What do you think it says on Peyton Manning’s resume?

Dynamic, results-oriented quarterback seeks position in which I can utilize my skills as a team leader and inspiring mentor, along with my natural gift of superior arm strength to leverage growth and optimize profitability for a medium-to-large-sized company in the sports management industry.

No.

But seriously, what’s next for the Super Bowl champ (after he goes to Walt Disney World, of course)?

Manning has achieved enormous success in his chosen field. How did he do it?

Some might say he was born with a silver football in his passing hand. The son of Archie Manning, himself a longtime NFL quarterback (albeit not as successful as his sons), Peyton is the older brother of New York Giants QB Eli Manning, who also has two Super Bowl victory rings. (A third brother, Cooper, was diagnosed with spinal stenosis in high school, abruptly ending his promising football career.)

Many say the best way to become a professional athlete is to be born of one. But not everyone is. Archie Manning wasn’t. The road has to start somewhere. How do people find it?

Recipe for Success

Practice. If you haven’t read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, you should. In it, Gladwell espouses the theory that major success stories like The Beatles and Bill Gates got as far as they did partly because they put at least 10,000 hours into doing what they love.

If you love your chosen profession and you work at it eight hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year (do outliers take vacations?), you too can be an “expert” after only five years!

But it can’t be only that, can it? Timing is important. And luck. And who you know.

The Mannings’ living room may be crowded with trophies, and there’s no question they worked hard to earn them, but a career trajectory is not unlike one of those combination locks with multiple dials. All the right numbers have to be lined up perfectly before the lock opens, allowing you access to the inside. And one day, you may line up the numbers the same way you always have, but the lock won’t open for you anymore.

Next Stage in Your Career

The Manning family is arguably golden, but nothing lasts forever, and the Internet and airwaves are rife with talk of retirement for the 39-year-old superstar. His forehead grows larger with each passing year (pun intended), and soon Peyton’s $34-million contract will be up, and he’ll be on the unemployment line with the likes of Brett Favre and Troy Polamalu.

You may think Peyton’s lucky, because he has a safety net, but you may have noticed that sometimes the bigger you are, the harder you fall. Expectations are huuuuge. Many sports stars go on to reinvent themselves as commentators and talk-show hosts, but not everyone has the gift of gab.

The point is, lots of people need to make career transitions, whether it’s because you’ve gone as far as you can go where you are now, your industry has gone kaput, you can’t take one more day as a middle-school teacher or you’ve aged out of your job as an influential rock musician spewing youthful angst. This type of transitioning is best done under the tutelage of trained professionals who can help you with your career transition. You may be able to reinvent yourself easily and quickly, but if you’re having trouble, some professional career counseling can help. You may know what to do, but not so much how to do it.

Even if you can’t put “led team to win two Super Bowls” on your resume, there’s a great job out there for you — you just may need help finding it.