Perspective Drives Performance with Inky Johnson

Don’t ask, “why me?” Ask, “Why NOT me!” I’m honored to present to you this conversation with my friend, Inky. You will be inspired You will be changed You will gain an entirely new perspective on LIFE and on ADVERSITY Have you been tested in ways you felt you couldn’t understand? Have you ever been so close to your dream and felt as it if it just slipped through your fingers? I almost don’t have words. Sitting down with Inky Johnson, I actually gained a new perspective on certain aspects of life that I will never forget Inky grew up in the heart of Atlanta surrounded by drugs and violence. He slept on the floor of a two-bedroom apartment with 14 other people, only to defy the odds and receive a scholarship to play football at the University of Tennessee, where he was a projected top NFL draft pick. This was all before a routine tackle changed the course of his life forever. Inky is one of the GREATEST communicators I know. He is an incredibly talented speaker and one of the most humble people I have ever known. This interview is going to inspire you on a core level because we’ve all had what felt like missed opportunities, failed dreams, or a bad hand dealt at times. But Inky's perspective will radically shift not only the way you think about your story but the MEANING it gives you. Sometimes when we are going after a dream, our driving force is fame or fortune. Inky’s story is a testament that when your driving force is integrity, character, and your values, you will go much FARTHER, FASTER. Your CHARACTER is BUILT in times of challenge and controversy. At times during our trials, we may think we are having set-backs, but really it is the very pivot that is driving you towards your higher purpose. Inky shares his beliefs on why the PROCESS is more important than the product, and we both agreed that HINDSIGHT really gives you the ability to see that there has always been a PLAN. If you are going through something right now, going after your dream, or trying to figure out the next step...this interview is FOR YOU. His keys and insights are unique and going to affect you in ways perhaps you’ve never experienced before. 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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• 1:01Speaker 01

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  On October 2nd.

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  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:38Speaker 02

  This is the Ed Miler Show.

• 1:45Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back to Max Out, everybody. Today's show's gonna be special because by popular demand, the gentleman to my left is here. I'm so excited about today. Thank you. Tell him it's me. Good, because this is one of the most gifted, talented, incredible communicators on earth. But as I've gotten to know him as a man, I'm more impressed with you as a man.

• 2:05Inky Johnson?

  Thank you.

• 2:06Ed Mylett?

  Your humility and your giftedness is so extreme, it's so beautiful. So everybody, I think you know who this man is if you're watching this, but if you're listening, you don't know yet. This is Inky Johnson.

• 2:15Inky Johnson?

  Sir.

• 2:15Ed Mylett?

  So thank you for being here, my friend.

• 2:17Inky Johnson?

  Pleasure, pleasure, thank you so much.

• 2:18Ed Mylett?

  It's my honor, and if you don't know Inky's story, everybody, be prepared to be moved and inspired. And I cannot wait for today, I cannot tell you, I told you off camera, how many people have requested to get you and I together. And so here it is. We've satisfied the masses.

• 2:34Inky Johnson?

  That's awesome.

• 2:35Ed Mylett?

  Let's go back for a minute, everybody, I want you all to know this story. Before kinda the story most people might know about you, I want to know a little bit about how you grew up, because we've been spending time off camera talking about it, I want them to know a little bit about you. So how did you grow up? Describe it a little bit.

• 2:53Inky Johnson?

  Yeah, so born and raised, inner-city Atlanta. My mother had me at 16 years old. She took me back to Kirkwood, southeast corner of Atlanta. Drugs, violence, you name it, we had it. And she took me back to 125 Warren, which was a two-bedroom home, 14 of us living there. And I had more people in my family go to jail, in prison than graduate high school. And there, I wanted, I wanted to go to the NFL, not so much of, because I felt as if I got there, you know, I can get the glitz, the glamour, I wanted to get my family a better living condition. Right? Because I felt they deserved it. My mother was working a double shift at Wendy's, you know, and watching her work and do what she had to do.

• 3:35Inky Johnson?

  And me being a kid coming up in those circumstances, I wanted to be the first one in my family to do something great.

• 3:40Ed Mylett?

  You've done that, in a different way, right?

• 3:44Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 3:44Ed Mylett?

  So you didn't, we're just talking about you growing up, I mean, you didn't even, you slept on the floor.

• 3:48Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely, yeah, on pallets.

• 3:50Ed Mylett?

  On pallets, and that was normal for you?

• 3:52Inky Johnson?

  Yeah, it was normal, we had a ball, man, we used to go make our pallets, put our little cover to the side of the wall, and you know, we really knew no different, it was just life, you know, it was what it was, you know, absolutely.

• 4:04Ed Mylett?

  I think probably part of your humility comes from that upbringing. This thing that struck me the most about you, like, you guys, you know, I'm telling you, I told him right when I met him, I said, "You're anointed." He's an extremely gifted communicator. I also think you're talented. Gifted is something God gave you. Talent is something, though, that you've worked on too. And I think you're both gifted and talented. However, you're going to be this NFL player. You've got this NFL-type ability. You get a scholarship to go play football at University of Tennessee, correct?

