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60% of NBA players go flat BROKE after retiring, but not Shaquille O' Neal. Find out why he was able to break through and the lessons you can start using today. The key high school lesson that taught Shaq the lesson of being a humble professional. Why being the smartest man in the room is a mistake (and why mentors are key to your success). Why the get rich quick mindset will always fail you. The #1 key to creating a successful business team. Why not being the smartest is fine (as long as you're the smartest in listening). Why entertainment, humor, and grabbing attention is vital for your marketing. What 10X means to Shaq. If you're the smartest in the room then it's time to level up with a Mentor to create a new level of massive success. Start designing a 10X life with the 5 things you can immediately do to grow your business & income… Click here to 10X for FREE >> https://gc.grantcardone.com/optin-544870321651935762637 Okay, so Shaq, so good to have you here today. Really, really appreciate you taking your time. Uh, I'm one of the billions of people on this planet that have, you know, just crazy ma admiration for you and been a fan for many years, but more so than just the basketball. It, it's your business savvy man and your entrepreneurship and your, the remake of who you are. Uh, that, that I'm so impressed with in your life. So thank you so much for taking time with us today. Thanks for having me, sir. So, so talk to me, man. How, how does a guy, like you're one of the, like, probably most liked celebrity people in the world. Everybody likes Shaq. Uh, how did you do that? Did you do that purposely? Or like, how, how do you make people like you in the, So when I was coming up, I was a high level juvenile league. My father was a drill. So through a lot of discipline and punishment means I'm programmed to pay attention, listen and learn. For example, he used to always take all the others, uh, athletes that made a mistake and I would get in trouble for it. Uh, my, my last discipline spanking was there was a gentleman by the name of Lynn Bias. Uh, he was going to be the first pick. The night before he got drafted. He died from a cocaine overdose. My father came in the house, li bit crying like it was his son, and he just took me and he shook me. He's like, If you ever do coke, I will kill you. And I'm so young. At the time, I was like 12 or 13 and I was like, Daddy, we don't drink coke. We drink Pepsi. He's like, No drugs. Drugs. Don't ever do drugs. That's why. Never done drugs, never smoked cannabis, none of that. Never did alcohol. So I would learn from other people's mistakes. Uh, what humbled me in high school was in 1989, I saw my first article said Cole's O'Neil the best in the us. And I went to a small school and there was all these other big schools in the city, but they were talking about. So I actually felt like I'm bigger than you. I'm bigger than you. I'm bigger than you. So my school was nine through twelve, two hundred and thirty nine students, nine through 12. Senior class had 39 people. So my best friend who actually still works with me today, they orchestra a plan that's like, Okay guys, if shack shackle act like God and treatment like God. So let's just say I come in school and I walk on the left side, the whole school move to the. And they wouldn't say anything. They wouldn't do anything. This went on for like two days. I said, Okay, I, So I go in the lunchroom. There's people in the lunchroom. As soon as they see me sit down, every student picked their tray up and they walked out. Like just, yeah. So that was day two, Day three. I go to the gym, practicing with the guys. I'm like, Hey, what's up everybody? Just sprint to the side on the. So then I sprint down to the other side of floor, they sprint back. So then I finally asked my guy, I said, Hey man, what's going on? He said, Hey man, you didn't get here by yourself. You know, ever since you got that, you've been treating us a little different. So you wanna act like God, we're gonna treat you like God. So from that day on, wow, I've been very humble. And the last reason is my mother is my favorite person. Mm. He's an avid TV watcher. It would hurt my heart to see, to have her sitting down watching tv. And seeing me do something idiotic, yes, I'm gonna make mistakes and say crazy things. And when I do, she calls me, but I don't wanna make a major mistake and just have her sitting there with her friends and see me doing something crazy. So all those things that, that, all those that you, Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yes. So all those things combined have kept me outta trouble. That is an amazing story. I've never heard that. Um, where did you get Shaq? Your money? You didn't grow up rich, right? No. So where did you get your money? Mindset. Where did you start changing the way you think about money and finance and debt and cash, et cetera? Again, when you don't know something, you have to learn. Some people teach themselves by trial and error, and some people ask questions. I was never afraid to ask questions. Cause I know I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but if I see somebody that's doing it, take one question. Like, Hey man, how'd you do that? Oh man, I did this, I did this, and I write it down and I memorize it. So when I got my first million, I said, I gotta take care of my family. How, how old are you at this point? 