Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Financial Tips: Former NFL player discusses financial literacy and lifestyle discipline faced by professional athletes that can apply to entrepreneurs.

Transcript

Financial Tips: Former NFL player discusses financial literacy and lifestyle discipline faced by professional athletes that can apply to entrepreneurs. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
0:01
Speaker 2: I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
0:04
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Speaker 2: on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
0:30
Speaker 2: can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
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Speaker 2: advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
0:38
Speaker 2: get this podcast started. My guess is a farmer all
0:41
Speaker 2: pro in the NFL. That's right, the NFL, National Football League.
0:46
Speaker 1: He's an executive.
0:47
Speaker 2: He's an author, speaker with over twenty five years of
0:49
Speaker 2: leadership experience in sports, business, broadcasting, in community. I have
0:54
Speaker 2: him on my show today to talk about the big
0:56
Speaker 2: transition when you have a dream and that dream can
1:00
Speaker 2: change overnight or they dream you see coming to an end. Please,
1:04
Speaker 2: welcome to Money Making Conversation master Class. Al Smith, how
1:08
Speaker 2: you doing, mister Smith.
1:09
Speaker 3: Doing good, doing good, pleasure to be here.
1:11
Speaker 1: You know off air, we know, thank you. First of all.
1:14
Speaker 2: You know, I've been wanting to get you on the
1:15
Speaker 2: show for a while. And the reason I wanted to
1:17
Speaker 2: get you on the show for a while because the NFL,
1:21
Speaker 2: which is the most popular sport in America, and I
1:25
Speaker 2: should say as they're spreading across this inter and out here.
1:28
Speaker 2: They got games coming in Australia, they got games in Germany,
1:31
Speaker 2: the games in England, Brazil, so it's becoming a worldwide sport.
1:34
Speaker 2: Tell us about your NFL experience.
1:36
Speaker 3: Al Oh, well, my experience, it was a good experience.
1:40
Speaker 3: I mean one of the things with me, I was
1:43
Speaker 3: drafted out of Utah State University in the sixth round.
1:47
Speaker 3: They had twelve rounds back then, so when I look
1:49
Speaker 3: at it, it was like you got a fifty to fifty shot.
1:51
Speaker 3: I was, you know, to make the team. At that time,
1:55
Speaker 3: you weren't able to finish school. Didn't have rules for
2:00
Speaker 3: you to finish school before you you know, after you
2:02
Speaker 3: got drafted. Now, BEFO, you get drafted to let kids
2:05
Speaker 3: finish school before they have to report to the team.
2:08
Speaker 3: Right back then they didn't. You know, it's almost like,
2:11
Speaker 3: well you got drafted, a lot of guys just you know,
2:14
Speaker 3: quit school and just go. But I looked at it
2:18
Speaker 3: as it was fifty fifty shot, like it's no guarantee.
2:21
Speaker 3: Now if I quit school and then go and get cut,
2:22
Speaker 3: then I have nothing. So my whole thing was that
2:26
Speaker 3: I had to get something out the deal. As far
2:28
Speaker 3: as something out the deal is like, okay, well, how
2:31
Speaker 3: much time can I miss? Because if you trust that
2:33
Speaker 3: we were on a quarter system, right and the quarter system,
2:35
Speaker 3: if you miss it, you know, two three weeks, you know,
2:37
Speaker 3: that could be you know, detrimental to you obviously your grade.
2:40
Speaker 3: And I was like in my spring semester and here
2:42
Speaker 3: our man at the finish line on the ten yard line.
2:45
Speaker 3: You just go, you know, you go quit. You know,
2:48
Speaker 3: I couldn't do that and live with myself with no
2:51
Speaker 3: guarantee of making the team. You know. It wasn't like
2:54
Speaker 3: big you know, big money at that time, whatever the
2:57
Speaker 3: case may be. But you had your dream, got drafted,
3:00
Speaker 3: you have an opportunity and all these type of things
3:02
Speaker 3: like that. So what I did was talk to teachers
3:05
Speaker 3: and whatever would give myself the opportunity, UH, to see
3:09
Speaker 3: how much time I can miss because at that time,
3:11
Speaker 3: four linebackers were drafted the year I was drafted, so
3:14
Speaker 3: I had three other guys that played linebackers, you know,
3:18
Speaker 3: two before me and one after me, and they all
3:24
Speaker 3: stayed and what have you. So I stayed as long
3:27
Speaker 3: as you know, stayed during many camps and did all that.
