How Minecraft is Helping Gen Z Entrepreneurs Build Careers — and How Student-Athletes Can Benefit

For many Gen Z students, Minecraft isn’t just a game — it’s a training ground for building businesses, developing technical skills, and finding unique career opportunities. While Minecraft has always been a platform for creativity, it’s now also a pathway for entrepreneurship, especially for those who are passionate about tech and gaming.

Minecraft’s journey from a childhood hobby to a career-defining tool for many young people is a story that resonates with student-athletes looking to capitalize on their passions while balancing their academic and athletic commitments. The game’s flexible nature has allowed many students to cultivate skills that extend beyond the game world, learning technical, programming, and entrepreneurial skills — all while playing and creating in their spare time.

Colin McDonald, for example, started as a 13-year-old Minecraft enthusiast and is now the founder of Moonsworth, a software development company with over 50 employees. His company’s most popular product, the Lunar Client, is one of the game’s most widely used modpacks, with over 2 million monthly users. McDonald’s story highlights how Minecraft offers more than just entertainment; it’s also a platform where students can foster business ideas, learn to collaborate, and grow their professional network — all skills that can be useful for student-athletes juggling their sports careers and their future endeavors.

Minecraft as a Training Ground for Technical Skills

For student-athletes, managing time between rigorous training schedules and academics often means finding creative ways to hone their skills outside of the traditional classroom. Minecraft offers an ideal environment for this. As a sandbox game, it encourages players to think critically and solve problems, mirroring many challenges athletes face on the field. The game’s open-ended nature helps players learn how to innovate, make decisions on the fly, and collaborate with others — all transferable skills for both business and athletics.

Take Lauri Lifljandski, a young entrepreneur who built a successful company from his Minecraft experience. Through trial and error, he learned programming and creative problem-solving, which led him to co-found WiseHosting, a company that helps people run Minecraft servers. This level of self-teaching and hands-on experience is something many student-athletes can relate to when balancing their sports training with academic responsibilities.

Building Careers Outside the Game

While Minecraft’s entrepreneurial potential is clear, what’s especially exciting for student-athletes is how many people are using the skills they developed from the game to start companies in fields unrelated to gaming. 18-year-old Amir Davies, for example, turned his passion for Minecraft into two successful software businesses. His story is one of self-learning and using Minecraft’s community-building features to help him understand marketing and networking.

For student-athletes who are often too busy with practice and games to gain traditional work experience, the entrepreneurial aspects of Minecraft offer an alternative. The skills learned — including programming, business development, marketing, and even managing a team — can be used in a wide array of industries. And for student-athletes exploring careers outside of sports, these skills are highly transferable and will set them apart in an increasingly competitive job market.

Minecraft: More Than Just a Game for Student-Athletes

As more young people like McDonald and Lifljandski show, Minecraft isn’t just for fun — it can become a pathway to professional growth. Whether student-athletes are creating content, developing their own games, or building businesses around their Minecraft servers, the game offers them a chance to learn entrepreneurial skills that align with their interests and build careers that allow them to integrate their passions.

For student-athletes looking to balance their sports careers with career preparation, Minecraft is more than a hobby — it’s a valuable tool for developing creative, technical, and business skills.