18 years old. Wow. I get a, a signing deal and I get a million dollar bonus. My agent called and said, Hey, I'm gonna send you a million dollars in your bank account. Right. So I said, Okay, and at this time I'm doing simple matters. I said, I, I, I, I gotta go get this car up. Always wanted Mercedes-Benz 150,000. So I know one 50 minus a million. I still got eight 50 left. I'm still rich. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I get that Benz and I come home. My father, man, I'm proud of you. Where's mine at? Jump in the car big. Go buy him the same bin, come back home. My mom's looking like, Oh, you guys are, but she's looking sad. I got you too, mama. I don't give the big one, but I get her the little one. So I spend 400,000 that day. Right. So after that, you know, I gotta go get some, I, I gotta go get the, I gotta go get the jury. I was living at home because I left LSU and this was the time. You know, right before I get drafted, I knew I'm gonna come back to Antonio, so penthouse and pay it for year rent was a check for call from the bank. And I grew up on an army base, was very close, you know, so I had, you know, the guy was like, you know, everybody know how it was. Cause I was, you know, product of the base. The president calls me over and he, I'm at, and you know how you, you always hear stories about how people steal money from athletes and all that. So I'm looking and now I'm pissed. I'm like, who the hell is spike? Who the hell is Fi FICO stole 250 million thousand for me and he just started laughing. And so he, he reaches behind it that, and he gives me a book, The Dummies Guy, the Starting Your Own Business. And he tells me, he says, Shaq, I don't want you to be like 70% of these to have nothing. Cause see, I thought when my agent called me and said, Hey, you got a million, I thought that was a million net Vica had to take. Sales tax, state tax, I only had about six, 600,000, but that was gone. Like I spent 400 on cars, hundred on Missouri, 30 on the real estate, you know, 20 on rims and all that stuff. All that money was gone and I had no idea. Now, I, I talk about being programmed. I'm also programmed never to make the same mistake twice. So now that I, I had a million dollars and I spent it all in one day, I'm back being broke again. That'll never happen again. So I'm reading this. I don't know what I'm looking at, but the chapter that interest me the most was starting the Sub chapters Corporation and it said something like, you start a corporation, you can put your family on salary. You write these things off. And I was like, What's the write off? Write it off. Business expense, Get it back. That's the first thing I did. Second thing, the chapter I enjoy with joint venture. And then when I was, you know, coming along the business, I'm like, I want a shoe company, but I can't run a shoe company. How, how would I do this? Reebok, Hey, we want, gimme a deal. Nah, don't wanna my own shoot deal. I wanna be in partnership with you guys. Let's do a joint venture. They were kinda impressed that I knew it. A joint venture. I said, So it'll be Shaq and Reebok and we'll just do a collaboration for four or five years. See how it works. So I had to learn, I had to teach you. Now let me ask you, Shaq, was that you were, you were 18, 19 at this time? 19, yes. Is that, is that when you did your first big endorsement? Yes. And who's helping you? Who's helping you? Like, like, you know, you don't know everything. So, after I, after I spent a million dollars, I interviewed five of the top financial advisors. Mm. And I know from being from the streets that it was too good to be true. Stay away from. So the first guy, Yeah, you gonna get about 50 million, your contract, you can be a billionaire by 25. I was like, Stay away from him. And another guy, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Then another guy, then the last guy that came in and said, Hey man, I'm just starting. I government bonds, bonds, no risk annuities. Save your money. And I said, Well, who, who do you represent? He said, My biggest clients are n. I was like, nwa, the rap group. He's like, He ain't represented. I told my dad, I like, I want get with him. My dad, No, he, I said, No, I like him. He's real. And I've been with this guy since 1992 and he helped me in business. He knows a lot of people, and again, I tell people it's okay to ask questions, really is like I met a gentleman one day and I always used to see him in la and in LA I'm making a hundred million. I'm rich. This guy, he's coming in with Ferrari and Lamborghini, and I asked him, and I found out he was a successful businessman. So we're sitting, he drinking wine and drinking water. I'm like, Hey man, how do you get so rich? And he pulled out a hundred bill and he did this. He, he I, y'all are doing, this is how you should do it. So if you have a hundred dollars. Now you got 