3:29
Speaker 3: So I'm feeling like, Okay, they're getting ahead of me
3:31
Speaker 3: or whatever the case may be. But I found out
3:33
Speaker 3: how much time I was able to leave from school,
3:36
Speaker 3: and once I knew that, the teachers were allowed me
3:39
Speaker 3: to you know, to miss up uptil a couple of
3:41
Speaker 3: weeks or whatever the case, and I make up whatever
3:43
Speaker 3: I need to make up. But those guys stayed the
3:45
Speaker 3: whole time from that April draft all the way into
3:48
Speaker 3: the training camp. So I stayed as much as I could,
3:53
Speaker 3: learned as much as I could, went back, got my degree,
3:58
Speaker 3: and I felt like I got one out of the two. Okay,
4:00
Speaker 3: I got one thing done. So now I'm all in
4:03
Speaker 3: as far as making this team, so you know, locked in,
4:08
Speaker 3: you know, locked into UH training camp, locked into what
4:12
Speaker 3: have you. I was fourth on the on the depth chart.
4:15
Speaker 3: I'm looking at the line like this shot, I'm in
4:18
Speaker 3: the back.
4:19
Speaker 1: And what team is this we're talking about in the NFL?
4:24
Speaker 3: This is the Houston Oilers, which are now the Tennessee Titans,
4:26
Speaker 3: where people don't know who the Houston Ollars were and
4:30
Speaker 3: I don't.
4:30
Speaker 1: He needs to stop. It's painful. It's painful. I don't.
4:33
Speaker 2: Don't bring up the Houston Dollars, okay, Earl Campbell days
4:35
Speaker 2: because I'm a Houstone that I just wanted you to
4:38
Speaker 2: say what you you on before y'all left in the
4:41
Speaker 2: night in the.
4:42
Speaker 3: In the night that too. I hated that too, but
4:46
Speaker 3: that was above my pay grade.
4:47
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
4:48
Speaker 2: You know the reason I'm bringing that up because you know,
4:51
Speaker 2: I you know, like I said, I'm a Houstone and
4:53
Speaker 2: I knew when you got drafted because I was a
4:55
Speaker 2: one hundercent all in fan of the Houston Ollars at
4:58
Speaker 2: the time, and I still called you when the team
5:01
Speaker 2: went to Tennessee. Fear stops a lot of people from
5:05
Speaker 2: making decisions, all the right decisions, like you know, should
5:08
Speaker 2: they move, should they take a job. But you had
5:12
Speaker 2: fear looking you square in eyes, and plus you saw
5:15
Speaker 2: competition looking your square and eyes, and as a young man,
5:18
Speaker 2: you had to make the right decision for you.
5:20
Speaker 1: How did you do that?
5:22
Speaker 3: Well? I did it. Uh. I turned my fear into fire, Okay.
5:29
Speaker 3: And yes, you know I didn't know. You know I
5:33
Speaker 3: could have you know, got cut because I didn't you know,
5:35
Speaker 3: I wasn't there the whole time, whatever the case may be.
5:38
Speaker 3: You know, I got teased. At that time, our head
5:40
Speaker 3: coach was Jerry Young Glanville. You know they you know
5:42
Speaker 3: they you know, they were harder on rookies back then
5:44
Speaker 3: than the of the day. So you know, it takes
5:47
Speaker 3: shots at.
5:47
Speaker 1: You, you know, hazy, let's go say it was.
5:51
Speaker 3: You know, you know, defend in school and you know,
5:54
Speaker 3: like shots, you know, take a little shots. But I
5:57
Speaker 3: took it. I took all the shots and took all
5:59
Speaker 3: the negative. I had a good conversation with Warren Moon.
6:02
Speaker 3: You know, he's an LA.
6:03
Speaker 1: Guy too, in the Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer and.
6:06
Speaker 3: The Hall of Famer, and uh, I had to talk
6:08
Speaker 3: to Warren. He's like, you know, man, I'm really struggling
6:11
Speaker 3: with this, you know, this decision of what to do
6:13
Speaker 3: and what have you. And he told me, you know,
6:15
Speaker 3: being a veteran, being obviously a leader on the team
6:18
Speaker 3: and he told me, you know, you're too close. It's
6:20
Speaker 3: finish school. You come you know, to come back, and uh,
6:24
Speaker 3: you know you'll make the team. You know, you know,
6:25
Speaker 3: gave me some confidence. You know you'll make the team.
