NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal has gone down in the history books as one of the greatest centers to step on a basketball court. You can see and hear him regularly during the NBA season on ESPN’s Inside the NBA. As successful as he was on the court and is in the studio, he is a bigger businessman than his towering presence. With dozens of companies under his name, through partnerships, sponsorships, and outright ownership, he approaches business with the same mindset he brings to his sports analysis and to how he prepared and played basketball in his younger years. Now, Shaq has graced The Industry Cosign with some of the keys to building his business portfolio.
Shaq’s Guide To Business Success
Lesson 1: Find Your Motivation
Ever since Shaquille O’Neal was young, growing up with a father in the service, he has learned life lessons he still applies today. At the age of 12, imagine being told that the decisions that you make in business may affect your mother later in life. That stuck with the NBA Hall of Famer. That’s real-life pressure now, knowing any mistake or misstep can lead to homelessness for the woman who brought you into this world.
“I remember my father telling me one day, if you mess up in business, your mama gonna lose her house,” says Shaq.
Once Shaq knew he was heading to the NBA, his father gave him more sage advice. Shaq needed to make sure not only that the finances were correct, but also that they were so on point that he wouldn’t fall into the financial traps many professional players before him had fallen into, leading them to file for bankruptcy. Once again, using his mother as the reason to not fail, it stayed in his head.
Quoting his father, Shaq recalled him saying, “Hey, man, you gonna make it to the NBA, but when you make it to the NBA, all these guys, they had a lot of money, they lost all their money, that can’t be you, because I know you’re gonna take care of your mama.
“If you buy your mama a house, and you lose all that money, then your mama gonna lose the house. That sh** stuck with me, so I take pride, and, taking care of business, I just take pride to keep going.”
Under pressure to care for his mother, he remained successful during and after his NBA career. To this day, he has gone on record to say, “I do all of this for her.”
Lesson 2: Put Together a Team With the Right Players Who Know Their Roles
Coming from a sports background where the philosophy was “there is no I in team,” Shaq has incorporated that mindset in his businesses. Every component plays a part. Everyone has a role, and when everyone does what needs to be done in their role, success is more likely to follow.
“I have a great team. Everything about my life, my brand was built on basketball, so everything is basketball-related. I got a point guard. I got a shooting guard. I got a power forward, I’m the center. I’m the one who’s gonna bring it on, so I delegate a lot of the things that need to be done to my other people, and then, you know, they throw me the ball, and then I do what I have to do.”
Lesson 3: Use Past Failures and Mistakes To Better Yourself
In history, whether in sports, business, or life, the winner is typically one who has experienced loss or failure and has learned to appreciate and accept success. Many successful people have said that failing many times leads to success, and the lesson is that winners never quit.
Shaq is living proof. For many years, he played professional sports, but he did not always come out on top. Those lessons learned while losing only enhanced the desire to win and fueled the determination to win even more. It happens in business.
“Like, I mess up this time. What should I do next time? Like, a lot of us fail, fail, and we just give up. I don’t give up.”
“I used failure as motivation, you know, so you have to just keep on pushing, keep on pushing, keep on pushing.”
Everyone, well, at least New Yorkers, knows that Magic Johnson connected with Starbucks to bring the coffeehouse to the “hood,” but Shaq says not taking an offer to partner with Starbucks may be his “worst business decision.”
“So he said, Shaq, I want to put Starbucks in the hood. I never seen anybody drink coffee in the hood growing up. So I said to the man, you know, I don’t think this idea is gonna work. Black people don’t like coffee. He was offering a lot, but I’ve always said to myself, if I don’t believe in it, or if I don’t understand it, I can’t take your money.”
“Magic Johnson ended up doing the deal. That’s why sometimes when it comes to business, just ’cause you’re a businessman doesn’t mean you still know everything.”
Lesson 4: Educate Yourself Through Every Means
We have been told since our youth that education is important, and it is. We were also taught that, to be successful, we must earn a college degree. As long as Shaq can remember, his parents have stressed the importance of education, especially after his mother became pregnant at a young age, which thwarted her plans to go to college. And although he graduated from college and went into the NBA, instantly becoming rich, he still went back and got a master’s in business administration and then a doctorate. Yet, as Shaq noticed, having a degree doesn’t always lead to success.
“The process of education now is really starting to shift because a lot of people are educated and not really getting the jobs they want, so they’re starting to shift a little bit. So, you know, to me, education is learning something that you don’t know.”
“We were always taught to get an education. You have to have a college degree, but the owner of my company, the Authentic Brands Group, doesn’t have a college degree, and it’s a $33 billion company, but he educated himself on retail, educated himself. So, back in our day, it was education, it was books, and going to college. Now, education is so broad and advance. Just make sure you get the proper information and just educate yourself.”
So, the Los Angeles Lakers legend, who is still educating himself, is still learning and doing the necessary work to not only stay in business but to expand, elevate, and make Shaq the brand a bigger and better entity.
