415 Ray Lewis on Success and The Mindset of True Greatness

"You will never touch a level of greatness until your comfort zone is disturbed." - Ray Lewis If you enjoyed this podcast, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/415 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  Episode number 415 with two-time Super Bowl champion Ray Lewis. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to this special edition of the School of Greatness podcast. I'm so glad that you're here. Why am I glad you're here? Because you have a unique gift, my friend. That's right. You were born for greatness. You were born for a reason. And I don't care if you're on the journey and you know exactly what you're supposed to do. Or if you're someone listening who feels a little bit off, who feels stuck, who feels uncertain, who feels like maybe they haven't found out their purpose just yet. I'm telling you, you're here for a reason and you have an incredible, unique talent and gift inside of you.

• 1:14Lewis Howes?

  It's your responsibility to cultivate and learn what that is and bring it to this planet. We're waiting for you. We're waiting for you to show up and deliver your greatness to us. Now is the time. And we have an incredible interview today with someone who brings greatness out of everyone else. His name is Ray Lewis and he's widely considered to be one of the most dominant defensive players in NFL history. He led the Baltimore Ravens to two Super Bowl titles. He was named Super Bowl MVP in 2000.

• 1:55Lewis Howes?

  He's a 13-time Pro Bowler and was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year twice.

• 2:02Lewis Howes?

  He played with the Baltimore Ravens his entire 17-year career. He is the New York Times bestselling author of the book called Ray Lewis. I feel like going on life, game and glory. And he's got a new podcast out called Tackling Life. Make sure you guys check out both the book and the podcast to get more insights from Ray Lewis. But guys, this is a huge interview. So powerful, I was captivated the entire time. Ray Lewis has a gift. He has an incredible gift that he shares with the world, just like you have a gift. And it's time you bring it out. I hope you get inspired by this interview today.

• 2:43Lewis Howes?

  What we talk about is where Ray's drive for dominance as a player comes from. We talk about Ray's definition of what it means to be a man. Also, the most influential lessons he learned growing up without his father around and why it made him so driven to dominate. We talk about the story behind how Ray got Michael Phelps, one of the greatest athletes of all time, to come out of retirement and do what he just did in the last Olympics. Talk about Ray's vision for his legacy and his vision for the world. It's extremely powerful. And also what he hopes people will say about him after he's gone. Guys, we went to town today.

• 3:28Lewis Howes?

  I was captivated, like I said, by everything that Ray says here. So make sure to pay close attention. If you're working out, you may be working out a little bit harder with the things you hear. You may be working a little harder on your business with the motivation and inspiration you gained from this interview. So make sure to share this with your friends. LewisHowes.com/415 will take you to the whole show notes with the video interview, with all the links, how you can connect with Ray on social media, about his book. All that other stuff is at LewisHowes.com/415. We are also on Stitcher and SoundCloud and on iTunes. So share it out from any of those platforms.

• 4:10Lewis Howes?

  Get this message out there and let Ray know what you think about this interview.

• 4:20Lewis Howes?

  All right, guys. Welcome back to the School of Greatness Podcast. We have a legend in the house, Ray Lewis. My man, so good to see you. Thank you for being here. We appreciate you coming on.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me, man.

• 4:31Lewis Howes?

  Now, you are arguably the best defensive player in NFL history. Seventeen years in the NFL, is that correct?

• 4:39Speaker 01

  Seventeen.

• 4:39Lewis Howes?

  Seventeen, thirteen Pro Bowls.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  Thirteen.

• 4:42Lewis Howes?

  Two Super Bowls.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:44Lewis Howes?

  And one heck of a human being. So, we're super pumped that you're on here.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, thank you, man.

• 4:49Lewis Howes?

  I've only heard great things about you over the years. We met, I think, about a month and a half ago for the first time for lunch.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:56Lewis Howes?

  And when I met you in person, I just said, this is a guy I want to hang out with. This is a guy who's a good, good human being, great heart. And man, your level of focus and commitment is, is the top I've ever seen. You know, just having a conversation with you over lunch, I was like, this guy's focused. He's got a clear vision of what he wants and he's going after it. And, you know, you did that in the NFL for seventeen seasons and it's the reason why you're so successful. So, congrats on all your success.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  Thank you, man.

• 5:24Lewis Howes?

  You have a book out called, I Feel Like Going On.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  Yes, sir.

• 5:27Lewis Howes?

  Ray Lewis. Make sure you guys go get the book. We'll link it up in the show notes. I've listened to the half the audiobook, which I wish it was your voice, but the guy sounds like you, pretty much. He's intense.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  It's funny. It's funny because when we got ready to do it, I was like, you know, there were parts in there that I was like, oh, I would get so emotional reading that.

• 5:47Lewis Howes?

  Oh, I could imagine. I could imagine.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  And so this guy, my guy was like, you know, we have a guy that really has your voice.

• 5:53Lewis Howes?

  He was good.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  And so, and I said some of it, I probably, I may go back and redo it and do it, but I passed that along.

• 6:02Lewis Howes?

  The next one you can do.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:04Lewis Howes?

  The next book.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  Next two or three.

• 6:05Lewis Howes?

  There'll be many more, yes. You've got a podcast out right now called Tackling Life. Just launched it. It's you and a co-host. And tell me a little bit about what this is.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's me and a co-host, Dr. Christian Conti. He's a psychologist. We Started working together about two years ago on this show called Coaching Bad that we did on Spike Television. And it was essentially bringing coaches in to where we would find these like just real problems in the in the hoods and on these teams. Where coaches would just belittle people and just talk to these kids.

• 6:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  All type of ways. So me and Doc would get together and then kind of counsel them and just say, wait a minute. So why? And then Louis, as you know, there's always a deeper issue somewhere, right? And then one of them was abused from their early father and. You know, my husband is abusive and all these different things. So we found underlying things that was really triggering. Um, the way they spoke to these kids, but what me and him started to figure out was wow, like we're really good together. Like we're. I can bounce thoughts off you and ironically, he's right. He's from Pittsburgh. Right? I'm Baltimore. And I'm like, how do I get connected with freaking Pittsburgh still, right?

• 7:22Speaker 01

  And, uh, and then we started talking and, and after the show kind of ended and it didn't pick up the second year, we was like, look. I think this is just the beginning for me and you. And so we started to meet and our family started to get along and I love his daughter and. Everything. And so it was like, okay, let's, let's figure something out. And then, um, we actually started to create this online platform called fifty-two mindsets of mindfulness. And so we create, you know, fifty-two thoughts and we give you actually structures around it. And we're actually writing another book right now together. Um, and, and then that's how kind of the podcast started to come up because people was like.

• 8:06Speaker 01

  You know, I get on my social sites like you should do a podcast, do a podcast. And I'm like, uh, okay, let me find out what a podcast is. And all these different things. And then so when I thought about really creating a podcast, it was who would it be with? And, and, um, I don't know if I wanted to carry it along. Um, I applaud you for carrying yours along, but I think me and him just made such a great match. And that's how it ended up happening, man. Just a natural, organic fit.

• 8:32Lewis Howes?

  That's great, man. That's great. Um, speaking of troubled experiences, it's you talk about in your book about how your father wasn't around growing up. Um, I love some of the stories you talked about, especially the wrestling stories early on your high school. I didn't know you were like this big time state champion wrestler. And the reason you became a wrestler was to essentially remove the legacy of your father's name, right?

• 8:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:56Lewis Howes?

  You were like committed to doing something just because he wasn't there for you in spite of him.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was more of, um, it was more of, you're, you're right, but it was just more of, how do I get rid of this pain that I can't overcome? I just couldn't get past it.

• 9:12Lewis Howes?

  And your father was never there, right?

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Oh, man, I, never there, um, almost an understatement, you know, I just, it, it.

• 9:21Lewis Howes?

  You never met him, right?

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Not until, you know, and then I hear these stories, right? Oh, he was around when you was younger. I'm like, really? Who remembers that at two?

• 9:29Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right.

• 9:31Speaker 01

  But, um, you know, when I was growing up all the way through, I just never knew pops. And I'm like, you know, like mom, I never forget. I'm like, mom, like why? Like where, where's that? Like, why don't he want to come see me? Like, wow. And so, um, ninth grade, I quit basketball. I thought basketball was a very soft sport.

• 9:51Lewis Howes?

  I read, I heard that story about you. You like tackled someone almost.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, it wasn't a hard foul. It was just, it was aggressive foul.

• 9:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  And he started screaming so loud, oh my gosh. And I'm like, really?

• 10:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  Oh my gosh. And then I'm like, I can't do this.

• 10:06Lewis Howes?

  It's too soft.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then as I'm walking out, this wrestling coach was standing. He was like, come do this. And I was like, I'm not finna do all that cafeteria where sweaty and all this stuff. And the next year, um, 10th grade, um, this guy walked up to me, um, and was like, you should look at this. And I picked up this magazine and it was a wrestling book from 1975, the year I was born. And first picture I opened, it was my father's picture.

• 10:34Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  And I was like, wow, okay. And then I said, mm, really? I was like, I'm wrestling. And he was like, you ain't never wrestled before. I said, no. I don't need to know about wrestling. I just want to wrestle. So I started wrestling, man. And then. You know, I just fell in love with the one on one competition. Yeah. That you couldn't put it on nobody else. It was you and you on the mat and, and. And then I started to read further into this book and I saw my father had every record in this book. At the school he was at. Every record at the school. And I'm saying to myself, Louis, I'm like, wow, like this man was dominant. Wow. Like he was really dominant. And when I started, I had a coach by the name of Rindbar.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  He was, he was good, but he wasn't a technician type teacher. And so I was just like on straight brute and on straight pain and just frustration. So I used to just grab people and just slam them to the mat. No technique. No technique, no nothing. And then, and I always tell this, my kids this now, that in every fourth quarter and every final of anything, fundamentals is gonna get you through. Absolutely. And my, my first year wrestling fundamentals, it got me, it got, I got caught. Oh my gosh. I'm, I'm, I'm in the match, I'm in the semifinals before I go to state my first year wrestling. I'm like, I'm about to be going to the state finals and I'm sitting there back hugging this guy.