• 4:34Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 4:34Ed Mylett?

  Which is one of the biggest, big time of all the places in the world for college football. Take everybody through getting there and then sort of what took place that you sort of changed your life to some extent.

• 4:45Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely. So when I got my scholarship, I was at Crim High School. In Crim High School, Atlanta Public School, right? Five minutes away from my house. And my freshman year there, everybody tried to stop me from going to the school because people didn't go to college from there. And so everybody that knew I wanted to go to the NFL, wanted to go to college, everybody I came in contact with told me, "Inky, don't go. Like, if you want to go to college, don't go to Crim." I was like, "Yeah, but it's five minutes away from my house." It was like, people don't go to college from Crim. And so one day, I was in a car with my mother, and we were a stoplight in front of the school. And she looked at me and she said, "Son, do you plan on going to college?" I said, "Yes, ma'am, I'm going to college."

• 5:26Inky Johnson?

  She said, "Well, Inky, we need to transfer you across town to Tucker High School," which was an incredible program. Like, great, they had it all, right? From education to sports. And I said, "Yeah, mom, but I think I can do it from Crim." And she said, "Well, Inky, I can't play with your future." I said, "Just give me a shot. I think I can do it." I went there my freshman year. After my freshman year, my mother got with my father, they transferred me to Tucker. I get to Tucker, didn't want to be there, didn't go to class, went to a couple of football practices. After the first semester there, I went back to my mother. I said, "Can you please transfer me back to Crim?" She was like, "I can't do it, Ink." I said, "Please." She kept going. Principal came. He said, "Well, Inky has straight Fs.

• 6:10Inky Johnson?

  The school won't take him back." Right? And so I knew my school, Crim High School. At the time, it was one of the lowest-performing public schools in the state. Not just Atlanta, in the state. And I told the principal in the office, I said, "Call him, they'll take me." They'll take me, call him. He called the principal, he told him the situation. Principal said, "Yeah, Inkie Jones, yeah, send him back." I said, "I told you." I get back to Krim. Why did you want to go there so bad? What was it? Because I felt as if, if I didn't make it from Krim High School, my cousins, my peers, all of them just would have had an excuse. Oh my gosh. They just would have said, "Well, Ink, you went to college from across town. We didn't have the same opportunity." At the time, my mother didn't know that. The coaches didn't know that.

• 6:54Inky Johnson?

  Because I saw the cycle in my community, I saw the cycle in my own family. And I knew, if I went to college from Krim, it was going to be tied to some of my friends' dreams, my family members' dreams. And so when I got my scholarship, my senior year to go to Tennessee, all of my cousins, my three younger cousins that I grew up with in the street playing football, all of them went to college. One of my best friends came behind me, he went to college. Keep in mind, people weren't going to college. Yeah. And then they ended up shutting the school down, you know, two years, three years after I went. You're kidding me. Right? And so when it happened, when I got to Tennessee... You were thinking this as a 13, 14-year-old little boy? Absolutely. That's remarkable. Because the expectation was so low. Hmm.

• 7:36Inky Johnson?

  And so when I got to Tennessee, I'll be honest with you, Ed, like it was, I was, I was so grateful, like we had steak, shrimp, spaghetti. Yeah. You know, like we had it all, we had a training table, we had all the resources. And I was like, "All I gotta do is buy into the process, and do what I say I'm gonna do, and I'll get a shot? Not just at the NFL, great equalizer at life, I get a shot at my education." And like, "Yeah, just do what you said you're gonna do." I showed up, I worked, and I got into my junior season at the University of Tennessee. And my coach just told me, "Ink, you're a projected draft pick." He said, "You do what you gotta do, you handle your business the way you've been handling it, and son, you'll be an automatic multimillionaire." And I went out my junior year, first game, we played against California Bears.

• 8:21Inky Johnson?

  I got nominated SEC Defensive Player of the Week, had a great game, my first game. Second game, we're playing against Air Force, incredible program, tough, disciplined group of guys. Fourth quarter of the game, little bit over two minutes left, game is basically over. And I go to hit a guy on the sideline, quarterback threw him a little nice pass, and as soon as I hit him, it seemed as if every breath in my body left. Hmm. And I woke up two hours later... After I had surgery in the emergency room, after fighting for my life, and my arm was paralyzed, and my career was over.

• 8:54Ed Mylett?

  Right, in that moment.

• 8:55Inky Johnson?

  In that moment.

• 8:56Ed Mylett?

  Go back to the play for a minute.

• 8:57Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 8:58Ed Mylett?

  First off, unbelievable that you were thinking of that at Krim High School as a 13, 14, already the example you were setting. I just think that's remarkable. But, so the play happens. Now, you wake up two hours later, but was there a point when you were on the field and you went, "Uh-oh, something, something's happened here"? Did you know?

• 9:15Inky Johnson?

  No, I didn't think it was that serious.

• 9:17Ed Mylett?

  You did not?

• 9:18Inky Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 9:18Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 9:19Inky Johnson?

  I thought it was a stinger, maybe a broken arm, you know, because in sports, especially football, things happen.

• 9:24Ed Mylett?