6:27
Speaker 3: Everything go work out, blah blah blah. And that's what
6:31
Speaker 3: that's what happened. And I went back, Like I said,
6:32
Speaker 3: I was in the back of that line and kind
6:34
Speaker 3: of you know, a week by week you just kind of,
6:36
Speaker 3: you know, you move up a little bit, you move
6:37
Speaker 3: up a little bit, got one guy get hurt, and bam.
6:42
Speaker 3: You know, by the third pieces of the game, I
6:45
Speaker 3: was They put me in the lineup as a starter
6:48
Speaker 3: to see how I would respond. Wow, responded well and
6:52
Speaker 3: then started started every NFL game ever played after that.
6:56
Speaker 2: Congratulations. Now you know I got to get this out
6:59
Speaker 2: the way. You know, whenever we watch college games, it's
7:02
Speaker 2: always high mom.
7:03
Speaker 1: Never high Dad. You know, saying that's a negative.
7:06
Speaker 2: And in your bio you say your mom played a
7:09
Speaker 2: critical role in your life.
7:10
Speaker 1: Please talk to us about that.
7:13
Speaker 3: You know, my mom was an angel. She was like, uh,
7:18
Speaker 3: a side of assassin so to speak. You know, she could,
7:21
Speaker 3: you know, had big carry a big stick. But then
7:24
Speaker 3: talk a lot of what have you. I had both
7:26
Speaker 3: of my parents together. My parents got divorced as I
7:28
Speaker 3: was going you know, after my senior year of high school,
7:31
Speaker 3: so you know, I was going away during that time,
7:36
Speaker 3: but my mom was always there through you know, injuries
7:39
Speaker 3: through uh no you know, you know, a dollar in your.
7:43
Speaker 1: Pocket, no, n I l back then games.
7:49
Speaker 3: You know, you can be playing in the cousins, play
7:51
Speaker 3: in the conference with no money. But at the same time,
7:57
Speaker 3: I mean, you figured it out. You learn how to compete,
7:59
Speaker 3: you learn how to uh to adapt, you learn how
8:03
Speaker 3: to overcome, and all those type of things that I
8:06
Speaker 3: think has helped me today and helped me in my
8:08
Speaker 3: life as far as all those type of things, because
8:11
Speaker 3: I think that's where kids struggled now to little competition,
8:15
Speaker 3: I'm out of here, you know, a little friction, or
8:18
Speaker 3: the coach didn't talk to me that you know the
8:20
Speaker 3: way I talk. You know he wanted to talk, or
8:22
Speaker 3: didn't guarantee a starting job. You know, if you didn't
8:25
Speaker 3: get guaranteed to start a job, well I'm gonna go
8:27
Speaker 3: to you know, switch.
8:28
Speaker 2: Transfer portal, transfer portal, and I am that opportunity. You're
8:33
Speaker 2: not paying me enough money, you know, talking to Al Smith,
8:35
Speaker 2: and you know, he entered the NFL by being drafted
8:40
Speaker 2: by the Houston Orllers and then they went up to Tennessee,
8:43
Speaker 2: uh and became the Tendency Titans. But he's still a
8:45
Speaker 2: good friend of mine and I appreciate made all proll.
8:49
Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting.
8:51
Speaker 2: I was fortunate get my degree in mathematics, got me
8:55
Speaker 2: a job at IBM. Okay, and at that time, when
8:58
Speaker 2: I got that job at IBM, they had never laid
9:01
Speaker 2: off anybody in the history of IBM. So I felt
9:04
Speaker 2: that was a job that I probably would have been
9:07
Speaker 2: if I probably would have retired. Now, when you get
9:10
Speaker 2: drafted in the NFL or basically any major sport, there
9:13
Speaker 2: are no guarantees. How do you first of all, this
9:16
Speaker 2: is an excitement and another compliment accomplishment to get drafted.
9:20
Speaker 2: Do you have to compete for your job every year?
9:23
Speaker 2: How do you wrap your mind around a position or
9:25
Speaker 2: an opportunity that it could be a let's not even
9:28
Speaker 2: talk about the injuries that it could be taken away
9:31
Speaker 2: from you through competition, and there's no guarantee to longevity.
