Donavin Darius - Getting Drafted Into Your Dreams

Ed Mylett has special guest Donavin Darius on the show this week! Donavin shares his experience of coming from extreme poverty to being in the NFL. He realized at the age of fifteen that he wanted a change for him and those around him and has dedicated his life to becoming the best version of himself. Tune into hear more about his incredible journey... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

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• 0:45Ed Mylett?

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• 1:01Speaker 01

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• 1:12Speaker 02

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• 1:22Speaker 01

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• 1:27Speaker 01

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• 1:33Speaker 02

  Welcome to Champions Forum, hosted by Ed Mylett.

• 1:41Ed Mylett?

  Welcome to the Ed Mylett Show. And my guest today is a 10-year NFL veteran, one of the best defensive backs in the NFL for many, many years. He dominated on the defensive side of the football. But probably more impressive for me is his contribution he's made off the field since nineteen uh or two thousand and seven when he retired and so this man is an incredible communicator. He's a giver. He's com- he's committed to giving to his community and to his fellow man. He's a gifted, talented, good man and I've got to know him over the last couple of months and I consider him a friend. This man is hosting a new show on the Cardone Network called Road to Sunday Glory. He's one of the top trainers and motivational speakers for companies and teams in the country.

• 2:26Ed Mylett?

  I'm proud to call him my friend and I'm excited about today's conversation. So I want to welcome the great Donovan Darius to the program today. Donovan, thank you for being here with me.

• 2:36Speaker 04

  Thank you for having me. Thank you, man. I too, I second what you said, man. I call you friend. Uh you you seem to be and have been driven to inspire and motivate people. And so I always say you can determine your destination by your association. And so it's great to be in great company with you, sir.

• 2:53Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, well, I'm I'm real excited about this because I think people want to know a little bit about, and thank you, by the way. I think people want to know a little bit about football, but I'm I'm interested in you. Because you know, when I met, I shook your hand, I met you, and I, you know, I meet a lot of athletes and you're different. And there's a, there's a gen- just a genuine goodness that you sense about you right when you meet you. Your obvious giftedness of your athleticism, your good looking dude, you're very fit. But immediately you start to notice the more important things about you. And I knew that right when I met you. I shook your hand. I'm gonna like this man. And then as I've listened to you more and more, I thought to myself, this is such a good man.

• 3:33Ed Mylett?

  And I want to get his word out to people. And so I mean that Donovan. And so I want to learn where all this comes from because.

• 3:40Speaker 04

  Well, I appreciate that, man. And and Ed, I say the same thing about you. And so everyone wants to know where does this start?

• 3:48Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 3:49Speaker 04

  What got you mo- what got you to do the motivation? I think at the end of the day, I believe that we are all born with potential. But it's only through us walking it out through experiences, discovering, really going, you know, soul searching. Will we be able to identify what are those things that I'm truly gifted at? Or and or what is my purpose? Why am I here? I mean, you hear countless number of people always, you hear about the word purpose, but at its core, it is the reason why. I believe that we were all created and we're here fully loaded. We are fully loaded and it's up to us to pour it out. You know, we were born, we were born full and we wanna die empty.

• 4:33Speaker 04

  And that just means that I just wanna pour out my life and give to so many. So that at the end of the day, I know I I have nothing left to give. And so the source of it all for me a lot goes back to me growing up in Camden, New Jersey. I grew up one of five kids. Uh, my mom, you know, we lived in very humble beginnings. Matter of fact, just a couple of statistics. You know, Camden was rated when I grew up the number three worst dangerous city to live in. And it would also had, it was a ranking where it says eighty percent of the people live below the poverty line. There it said, it said three out of five people would would experience some type of personal theft. And there was a thirty percent chance of somebody would experience a violent crime in their life.

• 5:16Speaker 04

  And so for me, every day I walked out the house and to the left and to the right, I saw gangs on one side, I saw drug deals on the other side. And there wasn't anything around me that showed me that I could become anything. But what I did is I had a mom and I had a family and a support system that basically told me, and I'll never forget, beyond the sacrifice of my mom. There was a counselor that I went to and I see his name was Mr. Thomas. And I said, Mr. Thomas, I am tired of every time I turn around, my mom is working at behind all two jobs. It's five of us. I come home, I check the electric switch to see if we have electricity. I open up the refrigerator, sometimes there's nothing in there. Okay, our cars barely work at times. And I said, you know, I wanna do something different. I wanna make a difference, I wanna change things.

• 6:01Speaker 04

  I'm only, I'm only fifteen years old. What can I do?

• 6:04Ed Mylett?

  You're saying this at fifteen years old?

• 6:07Speaker 04

  Yes, at fifteen years old, because I I knew, because when you're in that situation, you don't really know that you're poor. You don't really know your book, but you knew what you do know is that you want better. You do know that you want to bring about hope. You do know that you want to give something more than what you can to make things different. Because when you look at your mom, when you see your mom crying because she's barely making ends meet, and she got five kids to feed, then there's something in you that should come alive. So when I went to this counselor and I said, Mr. Thomas, um, I told him everything that was going on. My life changed after he said this to me. He said, Donovan, I know your kids from Canada. And I know what they say about you and everybody around you.

• 6:51Speaker 04

  But if you put your mind to this, to something, if you really believe that and you go after it with everything you have, nothing and no one can stop you. You know, my life changed after that moment, after after that moment, and after he said that. Because I was ready to, I told my mom the night before, I said, Mom, I'm not going to play football anymore. Because I want to get a job and I want to help you. And she said, Donovan, no, you go ahead and you go play, because I think God's gonna, God's gonna work it out. The next day I had that conversation with Mr. Thomas and, you know, and the rest, you know, the rest of my journey, you know, may continue from there, but it it started there.

• 7:27Ed Mylett?

