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Embrace the bumps
The great thing about sports, you got to forget a bad play. If something bad happens, you got to move on because that 350 pound guy that wanted to kick your butt just 30 seconds ago, he’s there to do it again. So you have to forget and move on to the next, and in life, that’s what it is. I was on a sitcom called “Brothers” that lasted 12 episodes or so, and then it was canceled. I’ve been on a lot of other shows that didn’t do so well. And the thing is, you do it, you learn from the experience, and you move on to the next experience and you don’t look at it as a failure. That play before that experience before wasn’t a failure, it was just an opportunity to learn what not to do for the future.
But I think for some people, they’re driving towards something they really want to do. They love, love doing it. And they’re looking forward to the journey. It’s not about the end destination. They have a great understanding that, “Okay, I see where I want to go and it’s not going to be easy getting there, and every path along the way could have bumps, but I’m going to enjoy these bumps because I know the payoff at the end is well worth it.” And I think that’s the way you have to look at it. It’s well worth it at the end of your journey to look back and go, “Wow, you know what? I remember that. It didn’t seem so bad.” I think it gave me some confidence to retire because I realized, “You know what, you can be comfortable in what you’re doing, but sometimes you got to step out of your comfort level.”
You could play football forever in your head. And one of the hardest things to do from business to business and not just sports, I think for anybody in any business, is to tell yourself when to stop, and not when to play, but when to stop playing. And for me, it was a very tough, but I was very conscious of the fact that, “Hey, this was it. Let’s move on. Let’s find something else positive.” And I wasn’t afraid because I learned from my failures. I learned that every day you wake up and there’s a new opportunity. And if I was willing to work, and if I was willing to focus, that even after my football days, there was the bright future. And it was a lot brighter than I ever imagined, but I’m very happy with it.
Be involved
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from starting and running a business is you don’t know everything. Don’t assume you do. Be able to listen and learn from other people around you and be involved. One of the biggest things is: Be involved. Don’t be the type of person who just shows up and says, “Put my name on it.” I don’t think that’s good enough. I think you have to be involved because it’s a reflection of you, and especially for me, my name is on everything that I do and it needs to be, because if it’s going to have success, I’m going to get all the credit. If it’s going to fail, I’m going to get all the blame. And I’d rather feel good about taking the credit for something that I am involved with and not just taking somebody else’s credit for the work that they’ve done, but also I can shoulder the blame because I was a part of that as well. I just learned through business and all those things to be collaborative, be willing to learn, and also be willing to take chances, and enjoy the journey.