  Why did you end up having to fight for your life? I've never asked you that before. What was going on in your body that caused the injury to be so, so significant?

• 9:32Inky Johnson?

  I ruptured my subclavian artery in my chest, and so I was bleeding internally. And I ruptured the nerves from my brachial plexus that comes from my spine that controls my shoulder, arm, hands, fingers. I'm a freak incident, you know, it's just was a freak thing. And usually, those two things don't happen together.

• 9:50Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 9:51Inky Johnson?

  You know, and so what did happen in together? I was fighting for my life, but also it ended my career because of, they were restricted for surgery. Because the artery was busted, they had to take the main vein out of my left leg and plug it into my chest. And usually, when it's a brachial plexus injury, they can go into the chest and do certain things, but because of the artery, they couldn't.

• 10:12Ed Mylett?

  Unbelievable. So, okay, everybody, so here's, here's, here's where some turning points start to happen. All right, here we go. So.

• 10:18Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 10:18Ed Mylett?

  There's this dream, most people listening to this or watching it, maybe not as dramatic as yours, have had a moment where they wake up and go, "My first big dream is over. It's ended." And so for you, you're this young man, you've got this future planned that's all right in front of you. You wake up, you now know, what's going through you? I think your response to this is the thing, I just cannot even get over the response that you have. But someone ends up coming to you, don't they? And saying, hey, you're not going to play anymore. What initially were you thinking? I mean, really, Inky, not the story.

• 10:55Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 10:55Ed Mylett?

  Like, what were you really thinking? This just ended. What went through you when you heard that news?

• 11:00Inky Johnson?

  I responded and said, I'm good, I'm blessed. But in my mind, I wasn't thinking that it was over, to be honest. Because in my whole life, I had faced so much adversity and opposition. And to me, it was one of these deals to where, go back to rehab, you know, who knows?

• 11:17Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 11:18Inky Johnson?

  Right? There was some faith in there that, man, I can't believe I got to this point.

• 11:22Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 11:23Inky Johnson?

  And I just lost it. Right? I couldn't believe I was eight games away from my dream manifesting. And so it was a part of me that was like, ah, like, God, it's not going to happen like this.

• 11:35Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 11:36Inky Johnson?

  Like, I haven't worked from 7 to 20 for it to go out of the window with one tackle. Right? I'm eight games away from being able to give my family a better life, take care of my mother. But in the same sense, there's this side of me to where when opposition and adversity happens, like quitting is just not an option for me.

• 11:54Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 11:54Inky Johnson?

  Right? Like, I don't even, I don't entertain it.

• 11:57Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 11:57Inky Johnson?

  Right? And so when I told the coach, I'm good, I'm blessed, I meant every bit of that. But it was a certain element to where I was like, I'm going to go back to rehab and who knows?

• 12:06Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. The most remarkable thing to me about this is what didn't occur to you, which was quitting, feeling sorry for yourself. I mean, most people in that situation would be like, why me? That did not occur to you in these moments, correct?

• 12:18Inky Johnson?

  No.

• 12:18Ed Mylett?

  Nor did everybody, this is the thing that I want to emphasize, nor did quitting on your teammates.

• 12:24Inky Johnson?

  No.

• 12:25Ed Mylett?

  I've heard you say, I didn't just get us, I didn't decide to be on this team just if I could play. Take them through that a little bit after this ends up happening. This is... Awesome, everybody.

• 12:33Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 12:34Ed Mylett?

  You started, you still went to meetings.

• 12:36Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 12:37Ed Mylett?

  Tell them about that.

• 12:38Inky Johnson?

  Yeah, so I'm extremely loyal, right? And I think that's part of what makes me who I am, right? Like, my driving force in my life, it hasn't just been my goals, my dreams, and my aspirations. My driving force has been my team when I played sports, my family, right? Teachers, right? Like, people that helped me get in the position that I was in. And so when my injury happened, I knew I had to get out of the hospital as quickly as possible and get back into my rhythm and my flow and get back around my teammates, right? Because when I got there, I told them, "Man, I'm gonna be a great teammate," right? I told them, I didn't say I was gonna be a great teammate unless I get injured. It wasn't conditionalized, right? I never said I'm gonna go to every meeting unless my right arm and hand get paralyzed.

• 13:23Inky Johnson?

  I never said that, right? I never said I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna go to win a workout unless I can no longer play, right? Like, that would be cheap of me, right? And so when my injury happened, they said, "Inky, what do you want?" I said, "A Dungey sling and a Velcro strap." They said, "Why?" I said, "I'm going back to practice with my teammates," right? And I was in the sandpit the next week.

• 13:42Ed Mylett?

  The next week?

• 13:43Inky Johnson?

  The next week, I was in the sandpit, yeah, with staples in my body. Staples in my body, I was in the sandpit. It meant that much to me, not so much of the game, like, what I vowed to meant more to me than the game, right? I vowed to them that I was gonna be a great teammate, right? And that was my driving force. And I think for most people, their driving force is something that's superficial or materialistic, and so when they lose it, it doesn't mean that much. But if my driving force every single day of my life is my son, my daughter, my wife, my friends, the people that have helped me get in the position that I'm in, now you're dealing with a different monster when adversity and opposition hit.