  Wow, yeah, and the journey, the journey's crazy, though. I mean, you have to admit, did you? I mean, I'm like, go back to even littler Donovan, just for a second, because I know a little bit about this, but I want people to hear this. So this man, just so y'all know, I mean, uh, I'm a huge NFL fan, so I knew Donovan was when I met him, right? But some of you may not know all this. He's great a player as he was. This man was a first-round draft pick of the Jaguars. Uh, this is a guy who played ten years in the NFL. This guy was the Big East Defensive Player of the Year in college. I mean, this this dude was the real deal. You want to see some hits, by the way? You go on YouTube and find this hit of this, go Google Donovan Darius Jerome Bettis and watch that hit. And you'll, you'll know who this man is, but, so he sounds like a sweetie pie here, but believe me on the football field.

• 8:13Ed Mylett?

  This is a man you did not want to see coming at you. But having said that, did you grow up playing football? You're obviously a great athlete, but did you grow up playing football? Did you always know it was going to be playing football, or was there another journey to get you to football?

• 8:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, you know what's interesting, Ed? I thought that I would be a track star, man. I saw myself in the Olympics and the reason why was because, and I tell this story all the time. You know, growing up, we used to take those bricks from the old buildings that was broken down and we would draw lanes on the street. And that was our, that was our track team right there. That was our track meet. So we used to race and race and race and race. And then I tell people that I never started playing football until I was in high school. And here's why. When I went out to go for the Pop Warner team, the Centerville Simba's back in Camden, New Jersey, I made the team. I was so excited, but at the end they said Donovan, it costs thirty-five dollars to register to play the year. And we didn't have thirty-five dollars.

• 9:10Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 9:11Speaker 04

  And so you can imagine the heartbreak of a kid. He's won the play, he's trying to do all this, he made it. But because of finances, he couldn't afford it. And that's why I, and you know, throughout life, Ed, sure, we all had these moments. But that's why through that moment, I made sure that when I started, you know, having camps and stuff for kids, I said I would never ever turn away a kid or a parent because of finances. And so I didn't play football when I was a Pop Warner, but I would, I did play football. You would have thought I was a football player before school, on the playground, at the parks. And matter of fact, I had my best game ever, and you're gonna laugh at this, man.

• 9:49Speaker 04

  It was in the cemetery. They had a grass patch in the cemetery and, and God rest their souls, man. It was somebody underneath that was praying or somebody over there. Somebody, there, there was a football player in the grave somewhere, but I had my best game in the cemetery, man. But that was my history, man. I ran track and I played football, you know, you know, at the playground. But it wasn't until ninth grade that I got a chance to play football.

• 10:12Ed Mylett?

  Wow, that's amazing. Your mother, obviously you and I were talking before, man, all your siblings turned out pretty special too. Your mother's an amazing woman. I, I get the feeling though, your father was not around all the time. You can talk about that, but also all, all of us have special kind of people in our lives. And I know Eugene, for you, I think your brother, this was someone who was special for you particularly too. So just a little bit, was dad around or was someone else in your life instrumental at the same time?

• 10:39Speaker 04

  Oh, most definitely. And so growing up, and I talk a lot about my mom, and we had talked before, Ed, um, and, and just for all the, all the listeners, understand this. A man is made by his mom.

• 10:50Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 10:51Speaker 04

  Okay, so if you wanna look at how, you know, if you wanna look at the guy and how well he's doing, and if he's doing well and successful, you can always attribute that back

• 11:00Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:00Speaker 04

  to the type of mom that he has. Now, the fathers, they give the identity. You know, I have three girls, and so, you know, my girls are kinda just like me. They're driven. I have one at Alabama. You know, I mean, running track. Another one is full of scholarship on track. Another one's full, uh, full scholarship in volleyball. Another one, full scholarship, you know, will be a school, full scholarship in basketball, and they're just driven, driven, driven, driven. And so, I can attribute a lot of the things that I say, I saw, and I experienced. Not that my mom was athletic, but, but her character

• 11:31Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 11:32Speaker 04

  and her discipline. And so, I have my dad in my life. Okay, he went to Vietnam, and he did a great job, and I, I appreciate his service. And he was around, but he came back and he had some substance issues.

• 11:43Ed Mylett?

  Gotcha.

• 11:43Speaker 04

  And like I said, I love him every moment of the life

• 11:45Ed Mylett?

  Sure.

• 11:46Speaker 04

  of my life, but I do know, when I look back, who made the biggest impact? Who, who am I a direct result of? And I would definitely say my mom.

• 11:55Ed Mylett?

  No kidding. Hmm. That's awesome, brother. Yeah, she's gotta be so proud of you. So, we fast forward. You end up getting a scholarship to Syracuse. Did you, I'm just curious, did you play with Donovan McNabb at Syracuse at the same time?

• 12:06Speaker 04

  I did. I, yep, I did. I did play with Donovan McNabb, and, and that's an interesting story, man. You know, most people, you know, we're, we're all a product of our journey, and I think it is our journeys. It is our experiences. It is those things, those moments of our life. If we really take personal inventory, we'll see, you know, how they impact us, why we do what we do. So, I remember going to Syracuse. Most people may get in the car, hey, the family, you know, bunker everybody up. Let's go to Syracuse. Let's go to this college. Take, you know, son and nephew or daughter to college. Well, my college journey, I was at a Greyhound bus station.

• 12:41Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 12:41Speaker 04

  And sitting on there with one suitcase. I had one new outfit that we purchased in a suitcase to go off to college. I'm, I can still remember it like it was yesterday. My mom outside the window, just bawling. Because to her, it was a mix, it was a bittersweet. On one hand, her son that she's proud of is going off to start a new journey. On the other hand, she has no idea, I'm the first one, I'm the middle child of five. She had no idea what's about to happen and so, you know, it was, again, it was these moments, man, that just really just trigger. And I say that for people that's listening. You know, there are some individuals that may going through life, you may be starting a new job, a new business, new relationship, whatever it is.

