Playing Division I baseball and braving the ebbs and flows of trading at the Chicago Board of Trade teaches you a few things about strategic risk taking. Doug Hirschhorn coupled those hard-knocks lessons with a Ph.D. in sports psychology to develop his niche as a “peak-performance coach.” Now you can glean advice from him on ways to achieve your own peak performance.

Starting this spring, the University of Miami Alumni Association Web site features a monthly column written by Hirschhorn as well as Hirschhorn’s answers to reader-supplied questions. Though he has the same take-charge, tell-it-like-it-is demeanor as Dr. Phil, “Dr. Doug” tailors his conversation to career-oriented topics.

“A typical question might be, ‘I have been in a dead-end job for five years, and I want to move on, but I’m scared,’” Hirschhorn says. “Fear alone is not the problem. The problem occurs when we don’t take risks because we’re afraid.”

Hirschhorn’s columns emphasize taking smart risks as a matter of course on the journey to greatness. After ten years of working with financial institutions, hedge funds, athletes, executives, and “anyone in a field where being the best requires consistently being at the top of your game,” he has identified three core elements of success: confidence in pinpointing what you want to achieve, control over game plans and goals, and courage in taking necessary risks.

“I don’t create talent. I help people realize their own,” Hirschhorn explains. “I’m not just a motivator; I also create structure. The plan has to have stickiness.”

Hirschhorn’s columns and Q&A’s are part of a grand UMAA plan to offer motivation, structure, and stick-to-it-iveness to alumni seeking career help. If you sign on to www.miami.edu/ alumni/career, you’ll find a menu of tools and services that can help you jump-start your job search or take you to the top of your present profession. You can submit your question to Hirschhorn via e-mail at alumniweb@miami.edu.

“The UM Alumni Association continues to look for benefits and services that are helpful to our alumni, particularly with career advice and networking,” says Donna Arbide, M.B.A. ’95, associate vice president of alumni relations and UMAA executive director. “This idea came about after we featured Dr. Doug at the AlumNites alumni education seminar this March at the Banker’s Club of Miami. His message was so inspirational that we decided to take it to a broader audience through our Web offerings.”

Hirschhorn spoke at AlumNites on the topic of “Daring to Be Great.” AlumNites, a UMAA-sponsored educational program, offers lifelong learning opportunities to alumni and the community.

“Dr. Hirschhorn’s approach and advice was the subject of much discussion following his presentation, and that sort of rigorous discourse indicates that the program resonated with our alums,” says Joshua Spector, J.D. ’02, who attended the seminar. “I found his comments on working with a tinge of fear about not being at peak performance to be consistent with the attitude of some of the best attorneys I have worked with.”

In addition to his new “ask-the-doctor” service for alumni seeking a performance boost, Hirschhorn is a regular columnist for Trader Monthly Magazine. He also is the coauthor of The Trading Athlete: Winning the Mental Game of Online Trading (John Wiley, 2001).