• 14:24Ed Mylett?

  Okay, so I know you can feel me, I'm like, you know. I told you, I knew this would be one of the best interviews I've ever done and it is, just because you. There seems to be this thing with you, one, you're flooded with gratitude. The second thing is, your commitments mean something to you. And it's interesting to me that God chose you to give this test to, because I know he knew you could pass it, right? And that's true for everybody, this test that God's putting you through, he's giving you this because he knows you can pass. He knows you can. But I want to go back just for a few minutes about something, so. You've kept these commitments. Throughout your life, there seems to be this theme where. There have been people kind of show up at the right time, I know coaches have been important to you.

• 15:07Ed Mylett?

  You were telling me about, you know, your coach when you were a young person, that, you know, I think. I think you learned some of these things from modeling people too, so you had coaches make commitments to you that. Wasn't just when you played, right? Tell them a little bit about. The coach that you were telling me about off camera a little bit, who made a difference in your life, one of them, there's many, but. I think it'll explain why you had this kind of commitment yourself.

• 15:31Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely. And so, the guy that we're speaking about, his name was Trey Hurst. And me and my cousins, we started out playing football in the street. Because our family couldn't afford to put us in organized sports, and so. We would just go play light pole to light pole, every night. And when the streetlights would pop on, we kind of would time it, we're like, alright, we got around 10 minutes. But we gotta go in the house, and so one night, streetlights pop on, it's a blue pickup truck. And so I had the ball in my hand and my cousins were on the opposite sidewalk, and I was the oldest at the time. And so I was waving the truck by, I'm like, come on, man, I got a couple moves I wanted to, but we gotta go in the house. And this truck rides up, and it's the first white guy we'd ever saw in our neighborhood. And so drug dealers on the corner, they're thinking of guys as police, right?

• 16:15Inky Johnson?

  Nicest guy in the world, gets out of his truck, hey man, would you all like to play football on grass? I'm like, brother, I would love it, it's street, it's getting rough. Said, go in the house, get your parents, let me talk to them. Went in the house, my uncle was there, my mother was at work. Uncle comes out, he says, hey, I run this program across town, bring the boys out, be a great opportunity for them. My uncle says, sir, we greatly appreciate it. He said, but I hate to inform you, we just don't have the money for anything like that at this moment. He said, "Don't worry about it. You bring him to the park tomorrow. I'll pay for it with my own money." I remember I tapped my cousin's leg. I said, "Man, he hasn't even seen my spin move yet." "I haven't even seen my move, man." He didn't even know what to spin. Yeah, I'm like, "Yeah, I haven't even seen us play." Like, he hadn't. He hadn't even seen us play.

• 17:00Inky Johnson?

  And I would get to the park the next day, and he wasn't just paying for me and my three younger cousins. He's paying for kids all across Atlanta. Right? And I wanted to understand, not so much of the action, even though I was grateful for it. I wanted to understand the spirit that drove the action. And so, one night, he had to take me home. They wouldn't let my mother off work. And I got out of his truck and I said, "Coach, can I ask you a question?" He was like, "Sure, what you got, Ink?" And he walked around, stood directly in front of me. I said, "I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I want to understand this." And he said, "Ink, you can't disrespect me." He said, "Son, I love you." At that point, that was the first man to ever tell me he loved me. Right? And he said, "Son, what you got?" I said, "Why do you live life the way that you live it? Why do you treat people the way that you treat people?"

• 17:43Inky Johnson?

  And he said, "I'm gonna share something with you and I don't want you to ever forget it." And it was, it was simple. He said, "As long as you can make sure that somebody else's life is okay." He said, "Son, God will always make sure that your life is okay." And through that, the vehicle of sport, he's just taught me so much. Like, I was telling you, my family's house got broken into Christmas Eve, right? One pair of Nikes or shoes that we did have, you know, got stolen. Right? And that next morning, my mother didn't call my pastor. Right? My mother didn't call anybody. My mother called my coach. And I was sitting on the curb in our neighborhood, just chilling, just sitting there with my head down, and my coach drove up. And he had two little brown little bags. He got out, said, "Ink, I got the call late, you know, but this is what I could do."

• 18:28Inky Johnson?

  And I hugged him, he hugged me, and I said, "Thank you, man. I greatly appreciate it." But it was just filled with drawers and socks. But it wasn't about the drawers and the socks. It was about, my guy showed up, man. You know, like it wasn't just there doing sport, like he showed up for me.

• 18:45Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 18:45Inky Johnson?

  And so it wasn't just words.

• 18:47Ed Mylett?

  Don't you see the theme though, that then you show up for your teammates after you had this adversity? Do you see that? I don't know if you've seen that.

• 18:54Inky Johnson?

  I never thought about it that way.