• 13:25Speaker 04

  You know, you're one decision away and sometimes you don't really know what's gonna happen next. But it takes courage. You know, courage is not what you have, you know, in the absence of fear or uncertainty. But courage is the step that you take in the presence of it. And that's what I had to have. And that's what was instilled in me and I believe that that's one of the characteristics and attributes that helped me throughout my life.

• 13:48Ed Mylett?

  Wow, that is wonderfully said. That's like one of these moments, you stop this and you go replay those last two minutes, because that's powerful right there. So, this is, I want people to hear this, because he, this man leaves his mother, leaves high school on a Greyhound bus. Not like your normal kid who's going to school with fanfare and the flowers and the balloons and rolls up in the car with the family. This guy gets on a Greyhound bus to go to Syracuse, right? And so, some of us in our lives right now, we feel like we're on the Greyhound bus in our lives, right? A lot of us listening to this do. Now, listen to this, everybody. This man goes away to Syracuse. His mother waves at him, obviously she saw him throughout college, but she sends him away on a Greyhound bus. But he comes back and it's draft time.

• 14:31Ed Mylett?

  So, take me through this day, because this is a life-changing day and everyone, there's a metaphor here. Not all of us are gonna get drafted to the NFL, but there is a day, there is gonna be a day, for those of you that have that courage Donovan's talking about, where you are gonna get drafted into your dream. You're gonna step in, you're gonna go, my God, I'm getting my call now. This is my time, right? So, tell me about this first round pick, everybody. But you don't know you're a first round pick necessarily, right? That day, I know because I was drafted, I wasn't a first round pick. And I know, no matter what the scouts tell you, unless you're those first three, four, five, eight guys, you're not 100% sure you're going that first day. So, what's that day like? Because this is the day you step in, you step into your dream. You go away on a Greyhound bus. You come back, I assume you're with your family that day.

• 15:16Ed Mylett?

  And now you're about to slip into your dream. What's that day like? Tell everybody what that's like.

• 15:19Speaker 04

  That's a great, that's a great question, Ed. And actually, if I could, I want to take another step back because I believe in life. Life will call you and life will test you. And I remember receiving two calls in my life. One of them was at draft time, and I'll share. But I want to back up just a few years, a couple of years earlier when I received the call when I was in college. So, I'm off at Syracuse, I'm a junior, yeah, I'm a junior at college. And we had spring ball, it was around, we had spring ball, we just completed it. And I get home to my dorm room. It was, matter of fact, it was April the 18th, I'll never forget the day. And I seen a voice message light on that there was, you know, there was a message. I picked up the phone and it was my mom. And I, my mom used to leave me messages and people used to leave messages all the time.

• 16:04Speaker 04

  But it was something about her voice this time, Ed, that was different than other times. She said, Donovan, I need you to call me right now. And for me, I mean, I heard her say that at a different time, but it was never that way. Because you can imagine what's going on inside of me, like, what is it? You know, what happened? So, when I called my mom, she said, Donovan, I got some bad news. She said, your brothers, Antoine and Chris, who were both in high school at the time. She said, they were at high school, they were in a gymnasium at the track practice. And somebody walked up in the gym with a gun. And they said, hey, if y'all don't do A, B, or C, then we're going to kill y'all. And so I'm hearing my mom tell me this on the other line and I'm feeling like what in the world is going on, you know, what happened, what can I do?

• 16:48Speaker 04

  And we talk about life's gonna call you, these moments gonna call you, what you a purpose for, what you're made here for, a lot of times people have a lot of weight on them, but guess what? God would never put more on you than you can bear. And so before I could even think about it, the words out of my mouth said, Mom, put him on the bus and send him to me. And so that was on a Tuesday. My mom, after we held the phone, she got it, we got a ticket for her and put my two brothers on the bus, another Greyhound bus.

• 17:17Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 17:18Speaker 04

  And sent them up to live with me at Syracuse. So you can imagine, instantaneous, in a matter of one day, I was not only a full-time student, a full-time athlete, I became their, I was their brother, I got legal custody on them, I was their, their, their father figure.

• 17:33Ed Mylett?

  Oh, gosh.

• 17:34Speaker 04

  Okay, and I was their friend. All this while, I'm in college.

• 17:37Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 17:38Speaker 04

  And so that call to me was a call of leadership. It was letting me know that, listen, you, it was for this purpose, Donovan, that you are here. It is because of the drive, the, you know, the desire to wanna impact and motivate and inspire and help other people, that now you're gonna receive the call versus somebody else. And so fast forward, people always say, Donovan, what was, what was the most exciting time for you? Was it getting drafted, was it having your first baby at the time, was it being married? No, my biggest moment was being able to see my brothers graduate.

• 18:09Ed Mylett?

  Oh, wow.

• 18:10Speaker 04

  Because had I not answered the call, had, had individuals here on this phone or watching this, had not answered the call, God only knows what could have happened to them.

• 18:21Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 18:22Speaker 04

  And so I'm so grateful that life will call you and life will test you, and so fast forward, fast forward.

• 18:26Ed Mylett?

  That's an amazing story, I just wanna acknowledge that, that's unbelievable right there, just so you know. But before he tells you this, could you all feel this man's spirit? You know what I'm talking about, right? You can hear it and feel it, there's a different energy with people that are special, that are leaders, that have answered the call. You can feel it when this man's speaking to you, it's just different, this, this man's an influencer, you can hear that. I'm gonna tell you in a minute, by the way, how you can get access to him, but you gotta hear the draft story, so give us that, Donovan.