9:39
Speaker 3: Well, well, that aspect is very tobah because you're fighting
9:45
Speaker 3: and gets the unknown, right, so right, you know, by
9:48
Speaker 3: doing so, at least for me, my mind mechanism or
9:53
Speaker 3: against that was I treated each year. Well, first of all,
9:56
Speaker 3: when you get drafted, it's no guarantee you to make
9:57
Speaker 3: the team. You still have to make the team. You
9:59
Speaker 3: have to get drafted. So a lot of people that
10:00
Speaker 3: you get drafted, oh yeah, you know, everybody, let's go
10:03
Speaker 3: spend some money. Well, you still got to make the team.
10:06
Speaker 3: And then once you make the team, and then obviously
10:08
Speaker 3: that but then after you make the team that year.
10:10
Speaker 3: Each year is a one year deal, so you have
10:13
Speaker 3: to make the you know, still make the team every year.
10:18
Speaker 3: So I went into each year as if it was
10:20
Speaker 3: my last one. So I prepared as if each year
10:24
Speaker 3: is my last year, knowing that I still want to play, uh,
10:28
Speaker 3: you know, putting in the effort, being prepared both mentally,
10:32
Speaker 3: mentally and physically to make the team. So if they
10:35
Speaker 3: took my job, they're gonna remember me. So you know,
10:39
Speaker 3: I will be remembered by the fact that my play, uh,
10:44
Speaker 3: my study, my work ethic, all those type of things
10:47
Speaker 3: will not be questioned or denied or whatever the case
10:53
Speaker 3: may be. And I could live, you know, be able
10:54
Speaker 3: to live with that, and I had the fact that
10:56
Speaker 3: I had finished school and finish my degree behind me
11:01
Speaker 3: as a motivation too, right, and that I had something
11:03
Speaker 3: in my back pocket.
11:04
Speaker 1: Right cool.
11:06
Speaker 2: You know, I got to get to the bottom line
11:07
Speaker 2: of the financial because when you financial literature that you know,
11:13
Speaker 2: that was one of the talking points because we see
11:16
Speaker 2: the story's bankruptcy, not knowing how to deal with the
11:20
Speaker 2: cash flow relatives. If you had to say off the front,
11:24
Speaker 2: because I want to stay on this subject of matter
11:25
Speaker 2: a little bit longer, because again I'm just reminding everybody.
11:29
Speaker 2: I brought Al on the show because he is a
11:32
Speaker 2: small business owner. When he got drafted in the sixth round,
11:37
Speaker 2: he was a businessman brought on there. He had to compete.
11:40
Speaker 2: There were no guarantees, don't that's how familiar when you
11:42
Speaker 2: open your own business, they are no guarantees. He had
11:46
Speaker 2: to give effort. He had to If the store open
11:48
Speaker 2: at six o'clock, he had to be at five o'clock.
11:51
Speaker 2: Same thing with the NFL. You know you always hear
11:54
Speaker 2: that thing. He's there before the coaches get there. That
11:56
Speaker 2: means the maximum effort the coaches leading, he's still there.
12:00
Speaker 2: Doesn't that sound like a small business owner. I mean,
12:02
Speaker 2: the extra effort means that there's no such thing as
12:05
Speaker 2: a forty hour work week when you are a small
12:07
Speaker 2: business owner.
12:09
Speaker 1: With that being said, you.
12:11
Speaker 2: Have heard and seen and lived with a lot of
12:14
Speaker 2: disastrous financial literatary stories. What are the issues that you
12:19
Speaker 2: think pop up for athletes who are small business owners
12:23
Speaker 2: and who fail to understand the value of their money
12:26
Speaker 2: or how to distribute their money.