• 18:55Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I know. When you were telling me the story, it's like, it's like, I think sometimes in life, we model behavior of some of our heroes, you know, and people that made a difference. And because there's this remarkable wisdom to you as a young man, right? Remarkable gratitude. To this day, you're one of the most humble people I've met off camera that is so powerful in front of people. And I just wonder if maybe some of that was just, you know, ringing in your mind that he kept those commitments when you've kept all of yours. It's just, it just gets, it's, I think, and I think what it goes to is your perspective. And you have this thing that you talk about, that guys, when you get a chance to dive into Inky's content and his message, it will move you. You will remember it. It's, I was telling Inky,

• 19:36Ed Mylett?

  I share his messages with my son, more than I even share some of my own, because you live it. There's people who have inspiring messages. Then there's inspiring people. You're the combination of both. I consider you to be, your messages are unbelievably inspiring, but you're an inspiring man to me. And so talk about that for a minute. Perspective drives performance. Obviously, your perspective about this injury is what's, I think, altered the direction of your life. A lot of people, you know, you're not naive, had this injury. It had thrown them into the tank the rest of their life. A lot of people go through a divorce or a business setback or whatever, and they use that story for the next 50 years of their life to explain why they've not become somebody and done something great, right?

• 20:20Ed Mylett?

  Your perspective, so talk about perspective driving performance a little bit.

• 20:23Inky Johnson?

  I just feel as if how we view what we do affects how we do what we do. Like, the perspective that we have about the things we encounter, the things we're connected to, the people we love. And so, put it to you like this. I, I came in contact with the gentleman in Seattle. Right, and I'll never forget, he was, he was driving me to the event and he was crying. And I just asked him, was everything okay? And he shared with me that his wife has, had passed away, had died. Right? And I just asked him after he got done, I said, could you tell me, at a basic level, how when you encountered what was probably the toughest blow of your life, how did you just get up and put one foot in front of the other? You know, I know it was tough, and continue to raise your children, continue to function in your business.

• 21:07Inky Johnson?

  And he just told me, so we went through a period to where it was ugly, right? It's terrible. I made excuses, I left. I came back, I told my wife I would never leave again. No matter how bad, how tough, how rough it gets, I'll always stay there, I'll stay in the pocket. Right? I said, I got that part. I said, now answer me this, if you could change or do anything different about it, what would it be? He said, I would have shifted my perspective a lot earlier, and I would have embraced it. He said, because the moment I shifted my perspective, and I embraced it, it changed not only my life, it transformed my whole household and everything I was connected to. And I didn't even view her situation as opposition or adversity anymore, I viewed it as an opportunity. I said, bingo. He said, why did you say that?

• 21:50Inky Johnson?

  I said, I'm just a firm believer that perspective drives performance. I said, how we view what we do will always affect how we do what we do. Right? At the time when I was growing up, I viewed my situation and my circumstance as, man, it's cool, I got a roof over my head. I'm sleeping on the floor, but my perspective about it is, I'm going back to a home. I'm not on the side of the street. When my injury happened, I went to the Mayo Clinic at, the first person I sat down in front of, I'll never forget this. I was at the Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota, waiting on my doctor's visit. The first person I sat down in front of, I had my head down, and I was looking at a contraption that they had given me for my arm. And when I looked up, there was a young girl in front of me.

• 22:35Inky Johnson?

  She couldn't have been no more than 10 years old. I don't know what her medical condition was. When I looked at her, it was as if she was trying to keep the skin up on her face. Right? And when I went into the doctor's office, they was like, how you doing? I said, man, I just got paralyzed arm. My perspective about what I'm going through. I just got a paralyzed arm. Like my man Eric Legrand had a situation happen.

• 23:05Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, my good friend.

• 23:06Inky Johnson?

  In a wheelchair. We both know him, right?

• 23:08Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 23:08Inky Johnson?

  I just got a paralyzed right arm and hand, right? My perspective is gonna affect my performance every day of my life. If I look down at it and just use it as an excuse or something negative, I'll be a bitter blaming individual.

• 23:22Ed Mylett?

  Hmm, beautiful message. Truthfully speaking, um, do you ever have that? Do you ever now, any times you look at it, does that ever happen now?

• 23:30Inky Johnson?

  Nah, um, I'll tell you what's been the hardest thing for me has been like, one of my dreams as a kid, you know, and I was a force sport. I love everything about sports. But my dream as a kid, it was a swimming pool across the tracks in my neighborhood. And I would always go and walk by the pool because sometimes you had to pay, you know, and so. And I didn't have my little 75, so I'd just walk over, hang out. And I would always see like a father, right, with kids and throw them up, catch them. And I used to be like, man, I can't wait until one day I have a family and I could throw my kids up and catch them, right, in a pool.

• 24:14Inky Johnson?

  That was something that I always wanted to do. And so even when the doctor said to me in the hospital, he was saying all these things like, Inc., you probably won't be able to write with your right hand again. You probably won't be able to carry groceries, um, certain things, lifting weights. None of those things hit me. But when he was like, if you have kids one day, you probably won't be able to do certain things with your kids, right? And I thought about it. My mind reverted back to that. And so even with my eight-year-old son, nine-year-old daughter, when we're out, we're playing in the pool and some water sometimes, I think about that.

• 24:55Inky Johnson?