• 18:52Speaker 04

  Man, so April eighteenth, I'm in Delray, New Jersey. Everybody is on draft eight. College or NFL teams say, Donovan, you can go first round, second round, and not draft that at all. So you can imagine, my mom in Delray, New Jersey, lived on the second floor apartment building. That day, it was so stressful because you have no idea. Think about it. Somebody calls your phone again, and you can either be on the west coast in California, uh, northwest, uh, northwest in Washington, in Seattle, you can be on Florida, he can be wherever. And so I'll kind of admit, I was stressed out because I felt the weight. I felt the weight of that moment. So I'm sitting in a white Jeep Cherokee, and I'm listening to music, just trying to get away, block everything out. And I was listening to this song.

• 19:37Speaker 04

  It was by a singer called Yolanda Adams. And the name of the song was, "The Battle Is Not Yours, It's The Lord's." And so to me, what that meant is, Donovan, you did everything you could to get up to this point. Now you just walk in faith and trust the process, that your steps are ordered. And what is gonna happen, you're gonna be prepared to do it. And so it's amazing, like, as I was listening to that song, my eyes was closed. My brother, who I had in college with me, knocked on the window. And he knocked on the window and said, Donovan, Donovan, Jacksonville's on the phone. I said, what? He said, Jacksonville's on the phone. Man, I got out that car. Now, if it was, if you could, if I was a forty yard dash and you could time it, I got from my car up to the second story top step

• 20:21Speaker 04

  in a matter of three twenty-five seconds. I would've go all record, that's how fast I got up there. But what was so, what was so amazing at that moment, eh, is that the whole, the whole room, about five hundred square foot in this apartment, had about a hundred people. Today, I have no idea how many people in there. But all these people that was in there, as I was coming up the steps, they all parted like the Red Sea. And what I saw when I got to the top of that step was my mom at the other end of the, of that parted, uh, crowd, with the phone holding up in her hand. And man, I still get emotional to the day when I think about it. Because with every step I took to get to her, I kept thinking about every moment that she sacrificed,

• 21:04Speaker 04

  every tear that she wept, every time that she wanted to do, every game that she came to, and every moment and opportunity that that this represent. And so I got the phone and it was Coach Carlson on the line. He said, Donovan, we're about to draft you. Man, I was so excited, man. Everybody in the house was up and down and then so what happens at that moment? Is then the Paul Tagliabue, the commissioner, gets the card, walks across the stage, and on ESPN in front of millions of people, he said, with the twenty fifth pick of the nineteen ninety eight draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars select Donovan Darius out of Syracuse. Man, everybody in the house went crazy, man. Everybody jumping up and down, man. My brothers and them, they thought they were pathetic. Come on, I knew he was gonna get drafted there.

• 21:48Speaker 04

  You're like, they know nothing, man. But in that moment, and in that moment, I heard something in the back of my mind. It said, leadership. It said, purpose. It said, everything that I've been through led me up to this moment. And that I am here to have a purpose to lead not only my family that's in this room, but my wife at the time, my children, and the team where I go. I still live in Jacksonville to this day. I was here to impact this city. I was here to impact the schools, the teams, the organizations, the people. Because leadership, leadership has a call to it. It will call you and it will test you.

• 22:33Speaker 04

  And so, and that was an amazing, amazing moment for me, man.

• 22:36Ed Mylett?

  That's amazing.

• 22:37Speaker 04

  I never look back, man, because again, those calls, man, those calls that come, they come at the right time. They come, they come, they come because I truly believe, deep inside, you are prepared, or you're being prepared to walk onto that stage and that platform.

• 22:52Ed Mylett?

  Wow. I'm picturing your mother with the Greyhound bus and then your mother with the phone when you walk in. It's just like, honestly, man, this is like, that's an emotional, it's amazing. And you... I just wow, I just I'm picturing it. I see you answering this call, right? Now, just so everybody knows, he gets called for his dream. And these aren't words this man's saying. And a minute, I'm gonna tell you what he's done on and off the field, too. So this isn't just, you know, this isn't rah rah. This is, this man lives this, right? And so he gets that call. A lot of guys get drafted, a lot of first round picks. Very few guys play for 10 years. Very few people, this man was franchise tagged three times. And those of you that don't know what that means, that basically means this was the guy that that team was, had the right to protect that they could not lose three years in a row. I don't even know if

• 23:36Ed Mylett?

  there were any defensive players at that time that had been franchise tagged three times. Were you the first one to do it that many times?

• 23:41Speaker 04

  Yes, yes, I was, I was the first one. So I tell, I could tell my kids now, and if anybody had kids, and you ever did something in life, you would never know you did anything in life because the kids really don't care, you know, you're like, listen, I can tell you how to do this. Ah, whatever, Dad. Unless somebody else tell you, right? I'm sure I'm not the only one that deals with that, right? And so, yes, I was the only player at the time, that only defensive player that, uh, even up to this day, that has ever been franchised. Matter of fact, after they did it the third year, they changed the rulebook in terms of that you can't do it the same way because they abused it. But at the end of the day, I was honored. I was honored because they said, and as I share with people and I share with organizations, are you irreplaceable? I tell people about this, about the law of

• 24:22Speaker 04

  compensation, which I think is so impactful and so powerful for anybody that ever desires to make a lot of money, to earn, to earn a tremendous amount of, you know, wealth, and to make a tremendous impact. The law of compensation says this, it says you will earn in life in direct ratio to three things. You will earn in direct ratio to number one, the need that there is for what you do. Whatever line of business you're in, if there's a need for it, then you're going to earn exact ratio to that. You're also going to earn in direct ratio to your ability to do it. So if you're just averaging your skill level, if you're just averaging your ability to close, or your ability to communicate, or your ability to be consistent, then you're going to earn average money.