12:27
Speaker 3: Talk to me, Well, well, as far as a lot
12:31
Speaker 3: of times, you guys, you know, you know obviously come
12:33
Speaker 3: out on the league and they have a certain lifestyle
12:39
Speaker 3: that they're trying to keep, or they may be married
12:43
Speaker 3: with someone that has a lifestyle. You know, a lot
12:45
Speaker 3: of people think because they're around you, your lifestyle is
12:48
Speaker 3: their lifestyle, right, so they so they want to ride
12:53
Speaker 3: with you. You know. So if you're cutting back, well,
12:58
Speaker 3: that don't mean they want to cut back because they
13:01
Speaker 3: used to, you know, going to the same restaurants and
13:03
Speaker 3: having the same car or living in the same neighborhood,
13:06
Speaker 3: all those type of things like that. And I was
13:09
Speaker 3: very fortunate in my financial journey. Now, Rachan, you didn't
13:14
Speaker 3: know that, but I had a brother that played in
13:15
Speaker 3: the league before me. Cool, so my brother. He was
13:19
Speaker 3: drafting once you state, he was two years ahead of me,
13:21
Speaker 3: and he got drafted by the Denver Broncos. And I
13:24
Speaker 3: got a chance to see firsthand, you know, off season,
13:29
Speaker 3: going up there, watching those guys work, you know, working
13:30
Speaker 3: out with older guys, being around other guys before I
13:34
Speaker 3: got into the league, I was able to see how
13:36
Speaker 3: guys move and understand that. And with me, you know,
13:41
Speaker 3: with that year to year in mindset, you know, I
13:44
Speaker 3: looked at it as you know, hey, I just wanted
13:47
Speaker 3: a good start in life, you know, get a good
13:50
Speaker 3: used car and got my degree, got a little change
13:54
Speaker 3: my pocket. I could start off life. Would love that,
13:58
Speaker 3: you know, get a card, a little in the bank,
14:00
Speaker 3: and go get a good job. So but so with
14:04
Speaker 3: that being said, I think a lot of guys struggled
14:07
Speaker 3: with that because of the fact that they are trying
14:10
Speaker 3: to uphold some kind of image or or some kind
14:14
Speaker 3: of standard that they feel like they have, you know,
14:16
Speaker 3: that they feel like they have to keep up with
14:18
Speaker 3: but don't have the wherewithal or the means to do so.
14:22
Speaker 3: Post you know, you know, post you know, playing or
14:24
Speaker 3: whatever the case may be, or or giving their money
14:29
Speaker 3: to other people and relying on other people to make
14:32
Speaker 3: those decisions and not being involved with those decisions. And
14:35
Speaker 3: I always always had great mentors and having those mentors
14:41
Speaker 3: when it came to money. Uh, what's those saying, Rashaan?
14:45
Speaker 3: If you know, if you know, hang around nine broke people,
14:48
Speaker 3: you're gonna be the tenth one, you know. So I
14:51
Speaker 3: always was around people who were successful. I remember this
14:55
Speaker 3: one time in Houston and you and you know the
15:02
Speaker 3: player with the rockets, John Lucas and guys like that
15:06
Speaker 3: in Houston. Uh, we're great mentors. And one time we
15:12
Speaker 3: and every time we used to do workouts, there were
15:15
Speaker 3: always a mental session. I learned. I learned three you know,
15:19
Speaker 3: three words O w E versus O w N. Just
15:24
Speaker 3: three words do you want to o or do you
15:26
Speaker 3: want to own? And I learned that early. It's three words.
15:32
Speaker 3: I mean anybody can learn these three three three letters.
15:35
Speaker 3: I mean anyone can learn those three letters with Sean right,
15:38
Speaker 3: Oh O O w N versus O W E. And
15:42
Speaker 3: I tell my son and all the time he's like, yeah, Dad,
15:44
Speaker 3: I get it. But you don't want to you know,
15:50
Speaker 3: you don't want to owe people. And I always kind
15:54
Speaker 3: of live by that and and kind of put myself
15:56
Speaker 3: in a situation where if a job or a ball,
16:00
Speaker 3: or you get cut or IBM or somebody say, oh
16:03
Speaker 3: we're laying you off right that your whole world don't
16:06
Speaker 3: get flipped upside down based on how somebody else felt
16:10
Speaker 3: when they woke up that morning.
16:12
Speaker 2: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
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16:40
Speaker 2: Conversations master Class with me Rashaun McDonald. When did your
16:44
Speaker 2: dreams start shifting because you were blessed, you got drafted,
16:48
Speaker 2: you had your degree, you're in the NFL, you're getting success.
16:52
Speaker 2: When did your dream start shifting to outside of that?
16:57
Speaker 3: Well? Well, while I was playing always like I said,
17:00
Speaker 3: look what I was like, I told you like each
17:02
Speaker 3: year I played like it was my last year right now,
17:05
Speaker 3: my last year end up being you know, eleven years later.
17:08
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, had a nice career, but within
17:12
Speaker 3: that when it got to the end, as far as okay,
17:14
Speaker 3: do you want to squeeze you know, you know, kind
17:16
Speaker 3: of bounce around, squeeze out another year or what have you.