  Sometimes, and like that's the only thing that kinda knocks me off my pivot from time to time. But it's, it's not anything, I will not think about, I think about like hugging my wife.

• 25:05Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 25:06Inky Johnson?

  With two arms.

• 25:07Ed Mylett?

  Who you met in the fifth grade?

• 25:08Inky Johnson?

  I met in the fifth grade, like hugging my three little sisters.

• 25:11Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 25:11Inky Johnson?

  You know, but in terms of life and just functioning, you know, none of those things even come to mind.

• 25:16Ed Mylett?

  That's the perspective piece.

• 25:18Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 25:18Ed Mylett?

  Y'all see why I love this man?

• 25:19Inky Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 25:19Ed Mylett?

  Y'all getting it right now?

• 25:20Inky Johnson?

  I'm in.

• 25:21Ed Mylett?

  So, uh, faith.

• 25:23Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 25:24Ed Mylett?

  A major part of things I hear you talk about, it is with me as well. How did it impact you during the injury and what part does it play in your life now?

• 25:32Inky Johnson?

  Yeah, and so, um, you know, I didn't, I didn't realize this until after my injury happened. I just feel as if I was being prepared the whole time for it because when I got to college, like I grew up, mother, grandmother, always went to church, you know, in spite of what was going on in our household. They always went to church and I was like any other kid. I would go, you know, me and my cousins wouldn't pay attention.

• 25:54Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 25:54Inky Johnson?

  Mom, pop, you in the back of the head, pay attention, you know? Grandmother, twist your ear, right?

• 26:00Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 26:00Inky Johnson?

  And when I got to college, our chaplain, he works for the Titans now, he's Titans for the chaplain. I meant, he's the chaplain for the Titans, sorry. And he called me to his office. He was like, hey, man, I want to disciple you spiritually. And I was like, what is that?

• 26:15Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 26:15Inky Johnson?

  Sounds hard. And he was like, no, I want to develop you spiritually. And I was like, give me a second. I want to go and I want to ask my buddies. And so my buddies at the time was, and is till this day, Gerard Mayo.

• 26:27Ed Mylett?

  Sure.

• 26:27Inky Johnson?

  Played for the Patriots, first round, 10th pick.

• 26:29Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 26:30Inky Johnson?

  Robert Ayers, he went first round, 18th pick to the Broncos. Ramon Foster, he went free agent, been starting for the Pittsburgh Steelers past nine years. And a guy by the name of Sinclair Cannon.

• 26:41Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 26:41Inky Johnson?

  I went to him, I said, hey, man, do you guys want to take this journey with me? You know, getting discipled. He was like, what does it entail? I said, before we go to weight workouts, we go and we discuss scripture, right? We get it from our chaplain, we discuss it, we challenge each other, sacrifice. He was like, yeah, let's do it. And so we started doing it our freshman year, sophomore, junior year. We were doing it consistently. We would meet with them, he would have different assignments for us. And so when the injury happened, it was an amazing thing, man. I didn't know what this situation was about the birth, but I knew something was going to happen because when the injury happened. My guys were reminding me about what we went through in discipleship.

• 27:24Ed Mylett?

  They were.

• 27:25Inky Johnson?

  And so, they were like, "Hey, Inc., you remember we discussed that Jeremiah 29:11? Hey, you remember we talked about Romans 8:28 and it said, "All things work to the good of those who love the Lord, who are called according to his will and his purpose." Right? And so, I didn't know what the situation was about to manifest, but I knew something was about to take place, but I was extremely grateful. Because I can honestly say this. I don't believe if I had been through that discipleship those few years prior to my injury, I would have been able to handle it and process it the way that I did.

• 27:57Ed Mylett?

  Interesting.

• 27:58Inky Johnson?

  I don't think I would have been able to process it. I wouldn't have had the perspective because I had been working for it my whole life.

• 28:04Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 28:04Inky Johnson?

  And so, when it happened, luckily for me, I had been in spiritual discipleship, and so, my perspective was already changing. I wasn't the individual that I am now. The injury brought that out. Because it forced me to live it. But prior to, I was already transforming in a mental state in terms of what I was learning, what I was processing. And so, it's something that I'm extremely grateful for, and I think the Creator knew the whole time, "I need to prepare him."

• 28:31Ed Mylett?

  You know what's interesting about that? I've never said this before, never thought about it till you just said it. But hindsight on our life is one of the great evidences of our faith.

• 28:40Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 28:41Ed Mylett?

  Do you know what I mean?

• 28:41Inky Johnson?

  That's awesome, man.

• 28:42Ed Mylett?

  Isn't it though? I never thought about it before. But when you look even, everyone's not, everyone that has any faith that's listening to this or watching this, you just look back at your life, you can see, "Wow, there was a plan here."

• 28:53Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 28:53Ed Mylett?

  There was preparation happening. His hand was in my life. Like, clearly the way you grew up, and clearly your gratitude, and clearly this discipleship that prepared you for this moment. And then, the most remarkable thing too is, you're talking about for me, on one hand, I think I know who the best speakers on the planet are. And the one through five rotates from time to time. But you're on that hand for me, as you know, right? And what's interesting to me is, I doubt that the play before that play, you were thinking, you know what I'm gonna be doing someday? I'm gonna be standing in front of millions of people over my lifetime. Me, this kid who grew up with no bed, right? Mom's working double shifts at Wendy's, right? I'm flunking out of the second high school I go to, right?