• 12:06Speaker 01

  And they must've studied me and he hit me with a head and arm. And oh my gosh, and if you know what a head and arm is, is when you back hugging and then when you back hugging, he comes cross and hooks your arm in. And when I looked up, I was like, no, no, don't let him pin me. And then he must've tried and ended up pinning me. I was devastated. And then, but I didn't know that, I didn't know that the seriousness of what it meant to be a champion or state champion. And, um, and so after that year, I came back and the next year was funny is that you, you saw this in the book. The next year, I go back to wrestling and the guy who tried to get me in the ninth grade, which was Steven Poole,

• 12:51Speaker 01

  was transferred over to Kathleen Senior. And then he was like, I'm the new wrestling coach. And I was like, wow, okay, let's go. And he was a pure technician. He taught me everything, took me home at the school every day. And then he asked me one day, I'll never forget, we was riding home and he was like, what drives you? Like what drives you? And I was like, um.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  I just don't know why my father don't come see me. And he was like, so, ooh, he was like, and you don't know that? I said, I don't know nothing. And he was like, wow. And I was like, you know, can you just take me home? He was like, wow, let me take you. Do you got something to eat? I was like, nah, my mom, you know, I don't eat often. Um, you know, I have four sisters and brothers and, you know, my mom had to take care of them a lot. And so a lot of times I had to skip meals. Um, so he started to become a father figure to really see what my drive was. And then every, after every practice, without overriding other kids, he would say, you want to get some extra work in? And I'm like, yeah, I want to know it all.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  And he just, he, he took me under his wing and as a, as a man, as a technician, he taught me how to defeat a man physically, by touch, by give, by take. And once I learned that, that skill, you never lose it. Yeah. You know, it's, it's what you see now in MMA. Yeah. All these different things. Once you have that skill of how to, you know, beat a man, it never leaves. And that's when I started to really say, every time I got mad that my dad wasn't there, I would go on the mat and I would just envision he was in the stands one time. Really? And I was like, I'm gonna give you something that you've never seen. And that's when I was like, my junior year, I was like thirty-nine and one. Wow.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  My junior year, I didn't lose at all. And then I lost in the state finals by one point. Oh. Yeah, got second. Ooh. Hurt. That stinks. Hurt, yeah. And then my, my, my, my final year, I came back and I just, I just like, I looked at my coach. He was like, what you want to do? I said, tell me what he didn't do. And I had snapped everyone his records before that. And he was like, there's never been a state champion here. And I was like, really? I said, guarantee I'm winning state this year. I said, take me through everything. So he took, took me through it all again. And, um, and, you know, me and my father now, we're real good friends. But, you know, my eleventh grade year, as you read in the book, you know, he sent me that letter.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  And I changed my name legally. And I was like, mm, I don't know if I will ever walk in his name. I don't wanna walk in his name. And so my senior year, this guy by the name of Tobey Bane, who was a referee. He said, I coached your father. And he said, I don't know if you ever would know you're the spin image of him. And I said, I don't know what that means. So he was like, oh, you are your father's son.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  And I was like, I was like, okay. I was like, okay. He was like, well, I'm refereeing your match. Well, I said, well, you get to watch something he never did. And he was like, what's that? I said, his fastest pen was eight seconds. I said, I'm gonna beat this guy in five. No way. He was like, really?

• 16:15Speaker 01

  The whistle blew. I hit him with an ankle dial. I hit him with an ankle and I climbed up on him so quick. Five seconds. Wow. Match over. Let's go. That's great.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  It was things like that, man, that, that, that took, um, I think took a missing piece. That I tell even my kids to this day. You know, I have four kings and two queens. And I tell them to this day, there are certain moments in a child's life that a father should never miss. Because when they replace it, they replace it with things. Most of the time, they get them in trouble. Because of where I was, how I was raised and my mom was so strict. I replaced it with dominance over another individual. So that's how my pain and everything that I was dealing with. I don't encourage nobody to live the way I live because I had hate for my father. Yeah. And hate turned into fuel.

• 17:13Speaker 01

  So I never would take too many breaks at all, still to this day. It's hard for me to take a break, Louis, because I always remember the emptiness of never being able to say, hey, dad, what you think about? Oh, never mind. That voice ain't here. And so, you know, when we became friends later in life, you know, one of the first things I told him, when he started to come around, I said, just do me one favor. Don't ask me for nothing. Just be my dad. Just be around to be my father. That's it. And so times I can jump in. And I can be a son, um, and then times I can, I, I, I have to get away from it. Because I'm a father and now, and I'm not a, a, a child anymore.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  And I don't need per se what I needed when I was a child. And so now I, um, I, I, I, I balance it out. I don't, not that it's a good thing, but I don't call him as much. Uh, we don't see each other as much, um, than we first started to, to make up for. And so I just live, man, and, you know, I love, I love him. I forgave him, um, for every moment that he missed, but it was, it was my fuel. That was, that's what fueled me in wrestling. That's what fueled me to break every one of those records.

• 18:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:28Lewis Howes?

  Was there a time when you started to, uh, whether it be in the NFL or before then, where you started to not be fueled by this anger, this pain, but you became fueled by something bigger than that?

• 18:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 18:40Lewis Howes?

  And how'd you transition from the anger to whatever that was?

• 18:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, my 12th grade year, um, my, my, uh, my junior year in college, um, my mom, I was going to University of Miami. My mom had moved us to Memphis. Because we had went broke and she had to move the family. And so she moved us to Memphis and I said, Mom, you cannot do this. Like, um, I got two years left in high school. I, I, and I'm going to college.

• 19:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  And she was like, you ain't going to college. You gonna raise your, you gonna help me raise these kids? And this is the way we gonna do this and we gonna live as a family.

• 19:16Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  And I'm like, Mom, like, no, don't do this, Mom, you gonna, and so, man, she had me in Memphis and I ran away a few times and paid heavy for the consequences. But when I got back, I'll never forget it. I was sitting on the floor and she walked up on my, right on the side of my shoulder and she slid $20 worth of food stamps down the side of my arm. And she says, I'm making a bigger, I think I'm making a bigger mistake in my life by letting you go back to Laker. And I was like, okay, okay. She said, here go $39, here go a Greyhound bus ticket. She said, get on the bus.

• 19:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  And I was like, all right. And then it was the hardest thing ever because I had to leave my family for the first time.

• 20:04Lewis Howes?

  You were how old?

• 20:04Speaker 01

  Brothers and sisters. This was me seventeen.

• 20:06Lewis Howes?

  Going into senior year?

• 20:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, going into my senior year. And so when I left, man, my senior comes up. I call mom and if everything go through, I call mom. I was like, ma, I got a scholarship. She was like, what, what, what do you mean? I was like, ma, I got a scholarship. Like, I'm going to college.

• 20:24Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 20:25Speaker 01

  And then she was like, um, okay. She was like, well, you know, times are rough up here, so you just let me know what I can do with you, do for you. I was like, I'm good. I'm good. I'll survive. And so every day I used to eat like a bag of candy. So that was my dinner. That's why I don't eat candy now.

• 20:44Speaker 01

  I used to eat a bag of candy. And then the transition happened. My sophomore, my, my junior year, my freshman year, University of Miami. My sophomore year, my mom got enough money to move back home. She left the guy that she was with. She moved back home to Lakeland. And then she called me my junior year and said, I'm broke. I can't, the light's off. There's no food in the house and I cannot feed your brothers and sisters. I was like, okay, pack up and everybody come live with me.

• 21:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:14Speaker 01

  She was like, you're in college. I was like, I will make it.

• 21:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  Just come on. And that's when it changed.

• 21:21Lewis Howes?

  Cause you're getting housing too. You're getting, you know, a stipend.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  Well, I was living off, I was living off campus then, you know, I won't share everything that was going on.

• 21:28Lewis Howes?

  This is back before things were regulated.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  This is back before they was watching closely. But, um.

• 21:35Lewis Howes?

  But you had your own place and.

• 21:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:37Lewis Howes?

  You had all the food you needed.

• 21:38Speaker 01

  I had a two bedroom place.

• 21:40Lewis Howes?

  You were hooked up.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  Right there in the Grove, I was hooked up.

• 21:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:43Speaker 01

  And she came down and that's when it shifted for me. That's when pain, I started to forget pain and started to say, if I can make my mom smile, I will never stop ticking.

• 21:57Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:58Speaker 01

  And so the moment she pulled up, I'll never forget it. She pulled up and she said, baby Ray, what are you doing? And I said, ma, I'm taking care of us. She was like, baby, some, baby, cause you know, she pulled up. I got a house. I got cars. I'm like, we gonna be all right. She was like, I don't know what's going on.

• 22:19Speaker 01

  And so, man, she pulled up and then that and that and that's what started to shift for me. And then I started to to get weight off my shoulders like, okay, father ain't there. It's cool now. You're the dad and and and you got to run things now and you have to be smart enough and this and that.

• 22:35Lewis Howes?

  And you're a starter at at the U at this time, right? You're a starter, you're doing well.

• 22:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was doing, I came in my freshman year and I, you know, I shocked people because I knew, you know, it's a rule. I always tell people, right? I've never beat no one out, just flat beat anybody out, right?

• 22:57Speaker 01

  But I always tell people, don't ever lose your job to me, because you may never get it back.

• 23:01Lewis Howes?

  You get injured, you get, you mess up, you say the wrong thing.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  Listen.

• 23:06Lewis Howes?

  He put you in for one black.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  That's what happened. I'm telling you, Louis. My my senior high school guy by the name of William Campbell, I'm a sophomore, William Campbell, he gets in a fight and he slams this guy and he breaks his jaw. The Wednesday before starting day on Friday. The next thing you know, Coach Grady Maddock stands up and says, and it's my senior high school and says, Ray Lewis is our starting rover, which is starting strong safety this week. Um, William Campbell's not here and I'm looking around, I'm like, what? It's Wednesday, Friday is the game and we're playing against Clouston. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, oh, boy. And I get in the game and I have like 24 tackles. Oh, my gosh.

• 23:49Lewis Howes?

  Crushed him.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  Some crazy game. Never got his job back.

• 23:52Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 23:52Speaker 01

  Went to University, went to University of Miami, same thing. This guy, I'm, I'm, I'm not even a media guy. Remember Miami gave me this scholarship, um, last scholarship they had because somebody got hurt. Once again, there was a guy, they had the number one linebacker in the nation and he ended up blowing his knee out on a quad runner. And they called me four days before signing day.

• 24:15Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 24:16Speaker 01

  Yes, University of Miami, Dennis Erickson and Art Keo saw me play my last game at high school against the number one recruiter in the nation at at the time, which was Jamie German.

• 24:25Lewis Howes?

  They were looking at him.

• 24:25Speaker 01

  They was looking at him, but they played, they played us in my hometown and I had this incredible game. Like 27 tackles, almost 170 yards rushing. It was crazy game. I had a crazy game and when I, the game was over. I never forget falling on my knees and I cried like a baby and every Fort Myers guy walked by and said, "Man, can you suit up with us next week? Can you play with us next week?" And I realized that my, it was over for me. It was your last game. Last game. Oh, it's hard. And, and next thing you know, four days before Sunday, the University of Miami called me and says, "We're gonna give you a full scholarship." Oh, my gosh. I jumped in the car, my grandmother driving me down, and I get there and I'm like, "Okay."

• 25:07Speaker 01

  I got a packer, I got a pack of number two pencils, I got a pack of paper, I got one pair of jeans, and I got three T-shirts, three white T-shirts. She was like, "You gonna be all right?" I said, "I just need a little money." She said, "I got, I got twenty dollars worth of food stamps." I said, "Give me the twenty dollars." Wow. I survived. And she dropped, they dropped me off, and I was like, "Survivor was on." And so I was like, "Here we go." And then I get to college and then these guys are like, "Who is this guy who's just cracking on everybody?" Like I was a jokester, right? And so Martin Lawrence was my favorite, like, character. And so like Jerome and Otis and all these people, right?