• 25:07Speaker 04

  And it also, if they can get somebody else to do it, you're gonna wind up not never going up either. And then the third thing, the third law of compensation says you are earning direct ratio to the difficulty that there is in replacing you. And so all I, when I talk to people, I say, listen, are you irreplaceable? Can they just get anybody in your field to do what you do? Cause if they can, then again, either, you know, if they can, then you're gonna be replaced and the other person is gonna continue to increase. But it is because you become irreplaceable.

• 25:38Ed Mylett?

  Okay, so how do you do that?

• 25:39Speaker 04

  You can control.

• 25:40Ed Mylett?

  Let's talk about that.

• 25:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, how do you, how do you do that?

• 25:43Ed Mylett?

  How do you, so you end up, so just everybody knows, the team every year, those, those three years said, this is the man, this is the player. Talk about this, the highest level in professional sports, everybody, right? And Donovan, you know this, a lot of guys can run a four or four. A lot of guys are six, one, two, twenty or whatever, right? There's a lot of guys who could play. And you get to that level to stay is one thing, but to stay and then have a team say, this is the dude we cannot lose. We're protecting this one football player. What did you do? What are some of the things you did to be irreplaceable? Other than being fast and hit, cause everyone at that level does. What separated you? What did you do that someone in business or a young person in school right now, right, that's listening to this at any level and anything? What are a couple of things you did to separate you from these other guys?

• 26:29Speaker 04

  Sure, that, that's a great, that's a great question. That's a great question. And I would say these are some of the components that I stay up to the day. Value. Number one, you gotta have grit. You have to have grit. And to me grit means a great resolve and internal toughness. That means no matter what comes at you, you have a great resolve. You may bend, but you don't break. You may take a step back, but you keep moving forward. And you have that internal toughness that says, you know what, there's greater in me than whatever it is that I wanna face. And so I actually have control of that. I have control over the effort I give. I have control over what I watch or what I don't watch, what I listen to and what I don't listen to.

• 27:11Speaker 04

  And so I also, so understanding grit, the other thing is how did I look at adversity? You see, I believe most people look at adversity as a big stumbling block. But if you look at adversity as your stepping stone, understanding this, that adversity comes here to do three things to you. Number one, it comes to teach you. It comes to show you at the end of the day that you have to do and or learn some different things. So it comes to teach you. You ever go to school and you're in class, what happens if you don't, if you don't pass the test? You gotta take it over. And so when people look at their life, they're like, man, the same thing keeps happening over and over and over. My question to you is, have you learned a lesson that life is trying to teach you? If not, adversity continues to come to teach you.

• 27:57Speaker 04

  Adversity also comes to train you. You see, when we had to go out where there's new skills or whatever it is, back telling, tackling, whatever the skill is, we couldn't just learn it one time. The coach couldn't just tell us one time and then we had it. We, matter of fact, couldn't just try it out. There is no trying it out. You have to be trained by it. That means you have to put in repetition over and over and over. You gotta do the dirty work. Here's the thing, in the NFL, okay, there's about average of sixty-five plays per game. But we all know, out of sixty-five plays a game, there's only the difference between winning and losing comes down to three plays.

• 28:36Ed Mylett?

  Mmm.

• 28:37Speaker 04

  So that means for sixty-two other plays, you're doing the mundane same thing, same thing, over and over and over. And for most people, when they get tired of the training and they get tired of doing the mundane thing over and over and over and over, they're not prepared and ready for those three plays.

• 28:54Ed Mylett?

  Mmm.

• 28:55Speaker 04

  And so understanding that it's gonna be sixty-five plays, three of them, I have to be ready. So that means I train all year during the offseason for those three plays.

• 29:05Ed Mylett?

  Good.

• 29:05Speaker 04

  Are you willing to train, are you willing to train for the right opportunity? You have to ask yourself that. Nobody can tell you that. Nobody can give you that. Nobody's in control. There's only one, there's only one space of the universe that you're in control over, and that's your mind. That's the things you think about. That's how you approach life. And so adversity is here to teach you, it's here to train you, and adversity is here to test you.

• 29:29Ed Mylett?

  That is absolutely awesome. Keep going.

• 29:31Speaker 04

  Testing has everything to do, testing has everything to do with testing to see how bad do you really want it. How bad do you really want it? You see in the NFL and football, see there's two seasons, but there's actually three seasons. There's the preseason, the regular season, and the postseason. The preseason, when people report the preseason, we put the pads on, it's new, you're acclimated to the heat. You start hitting and contacting, and your body just gets sore. Your neck hurts, your back hurts, your feet hurt, your hands hurt. But you see, the purpose of the preseason is only to get you ready for the season. You see, as a teammate, I could never trust anybody who hadn't made it through the preseason. You know why?

• 30:15Speaker 04

  Because they weren't tested enough. And in life, if you have never got to the point where you're ready to give up, you're ready to quit, you're ready to turn back, and you decide not to, then you haven't been tested by life yet. But the ones who will succeed, the ones who make the most impact, the ones who they're influences, the one who will be, you know what I mean, who will create massive success are the ones who have been tested, and they overcame, and now they're here to talk about it. So after you have the preseason, you got the season now. So now they have about ninety guys from the preseason. And by the end of the preseason, comes September one, they cut it down to fifty-three. So that means, that means you basically have thirty-seven guys that was there that didn't make the cut.

• 31:01Speaker 04

  Then you get to the preseason, to the regular season, and here it is, sixteen games. You're being tested sixteen weeks to see, okay, who's gonna put themselves into the best position? And then at the end of the, at the end of the preseason, regular season, you got the postseason. Here's where you hand out the awards. And I watched a lot of stuff, man, really admire what you guys doing at the World Financial Group. You know, I mean, getting to that postseason, like getting on that stage.

