# People who gave up an activity they were incredible at to take up something they were not good at. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 17, 2015, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870 "2015-10-17T02:38:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/41 "2015-10-19T17:43:48Z")
[Too Tall Jones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_%22Too_Tall%22_Jones) did a Michael Jordan career arc - a great defensive linemen for a perennially great team (Cowboys), he retired at 28 to try boxing. A year later, he was back in football. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/42 "2015-10-19T17:55:24Z")
Linus Pauling went from being the world’s top chemist to being a shill for vitamin C. The Vice-principal of my children’s HS had been an art teacher and loved it. He hated being VP, but couldn’t go back because he had given up his seniority in the union when he became VP and art teachers were a drag on the market (because budget cuts, ya know). He was also a lousy VP. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/43 "2015-10-19T18:16:36Z")
[**Mstislav Rostropovich**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mstislav_Rostropovich) doesn’t quite fit your criteria but I feel it’s worth mentioning his career(s). He is widely considered as one of the greatest cellists of all time. Beside mastering the standard cello repertoire, he made it his duty to expand it, relentlessly asking any composer he met to write something for him. This led to the creation of over 100 new works - including some real masterpieces - by major composers like **Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Britten, Dutilleux, Messiaen, Penderecki, Bernstein, Jolivet** and **Lutoslawski** among many, many others, making the cello arguably as popular as the violin as a solo instrument. Then he decided to try his hand at conducting. While he wasn’t bad at it, none of the recordings he made as a conductor is considered the top choice for the considered works. Some are good, most are adequate at best, none are considered definitive, unlike his recordings as a “mere” solo cellist. Now, he never gave up the cello. He was still premiering new pieces written for him at age 76. And he certainly achieved more than most cellists can even dream of. But to think of how much more he could have done instead getting side-tracked into what was ultimately a time-consuming vanity thing that didn’t yield any particularly brilliant results… Who knows, he might have finally convinced **Stravinsky** and **Copland** , the only two composers who turned down his requests, to write something for him. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/44 "2015-10-19T18:18:33Z")
Jim Brown retired in 1965 from football, leading the league in rushing his final three years, to take up acting. He did star in stuff like the “The Dirty Dozen”, but nobody ever put him on an Oscar shortlist. Doug Henning retired from magic in the mid-80s to stump for Transcendental Medition. He planned something called “Veda Land” that never got off the ground, and finished way at the bottom of the polls as a MP candidate for the TM-based Natural Law party. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/45 "2015-10-19T18:50:09Z")
> [@CatastrophicFailure](#): > > In the same vein, my favorite teacher in high school became a horrible administrator. He’ one of several good teachers/professors I’ve known that were promoted into administration and were awful at it. > > I’d not heard “Peter Principle” before, but it seems to be applied in educational settings all the time. When will people learn that a good teacher and a good administrator are two different things? It’s doubly sad, because not only do you get someone unqualified to be a principal or dean, you also lose so many good teachers. It’s even worse in state government. They take the most senior technicians, people who are actually very valuable in their present roles, and make them supervisors and then managers. But they just keep being technicians and so supervision and management never happen. That, or they become tin pot gods and micro-managers because that’s what they think managers do. There’s no training, no preparation, they just throw them in to sink or swim. I’ve never met a technician promoted to management who was suited for the job but 90% of managers are promoted from within. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/46 "2015-10-19T19:14:36Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > - **Chris Cornell** aka, best hard rock vocalist everrr from grunge legends Soundgardern and super group with ex Rage folks Audioslave, did a solo album of R&B/dance tracks produced by legendary hip hop producer **Timbaland** that bombed mightily. Is he the same Chris Cornell whose “[Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpMfZPAc1kg)” is getting airplay these days? Because it’s one hell of a good song. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/47 "2015-10-19T19:31:20Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Is he the same Chris Cornell whose “[Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpMfZPAc1kg)” is getting airplay these days? Because it’s one hell of a good song. Yes. I wasn’t kidding about him being an amazing vocalist. But you notice that that track off his upcoming album sounds close to Soundgarden? Notice how it sounds NOTHING like this off of his Timbaland-produced album: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OgwDVaCiSw](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OgwDVaCiSw) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/48 "2015-10-19T20:37:37Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Yes. I wasn’t kidding about him being an amazing vocalist. > > But you notice that that track off his upcoming album sounds close to Soundgarden? Notice how it sounds NOTHING like this off of his Timbaland-produced album: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OgwDVaCiSw](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OgwDVaCiSw) > > 😉 I only vaguely remember Soundgarden from when, the early 1990s, was it, when all the Seattle bands were in vogue? So I have no memory of their stuff. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/49 "2015-10-19T21:04:42Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I only vaguely remember Soundgarden from when, the early 1990s, was it, when all the Seattle bands were in vogue? So I have no memory of their stuff. Yup. Grunge. I think they are the best, but that’s just IMHO. Check out the albums Badmotorfinger or Superunknown as some of their most popular stuff. Black Hole Sun and Fell on Black Days are good places to start… ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/50 "2015-10-20T06:55:48Z")
I don’t think he quit outright, but Mats Wilander, the greatest tennis player in the world at one point, at least temporarily left the sport in order to do… [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaxNjsXcEdY). ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/51 "2015-10-20T10:07:07Z")
Bruce Jenner ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/52 "2015-10-20T14:26:37Z")
Jenny McCarthy went from being a reasonably good actress to an anti-vaccine nutjob. “I got a Ph.D. in vaccinations on Google.” > [@Melbourne](#): > > Bruce Jenner Explain, please. And it’s Caitlyn Jenner, in case you haven’t heard. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/53 "2015-10-20T16:50:08Z")
Brock Lesnar retired from pro wrestling to try his hand at pro football. After failing to make the Vikings’ final roster he went to mixed martial arts, which he turned out to be [just as good at](http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Brock-Lesnar-17522) as he was at wrestling (which he was very good at). Now he’s back wrestling. Chris Jericho gave up wrestling full time to concentrate on his metal band, Fozzy. Jericho is one of the best wrestlers of all time, and though the band is pretty good their sales success has been somewhat limited. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/54 "2015-10-21T14:52:44Z")
I suppose one could argue whether or not William Shatner, was ever really good as an actor, but its undeniable that his attempting a[music career](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner%27s_musical_career) was a [huge mistake](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hARDXYz2io). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/55 "2015-10-21T16:18:24Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Ulysses S. Grant Grant earns a double award here because he actually quit the military twice, both times to move on to something he wasn’t good at. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/56 "2015-10-21T16:21:36Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Curt Schilling was a considerably more successful baseball player than he was video game developer. But I don’t know if he retired for that or just because he was at the end of his baseball run. Schilling pitched as long as his body allowed. He retired at age 40, still a good pitcher whne he could stay healthy but he clearly was running out of gas. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870/57 "2015-10-22T07:38:44Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Explain, please. And it’s Caitlyn Jenner, in case you haven’t heard. Exactly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-gave-up-an-activity-they-were-incredible-at-to-take-up-something-they-were-not-good-at/734870.md?page=2)