifes

background is formed by motivation that can be obtained from ourselves, as well

as our surroundings. It can be seen that relations are strongly important at any

stage of life since we are social beings but social networks cannot be

replaced with each other, the networks are rather complementary ones. This is

also true for education: it cannot be replaced by other life experience. For being

successful in life it is essential to acquire the academic knowledge even for an

Olympic Champion. People who are in favorable position by having higher

experience in sports or upward mobility have a relative advantage compared to

their job market rivals. It results, as any other conclusions of mine as well, from

micro-individual level completed with suitable reference support.

Giving a representative picture about the successfulness of both Hungarian and

international top sportsmens life wasnt the aim of my long essay but I

presented and examined an interesting and instructive course of life.

In my point of view one of the most important experiences I made during

composing my thesis is that sport is a reflection of the society. Sports create

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culture that can be means of national identity and loyalty. Lszl Fbins life

course demonstrates it in a perfect way as well as that sports help to build

important skills for becoming successful in life.