17:19
Speaker 3: I was very fortunate to be offered a front office
17:22
Speaker 3: position with the team that I played all those years with.
17:25
Speaker 3: They say, hey, we want you. You know, I'm like, what,
17:27
Speaker 3: you know, that doesn't that doesn't happen often, you know,
17:30
Speaker 3: like a lot of people going to coaching or other
17:33
Speaker 3: things like that. But they offered me a position in
17:35
Speaker 3: the front office. So with that, I'm like, at first,
17:39
Speaker 3: I was you know, you know, hesitant for you know,
17:42
Speaker 3: like being around the players now I'm in the front
17:43
Speaker 3: office and things like that. But I felt like it
17:46
Speaker 3: was an opportunity to be a trailblazer or to open
17:51
Speaker 3: some doors for others that look look like us, to
17:55
Speaker 3: be able to be on that side of the table
17:57
Speaker 3: and to see that the show was possible and being
18:00
Speaker 3: able to do those type of things on on that
18:02
Speaker 3: side of the fence. And that's when it is shifted
18:05
Speaker 3: to me as far as you know, you know, the
18:07
Speaker 3: business mindset and how the business of football worked, and
18:12
Speaker 3: how the business of sports work and how I was
18:16
Speaker 3: able to help teach guys that were coming in to
18:20
Speaker 3: you know, to get that mindset on the front end
18:23
Speaker 3: and at the back end. And and by doing so,
18:26
Speaker 3: that was kind of fulfilling and rewarding for me to
18:30
Speaker 3: be able to give, you know, to give back, but
18:32
Speaker 3: at the same time be able to uh, you know,
18:34
Speaker 3: fulfill some dreams and that which created other opportunities which
18:40
Speaker 3: you know, allow me to be a part of the
18:42
Speaker 3: league even in you know today, uh and in certain fashions.
18:47
Speaker 1: Here's an interesting thing about it.
18:51
Speaker 2: I remember when I was in I mean I think
18:53
Speaker 2: probably in the fifth grade, I got tackled and I said.
19:00
Speaker 4: Get this, this is not for me. Okay, I got
19:05
Speaker 4: tackled in the fifth is the fifth grade? I had
19:08
Speaker 4: a rude of working that by being a football player.
19:12
Speaker 3: Well, can I tell you one thing real quick, like
19:15
Speaker 3: when it comes to that, Like I didn't play tackle
19:18
Speaker 3: football until the tenth grade, okay, and before that was
19:22
Speaker 3: flag But in l A, you know, flag was kind
19:25
Speaker 3: of like street flag. You know, you kind of hit
19:30
Speaker 3: but just tackle, but.
19:33
Speaker 1: You're still Yeah, that's what I'm talking about street flag ball.
19:38
Speaker 3: So I feel like I was a little battle tested
19:40
Speaker 3: when the past came on. It was like, oh, this
19:42
Speaker 3: is easy. You know, I don't have to get you know,
19:46
Speaker 3: skin mart on the streets.
19:48
Speaker 1: A year older brother. I had six sisters.
19:51
Speaker 4: Okay, they can't give me no advice about flag football
19:54
Speaker 4: in the street.
19:55
Speaker 1: I got tackled.
19:56
Speaker 2: I can turn no brother, big brother, go hey, you like,
20:00
Speaker 2: get up and stay there.
20:01
Speaker 1: I stayed down there, and well, this is not for me.
20:04
Speaker 3: What that had even the pressure, well, that's that was
20:06
Speaker 3: pressure right there. Having an older brother. Yeah, not just
20:09
Speaker 3: was he not not just athletically. I had accomplishiation academically
20:15
Speaker 3: because my brother was a good student and I didn't
20:18
Speaker 3: really you know, I wanted to be okay student, you know.
20:20
Speaker 3: So it's always like so I always had to come
20:21
Speaker 3: behind him with teachers or different people. So the expectation
20:25
Speaker 3: for me was always like, oh, you're gonna be you know,
20:28
Speaker 3: like I'm gonna be like my brother, you know. You know,
20:30
Speaker 3: so my mother had to kind of draw that line
20:32
Speaker 3: like you know, we got two different you know, two
20:34
Speaker 3: different people and blah blah blah. And had to deal
20:37
Speaker 3: with some coaches coaches on that too, like but that
20:42
Speaker 3: you know, that was a drive to uh uh, you know,
20:46
Speaker 3: to prove your worth, so to speak of accountability. But
20:51
Speaker 3: but you know, you know best. So I lost you know,
20:53
Speaker 3: lost my you know, I've lost my brother since then.
