Reinvention is everywhere. Products get updated, industries change course, and ideas we once treated as finished suddenly come back in a new form. Something that felt permanent five years ago can look completely different today, redesigned for a new audience or a new moment.
People aren’t much different. Nowhere is that more obvious than in sports, where careers are intense and short by design. When the final buzzer sounds, a lot of athletes don’t just retire - they reboot. They take the discipline, performance under pressure, and storytelling instincts they honed on the field and plug them into entirely new roles.
Some head straight to the broadcast booth, turning game-day instincts into real-time analysis. Tom Brady’s jump into a marquee commentary role is only the latest example, following paths laid down by former players like Tony Romo who’ve turned play-reading skills into must-listen television. Others go the business route. Serena Williams has built a serious venture portfolio, Alex Rodriguez has moved deep into private equity and ownership, and Shaquille O’Neal has become a one-man case study in branding, franchising, and smart investing.
Shaq might be the clearest example of what a “third act” can look like. After a Hall of Fame career, he didn’t fade into the background - he built a sprawling business portfolio that stretches from restaurant franchises to fitness and tech. Now he’s added yet another role: health advocate and spokesperson. By partnering with Eli Lilly to talk openly about his own obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and the role of treatments like the GLP 1/GIP medicine Zepbound (tirzepatide), he’s using his platform to push an important conversation about diagnosis, treatment, and stigma.
The medicines themselves have gone through their own reinvention arc. GLP 1 therapies started life as tools for type 2 diabetes, based on a gut hormone that helps the body release insulin and control blood sugar. Then clinicians noticed how much weight patients were losing, which led to dedicated obesity trials and new approvals for chronic weight management. Most recently, drugs like tirzepatide have taken another leap—into OSA—expanding from “glucose drugs” into platforms for metabolic disease and sleep-related conditions.
And GLP 1s are hardly alone. Aspirin moved from over-the-counter pain reliever to low-dose cardiovascular staple. Thalidomide went from infamy to an important multiple myeloma therapy. Beta blockers shifted from basic blood pressure control to improving survival in heart failure and helping manage migraines. In other words, reinvention isn’t the exception in medicine - it’s the business model.
In sports, in science, and in pharma, the pattern is the same: first act, second act, unexpected sequel. The only real surprise anymore is when something doesn’t get reinvented.
Mike Auerbach
Group Editor-In-Chief
[email protected]