Jim Feist

1. 1. For me, it all started with my birth father leaving my mom the same month I was born. As a result, I was adopted by the time I was four years old. Of course, I was too young to understand any of what was going on. Because my mother was in show business, she occasionally appeared in entertainment magazines. One day, when I was 10 years old, I saw her picture in a magazine with a different name. Needless to say, it was a confusing time, but I do not want to turn this into a long story.
2. 2. As has always been my way, I do not hold on to things for long. I seem to have a stoic attitude, so I just moved on like it was no big deal. I had loving people around me, and I was happy with what I had. I was raised with love, and I had all you really need in life. I had a good upbringing with my mom and her family, a family of hardworking people. I learned the value of hard work, integrity and persistence. I also learned to enjoy what you have and not worry about what you do not have.
3. 3. I always had a passion to be the best I could be at whatever I was doing. One day, when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I ran into a young boy about my age who was playing pool by himself. He asked me if I wanted to play. I said, “I don’t know how.” He said, “I’ll teach you.” Little did I know, that was the beginning of a short but profitable career. I eventually became very good and dominated the local players, making money every week for a while. But after a short time, players do not want to keep playing you if they cannot win. For me to continue making money as a pool player, I had to move on to new areas where I could play money games and tournaments. That is what I did, and I had some success. But again, as you move up in competition, it gets tougher to make money. It was time to change to a new career.
4. 4. I always had a casual, part-time interest in sports at the local level, and I was still young enough to look for a new way to make money for myself and my family. The pool room where I hung out was booking action on local high school games and wanted to expand. They asked me if I could help. A new venture was right in front of me, but now I needed some help of my own. I had to reach out to friends who knew more about college and pro football. As a 17-year-old with little to no knowledge of either, this was a tough challenge.
5. 5. But even to this day, I have always looked at challenges as opportunities, and this one would lead me into a full-time, lifelong venture. How do you win money betting on sports? I got lucky. I found a few people who gave me some good advice: “You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.” I had to digest that and really begin to live it. It took a while for me to fully understand what that meant. Sports betting requires the ability to overcome some bad times. No matter how good you are, it is tough to beat the eleven-to-ten, survive bad beats, and deal with not getting paid when you win. These lessons began for me in the 1960s and continue to this day. Betting for myself is one thing, but selling picks to the public is a completely different challenge. Most of the public does not understand the reality of what a reasonable expectation is when betting. I have enjoyed these past six decades betting sports and selling the plays I bet myself. I have not always met my own expectations or the expectations of others, but for the great majority of the time, I have. It has been a good life.