• 25:49Speaker 01

  Every time, uh, the older guys just always make me come in, like, "You gotta do it, you gotta do it before the meet." And so I became like really popular to the older guys because I was just like one of the guys. And I never forget, we got on the field first day, they was like, "Wait a minute, like, what's that?" And I was like, "There's not a more dominant player on this field than me right now." Really? Your freshman year? My freshman year. Wow. And this one, Warren Sapp and, you know, a lot of people. Warren was there too? Yeah, Warren Sapp was in his sophomore year. Beast. Beast. Oh, there was no greater privilege than to play behind Big Daddy. Oh, my, when I tell you dominant?

• 26:32Speaker 01

  When he goes, I say, just go, just go. I'll play off you. Don't you worry about me. He's taking like three players. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I'm talking about pure dominance, man. And then, you know, that's the same year, uh, you know, me and The Rock, we played, and he was there. He was there, huh? Yeah, absolutely. Ninety-three, ninety-two. Same year as you. Same years, yeah. Was he as dominant? He wasn't, he wasn't as dominant of a football player, was he? Nah, nah, nah. He was kinda like special teams or something, right? Yeah, he, he was a, he was a huge weight room guy. Oh, he could lift, right? Yeah, he was, he can, Dewey was so strong. He was throwing up like four direct to twenty-five. See, everybody know him as The Rock. I say Dewey. See, I, cause I know him personally.

• 27:13Speaker 01

  And then, man, it was like this thing, and Randy Shannon, who's at University of Florida right now, was my linebackers coach. And he just refunded me quickly. Wow. And he was like, wait a minute, this kid. And I was like, and I'll never forget, he sat me down, and he's like, what number you want? I was like, I said, I want a number nobody else has had. He was like, well, there's been some great ones coming through here. Darren Smith came through here wearing number forty-five, Jesse Armstead wearing number one, Michael Bear wearing number thirty-six, Rohan Marley, who's been my college roommate in twenty-three years, probably my best friend. And he says, so what number you wanna go after? I said, I don't want none of those numbers. He was like, what do you mean? I said, I'm starting my own thing. Hmm.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  He was like, well, here are the numbers, here are the options, the numbers that's left. And he pointed, and he said, what about fifty-two? He was like, nobody's never wore fifty-two but a center. Said, we had a center that wore that. I said, fifty-two is my number. He said, well, why fifty-two? I said, because, I said, that's God's number. He said, he said, wait a minute, he said, you a spiritual? I said, that's all I know. I said, God is all I know. He was like, so what do you mean that's God's number? I say, five and two is seven. Seven is the number of completion. He said, that's your number. He gave me fifty-two that day. Wow. And then I was like, it's on. I love that. It's on. Wow, man.

• 28:37Speaker 01

  And then, uh, you know, there was a bunch of the guys that was, you know, highly recruited. Over me and and Sure. I was a little bit different, Louis, cuz I was, I was the one that I couldn't take a break. So every day I was in the house, Louis, I was doing, oh my gosh, somewhere twenty-five, twenty-five hundred pushups, twenty-five hundred situps every night, like After practice. Yeah. Oh, man, before I went to bed. You're a machine, dude. It was like, I was like, cuz I was like, I'm not starting, not nothing, I'm just, I'm just trying to make a way. You know, I got mom in there and I'm really trying to figure this out and mom's broken, I'm like, okay.

• 29:20Speaker 01

  And I'll never forget it, um, Robert Bass, the senior, was playing in front of me and there's this other backer, who was a number one back in the nation, which was James Burgess, who was real good friends of mine, we, we, we became so close. JB took care of me in so many ways, man. I, I love what the University of Miami stands for because it's a brotherhood of people taking care of each other. And we getting into the second game of the year, my freshman year, true freshman, and we're playing Virginia Tech. And it's like six minutes and thirty-eight seconds on the clock and Robert Bass gets hurt, blows out his knee. And Randy Shannon, out of all the linebackers he could have chose, he says, I want Ray Lewis. And I said, huh? You hadn't played up to this point yet?

• 30:05Speaker 01

  We, we hadn't had a game. I played in Boston College, which was the first game I played, four plays, last four plays of the freaking game. Right. Um, I did end up with three tackles and a pass, but, but, uh, and then that, and then he got hurt and then Randy was like, I want Ray. And I was like, huh? Get, and I said, oh, boy. And he put me in the game, man, at middle back and, and I was like, there, nobody's ever getting this job back. He's never coming out. They don't know. I'm never coming out, Lou. Wow. And so, man, that game, man, I ended up with like sixteen tackles and a half. And then next week, Colorado, um, ABC,

• 30:44Speaker 01

  they had Rashawn Salam, Cordell Stewart, Michael Westbrook, Charles Johnson, Christian Foray, they had, they had a team like no other, no other. And I'll never forget the person, honestly, who I, who I'd steal credit to this day. Put me on the map with Keith Jackson. Keith Jackson said, I don't know if you know this young kid out of Lakeland, Florida, but if you've never watched football, this is a football player. This is a broadcaster? This is a broadcaster, Keith Jackson. Yeah, Colorado, I was starting as a, as a true freshman. Wow. That hadn't happened since Charles Farms. So, uh, when they brought me in, I was like, man, I went in Colorado and I had like,

• 31:27Speaker 01

  I had like 21 tackles, four pass breakups, a sack. And they asked me after that game, and this is where it all changed for me. They asked me after that game, they said, how good you think you could be? And I said, before I leave here, I'll be the greatest player to ever walk up on the University of Miami. And oh my gosh, the waves and the papers and everybody was writing and it was like, this kid says this and this is that. And one of the first phone calls I got was from Michael Irvin. And he was like, I love it. He was like, that's hurricane football. Right. And I was like, oh wow, Michael Irvin just called me. I was like, this is freaking cool. Wow.

• 32:08Speaker 01

  And man, that's what kind of, that's what kind of set me up to, to tell people, you know, like, I just always, I was always the prepared one. That there was nothing I didn't know about every position on a football field. And that's why I think when opportunity knocked, for me, it was like, I'm, I'm telling you, you will never beat me out. It's hard to beat me out. Unless you get injured. Unless I get injured. Yeah. That's it, that's it. So that, that's kind of what the thing that kind of catapulted me to, remember I told you, was, which changed my passion. Yeah. To then start to totally focus on making my mom smile. Wow. So everything that started burning inside of me, I'll never forget, man, when I was sitting out there one day

• 32:51Speaker 01

  and I came home and I told my mom, I said, mom, I'm go, I'm out. She was like, what do you mean? I said, I'm leaving college. She was like, baby, you're not leaving college. I said, Ma, we're broke. We have no food in the house. Hmm. I'm taking care of all of us. What do you want me to do? Stay here and keep going through this and come back another year? I just hurt both of my ankles. I guaranteed I'm going first round if I leave this year. Hmm. She was like, no, it's not promised. What about your degree? I said, I sign up, I'll sign up paper with you right now. That I get it later. That I get it later. Yeah. And she was like, that's the only way you leave. Wow. So you're a junior. Junior. So you left. Left. First round. First round. You got that money.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, after they told me, you know, I just heard so many things, Louis. You know, that's why I tell people, man, like, nobody dictates what you, what you do in life. You know, you dictate it. Nobody controls how hard you push in life. People can talk about you. People can say what they want to say about you. But nobody knows what your heart says every second. And that's what, for me, my heart told me, don't ever believe people. Because if you listen to people, you would never amount to anything. Hmm. And when I came out, I heard people say so many things. He's too small. He can't play in this league. He will only be a special teamer. And I said, wow, but you've never met me. Hmm.

• 34:15Speaker 01

  So I, it, it, so it kind of blew my mind to how people had already put me in this box. And forget speaking the coach's name, but the one coach, when I told him I was leaving, he was like, I have a bunch of coaches around this NFL. And I'm guaranteeing you will, you will go no better than the fourth or fifth round. Wow. I said, really? Okay. One of your coaches at Miami. Yeah, I said, well, I'm out. I'm out either way. So let's see how this goes. Yeah. And then, um, and then, you know, the story started to tell itself. Hmm. Yeah. Powerful. You wrote the story. I wrote it. You wrote it, right? You were the author of that story. Ah, Louis, that's what I tell people. You know, I, I tell people, the challenge of real life is,

• 34:57Speaker 01

  is being able to take something that's supposed to count you out. And say, you won't win because I controlled the outcome. And when people, if you, if you don't understand that, understand it this way. If it was not for the things I did not have, I don't know if I would have ever pushed the way I pushed. Mm hmm. I don't know, I love my father to death, but I don't know if I wanted my father around me with the life that he was living. Hmm. I don't know if I would have ever thought about why my brothers and sisters was more important than myself if my father was around. Because I would have saw a different example. Me not having, growing up, makes me appreciate giving now.

• 35:42Speaker 01

  That's why I give to so many people and I don't do it with cameras. I don't need cameras. Yeah. I just, I got a rule, Louis, to change one life a day, physically change a life a day, right? And when you do it, you realize that everything that I had lived was preparing me for now. Hmm. And it's because I pushed through it. It's because that I had a, I had a system that it was not man dependent. And it wasn't system dependent. It was heart dependent. It was effort dependent. It was if you get up and do it, there's on a certain thing that follows, action, and that's results.

• 36:23Speaker 01

  And so for me, I had this cycle of praying, I had this cycle of faith, and I had this cycle of seeing my mom smile. Hmm. And so at forty one, I have the same cycle. Right, right, right, right. Praying, faith, and seeing my mom smile. Wow. So my energy now in life is greater now than even when I was playing. Wow. Because now every second is to make my mom smile, like everything I do. Like that's why I tell people, if you hear me say something about you, don't get mad. It ain't personal. Right. It's never, it's never personal because I don't have, I don't have a personal vendetta towards nothing or no one. I just have my opinion. Yeah. Right? And I think, I think as a people, we should all have our opinion, you know?

• 37:05Speaker 01

  And so I think that's, it, it, it, it started to mold me to the man that I now am. Mm hmm. That says, no, I remember you saying I couldn't do that. I remember all the critics saying that my careers was over and I was losing this and losing that. So I think the inspiration on why I started podcasts, why I started to get involved in a lot of things is simply because. People are listening to too many other people. Right. You know, we're in a, we're in an era now where social media is king now. And so you're not, you're reading what everybody posts and this and that. But I, I always say that it's funny that social media never gives the ability to judge yourself before you judge someone else. Mm-hmm.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  You see, and so that's the trick of people that they don't know how to get by social media. You get by social media, don't read that mess. Right. Freaking read what somebody says about me, it's irrelevant. Yeah. Right, and so I think it's, that was my, that was my driving force all the way up. It's because of everything that I didn't have or heard that is said and this and that. And so I used to post a lot of things, I used to, a lot of years ago, I used to post articles where people used to say, "Well, he can't do this and he's too small," and he's, I was like, "Really?"