20:55
Speaker 3: But he was kind of like a role model because
21:00
Speaker 3: your first fights, your first everything goes, you know, go
21:04
Speaker 3: through your big brother, you know.
21:05
Speaker 2: Right right, right right, and the lesson because he started
21:08
Speaker 2: them in the end of them in the bedroom.
21:10
Speaker 3: Okay, you can't get in there.
21:17
Speaker 1: I love it.
21:21
Speaker 3: Do some.
21:25
Speaker 1: Knuckle up, as they say, knuckle up, knuckle up.
21:27
Speaker 3: You know.
21:28
Speaker 2: Here's the thing that always amazed me about football players
21:32
Speaker 2: and and then and they and it's such a physical sport,
21:35
Speaker 2: you know. And I you know, stevenhi Smith one of
21:38
Speaker 2: my clients, and I was in the cv A.
21:40
Speaker 1: I said, man, that's the only I know.
21:42
Speaker 2: When somebody is over there going I'm gonna run really
21:45
Speaker 2: hard in this direction, and then another guy go, no problem,
21:49
Speaker 2: I'm gonna run really hard at you from the opposite direction.
21:52
Speaker 1: And we're gonna meet and were cool with it.
21:56
Speaker 2: Now, if it ain't the craziest thing I've ever heard
22:00
Speaker 2: in my life, knowing that this person is as as
22:04
Speaker 2: as adamant by going in this direction and you, by
22:07
Speaker 2: this adamant is stopping him from going in that direction.
22:10
Speaker 2: Talk about the mentality of a professional football player.
22:13
Speaker 3: Well, for me, and I tell people that today, people like, oh,
22:17
Speaker 3: you know you mild mannered, you know, how did you
22:19
Speaker 3: play football? But that was a different dude when I played.
22:24
Speaker 3: That was a different guy. That's not the guy that
22:27
Speaker 3: you've been talking to. So that was you know, that
22:30
Speaker 3: was a different individual to where you know, you kind
22:34
Speaker 3: of transformed this in some to somebody else. And and
22:39
Speaker 3: like you said, to run into a wall or three
22:41
Speaker 3: hundred pounders or you know, you know, car crashes every day.
22:46
Speaker 3: It has to be something more a driving force, right,
22:50
Speaker 3: other than just that. Yes, it was an opportunity for
22:57
Speaker 3: financial stability. Yes, it was opportunity to change your your
23:03
Speaker 3: family tree, uh, an opportunity to make a name for yourself,
23:09
Speaker 3: all those type of things. But you had to try.
23:13
Speaker 3: At least I had to transform myself. A lot of
23:14
Speaker 3: guys transformed ourselves into somebody different on the field. But
23:19
Speaker 3: the problem comes a lot of guys can't turn it off,
23:22
Speaker 3: and that same person goes off the field and off
23:27
Speaker 3: the field, people don't understand that, and other people don't
23:33
Speaker 3: accept that type of mentality off the field. And I
23:38
Speaker 3: was able to uh to be able to turn it
23:40
Speaker 3: off when I got off the field. It was like
23:43
Speaker 3: two different people. And that's how I survived. And a
23:49
Speaker 3: lot of guys have done well with that and some
23:51
Speaker 3: guys have struggled with that. And you know, and that's
23:55
Speaker 3: the difference.
23:57
Speaker 2: Speaking of Al Smith from our pro got draft by
24:00
Speaker 2: the Houston Dollars. That's treating transferred themselves to become the
24:04
Speaker 2: Tendency Titans. And we were talking about entrepreneurship, small business owner,
24:08
Speaker 2: financial literacy, overcoming the odds. That's all part of history.
24:13
Speaker 2: When you as we close here, Al and you know
24:15
Speaker 2: you're talking to the entrepreneurs. You know you're talking to
24:17
Speaker 2: small business owner. You know, it's talking to people who
24:19
Speaker 2: are afraid to make changes in life, people who have
24:23
Speaker 2: to overcome the ards sometimes to even go to work
24:26
Speaker 2: every day. What advice would you give them? And then
24:29
Speaker 2: don't be short of words. You can take time to
24:32
Speaker 2: present yourself.