• 31:24Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 31:24Speaker 04

  You put a microphone in everybody's mouth, okay, in front of everybody, and you ask them, how did you get here? Did you have to overcome adversity? Were you tested? Yes. Were you being trained, meaning doing the things that take over and over? Yes. And were you tested? Did you feel like you wanted to give up or you ever discouraged? But yet you had told everything within you to take one more step? Yes. And that's the same way it is in the national football when you make it to the postseason as well. And so it was grit that really helped me, man, that I hold on to and is understanding, understanding adversity, man.

• 31:58Ed Mylett?

  That was my, Donovan, that, that, that's honestly one of the best, honestly, that's one of the best five minutes I've ever had on the show. I mean, I just, brother, that is so freaking, I'm ready to run through a wall right now, right? But, uh, li- listen, everybody, that, that, what he just told you about, that, that sixty-five and that it was really for three plays? You gotta remember that when, whatever your business you're in, you're making phone calls, you're recruiting people. Those sixty-two mundane ones, you're get, you're getting, you're refining your skill. You gotta be perfect for those three that are gonna change your life. Those three big time clients, those three big time recruits, those three big time, whatever they are, you're practicing for them. And then if you haven't been tested, I love this, if you haven't been tested to the point where you were ready to quit and had to face it, you haven't been tested yet.

• 32:39Ed Mylett?

  That is, I mean, everybody, just so you know, cause I know you're listening to this going, this is amazing. This is, I'm getting into the mindset of an elite athlete, an elite businessman, an elite father. This is what he thinks about, you probably want more of it. And I want you to have more of it. And so I want you to, I wanna direct you to a couple of things and then in a minute we'll talk about his TV show. But Donovan's got a book called Next Level Motivation and you can get that book on Amazon. I think you know by right now, I don't need to give you a commercial, you need to get that damn book, okay? Next Level Motivation, that's where tips like these reside. And also Donovan is a speaker, he's a trainer, he's a motivator, does it for companies, he does it for teams. This is a man you ought to bring in to speak to your organization.

• 33:20Ed Mylett?

  I mean, you could feel it right now, you know, this is a guy, no one will be the same after they hear him, okay? And if you're wondering whether he's qualified, not only has this man spent the ten years on the gridiron in the NFL, but let me also tell you something, this man is a certified transitions life coach for the NFL. Just so you know what that means, they introduced Donovan to new players, retired players, and he helps them transition into the league and he helps them transition into their life afterwards. That means that one of the most successful organizations in the world trusts this man to be a life strategist on their behalf. That's a big deal, he speaks at the rookie symposium. And so I think if he's good enough for the NFL with these elite performers, he'll be good enough for your company or your organization as well. This is a qualified person to help you.

• 34:05Ed Mylett?

  And you can feel it when you're getting these insights from him. I know you can sense that as you're talking to him. Donovan, give me one example. I'm just curious. Take people into a huddle or into a game, just real quick. I don't care if it was a preseason, postseason, regular season. Was there a moment, did you ever have, you don't have to name the guy, was there ever a moment when you went, whoa, you know, I'm gonna have to step up because this guy can't? Or is a football team like anything else, there are guys on that team who you know you can depend on, guys you aren't? Was there ever a time in a game where you went, I'm gonna have to step up my game, or you had to check yourself? Were there gut checks even during games for you? Can you think of any situation like that?

• 34:40Speaker 04

  Oh, most definitely. And so, people are, we, football was a business for us. For most people, sports and entertainment. You know, hey, we want you guys to win. It's my weekend. You know, make me feel better from the week I had. Well, for me, and for us, that was our business. And so, we always understood that NFL is meant for not so long. And so, you had to make sure that understanding that every year, they're trying to replace you with somebody quicker, faster, stronger, smarter, and definitely cheaper. And so, you had to be on your Ps and Qs at all time. And that doesn't, and we all know as we live life, and if you haven't learned as well, up to this point, life will continue to come at you. Murphy's Law said if something bad can happen, it will happen. And so, you're

• 35:25Speaker 04

  understanding that you're out there on the field and preparing to play against, you know, an elite, elite, remember this, less than 1% of all the population makes it to the NFL. To date, to date, there's only been 30,000, 30,000 NFL players ever in the history, in the history. And so, when you're out there, you understand that you are part of the elite, of the elite. But just like everybody else, we all have situations. We all go through ups and downs. I'll give you a story, man. I'll give you a memory. I used to have a memory. It was my rookie year, and we were playing against Pittsburgh Steelers. And we're up there at my rookie year and the team the year before, the Jackson Majer before

• 36:08Speaker 04

  they drafted me, they used to have a lot of big running backs in that league. And so those running backs, Eddie George, Jerome Bettis, Corey Gillen, I mean, you talk about guys six-three, two-hundred and sixty, oh, two-hundred and fifty pounds. Jerome Bettis, six-two, two-hundred and fifty-five pounds. I mean, we had some big guys, so they drafted me because they said Donovan was a physical safety, a fast safety, but a physical one out of Syracuse. And so I remember we played against at Three Rivers Stadium and November twenty-second, we're up there, the whole first half, they had this running back at Pittsburgh, and I'm sure everybody know, he had a nickname. His nickname was the bus, because you know what a bus does? It carry people around. It carry kids to school.

• 36:52Speaker 04

  It carry them home from school. So in other words, in the NFL, it was carrying guys around, tacklers like myself around. Well, we get up there this first, you know, this game, and man, they had these terrible towels. You could just see them, yellow towels just waving. It was like the whole crowd was yellow. The whole first half, Ed, uh, Jerome Bettis, the bus, is running through everything. It seemed like you had five guys around him, but he found a way to get free. He was doing Heisman poses. He was celebrating with the crowd. And so we got to the locker room and we were down. And I had one of those moments. I sat on my chair and I looked around and listened. And I wanted, and, and in the back of my mind, I said, you know what? Something gotta change. Something has to change.