• 38:18Speaker 01

  They don't know what it feels like to be in this weight room right now. Hmm. They don't know what it feels like working out seven times a day. Yeah. Yeah, they don't know that I guarantee you I will play longer than any of the linebackers ever played in this game. Wow. They don't know, right? They don't know that my, one of my greatest heroes was Junior Sayaw, rest in peace. Yeah. They don't know how many times I sat down with him at the Pro Bowl and asked him, "What was it?" Like, "Teach me." Like, I'm, like, Louis, I was so different, because I was like a sponge. Yeah. To every, to every mentor I had, one of my greatest mentors that nobody understands was Benny Thompson. Benny Thompson was this, oh my gosh, he's probably one of the best special team players off pure effort. Hmm.

• 39:02Speaker 01

  That I've ever been around in my life. Heart. Heart, came from Cleveland, nineteen ninety-six, man, and he grabbed me and I, and, and, and I'm like, and he used to always call me, he used to always call me special delivery. Yeah. Because he used to always say, "I'm gonna come up with a play somewhere, I'm gonna come up with a play UPS," he'd say, "UPS." And it was guys like him that I started to sit up under. It was guys like Eric Turner, rest in peace, that I started to sit up under. Stephon Moore, Antonio Langham. I started to sit up under these guys, Anthony Pleasant, Robert Net. But I can go down the line of guys that I sat with and just was like a sponge.

• 39:45Speaker 01

  To just downloading this knowledge of what it is to be a professional or what it is to. And then once I downloaded enough of it, I never said I was okay. I kept going to somebody else. Yeah. And then somebody else, and then somebody else. And so that's why I think my evolving into the person that I became athletic wise. Was because of my historic background of going back and studying people. Not just studying them on the field, but I studied more people off the field. That's how I learned how to speak. So I learned how to speak. I had a bad stuttering problem when I was a kid. My stepfather done something very bad to me one day. I was looking out of a window after he had physically abused my mom.

• 40:31Speaker 01

  And I was crying because I tried to help her, but he used to beat both of us up. But anyway. And I was looking out the window one day and he took a snake and he threw it in my lap. And I was stuck. Like a real snake? Yeah, and I was stuck. And I was like.

• 40:49Speaker 01

  And I couldn't get it out. Wow. And for years, I was stuck with this slur. So if I would say.

• 40:58Speaker 01

  I was, I would always, yeah, and so. You know, and then, you know, they, my family, you know, they wrote it because they. Started calling me bad nicknames like whoa, whoa, and all these different things. That doesn't help you.

• 41:12Speaker 01

  And I was like, oh my gosh, right? And then. I started to watch people's mouth. So I would get up close to a television and I would watch people speak. And I was like, okay, okay, got it. And that's how I learned how to start. Wow. To speak, to really open up. Wow. Yeah, so I, I, I was a sponge. And that's why I tell people, kids learn exactly what they live. Yeah. Just as so as people, right? We dissect and download everything that we see, experience, witness, or have to endure. And so those things for me were my way of saying, do you, do you?

• 41:57Speaker 01

  And don't do it to be liked. Hmm. Do it to be respected. Hmm. Because being liked, you will have your fair weather fans. I don't, I don't live to be liked, man. I do not live to be liked. You know, I do, I will go home to the next life as being respected. Like, you can like me, you can hate me, whatever. But me as a person, nobody controls my temperature. I control my temperature. Yeah, wow. So much I want to ask you. I'm fascinated by, where do you think you'd be right now if your dad was the most loving, caring, attentive? I, I don't, I don't. Giving, you know. You know, I said it to this day, Louis, I don't know. Um, you know, and I shared this with him, you know? You, you're talking about a person who's now a real close friend of mine.

• 42:43Speaker 01

  Um, I don't know because I don't know if my passion would have been the same. You know, it was, it was, remember, it was all the things I didn't have. Yeah. Man, what excited me? What excited me then now was, you know, going all the way back, my mom at 10 years old. I was crying and stepfather just really beat her up real bad. And she had black eyes everywhere. And I tucked on her dress and I said, one day, one day, you'll never have to work another day in your life. Wow. And I'm gonna make sure I have it. And she was like, you 10, boy.

• 43:20Speaker 01

  And I was like, but I know. Hmm. I know. And that's why I tell people, man, be careful what you show kids, because kids remember it. Absolutely. And. Talking about it to this day. And I never forgot it. Yeah. And, and, and one thing you can never get. Get past is it will never leave you. It's just if you put set it aside for a while. But if you wanna be inspired, you can tap back into it at any given moment. And so that's what I think really ma- start making me realize that. My mom never spoke a ill word about my father, not one time in my entire life. I'm I'm telling you, I cannot remember a sentence where my mom said one thing bad about my father.

• 44:01Speaker 01

  She only said to me one time, she said, you need to learn who your father is. This was early in my twenties. She said, because you're following his same path. Right. And I said, okay, wow, I guess I need to find out who my father is. And then I started asking around and asking a bunch of people. And then I started to realize they was like, yeah, your father got ten kids. And I was like, my father got ten kids. Wow. Like, really? Wow, I only know two, and that's my twin sisters. So they was like, and then by this time, I done moved in, I got a girl. We got three kids together. It's like, I'm like, uh, cuz I'm craving to have my own family. Yeah. And this and that. And then I started to realize, I was like, wait a minute.

• 44:46Speaker 01

  Uh, we ain't gonna make his mistake. And so at twenty-four years old, it was my last child. But that was after I found out who my father was and the life he lived. And that's why I tell kids, uh, men, especially now that I'm that I mentor a lot is, even if you don't want to, go back and sit with your father. If you have that ability, because whether you want to or not, you're gonna learn something. And so I learned everything. And what I learned the most, Louis, is I don't wanna be like you. Not when it comes to being a father, right? As a man, I'll laugh with you all day. Me and you, cool. But when it comes to being a father, uh-uh, me and you are totally opposite. Cuz I don't know what missing one of my children's birthdays, graduations feel like.

• 45:28Speaker 01

  Every birth, I'm there, cutting a biblical cord. Yeah, like, it's just certain things as a man. I could not imagine me not being there for my kids. And so that's that was the. The things that I think I learned over the years of not having a father is why I consider myself. You know, I, I think my kids are privileged to have me simply because of what I didn't have. Yeah. And I wanted to give them everything. The pain you had, you wanted to make sure. Yeah, never doing that, yeah. Well, who'd you say is more influential in your life, your mom or your dad? My mom. Yeah. And what's the biggest lesson she's taught you? Don't you ever trust man. Don't trust man?

• 46:09Speaker 01

  She says, put your trust in no man. I, and she's installed me with that. She says, put your faith and your trust in God and God only, cause man will fail you every time. And when I started to hear that, I didn't know exactly what she was saying until I started to really live it. Then research it, then go back and live it again, and then research it again, then experience, then you're like, wait a minute. And then when you think about all of the pain that's caused in this world, trees don't hurt us. Ocean, oceans don't hurt us. People hurt people, people embarrass people, people belittle people. And that's what she protected me from.

• 46:54Speaker 01

  She protected me from ever letting my trust get so heavily into people, which I did, which I did, man. I trusted people who crushed me, who hurt my heart. I mean, they can take your heart and throw it away. Yeah. By the way they treat you and how they speak to you and certain things and, but I've never forgotten that. And I've never forgotten why every day I pick up, if not my Bible, I'm reading something to, to grow stronger with him. Yeah. Because one day we all got to leave and when those gates spread, I want him to, to know my voice by what I did here. By how much time I spent with him here.

• 47:35Speaker 01

  And that's what I kind of got from that, from, from, from the mature side of spirituality is God ain't gonna force a relationship with him. You got to go get a relationship with God. And I would invest in a relationship with God any day before I invest in a relationship with a man. Because he ain't on, it's just certain things he won't do or even attempt to do that man will do. And so. My mom became my hero young, young. Because I saw mom endure pain. And I was like, Mom, like, why are you freaking letting this guy keep putting his hands on you? Like, let's go. Like, we don't have to deal with this. She was like, I ain't got no money. I can't move. I'm like, this is with black eyes. I'm like, Mom, we gotta go.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  I can't anything for my kids.

• 48:22Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 48:23Speaker 01

  And I was like, damn. And then, um, and man, it was, um, and then still to this day, man, I'm telling you, like, when I look at her, like, I, I, I grab her, like, I hold her, like, look, I got you in this life. Until God brings you home, I got you. That's my duty. And so even Thanksgiving, you know, um, losing my aunt recently, just holding her, you know, and just letting her know that, look, what I told you at ten.

• 48:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 48:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm forty one now.

• 48:52Lewis Howes?

  That's powerful.

• 48:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, so mom is, um, you know, they always ask me, like, who's my sports hero? I always say my mom.

• 49:01Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 49:01Speaker 01

  Uh, so.

• 49:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Well, even though your father wasn't giving you much, uh, positive lessons, what would you say is the most important lesson or inspirational lesson that you learned from him?

• 49:12Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 49:15Speaker 01

  To be a man and own the things that you didn't do.

• 49:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What would you say is your definition of a man?

• 49:23Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 49:23Lewis Howes?

  Cause I'm, I'm writing a book about masculinity right now.

• 49:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:26Lewis Howes?

  And you're, you know, arguably one of the meanest, toughest NFL defensive players of all time, who just wants to inflict pain on people. That's your mission to hurt people.

• 49:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:37Lewis Howes?

  What would you say is, uh, and has your definition evolved of what it means to be a man over the years?

• 49:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, um, we took a six hour drive to, to one part of North Carolina, Charlotte, to another small part of North Carolina, where my grandfather, Shady Ray Wrighthead, was living. And I didn't know where we were going. And we pulled up to this green trailer. And we get out. And I walk in. And my dad says, meet your grandfather. I'm thirty three. And I'm like, okay. Oof, wow. And I, the floor, couch, I laid on the floor. And I heard my dad say to him, dad, why did you leave me? Wow. And I said, wait, wait, hold on. No way.

• 50:27Speaker 01

  Like, this is generational. Like, this is, this is generational curses, man. Like, what are we doing? Right? And Louis, there's something special about manhood. Twenty years to the day. My son is twenty one. I'm forty one. My father's sixty one. My grandfather's eighty one. His father is a hundred and one. Wow. Five generations. No way. Five generations. Twenty years. Twenty years. And I rode with him for six hours and I never said a word. And when I got done listening to him, this is to your point. I said, you know what a man is? A man accepts all of the wrongs, never complains, forgives,

• 51:13Speaker 01

  and then moves on. That's what a man does. Because you can never replace him not being to a football game. No. Never replace him not being to a wrestling match. Track me, never. Beat up by a group of kids. You can never replace him not being there. You can never replace that. So what you can replace is you can replace it with going forward. And going forward, simply, if you have kids, if you don't, even if you don't have kids, you can then become a mentor to someone. Because that's what a man does. A man takes it. And then he expands it based off what he didn't have. But now he can use the platform to bless others.

• 51:58Speaker 01

  And so that's what I believe the expansion of real manhood really is, right? The difference of wisdom and knowledge, right? Knowledge is to definitely be gained and read as much as you need to read and, and, and download as much knowledge as you need to. But wisdom is the actual application of knowledge. And once you go through the knowledge of not having and the ups and downs, then the wisdom of that is not to keep it to yourself, it's to spread it. Absolutely. Yeah, and that's what I believe. When you ultimately evolve into a man, a man's man, men recognize that. And so it's funny because now I'm on this side of life. And I'm fifteen times more popular on this side of life than I was.