• 29:37Ed Mylett?

  Then I'm gonna be an NFL player. The play, you know what I'm gonna be in many years? I'm gonna be sitting in Ed Millet's living room in Laguna Beach as one of the top speakers in the world, right? Like, and you'd even really wanna get into the speaking space, right? Tell them about that, like, you guys, it's like, it's almost home for you, though, right? Like, I think eventually in your life, you find your home, like, it just feels right. But you'd even wanna speak at first, did you? What happened with that?

• 30:00Inky Johnson?

  I had no idea, yeah. Didn't have any interest in it. And people would say to me, hey, Inc., you might need to look into it, right? Because we would go places for community service, and people would just strike up dialogue. Hey, man, what happened to your arm?

• 30:14Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 30:15Inky Johnson?

  And before long, everybody would be sitting there, just firing off questions. I would answer them, and I wouldn't think anything of it. I would leave, and it would just be like, oh, man, that was cool. And I remember I was coaching, and my wife got pregnant, and she was back in Atlanta, and she's a teacher. And so I made the decision to move back to Atlanta. But prior to moving back, I said, man, I need a job. And so I called the guy that was over at Atlanta Public Parking Racks. He picked up, I said, hey, man, I need a job. I need to come back. I wanna work at the same rec center I grew up in, right? He was like, oh, no problem, Inc., you can come back, lead the kids, teach curriculum. I was like, great. He said, you could've came like yesterday. I packed up, went back, I called him, never answered, right? E-mailed, never responded.

• 31:00Inky Johnson?

  And I was back, and I would just get up every single day, go put out my resume, looking for jobs, getting dressed. And my buddy Gerard Mayo, I was still doing community service, go places, people still fire off questions. And I remember he said to me, man, you really need to look into this speaking thing. And at the time, I would just be getting up every morning when my wife would get up, and we was in my wife's grandmother's home. And it was me, her, and our daughter. And my daughter was sleeping in a wagon that somebody had purchased for her birthday. And we were all in one bedroom at her grandmother's home. And I remember one morning I got up and I didn't have nothing, man. Like, I wasn't planning to speak. I didn't have a thing, right?

• 31:43Inky Johnson?

  I didn't have a plan and I didn't have any money and I had a family. And I remember my wife walked out of the door and I left. And I was like, you know what, man, I'm gonna try this thing. And I prayed, and it was simple. I still remember till this day, my prayer was this. God, I don't know what it is you want me to do with my life. People are telling me to speak. It feels right. I'll be obedient. You said obedience is better than sacrifice. I'll be obedient. And for most people, what do we do if we start out on a journey or a quest? We judge the level of sacrifice without first being obedient. What is it going to cost me right now? What do I have to sacrifice? But the Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice. God, I'll be obedient, right?

• 32:27Inky Johnson?

  First trip I get to speak is a fifteen hour round trip to Mississippi. I drive, right? I get back home, close to three in the morning, my wife wakes up for me. I walk in the door, she says, how was it? I was like, oh, it was great. She was like, what did you get? I was like, they gave me this cool coffee mug.

• 32:46Inky Johnson?

  She was like, what? She was like, you sure this is what you're supposed to do? I was like, yes, ma'am. She was like, you sure? I was like, yes, ma'am. She was like, go for it.

• 32:56Ed Mylett?

  Really? Africa coffee mug.

• 32:58Inky Johnson?

  I've been speaking ever since, man, over thirteen years, right? And I've never handed out a business card to nobody and said, hi.

• 33:05Ed Mylett?

  It's all word of mouth, all referral.

• 33:07Inky Johnson?

  Word of mouth.

• 33:07Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, by the way, I usually do this at the end, but it's too important now. You need to be following this man on Instagram, right? And it's at Inky Johnson.

• 33:14Inky Johnson?

  At Inky Johnson.

• 33:15Ed Mylett?

  Pretty simple, there's not a lot of Inky Johnsons. So go, go follow him there. So you, you did something there that's really interesting, though. First of all, let me ask you this, I'm just curious, what makes you a great speaker? Drop the humility thing for a second. What makes you a great speaker? Because people ask me all the time, how do I become a better speaker? How do I communicate better? Do you think there's something in particular that's one of your gifts or that you do well?

• 33:37Inky Johnson?

  So, um, I would say...

• 33:40Inky Johnson?

  First preparation, who I'm serving. I want to know everything about them. I want to know what's important to them, right? So I can better serve them. But just in terms of being a dynamic communicator, right? I've always wanted to be able to communicate on any topic, in any room, on any subject. But also learning what drive emotions, right? What stories pull on certain emotions? In a story, whatever environment I'm in, what stories can I use that's going to resonate? And sit well with the crowd to pull on certain emotions? If they say, hey, Inc., we want the crowd to feel this. I know I got certain amount of stories that I can pull from that can connect with those emotions. And so just wanting to be dynamic in terms of my communication. But also being more concerned with what they want from me, whether than what I want to say.