• 37:36Speaker 04

  And as I was watching and listening to guys, I kept, this is what I heard and saw. I saw guys talking to each other, complaining, oh, man, coach didn't call this play. Oh, man, this person missed this block. Oh, man, I should be this, I should be that. Complaining. And so as I'm sitting there and I'm just watching, taking personal inventory of what is it like on the league? You see, there may be somebody who may be new in their business, they may be new in their company, new in their organization, and they're looking at other people, and because they're older, doesn't mean that they're more experienced or they're better. Right. And so here I am, sitting on my chair, and I'm watching, and I hear that in the back of my head, that you know what? If you want something to change, Donovan, it starts with you. Hmm.

• 38:19Speaker 04

  And so when that happened, I was like, wait a minute, but I'm just a rookie. I'm just six one, two hundred and twenty pounds. These guys are huge.

• 38:27Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 38:27Speaker 04

  This is a big test. This is a big adversity. He even got a nickname. He carrying people around.

• 38:32Ed Mylett?

  (laughing).

• 38:32Speaker 04

  And so at that moment, I made up my mind. I said, this thing starts with me. I had to take personal, personal responsibility. I had to take ownership. I had to walk this thing out in integrity. I had to be in integrity, have integrity with myself. I had to persevere and give everything I had and maximize the potential. So what I did, I grabbed my helmet, head, I walked to the bathroom and I put my helmet right on the counter. And I looked myself in the mirror. And I said, Donovan, this thing starts with you today. You will not come back in this locker room the same way you came in at the first time. We went out to the second half, man. And I tell you, the first play, matter of fact, if you let Donovan, you can go. This did he, this play I'm talking about is on YouTube right now.

• 39:14Speaker 04

  If you look, if you go look up Donovan Derris football highlights or things like two or something like that, you'll see it.

• 39:20Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 39:20Speaker 04

  The first player to get out of the second half, I'm in my stands and Jerome Bettis is sitting in his stands behind Cordell Stewart.

• 39:27Ed Mylett?

  First play right out of halftime. First time out of halftime, first play out.

• 39:30Speaker 04

  Matter of fact, it was fourteen minutes and fifty-six seconds down the clock because they got a touchback, I'm telling you.

• 39:35Ed Mylett?

  Good.

• 39:35Speaker 04

  And so I'm in my stands and Cordell Stewart went to snap the ball. He gave his cadence, green lady, green lady, said hut. He hiked the ball and hands to Jerome Bettis. And Jerome Bettis was standing back seven yards deep and this cat was growling. I was like, man, is this dude growling? He was growling, he was in full flow. But he didn't realize that I was on the other side and I had made up my mind. If this thing starts with me today, and I'm going to be the game changer. I want to turn this thing around. And so as he handed him the ball, after I read my read and I saw there was a run, I came down fourth hill. And I worked my technique to perfection and I hit this joker so hard. Boom. Right in the hole is probably one of the first guys to ever send him backwards.

• 40:19Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 40:19Speaker 04

  Right in the hole, all bit of two hundred and twenty pounds of me and all bit of two hundred and sixty pounds of him.

• 40:25Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 40:25Speaker 04

  He went back. I got up from that, I got up from the ground and I stood up over top of him and I just plumb my arms like a gladiator. And I was excited because at the end of the day, you can imagine, that was the biggest challenge that I had.

• 40:37Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 40:38Speaker 04

  That was a moment. That was a mountain.

• 40:40Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 40:41Speaker 04

  Sometimes we may have situations that seem like it's mountains to you. You may looking at the, be looking at the bills. You may looking at, you know, I mean, your, your health. You may be looking at the opportunity. You may be seeing people get ahead of you. But just like you make up in your mind, this thing starts and stops with me today.

• 40:55Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 40:56Speaker 04

  So every moment we played after that, man, we always, you know, we had mutual respect for one another. We always would come up to each other before the game and say, let's have a good game.

• 41:05Ed Mylett?

  Dude, that is such a great story.

• 41:07Speaker 04

  Was it because doubt wasn't there? No. Was it because fear wasn't there? No. Was it because I wasn't nervous? No. It's because I made a decision. I made a decision. I made my mind up. I gotta go. This thing starts with me. And I'm made for this. This is my moment. We gotta do this and it's gonna happen now. And that's what it was, man.

• 41:25Ed Mylett?

  Ah, so good.

• 41:29Ed Mylett?

  Everybody, you know, you, if you listen to this on the road, you just drove off the damn road. You know that, right? That is so good. You, listen, I'm not, listen, who would not want this man in their damn business speaking to them, right? Reading his stuff, okay? I'm telling you, this is, you can hear it. This is special stuff because not only it's rare to be that way, but it's also rare to be able to talk about it the way you do, Donovan. Those are multiple layered gifts that you've worked hard to refine. And everybody out there, there's a bus of life that you're gonna eventually have to smack down, right? All of us have that bus coming at us in our life and he just gave you the dad gum formula. That was so good.

• 42:10Ed Mylett?

  Oh, all right. We only got a few minutes here. By the way, let me stop right now and tell you thank you because. I do a lot of these. You can hear it in my voice. Only a few of these move me, right? I'm moved. I'm intense right now. You got me ready to roll.

• 42:24Speaker 04

  I appreciate it, man.

• 42:26Ed Mylett?