• 52:43Speaker 01

  Playing the game. Playing the game. Yeah. And why is that? Why you ask yourself why? Because the game, any way you wanna cut it, is still based on wins and losses. Right? This side of life is based on life or death. Yeah. It's it's like, there's no option with this one. Right. Remember, in the game, practice the next day. Yeah. We lose this week. Always another game. Always next week. Focus on next game. If not next, if not next week, next year. Yeah, yeah. And maybe I didn't go to a Super Bowl, I'd go to a Pro Bowl, dah dah dah. So, all of that is one thing, but what happens when you come to life? What happens when a father just walked up to you and told you that he can never see his kids again? Right? An eight-year-old called me the other day and said, my daddy coming home for Thanksgiving? He's in the military.

• 53:29Speaker 01

  And he calls me the next day and says, my dad ain't coming, he dead. Wow. Life gets real. And so you have to be prepared to encourage people not to give up. Encouraging people in a football game is so much easier than looking at the child and knowing that his father's fighting for our country and he ain't coming back. And so, the fight is different. Yeah. Yeah, the the war is different now and and um and so I'm in a I'm in a unique place now because the streets are calling and there are not, there are not too many voices that will stand to be persecuted for the right things. And the right things is, you know, we, we as a country need to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

• 54:10Speaker 01

  You know, we, we as a country have allowed morals to be lost. And that's what manhood is. That's what. Since as a child, that's all we knew is the way you were raised, the way your family raised you is what is that's the product you're supposed to go put in the earth. Right, but you pay attention to the music that we're listening to now, watch the movies, watch even the video games. You know, Louis, we got cartoons now cursing and having sex. Right. How do you, what, how do you raise kids? You know, we have all these things that individually we're allowing to happen, but and I keep saying this. There's no they, you know, they can't do what they did this, they there's no they, we are the they. We're doing it, yeah.

• 54:52Speaker 01

  We're doing it, like we're allowing these things and I believe popularity comes from correction. People wanna be corrected. That's why Joel Steen is so powerful. Cause people want knowledge. They wanna be corrected. They wanna be led the right way. They wanna at least have the tool. Yeah. To go do it, but guess what happens? Distraction, this, that, da, da, da, da. And so that's why I believe, you know, manhood is um is figuring out that when you leave this earth and somebody researches your story, what would they say? Like what really would you be, how would you be looked at, right?

• 55:31Speaker 01

  And I'm not talking about from falsehoods and false accusations and, you know, media can say anything out their mouth and you find yourself going through certain things in life and people can hate you by something they don't have a clue about. Yeah. And people play judges all the time. They play lawyers all the time, right? Until you're really in it. And when you're really in it, you find out something very quickly. You find out how wishy washy people really can be. Right. And so that's why I think um I stand firm as a man with who I am. Um, because I don't ever want my kids to see something that I know ain't right. Right.

• 56:11Speaker 01

  My daughter, my youngest daughter, she just wrote, I was gonna send it to you this morning. She just wrote this um this whole thing for for for a school. And it was a whole thing, oh my gosh, she's one of, she's one of the brilliant ones. Athletics is not her thing, she likes it, but she's in like three languages and she's just very smart. And she wrote this thing this morning, like, well, a couple days ago, about where music has taken us. And the things that we're allowing to be said in music, but we're looking for our population to change. Yeah, with, where, you know, we got all these rappers and there are some great rappers. You know, I think LL Cool J is one of the cleanest people I've ever been around in my life, Will Smith is, you know.

• 56:57Speaker 01

  But when you think about some of the messages that we have now, like, we're promoting domestic violence. Like, we're promoting drugging women. That's popular for people, yeah, yeah. Ah, it's, it's, it's the new thing. And so that's why I think, you know, at the end of the day, um, popularity

• 57:14Speaker 01

  is the same thing that really got the devil kicked out of heaven. So you have to be careful with who makes you popular. Right. And, and, yeah, and believe me, your money is your popularity. I would, I would trade in any amount of money to save souls in anything. Absolutely. And that's what I think true manhood is, is that you're a trailblazer for change, not a pathfinder. See, cause a pathfinder, that mean you're just following people and that's what's wrong with social media, right? Followers or likes. That contradicts everything the good book says. Because the good book says you must be a leader before follower, but it's the opposite on social media. It says, if you like me, then I become popular. Right.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  But the good book says it's better to be respected than liked. You see? So the contradiction preys on men's and weakness, and, and women's weaknesses. Because the thing that we think makes us credible actually dilutes our brand. Wow. And so that's where the, the, where you have to really be careful with the world saying, look how many followers he has, seventy million. Right. And then you have to ask the next question, and your message is what to those seventy million? Because if you're leading those seventy million down the wrong path, no matter how much money you got, your life won't end well.

• 58:39Lewis Howes?

  No, it's not fulfilling either.

• 58:40Speaker 01

  It can't be. It can't be. But so this is, I think, you know, if you think about evolving over time as an athlete, great athletes, great superstar, duh, duh, duh, duh, and then you you leave that world and you come into walking as a man every day. I walk up to people every day and it's amazing, the mothers and the fathers that are literally just pushing their kids towards me. They need to listen to you. They need to come live with you. You know, because I'm like, well, it ain't me. It's that I've never gotten rid of what my mom taught me.

• 59:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 59:17Speaker 01

  Right? Yes, ma'am, but still, yes, ma'am.

• 59:19Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 59:20Speaker 01

  Yes, sir, still, yes, sir. It'll never change, right? Respecting elders is still the same. I don't get it, right? You get guys to make all of this money in the league. And now because you make millions of dollars, you feel that you can just curse and say whatever you want to say in front of coaches?

• 59:36Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, disrespect.

• 59:38Speaker 01

  It shows the level of what we're allowed to happen. You know, we sit in meetings, right? And you listen to all these conversations. And and and and I sit back and and I'm like, and then when people started to see me in music, like, oh, don't, no, don't, don't say that in front of him.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, because you're not gonna, you're not gonna sit there and do that, and I'm sitting there. Right? I stopped cursing at twenty four years old. Yeah, my last time touching brown liquor was twenty four years old, which is almost was was also my last child, too. So me and brown liquor don't get along.

• 1:00:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, but it's it's certain things that I put away to become.

• 1:00:24Speaker 01

  A trailblazer.

• 1:00:25Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:00:26Speaker 01

  Because I wanted people to one day look back and say, that's a man. I wa- I was craving to be that person that people talked about on Thanksgiving.

• 1:00:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:00:36Speaker 01

  That's the person I wanted to be.

• 1:00:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:38Speaker 01

  And now, people once was interested in how great of a football player I was. But now, at my speakings and what I do online now, the people that I impact now is you're giving them hope. Giving them direction. And you're giving young men an opportunity to say, you know what? Maybe my life isn't where I wanted it to be. Maybe I've been through some tough times. But you know what? I got an example that shows you.

• 1:01:12Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:01:12Speaker 01

  You don't have to give up.

• 1:01:14Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:01:14Speaker 01

  You don't have to buy in. And you don't never have to accept the hand that you dealt. Change it.

• 1:01:21Speaker 01

  And so that's why I think this side of life for me is, is, is, is gratifying from the point that a win and loss sometimes got in the way of purpose. Right? Because you lose a game, you lose, you come out of a game, you lose a game, but man, I lost, you know, what could I do better, whatever? But then now, you go to bed at night and you wake up with calls in the morning, you know, that I got yesterday morning that said, you prayed for me, you gave me all these affirmations to say, and I just came from the doctor and he says I don't have cancer.

• 1:01:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:02:00Speaker 01

  That's, that's, nah, Super Bowl is hard to beat.

• 1:02:04Lewis Howes?

  Pretty good credibility right there.

• 1:02:05Speaker 01

  But.

• 1:02:06Lewis Howes?

  But saving someone's life is more.

• 1:02:08Speaker 01

  Saving someone's life.

• 1:02:09Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. It's more important than saving someone's fantasy team, right?

• 1:02:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. Totally different conversation.

• 1:02:15Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:02:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Giving people hope with their fantasy team is different, yeah.

• 1:02:20Lewis Howes?

  Man, there's so many things I want to ask you, right?

• 1:02:21Speaker 01

  Everything.

• 1:02:22Lewis Howes?

  Gosh, I'm curious about your mind.

• 1:02:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:25Lewis Howes?

  And how you prepared for the big games and big moments in your career and how that's translated into the big moments in life after your career. I feel like you are so focused, coming out of that tunnel every time, you had a certain intensity and focus of certainty that just no one else really had.

• 1:02:43Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:02:44Lewis Howes?

  What was the, the practice or the ritual or the?

• 1:02:49Lewis Howes?

  Two hours before, thing that you did to get ready mentally and emotionally before you stepped down on the field. Was there a routine you had? Was there, or were you just always wired that way?

• 1:03:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was a real routine I had. After years, you know, when I used to come into my hotel room,

• 1:03:10Speaker 01

  I had to have, just like now, I had to have candles everywhere.

• 1:03:15Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:03:16Speaker 01

  My mom got me a bunch of.

• 1:03:20Lewis Howes?

  The night before the game?

• 1:03:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:22Speaker 01

  She got me a bunch of holy coverings of cloths and holy oil. And I used to, not to be graphic, but get completely nude.

• 1:03:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:03:36Speaker 01

  Get on the floor, wrap myself up, put holy oil all over me. And I used to just lay there and just meditate and just let go.

• 1:03:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:03:48Speaker 01

  And because

• 1:03:52Speaker 01

  the game will fade. Wins and losses come a dime a dozen. But the battle will never be different. And that is you versus me. And when a man physically feel you thrust into them, they know what intention you come with.

• 1:04:16Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:04:18Speaker 01

  So every night.

• 1:04:19Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:04:20Speaker 01

  I had to get to a point of releasing worry. Releasing doubt, releasing fear. That's why I studied so much. I studied so much because when I, when I go, I'm gone. You can, you can call it how you call it, but when I go, I'm gone. And, and that's what. You know, it started to become such a spiritual battle because when you, you know, people used to, guys, I used to be playing the guys, they used to be like, come on Ray, don't talk to me like that. I ain't got no other choice. Out here, this is pure battle. Wow. You know, this ain't no disrespect to war. War and battle is different, right?

• 1:05:04Speaker 01

  But it is, it's battle. Like it's you taking your body. I've been through nine surgeries. Oh. Right, so it's like you taking your body and you're saying, I'm finna go try this one more time. And one more time, and one more time. Play after play after play after play. Seventeen years. Oh, bro. And so, and so my, I, I, I, I used to go in hotel rooms and people would tell you, I don't leave my hotel room for nothing.

