so i'm gonna talk to the general folks out there because i think um the masses is where it's at
you know i hear so often from people people that i love people that are close to me well i can't
do it i don't have money so i'm gonna quit i'm gonna go have a beer wrong so if you don't have
any capital um the good news is there's many ways for you to bring value to a partnership
what is it that you're good at what is your superpower are you good in sales are you good
at numbers are you good writer good communicator whatever it is you can bring value and you can
take that value and convert it into equity you have to be relentless you have to be resilient you
have to have grit always ask to get in the room beg to be in the room let people know how you feel
he's not begging you're just asking and you're knocking and you're not gonna go away
you like that everlast punching bag you punch him and it just keeps coming back up
that's who you should be that's who i've been my whole life
funny thing about education and this is where i do agree with gary vee is that when you're gonna go
and meet with the ceo of youtube and get in a room with their executive team and they're going
to explain to you algorithms and how to really promote it and how to do youtube the right way
there is no university on the planet that's going to give you that type of exposure in real time
so for me i'd rather you do that and get in the room then be trying to go and learn something
at school that is not real tangible i love school but not when you're meeting the horses and for any
young entrepreneur the number one thing is get in the room you gotta get in the room that's the only
way things happen if you're not in play if you're not in the room people are always leading with
oh wait oh no but oh but i always start with the s and figure out the rest
the answer is yes when you have your chance seize the moment and go for it don't [ __ ] around
there's nothing more important than you being in the room at that time too many people lead with no
lead with yes we'll get it done and then start thinking and challenge yourself to think outside
of the box on how to get it done people put all these [ __ ] limitations on them oh no i'm a
soccer player i'm a baseball player you can do whatever the [ __ ] you want it doesn't matter
it doesn't matter do not put limits do not think in a limited way
push the envelope uh one of the unexpected good things when i served my suspension in 2014
was that i had an opportunity to think and reflect and uh i had a full year
sabbatical which i highly recommend by the way not for a suspension though
and i had a chance to press the pause button and think about how my actions
impact other people and you know for a long time i judge myself on numbers wins home runs rbis
and somewhere in that year suspension i thought about um you know i want my future to be judged
in a different way and i wanted a different measuring stick i wanted a different barometer
and what i thought about was my behavior and my actions was how i wanted to be judged and i also
wanted to think about uh the relationships and building in and and building relationships and
uh nurturing those relationships and when you think about uh being in a major league baseball
clubhouse the relationship with your teammates your coaches your managers my relationship with
bob manfred the commissioner's office today our leader of the players union tony clark
all these things are very very important to me and when i came back i wanted to make sure i was
a different person with a different outlook with a different appreciation of of how grateful i am
for this great opportunity to play baseball and i and to a certain degree i think i i did that
i often say i'm only at first base i have a long ways to go but if you accomplish that in many
ways the message for my two daughters would be that's like hitting 700 home runs in some ways
it's like hitting 800 home runs both my mom is my inspiration she she had two jobs growing up down
in miami uh she was a secretary in the morning and she was she served tables at night and i remember
how hard it was for her to earn a dollar and i remember vividly her coming home at night and
counting her tip money and she every night made a deposit in her bank and her bank the only bank
that she trusted was her mattress it was under her mattress and that made an impact on me um it was a
very powerful message you know i love when people call me dumb because i'm an athlete and i say you
know what i'm going to show you because if you're going to be dumb enough to overlook me or think
that i'm not as smart as you because you have a fancy degree and and i'm a baseball player well
rule number one never underestimate your opponent you know i always re i respect every single one
of you out there i feel all of you out there can be great business people have a great life and
if you can just get out of your own way and think outside the box you can crush it you can crush it
number one thing you want to do is find out what is your number one passion what is your superpower
what are you good at what do you love to do it always starts with that we'll worry about making
money later once you identify that then i would say double down triple down on educating yourself
on that field you should be the world's best effort and whatever that is for me that was
baseball i studied baseball i watched baseball i bought four television and i couldn't even afford
it to watch four games at the same time and i had multiple books of notebooks just writing notes i
wanted to know everything about every player where they're from that was my competitive advantage i
loved it i breathed it i smell it i'm missing it talking about it right now so once you have that
then you can figure out a way to start monetizing it but first it starts with
identifying your passion your superpower getting really smart on it you know knowledge is power
and then we'll figure out a way on how to make money on it the key to
being a great business person the key of being successful at anything is being laser focused
if you can't be laser focused on one thing then you're usually not gonna win the difference
between a champion and a non-champion is the champion understands what the goal is and
he never takes his eye off the ball you have to stay focused everybody wants to be rich overnight
it's not gonna happen i'm sorry that's the bad news it's not gonna happen this is a journey it's
putting one step in front of the other putting one foot in front of the other
it's one brick at a time and it takes time and it takes hard work and it takes dedication the key
is if you love it and you're passionate about it it's not going to feel like work
look sometimes when you play for 22 years uh the complex the ending sometimes is complicated and
you know i've talked to this at length where sometimes in baseball uh the ending has a
funny way of tapping you on the shoulder when you least expect it and i the way that it ended for
me in front of my friends and my family and people that i love and people that have supported me for
over two decades and having my mother and my two daughters on the field to share that moment with
it's it's a day that i'll never forget so right now i would say that i'm very happy
you