  You're just such a brother. You're so gifted, right? And, and he's such, when y'all meet him, when you bring him out to speak to your stuff, you're just gonna feel his spirit. You're gonna, you're gonna feel like there's this humble, good man who's there to serve you. He wants to make a difference. This guy, just so you know, he's got his Donovan Darius Foundation. He works with youth. He donates a ton of his time and money to young people. This is a guy, he's won a Sports Emmy. He didn't even tell you about that for his next level training and performance stuff he does with athletes. This is a very accomplished man. And here's another way you can get access to him. And so Donovan, tell them a little bit about this. Donovan has just started a new TV show, and it's on the Cardone Network, the Grant Cardone TV Network. It's called The Road to Sunday Glory Show. What, how do they get it Donovan? What's it gonna be about?

• 43:11Ed Mylett?

  What are you gonna do with it?

• 43:12Speaker 04

  Man, I'm so excited about this, man, because it's called Return to Sunday Glory, man. Everybody that I talk to, and I taped six interviews today with guys that have played 20 years, 15 years, 10 years. I even interviewed Super Bowl coaches. And the whole premise is, my show, Return to Sunday Glory, which you can find on the Grant Cardone Network, is it's an interview series where I get a chance to interview the most successful athletes in the world. And they reveal their stories, their victory, and their challenges that have defined them pre, during, and post their career. Because at the end of the day, it's all about finding, have they found that return to that Sunday glory? Have they found what

• 43:54Speaker 04

  it was? And I share, I share with people with this. Think about this as a player, as a professional athlete, and as a minor professional athlete. On that field, in between those lines was one of the most, were the only places that you felt totally present. By that, I mean this. In between those lines, physically, you were totally present. That means every bit of bone, muscle, ligament was needed and required there. In between those lines, you were emotionally there. That means every bit of emotion was necessary. The anger, the frustration, the hate, the love. I mean, you name it, the joy, the excitement, everything was appropriate there. In between those lines, mentally, you were totally present. You were strategizing. You were disciplined. You were doing all of these things. And in between those lines, spiritually, you were there. You felt like you were part of a team,

• 44:38Speaker 04

  part of a family. But when you get outside those lines... There isn't, there isn't anything or anywhere that requires that amount, that total amount of presence. Like you can't be totally physical in the mall. You can't be totally emotional with your wife or husband. But it's in between those lines and so a lot of guys feel like a void. They feel like a void. And so during the show, on the show, Return to Sunday Glory, we get a chance to talk about their journey. Their journey from, you know, early on, even through college, through, through the league, what was their time like, their moments? And what is that Return to Sunday Glory like now? They also get a chance to share some of their mindset. They share some of their behave, their, their habits, some of the things that helped them, the mentors.

• 45:19Speaker 04

  And so again, if you're interested in being successful, interested in learning from other people, which again, I think at the end of the day, if you stop learning, okay, you're gonna start losing. So you need to keep learning, keep learning, keep learning, keep learning because you want to be a lifelong learner. And so they can see that on Return to Sunday Glory on the Grant Cardone Network. It's a weekly series we do and I'm really, really excited about it.

• 45:38Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I am too. The, uh, guys, my full stamp of approval on this man and the things that he's teaching. And, um, I want you to get more access to him. Donovan also, and by the way, Donovan, everybody is D O N O V I N, Darius is D A R I U S. Should they probably go follow you first on Instagram? Would that be the first place you'd want to start to have people find you on a daily basis? Or where would you like them to go to find you?

• 46:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, I would definitely say you could follow me on Instagram, um, Donovan Darius on there, Donovan Darius and Powers. You can follow me on Twitter. You know, in there, but, uh, you know, Facebook, Donovan Darius Public, Public Page. If anybody requesting and they want me to come out and speak and we already started booking a lot for two thousand, uh, eighteen and stuff, but again, uh, they can go to the website. It's under construction right now, but you can access anything and everything you want. But the most important thing is to get connected with me. I would love, I would love to partner with you. DonovanDarius.com. I did want to share something with you, with your audience. Here are some of the things, what, what Donovan, what do you talk about? What are some of the main things? Well, besides sharing what I share with you guys now, I do speeches and I do workshops.

• 46:44Speaker 04

  I do workshops, three to four hours on leadership, you know, teaching individuals about responsibility, integrity, inspired action, ownership. You know, I do a mindset development, one where again, people want to develop that mindset to overcome, as you said, to run through a wall, but also at the end of the day, to accomplish those things that they want. And then I do a goal setting, vision setting. And then when I do speeches, keynotes, whatever it may be, you know, I have something that I created, uh, it's called the corporate game plan, seven steps, you know, for processes for success. And then one of the things I love too is I talk about leadership, all for leadership, making an impact in the 21st century. And then the other one I talk about is it's called, it's called the fourth quarter, keys

• 47:28Speaker 04

  for overcoming and growing through adversity. And so again, man, I'm, I'm here to serve. I've made up my mind, as you have too, Ed, to live a life. You, because we were born rich, but we're here to die empty, man, and pour all this stuff out.

• 47:41Ed Mylett?

  You poured out today, Donovan, I'm telling you right now, this was so good. And it's just a taste, everybody. Donovan, um, I want you to know I'm real grateful for you and, uh, I want to thank-

• 47:51Speaker 04

  Thank you, sir. No, this is my pleasure.

• 47:52Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I, I thank you for doing this today and I know the people listening to this, uh, feel a debt of gratitude for you as well, man. I, I, you changed my state, you changed my energy level. I've written here a page and a half of notes on the different things that you talked about, and that's how you know you've invested a great hour. So, everybody, this man's an example of maxing out every area and every season of your life. So Donovan, thank you so much for being here and you and I'll be connecting here real shortly. I know we're gonna do a ton of stuff together. Thanks, brother.

• 48:21Speaker 04

  Yes, we will, man. I look forward to it, man.

• 48:23Ed Mylett?

  God bless.

• 48:24Speaker 04

  Thank you. God bless you.

• 48:26Speaker 02

  Want to be the best? Get coached by the best. Champions Forum at EdMilet.com.