• 1:05:34Speaker 01

  Walk downstairs to the meeting, back upstairs to my room. Wow. I don't need to see the city. I don't wanna go out in the city. Wow. My head is down. I don't need, this was crazy. That's what I'm telling you. I, I'm not, no, no disrespect to the game. Sure. I cheated life so much. Because I was so serious about the game that I walked in, I'll never forget it. Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, all these places, I walked in these places and I promise you while I was playing, I never knew what they looked like. The cities, yeah. Never. My head is down the whole time. I'm like- You got the headphones on. Everything. The hoodie. Everybody out. I'm tuning everybody out. Wow.

• 1:06:15Speaker 01

  And only until I joined ESPN for a few years that I started to travel. Look at this city, that's cool. I'm like, wow, Cincinnati is beautiful. This is why people live here, right? And then I started to realize, like, man, there is more to life. Like Ray, you got to come out of this shell. And my, um- My oldest daughter said something to me one time. She was like, she was like daddy, you finally let go. I was like, what do you mean? She says, you laugh all the time now. Cause when I was playing.

• 1:06:47Lewis Howes?

  You didn't smile much at all.

• 1:06:48Speaker 01

  Man, my kids, man. I, I took my kids to a lot. Cause my kids was like, dad pissed off.

• 1:06:55Lewis Howes?

  Always.

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  Dad pissed off. Dad is always pissed off.

• 1:06:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:07:00Speaker 01

  You know, and I played with them, you know, and I did my thing, but.

• 1:07:03Lewis Howes?

  It wasn't a sense of like free joy.

• 1:07:04Speaker 01

  Right. It was like, cause I knew, I knew that every week I had raised them and trained them to never be outworked. Never.

• 1:07:17Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:07:18Speaker 01

  Be outworked. Louis, I didn't stay around because of my athletic ability. I stayed around purely because my effort was way higher than everybody else.

• 1:07:29Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you could have, looking back now, you could have had more fun or you could have let go and enjoyed certain aspects of life and still been as dominant? Or did you need to be fully obsessed?

• 1:07:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:41Lewis Howes?

  That whole time. That's the only way.

• 1:07:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. When you, and when you talk to other people about it, like that has done things you've done. Like one of my closest friends to this day is Jim Brown. And Jim.

• 1:07:54Lewis Howes?

  Ohio legend.

• 1:07:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:55Lewis Howes?

  He's from Ohio, so.

• 1:07:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. So he mentors me on so many different levels. But to listen to how similar we are.

• 1:08:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:05Speaker 01

  And the way we think. And I'm like, wow, Jim Brown. But we think just alike. And that's why I think, you know, once you go, once you buy in, and that's why I say sometimes it's what you don't have that catapults you to never taking a break.

• 1:08:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:24Speaker 01

  And that was my thing. Like I, I'm telling you Louis, like if you ever went down, if you ever sat down and watched my career, like closely enough, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't play for plays after five, six years. I played for man's spirits. I wanted them to one day look back and say, you did not want to play against him.

• 1:08:51Speaker 01

  Like that's a whole nother animal. You want to run to the other side of the field. Cause it's. Run out of bounds. Cause it was, it's personal. Wow. It's every time it was personal and so. I'm almost glad I didn't make the league.

• 1:09:05Speaker 01

  Just so I could save my ribs. That's what I love though. You know, one thing I did is I love to lose in practice. Because it has showed me on what I can get away with in the game. That's why I tell people, if you want to try anything, try it at practice. Yeah. Try anything at practice, anything you want and I, and sometimes in office coordinators, I used to go again. Sometimes I just run in there and just shoot to that and the coordinator was like, what are you doing? Coach, I thought it was a screen. I, you, I mean, correct me now, but later, you know, and so. That's funny. Yeah. So when I got on the field, man, I, I, I don't know, cause I studied so many people.

• 1:09:48Speaker 01

  So I studied Bruce Lee, I studied Muhammad Ali. I studied so many like minds um on how to defeat distraction. And so um one of the quotes that I stuck with for me, stuck with me for a long time is from Ali. When he says, I hated every day of training, but if it meant spending the rest of my life as champion, then I'd do it all over again. Yeah. And I grabbed that quote early. And so when I used to block out six months to go stay at my beach house in Florida. Like my kids would tell you, my dad ain't leaving this beach house. Like if we want to see him, we got to go see him. Right.

• 1:10:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. And so when they came down, I started taking them through what I was. Training. Yeah. Like feel what this sand feels like. Like there's no, I mean, I, I got on sand two thousand one and I never trained on anything else but sand. Wow. Right? And so.

• 1:10:48Speaker 01

  It was what I made up in my mind because of the underdog story. Yeah. That's why I love underdogs. Me too. Right? It's the best. Cause it's, it's, nobody can take the temperature of a real underdog. The heart. And so that's why I think, you know, me playing, um, I started playing against coordinators. I wasn't playing against players no more. I thought coordinators started to realize how smart I was in the game. So I started to go back and study film two, three years prior. What is his favorite package? What does he like to run on second downs? And as if you go through a stretch of my career, I used to thought, I, I used to think it was embarrassing

• 1:11:32Speaker 01

  if somebody was able to run a screen on me. Cause you could see it so clearly now. You're like, you know, that's great. It's a matrix. Yeah. Now, I watch football now and anybody who watch sports with me is like, how do you see all that? I'm like, this is the slowest thing I will ever see. Yeah. Right, dropping back. It's too slow. I can see the lineman, I can see the tight end, I can see the receiver, I can see it, you see it all. Every day. Right? And so I think it's a, it's, it's what started to make me realize that, you know what this game really about? And this is why I love wrestling so much. Somebody, every week, somebody or somebodies has been given an assignment to block you. Yeah. That's it.

• 1:12:14Speaker 01

  So when I laid in my quilts at night, I'm sitting there saying, I'm on fish and vegetables. Yeah. I'm on ginger tea.

• 1:12:24Speaker 01

  I'm on things that I promise you detoxes the brain and I'm gonna get 10 to 11 hours of sleep. Wow. And when I wake up, I promise you, what I'm coming with, you, you, you know, these kids, I'm, I'm watching these kids try to play against me, Louis. You know, and they eating McDonald's and they eating that. Caddie all day. Don't have a chance. No. You don't have a chance, you know, and maybe you beat me in the first quarter. And maybe you beat me on the plays. That's one thing about my career. I've lost some battles that I look back and say, God darn it. Like, why did you look that way? Why did you go that way? But then I wouldn't change nothing. Because it, it made me say, okay, it won't happen again. And I think that's what my career was like. My career was if I made a mistake once, it's hard to beat me twice.

• 1:13:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you'll remember it. I'm curious, I don't want to take too much more time, but I have a few more questions. Please, okay. I'm curious, you're one of the most influential leaders of today in my mind. And for the fact that you got the greatest Olympian of all time to come out of a retirement. I watched a video of him talking about how he had a conversation with you for, I don't know if it was a day or many days when he retired. I think it was when you were going to the Super Bowl last. And he decided, I think, to come back and pursue the Olympics again. Now,

• 1:13:49Lewis Howes?

  why did you have a conversation with Michael? And why was your purpose behind having him come back after he had achieved more than any human had ever done in the Olympics?

• 1:13:59Speaker 01

  We've been friends over a decade way before that.

• 1:14:04Lewis Howes?

  He's a big Ravens fan and.

• 1:14:06Speaker 01

  Baltimore, living in Baltimore. So our relationship was more of a older brother.

• 1:14:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:13Speaker 01

  Younger brother to him. And

• 1:14:18Speaker 01

  a lot of people don't know, like, a lot of my games, after I got through a lot of my games, I just go over to his house.

• 1:14:24Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:14:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:14:25Speaker 01

  We just sit down and chill.

• 1:14:27Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:14:28Speaker 01

  And, um,

• 1:14:30Speaker 01

  and my 40th birthday, he comes through the door. And he says, I need to talk to you. And I was like, okay. Cause I know when he talks a certain way.

• 1:14:42Lewis Howes?

  Sup, sup.

• 1:14:43Speaker 01

  I was like, okay, what's up?

• 1:14:47Speaker 01

  And he says, I want to talk to you

• 1:14:51Speaker 01

  about coming back.

• 1:14:54Speaker 01

  I said, okay, let's go talk right now. He was like, okay. I said, I'm not listening to you.

• 1:15:01Speaker 01

  Unless you tell me why you're doing this. You said this to him? Yeah. Yeah. He was like. I just think I love someone for this business. I said, listen, answer this question for me. Is this for somebody else or is this for you? He was like, it's for me. I said, I'm one hundred percent in. I said, now. Now that you said that. I'm gonna be big brother to you and I'm gonna tell you the truth. We had to give up everything. You gotta change your whole thought process. He was like, I was like, I'm not playing. Like, I'm not finna go on this ride. Like, unless you're dead serious. And he was like. And it took a few days. Yeah. And he came over.

• 1:15:46Speaker 01

  A few more days and.

• 1:15:49Speaker 01

  We really sat down and we went and went over. And I shared some stuff with him that I won't share with everybody right now. But I shared some stuff with him that I think. Honed him in. To like, this ain't no game. This life. Yeah. And we have plans. Like, me and him, we have real plans on. What we wanna do in the second half of life. Yeah. And I said, I'll delay those for you to go finish this. I will.

• 1:16:19Speaker 01

  And then he joked around, he was like, so why don't you come back for a few years?

• 1:16:24Speaker 01

  Right. But you're forty. I said, I'm done. Yeah.

• 1:16:29Speaker 01

  I had my fun.

• 1:16:31Speaker 01

  But it was one conversation. The last time.

• 1:16:36Speaker 01

  We talked. And I grabbed him by the back of his neck and I, I made him answer something. And I said, look at me. And he looked up and I said. Let's go. You ready? And I knew it. And, and, and more people will be able to explain that to you if you ever look at somebody deep enough in their eyes. Yeah. Man's, man can't hide too many things that's in their eyes because it's in their soul and their spirit. And there was something that he wanted and I wanted it for him. And so some of the messages that I was sending him before the meets and everything, they were personal. Yeah. But only me and him know exactly what I was talking about. Right.

• 1:17:22Speaker 01

  And I'm like, god damn it, ain't no tire. They know nothing. Yeah. It's finishing this. Yeah. Because the only thing you competing against, and that's one of the biggest things I told him, Louis.

• 1:17:35Speaker 01

  This is not against nobody else. This is against yourself. And that's the story of my tricep is what I ended our conversation with. Because I've never felt pain like that in my life. Yeah, I read that on your book. Yeah. And to, to pin my arm up the night before the Super Bowl and have it dangling because it was burning so bad. But what is you gonna say? You can't walk up to your team and say, I can't play today. No. You can't walk, I didn't say that. No. You just got to say. Deflate the whole team. You just got to say, I'm in, let's go. Go with it. Wrap it up. Man, I'm walking through this, I'm walking through the Superdome, I'm walking through New Orleans when we got ready to come here, Louis.

• 1:18:19Speaker 01

  And I'm like, Lou, how you finna play a football game?

• 1:18:24Speaker 01

  You cannot pick up your arm. Wow. And I'm saying, okay. I said, Lord, okay, the test bigger then, I'm on faith, I'm on straight faith. And it was kind of what I told him. Is that. Until you're, until you reach this level. Of pure pain that nobody else can ease. You'd never know what being a champion feels like.