50, you save 50, still got 50 left. You said, Now rich people will spend this 50, but the wealthy people will now this five, whatever you wanna do, cars, houses, girls, whatever, and you save that. So once I started doing I, aha. So every time I got a check, I just took a little piece for me for bills and for cash, and I saved. I just put it away, put it away, and then I started doing annuities. Cause I was like, you know what, I have a white, I have the children now. I want be able to collect a lot of money at the age of 50, 55 and 60. So, you know, tho, tho those things right there were not that difficult to me. And I had a lot of guidance and I asked a lot of question. And you learn. So like when people look at me, it's like, Oh you, you're smart businessman. No, I just think, I just take things that are difficult and break it down to where it's easy for me. Like I knew I had to save money. I knew I had to start this sub chapter S corporation. I knew I do business with a lot of people, but in order for me not to run the business, you gotta do joint venture and you gotta be nice to people and you know, respect people and you gotta believe in the product that you endorse. And that's just how, like, like when you were signing in the beginning, like you didn't, were you in any fear about, Hey, how long is this ride gonna last? Did you know how long it was gonna last? Did you know how much money you would produce over the next 30 years? I was, I was really in fear, but early I said, I'm gonna take advantage of all opportunities. Cause I like, I like stacking it, right? Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . So Reebok 40 for five. Orlando Magic, 40 for seven, Pepsi 30 for like, I'm just movies, this, this, this. I'm stacking it. Right? Okay, now I know I got this much. Now I got this portion to the family portion for bills portion, for my fun portion for travel. This how much I got saved and in and up. I gotta do more. Gotta do more. And then I met Magic Johnson at 18. He was like, Man, proud of you. You're doing all these endorsement deal. But at some time you wanna start owning things. And I had no idea what he was talking about, what talking about. So I went back to my book Uhhuh Reading, looking, Oh, this is what he and I, you know, start, you know, investing. And my first big investment was the same hotel, same table. There was some other gentleman, they were sitting there with their kids. The kids recognized me and they playing with 'em. And the guy said, Man, thanks. Taking to talking to my kids. His kids were fun. He was just sitting playing Uno. He said, Man, I met a lot of celebrities. There's no guys like you. And he pulled out his briefcase. He said, We're working on this thing called Google. It's be big. I want give you some, some shares and some, I didn't know what talking about, but another thing is generalizing how said it, they, they gave you, they gave you Google or they J they gave you the tip. No. They said, Hey, we want to talk to your people about, you know, investing in this company, Google. So, you know, Dwight Eisenhower said The greatest, the greatest leaders are the ones smarter enough to hire people that are smarter. I had no idea what he was talking about. Okay. But I gave him the number to my guy, the same guy that represented nwa. I said to, called my guy, set up the meeting. So we set up a meeting and we invested in Google because I've always loved technology. And then, you know, nine, 10 years later, we got a really big nice. So, you know, then I got greedy. I started, I started thinking I was an invest, an investment master, and I failed a lot. Failing because what, what, what, what did you fail in? What was it? You remember? Because I got such a big hit with Google. I was on, I was only on the get rich quick schemes. Hey Sha, you got pretty lips? Let's do Shaq. Lip, uh, sha lip rocks. Yeah, let's do it. Hey, Shaq, you know, paper is big or little. Let's make the paper. Like I would always do that and I would lose. So I had to come back and readjust. So, you know, I go to all these technology summits. It's a good looking dude by the name of Jeff Bezos. He's talking about what he's gonna start in the future. It's called Amazon. And I'm listening to him like, that's gonna work. It's gonna be big. And before he gets off the stage, he says, I invest in things that's going to change people's lives and Amazon will change your life. When he walked up the stage and I. Investing things is gonna change people's lives. And if you think about it, it's, you gotta be at the 70 to 80% get a great return on your money. Like if it's something the whole world needs, bro, Amazon blew up so much during Covid is not even funny. Nobody wanted to leave the house and wanted to get, So once I changed my strategy to that, I've been, I've been really, really, Getting a lot of great, you know, returns. So, So Shaq, do you have any idea, like what, what opened you up to like, even wanting to do that? I mean, you're, you're rare. You're rare in any space. Say it again. Fear, Uhhuh. Fear to percent of athletes that they've done five years, that t…
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