24:34
Speaker 3: I'll repeat the longer time. I'm sorry.
24:36
Speaker 2: What I'm saying is that there are people that are
24:39
Speaker 2: listening to this interview and you're a person who overcome
24:42
Speaker 2: the odds, your person who basically, like you said, every year,
24:46
Speaker 2: look you treated every year like it was new year,
24:49
Speaker 2: which means that there's fear tied to that you overcame
24:51
Speaker 2: that fear and you were successful at it. Well, that's
24:55
Speaker 2: the same thing that happens to small business owners and entrepreneurs.
24:59
Speaker 1: What advice would you give at them?
25:01
Speaker 3: Well, first and foremost to never give up on your dream.
25:07
Speaker 3: When I look at being able to, you know, provide
25:10
Speaker 3: at that time, you know, for my mother when she
25:12
Speaker 3: was here or or or or taking a load off
25:16
Speaker 3: of that because at that point she was a single
25:19
Speaker 3: mother because you know, we had she had divorced my uh,
25:25
Speaker 3: you know, my parents got divorced me going into college,
25:28
Speaker 3: so for me to come back and like you know,
25:31
Speaker 3: you know, don't worry about it. But you know, I
25:33
Speaker 3: was very fortunate to have a family. You know, they
25:35
Speaker 3: still like to work. And it wasn't like, hey, take
25:37
Speaker 3: care of me, take care of me, but you know,
25:39
Speaker 3: it was kind of like I'm there if they needed me.
25:41
Speaker 3: But I didn't you know, I didn't get that, you know,
25:45
Speaker 3: for my family as far as pulling on me in
25:47
Speaker 3: that way. And I was able to, you know obviously, uh,
25:50
Speaker 3: you know, take care of my momy and help my
25:52
Speaker 3: mother and all that you know in her for the
25:54
Speaker 3: rest of her life. But at the same time not
25:59
Speaker 3: giving up when your uh uh uh, staying stead fast
26:03
Speaker 3: to it. Don't let obstacles and competition. Do not be
26:07
Speaker 3: scared of competition just because you know there's a little adversity,
26:12
Speaker 3: a little being uncomfortable, because that's what kids nowadays, when
26:17
Speaker 3: they get uncomfortable they shut down, or a little resistance
26:20
Speaker 3: they shut down. There's no difference when you get you know,
26:24
Speaker 3: you work out, whatever degree you work out, or to
26:29
Speaker 3: get gained every now and then, you got to, you know,
26:32
Speaker 3: put a little bit more strain. You have to maybe
26:34
Speaker 3: add a little bit more weight, you may have to
26:36
Speaker 3: go a little bit more distance, you may have to
26:39
Speaker 3: uh you know, go at some extra time. But to
26:43
Speaker 3: get those gains, you have to have a little strain.
26:47
Speaker 3: And don't be scared of the strain because you know
26:50
Speaker 3: the strain. You know, the gain out weighs the strain.
26:53
Speaker 2: I tell you the incredible ass Smith, I want to
26:55
Speaker 2: take your time for coming on Money Making Conversations master Class, an.
26:59
Speaker 1: Interview that's long overdue.
27:01
Speaker 2: That when the future will be a lot that wind
27:03
Speaker 2: will be a lot of shorter al because you're incredible brother.
27:06
Speaker 2: And I say that because a lot of honesty in
27:10
Speaker 2: this conversation, a lot of success in this conversation, because
27:15
Speaker 2: longevity and NFL comes with sacrifice, comes with hard work.
27:19
Speaker 2: It also comes with a badge of honor because it's
27:22
Speaker 2: not a chief I think I read I would listening
27:24
Speaker 2: to this says like.
27:24
Speaker 1: Three years and four days. It's an average life of
27:27
Speaker 1: the NFL football player.
27:29
Speaker 3: I was like, wow, but you don't get hurt.
27:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't get hurt. But again, you will get
27:35
Speaker 1: hurt in the NFL. That's the nature of that sport.
27:37
Speaker 1: But again, thank you for coming to on Money Making Conversation.
27:39
Speaker 3: Al Oh, thank you, Joe. I appreciate you.
27:42
Speaker 1: Guys, thank thank you, thank you for listening to this episode.
27:46
Speaker 2: No, I need for you to do me a favor
27:48
Speaker 2: right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
27:52
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28:05
Speaker 1: Keep winning.