• 1:18:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:49Speaker 01

  And that's why I think for him, he needed to hear.

• 1:18:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:53Speaker 01

  That, no, it's not impossible. It's just certain things you got to switch out on and give up.

• 1:18:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:58Speaker 01

  Before you go back and do it.

• 1:19:00Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:19:00Speaker 01

  And so that's why I was, uh.

• 1:19:02Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:19:02Speaker 01

  I was happy to see the way we finished it, the way he finished it because, nah, he writes his own story.

• 1:19:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. I was, I was there in Rio when I got to watch him. A couple of times. I didn't see a final. I saw a semifinal, but it was really cool to just be up in close and, and see. Cause I'd never seen him swim in person, so.

• 1:19:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:20Lewis Howes?

  For me, I was like, I gotta see his last, one of his last races and make sure I, I witness history. Uh, but it was really cool to see his energy switch also. He was able to be more relaxed, kind of have more fun.

• 1:19:32Speaker 01

  It's what the thing I was telling him. So every text I was sending him, I was sending him.

• 1:19:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:35Speaker 01

  Small little things. Practice on this. Think about this. Think about this. Don't do, don't do. Because that's all it is. It's not about nobody you're swimming against.

• 1:19:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:42Speaker 01

  Right? If, if, if athletes ever understand that, right? The game, the competition, it ain't about nobody else. It's about you versus you.

• 1:19:51Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 1:19:52Speaker 01

  How can you inspire yourself?

• 1:19:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:56Speaker 01

  To, to, to achieve a level of greatness.

• 1:20:00Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:20:01Speaker 01

  That not too many people that will ever walk this earth can pull off. That, that's a different breed.

• 1:20:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:09Speaker 01

  It's a different conversation.

• 1:20:10Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing.

• 1:20:11Speaker 01

  And so that's why I wanted him to relax and that's why you see he was really like.

• 1:20:15Lewis Howes?

  He was chill.

• 1:20:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:16Lewis Howes?

  Having fun.

• 1:20:18Speaker 01

  We're FaceTiming before the meets and stuff, so it was really cool.

• 1:20:21Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 1:20:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:23Lewis Howes?

  Okay, this is a question I ask at the end. It's called the three truths.

• 1:20:26Speaker 01

  The three truths.

• 1:20:27Lewis Howes?

  Okay, three truths.

• 1:20:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:29Lewis Howes?

  If this is your last day many years from now.

• 1:20:31Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:20:32Lewis Howes?

  You live a long life. You achieve everything you ever wanted, dreamed of.

• 1:20:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:36Lewis Howes?

  You achieve it. You impact as many people as you want. It all happens.

• 1:20:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:40Lewis Howes?

  You write a million books, everything. And it's the last day for you.

• 1:20:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:45Lewis Howes?

  Everyone you care about is there. And it's about to be, lights are about to shut off.

• 1:20:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:49Lewis Howes?

  New lights are about to turn on, right? And everything you've created is erased from time.

• 1:20:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:20:56Lewis Howes?

  And your family and your friends are there and your great, great grandson walks up and says, "We don't have anything to remember you by, "but here's a piece of paper and a pen. "Will you write down the three things you know to be true about everything you've experienced in life? "Those three lessons that you'd pass on to us."

• 1:21:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:13Lewis Howes?

  So if you could boil it down to three simple truths about life's lessons, what would you write down?

• 1:21:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would write down, number one, I would write down,

• 1:21:23Speaker 01

  master, master your relationship with God, number one. Number two, trust no one with your heart. And number three, never, never be outworked, ever.

• 1:21:37Lewis Howes?

  Never?

• 1:21:38Speaker 01

  Yeah. Just like, can go to a zillion things, but the things that I think when their legacy is done, when the shade one day will close,

• 1:21:52Speaker 01

  what will people look back one day and say, "What did you give me?" And that is,

• 1:21:58Speaker 01

  I don't want, I, I tell my family this all the time. "I know you will, but don't cry when I'm gone." "Please, because I done it.

• 1:22:11Speaker 01

  "I ran my race." Right? And now to one day for me personally to hear those words that I know I will hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Then all I can leave is everything that I've endured, all of my pain that I don't remember, and all of the people that come behind me can one day look back and say, "He did, so can I." Yeah, that's kind of why I kind of teach my kids that. I tell my kids all the time, as a baby, when they was babies, I used to say, "That's why I chase sunsets." I say, "Look at the sunset." They say, "What is that?" "That's the sun." I say, "But what is it?" "It's heaven, it's heaven.

• 1:22:54Speaker 01

  "It's just something that prepares for another day." Yeah, but it's, you know, I read this book about heaven.

• 1:23:04Speaker 01

  Being over forty thousand plus sunsets.

• 1:23:06Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:23:07Speaker 01

  Streets paved in gold and you're just. You're at this place where you don't have no memory of pain or fear or doubt. And I said that if last day of my life came and people were sitting around me. I would say smile because I made it to the other side.

• 1:23:23Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, that's cool.

• 1:23:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:25Lewis Howes?

  And what would you want people to say about you?

• 1:23:30Speaker 01

  Honestly.

• 1:23:33Speaker 01

  That I think he cared more about his relationship with God, which ultimately impacted. How he felt about people.

• 1:23:42Speaker 01

  Because that's, I believe all of us.

• 1:23:45Speaker 01

  Will be held accountable to how that we make people feel.

• 1:23:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:50Speaker 01

  Like not. God won't ask one question about a Super Bowl.

• 1:23:57Speaker 01

  He won't ask how much your bank account has. But he will ask a question to each and every person at day of judgment. Who did you send towards me? Did you have a, did you, did you change? Did you alter heaven a little bit just by sending a person's life to me? See, because if you change a life, then you alter heaven. And then if you altered heaven, then you will be remembered as doing God's will and not man's will. And that's what I want to be remembered as. I want to be remembered as a man that did God's will. And when you're done with that side of things, I'll see you on the other side. Sit up on the oak tree with a glass of lemonade. With, with God's sugar, not cane.

• 1:24:44Speaker 01

  But.

• 1:24:46Speaker 01

  You know.

• 1:24:48Speaker 01

  We have a duty, Lewis.

• 1:24:51Speaker 01

  That we're supposed to make this world better. Not make it bad, not make it worse. And I think.

• 1:24:59Speaker 01

  Me leaving here, this earth, one day, there would be something said about people in general that you will remember for a lifetime. Yeah. Because it just carries over to the next life, right? The test is here, right? So a Bible, B I B L E, basic instructions before leaving earth. Hmm. Simple. Hmm. But once you read it to understand the life of Jesus and the life of all of the greats that spoke about in the Bible, David, Moses, Solomon, Peter, all of them, no matter what their faults were, it was what they did for people. That's why David wrote Psalms. Hmm.

• 1:25:43Speaker 01

  Book of praise to give us just direction.

• 1:25:49Speaker 01

  Solomon, book of Proverbs, that's why he wrote a book of pure wisdom.

• 1:25:56Speaker 01

  He says, read these things because you will need these things to endure.

• 1:26:02Speaker 01

  And so when you write your story, hopefully your story is remembered ages after you're gone. And so I want to be remembered like David was remembered, a man after God's own heart. A man that truly was okay with persecution

• 1:26:23Speaker 01

  because I knew where the ultimate will end up. And the ultimate for me is when the Lord come back, he says, many are called, few are chosen. Hmm.

• 1:26:35Speaker 01

  And I'm gonna make sure I carry out my life to make sure that I'm one of the chosen ones. Hmm. And if I do that, shh. He say you live forever. Hmm. And that's called living. Yeah, alright. That's called life and so that's why I think, man, um, that's why I think people like you, right? So I think we can't stop. Yeah. And I think, um, the expansion of the mind is what we all should take time to do. Yeah, absolutely. Even when you think you got your whole world figured out. You can always evolve and go different places. Yeah. And that's why I applaud, you know, you being able to expand,

• 1:27:20Speaker 01

  to open your mind to say, man, I just came from this place that just blew my mind. Yes. Because all it actually did, and so I'll leave you with this.

• 1:27:30Speaker 01

  See, you going over there confirms what I've been telling people, not to fall into the trick of listening to people when they say that you can only use 10% of your brain. That's a lie. Yeah. That's a lie. Because if you got a real relationship with God, you using way more than 10%. Absolutely, yeah. But when you go to experience the meditations that you went to experience, Yeah. and actually sat down to where you can recharge the mind. The good book says renew the mind every day. But see, I beg to differ just a little bit. Because I say we should renew the mind every second of every day.

• 1:28:15Speaker 01

  Because that's the things that we let get by. Yeah. Eighty,

• 1:28:21Speaker 01

  eighty plus thousand, let me go somewhere right quick. Because I just wrote this. And I want you to remember this. Yeah. Because I did this thing about this. Eighty one thousand six hundred seconds in a day, something like that. If I was to ask you nothing else, how many seconds in a day do you think you waste?

• 1:28:44Speaker 01

  With things that really matter.

• 1:28:47Speaker 01

  That's why my investment is, is people.

• 1:28:52Speaker 01

  A lot of people are investing in people in a different way. And to really manipulate us. And use us in bad ways, you know? But when you think about numbers, and how harsh numbers are, not to end on bad note. Sure. The numbers that nobody's paying attention to now. The homicides, suicides, the rapes, sex trafficking, the drugs. This ain't it. This ain't it. And it's gonna take someone bold enough, bold enough to fight this fight, to give people just a little bit of hope, of breath, that I can keep going in life. Because the world, here does not tell you, keep going.

• 1:29:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:35Speaker 01

  Here tells you, I'm gonna trap you in something.

• 1:29:37Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:29:38Speaker 01

  I'm gonna allow you to engage in something. I'm gonna brainwash you with all this music. I'm gonna let all of these TV shows, I'm gonna let video games just shoot, where you can be a sniper and just shoot people in their brains and they just fall dead. I'm gonna give you all of those things, but then it don't tell you that if I followed Lewis Howes' message and if I disappeared, if I went on this mind retreat.

• 1:30:02Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:30:03Speaker 01

  Right? We go on a lot of vacations.

• 1:30:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:06Speaker 01

  But we don't go on too many mind vacations.

• 1:30:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:30:09Speaker 01

  There's only people like, like yourself, that I think can, um, have a real impact on the way our world should be.

• 1:30:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:30:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, man, so I think that's what, you know, to, to leave a legacy.

• 1:30:26Speaker 01

  A legacy is man-watched, destiny is God-given.

• 1:30:32Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:30:33Speaker 01

  That's the difference, you know?

• 1:30:34Lewis Howes?

  That's powerful.

• 1:30:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:35Lewis Howes?

  Is there anything missing for you in your life?

• 1:30:38Speaker 01

  No, I don't miss too much.

• 1:30:43Lewis Howes?

  Okay, well, okay, I've got one, one final question.

• 1:30:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:47Lewis Howes?

  Before I ask the question, where can we make sure you guys get the book? This is the book you gotta read if you wanna learn more about the, uh, the mind behind the man, the legend. Um, we'll have it all linked up on the show notes, but where else can we connect with you? You're big on Instagram.

• 1:31:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:02Lewis Howes?

  Facebook.

• 1:31:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:03Lewis Howes?

  Twitter.

• 1:31:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:05Lewis Howes?

  Um.

• 1:31:05Speaker 01

  I'm getting caught in all those things.

• 1:31:06Lewis Howes?

  I see you posting more and more. I like it, man.

• 1:31:08Speaker 01

  You see that?

• 1:31:08Lewis Howes?

  I like it, man. I like it.

• 1:31:10Speaker 01

  I'm finally starting to open up the social media a little bit.

• 1:31:12Lewis Howes?

  Get, download his podcast, Tackling Life. You do it, what, once every other week?

• 1:31:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, when I do it, I do it once a week.

• 1:31:19Lewis Howes?

  Uh, once a week, right?

• 1:31:19Speaker 01

  Every Monday. Every Monday we record. Um, we started doing two, but I kinda listened to your advice. And we'll just do one.

• 1:31:27Lewis Howes?

  Start off one for the first year.

• 1:31:29Speaker 01

  For the first year.

• 1:31:30Lewis Howes?

  It comes a lot.

• 1:31:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:31Lewis Howes?

  It comes a lot.

• 1:31:32Speaker 01

  But the podcast is really awesome, man. I think. Um, but a lot of relationships I think I have, you know, with everything that I'm starting to do at Under Armour now.

• 1:31:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What's the partnership you have with them?

• 1:31:43Speaker 01

  Well, uh, we signed, I signed a long, well, really a lifetime deal.

• 1:31:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:31:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, basically.

• 1:31:48Lewis Howes?

  Cause you're friends with Plank.

• 1:31:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, we've been living next to each other for, since nineteen ninety-six. Um, we still do. And, um, and I think it's what we're trying to do and, and, and him understanding my vision and what I want to do for people. And, and we just opened up our, um, first building, used to be the old Carmelo Anthony Center.

• 1:32:11Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:32:11Speaker 01

  And now inside of this center, man, you give these kids hope again. You know, you have your arts and crafts. You have your, your, your studios in there now. You have places for them to go to, to learn how to, how to uh, do solar and I have Power Fifty-Two inside of there, the bottom of the building. And there's just so many things that now these kids have a place to go. And one of the, and one of the worst neighbors is in Baltimore.

• 1:32:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow. It's like an after school program?

• 1:32:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, it's, it's, not even after the school is.

• 1:32:39Lewis Howes?

  All day.

• 1:32:40Speaker 01

  All day.

• 1:32:40Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:32:40Speaker 01

  All day. And, and you know, the vision is to put up about thirty more, um, in Baltimore.

• 1:32:45Lewis Howes?

  In Baltimore. Wow. That's cool.

• 1:32:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, man. And, you know, Louis, I'm telling you, man, like, you know, to people to be in business with, you know, the people that I'm in business with now and to affect true change, you know, the way that we're affecting change now. Um, you know, I just came from doing a big thing, Ferguson One Thousand, Baltimore One Thousand, um, Ferguson One Thousand. We gave away almost, um, seven hundred plus jobs.

• 1:33:12Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 1:33:12Speaker 01

  And one day, Baltimore, we gave about twelve hundred jobs. Um, LA, we're coming here January thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth. We'll probably do another, uh, true economic development here that gives away right at about seventeen hundred to two thousand jobs.

• 1:33:26Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 1:33:27Speaker 01

  And

• 1:33:28Lewis Howes?

  How can people learn about that?

• 1:33:29Speaker 01

  Oh, you can go on Baltimore one thousand, Baltimore one thousand dot com. You can look up, look, look up that Ferguson one thousand dot com as well. Um, and, and a bunch of my sites, a bunch of my things, because I, I wanted to make it easy on social media. Is you pull up my name and all of my things.

• 1:33:47Lewis Howes?

  What's your main website? What's your?

• 1:33:49Speaker 01

  Ray Lewis. Everything is Ray Lewis. Yeah. Because it's simple. Well, nah, because you, you get into too much with that.

• 1:33:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, you know, I, I wanted to get my name.

• 1:33:59Lewis Howes?

  Your name has everything on there.

• 1:34:00Speaker 01

  Everything on there. It's hard to find, it's hard to miss me.

• 1:34:04Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 1:34:05Speaker 01

  On anything that I'm doing on, uh, online and stuff, man. But bro, I really appreciate you, man. Like, um, seriously, um, this won't be the last time.

• 1:34:14Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely, man.

• 1:34:15Speaker 01

  And, uh, I'm gonna keep on, you know, taking, stealing a lot of your advice.

• 1:34:20Lewis Howes?

  Take the ideas. I like the wall of greatness.

• 1:34:22Speaker 01

  I love the wall of greatness.

• 1:34:24Lewis Howes?

  You'll be up there after this.

• 1:34:25Speaker 01

  But I love the wall of greatness, though.

• 1:34:27Lewis Howes?

  It's clean, right?

• 1:34:27Speaker 01

  And then just to see the word greatness. Yeah. To see it every day. It gives you a little swagger coming in.

• 1:34:35Lewis Howes?

  Well, before I ask, before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Ray.

• 1:34:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:40Lewis Howes?

  One, for having a great last name. Same as mine.

• 1:34:43Speaker 01

  I knew it was gonna work since I saw your first.

• 1:34:47Lewis Howes?

  No, but honestly, I want to acknowledge you for your incredible, your incredible heart, man. Your heart and your voice. You have such a, um, huge heart. You know, you're a big guy, but your heart is even bigger. And you, you, you share it with the world so openly in terms of your giving and your service and your dedication to transforming lives beyond sports. So I want to first acknowledge you for your incredible heart and for all the pain and suffering that you've been through to make it as big as it is today. I'm so grateful for the lessons that you've learned and everything you went through because you probably wouldn't be the guy you are today without it. And then for your voice, you know, there's so many athletes who use their platform for, they waste it. They waste their voice or they say things that don't matter.

• 1:35:32Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:35:33Lewis Howes?

  Where they say things that bring people down.

• 1:35:35Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:35:35Lewis Howes?

  Where they say things just to get attention for their brand or something.

• 1:35:38Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:35:38Lewis Howes?

  And you use your voice in such a powerful way that I don't know if any other athlete does or, or former athlete does in the way that you do. With such intention to inspire and to lift people up, not bring people down.

• 1:35:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:35:52Lewis Howes?

  I acknowledge you for the man you've become, the man you are, your voice, your huge heart, and for your commitment to service in the world.

• 1:36:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, appreciate you, man.

• 1:36:01Lewis Howes?

  Of course, man.

• 1:36:02Speaker 01

  That's awesome.

• 1:36:02Lewis Howes?

  Final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:36:07Speaker 01

  Honestly, this is not hard. Because the definition of greatness is a lot of small things done well. Greatness is not this one thing that jumps out the sky and say, he's great. No. Greatness is falling, getting up, falling, getting up, falling, getting up. Greatness is Michael Jordan being cut his junior year of high school and saying he's not good enough. Greatness is Muhammad Ali losing and then coming back and regaining his title. Greatness is a bunch of pain that forces you to come out of your comfort zone. Because if it's done no other way, you will never reach greatness. It's impossible.

• 1:36:50Speaker 01

  And that's why when you think about the mentality of greatness, there are no breaks. I hate to tell people that, right? Because today's time, everybody wants it fast. You can be popular, but to be great, Monday on top of Tuesday, Tuesday on top of Wednesday, Wednesday on top of Thursday, Thursday on top of Friday, Friday on top of Saturday, Saturday on top of Sunday, and start over, and start over, and start over, and start over. And true greatness is always evolving. True greatness is always evolving. It never stays the same. Your comfort zone will stay the same unless sometimes you're forced to come out of it.

• 1:37:32Speaker 01

  I truly believe this, I said this, I spoke at T D J's church not too long ago. And I said, you will never touch a level of greatness until your comfort zone is disturbed. And the moment your comfort zone is disturbed.

• 1:37:48Speaker 01

  Research, research the story, if you don't do nothing else before you write this, of how many people comfort zone had to be disturbed before they touched it. It's, it's the blueprint for it.

• 1:38:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:01Speaker 01

  It's the blueprint for it. That's what I studied the most. And that's what I appreciate the most, that what nobody could never take away from me is what I've been through and how I endured. Yeah, yeah, so that's what I believe greatness is. It's this thing, it's a swagger. It's a swagger walk because it's like, guess what? Everything you said about me is still irrelevant.

• 1:38:29Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:38:30Speaker 01

  Because I pulled off everything you said I couldn't.

• 1:38:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:33Speaker 01

  That's what makes Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan. That's what made Ali, Ali. It was all the things that they said they couldn't do. That's what made Jim Brown, Jim Brown. Oh, and that's what, yeah. I don't, you'll never hear me, I don't put myself in a bunch of those categories.

• 1:38:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:50Speaker 01

  Because those are, those are true legends for me. Um, I'm humble enough to accept what people said about me, but I like speaking about other people that I've seen it.

• 1:39:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:04Speaker 01

  Myself, you know, Larry Bird, greatness.

• 1:39:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:08Speaker 01

  Just greatness, just, it's, it's a certain thing. Jerry Rice, just greatness. It's just certain things, right? Usain Bolt, greatness. Michael Phelps, greatness, right? Just, just bottle that up.

• 1:39:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:24Speaker 01

  Bottle that up and then sell that. Because that's what, that's what people need to buy.

• 1:39:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:39:30Speaker 01

  Sell that, yeah.

• 1:39:31Lewis Howes?

  Well, I'll put you in that category, Ray Lewis, the legend. Thanks, man.

• 1:39:34Speaker 01

  Lou, appreciate you coming on. Absolutely.

• 1:39:36Lewis Howes?

  Thank you.

• 1:39:40Lewis Howes?

  I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I enjoyed being a part of it. For me, getting to sit across an individual like Ray Lewis is such a pleasure because of his incredible career and what he's created in his life. To learn from someone like this, who has such wisdom, experience, commitment, dedication to his craft and to his life, is so powerful for me. And I hope you guys enjoy learning along with me. Because my intention and my vision is to bring out the best insights and inspiration

• 1:40:20Lewis Howes?

  from the greatest people in the world and share them with you, as well as I'm learning along the entire journey. So if you guys enjoyed this one, then make sure to spread the message of greatness. Share this with one friend. Email them, text them, tweet them, post this on their Facebook page, tag them on Instagram. Tag myself @lewishouse and @raylewis and let us know what you thought of this interview and share the link out with your friends. LewisHowes.com/415. You have greatness inside of you. You were born with a unique gift that no one else has. It's time for you to step up and allow the world to see who you really are.

• 1:41:05Lewis Howes?

  Guys, I love you. Thank you so much for being a part of this movement of greatness. It means the world to me. And do yourself a favor and share this with one friend. Make a difference in one person's life today by sending them this message. I know they will be inspired when they hear the words of Ray Lewis. I love you, and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.