• 34:24Ed Mylett?

  I totally, I surrender on that too often. So one thing about that, huge lesson, I still wanted to pass everybody by. Stories are huge as any kind of a communicator. I use my stories when I teach lessons to my children. Rather than just, you know, demanding things at them. I usually tell some kind of a story. I hope they can remember, facts tell, stories sell, right? So, so I'm a big storyteller myself. I'm always cognizant about emotion. And the thing you do that you give me is you transfer energy super incredibly well. And you can't transfer energy that you're not really experiencing. I think you really mean the things you're saying. And so I feel them, there's an authenticity to it. You also talk about often, along that line, but talk about process over product for a second. I love this right here.

• 35:07Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely, yeah. And so for me, the process over product deal is about eliminating the outcome, right? Not being driven by the outcome, not being driven by the product, whatever that is. And so the way that came about was after my injury. And I got placed in a two-year process. And so with a brachial plexus avulsion, nobody knows if feeling is going to come back, really. Nobody knows if movement is going to come back because all of them are different. And so what they'll do is put you in a process and see what happens. And so they said, Inc., we'll put you in a two-year process, order you the best pieces of equipment on the, on the planet. And you just show up five to six days a week and do it. We don't know what's going to happen. We're not telling you when you get done, you'll be able to work your arm again. We don't know what's going to happen.

• 35:52Inky Johnson?

  Go to five to 10 people you love and respect, tell them the situation, see what they think. I went to five to 10 people I loved and respect. I told them the situation, all of them said, don't do it. I said, why? And I knew they loved me. I knew they cared about me. They said they can't guarantee you nothing. They said they can't guarantee you that it will work. I said, I thought true courage was the ability to start something without any guarantee of success. Like, I thought that's where the warrior was. Right? Being able to walk into a situation, being able to start a process, start a business, and they don't need you to guarantee them anything, right? It's not driven by the product. It's not driven by the reward. It's driven by the process.

• 36:32Inky Johnson?

  And so, a year and a half into the process, my mentality was concrete. Right? Like, I didn't need anybody to guarantee me anything, right? It was process over product, concrete commitment. The ability to start something, stay focused, stay the course, and you don't need anybody to guarantee you a thing is driven off your integrity, is driven off your character, and is driven off of what you represent. Thank you, God.

• 36:58Ed Mylett?

  That's why you're here, right there, right there, right there, right there, right, right, right there. There's always, always pray in an interview for me. You ask me, "Why do you do this show?" He asks me this, I'm like, "Why do you do this?" I said, "For me." Because every once in a while, and every few interviews, there's like a moment where I go, "Oh, man, how come I never thought of that?" Or, "That's, that's new for me." That right there, what he just described, everybody, go back, rewind about two minutes and replay that. That thing you just described is the separator from the people I know that get over to the other side of their life in some way. Change the relationship, their body, their faith, their money, is they don't need a guarantee.

• 37:39Ed Mylett?

  They'll go through a process not having to have the result guaranteed to them. It's their ability to be willing to go through a process and step into the unknown. Whereas most humans, and you know this too, you saw this even in football. You see it every day in your life. They won't, they, they, they tiptoe into the process, but they won't give everything of themselves because they're not sure about the payoff. Successful people are willing to step into these spaces of the unknown longer with more commitment than the average person does to win. End of story, big time, combine with faith, combine with these other things we're talking about. See, that's why I do the show. Right there. That, guys, trust me, that's a huge point in your life.

• 38:23Ed Mylett?

  You need to evaluate what this man just said in some area of your life. What are you, are you in a relationship still because you're so afraid to be alone? Right? Are you so afraid, you'll stick in this crappy thing you're in because of the unknown of where you are. You're gonna stay in this career that you know isn't your calling. You know isn't your, everyone knows it, but you're so afraid of this unknown space because there's no guarantee where you're going. And someday you're gonna wake up and go, man, I spent all this space and then, all my time in this known space where all the love, all the joy, all the juice of life is in the unknown. So good. Okay. That's why, right there, right there, right there. Okay. And then, there's just this brilliance that comes out of you.

• 39:04Ed Mylett?

  It's fact though, right? You said it, I didn't. I just reset it. I wish I said it. I'm not that smart. Okay, so, uh, so I want to ask you this, a couple of things too. Like, I know we're going a little longer than I told you, but it's too good. It's too good. Okay. You talk a lot about this transaction idea too. Like, the way you say things is different. And it just, it, I don't know, maybe because we're both athletes, it hits me the right way when you speak, right? So, talk a little bit about this concept of the transaction and energy and all that stuff. This is brilliance, guys. Here's some more brilliance right here.

• 39:35Inky Johnson?

  It's just about, you know, doing things with a transactional mentality. It ties into what we were just speaking about, the interconnection of it. But just that transactional mentality of, it's, it's like, when a person does something, right? I asked a guy my freshman year, I said, are you committed to what we're doing? Right? Are you committed to it? He's like, yeah, I like it. I was like, but are you committed to it? He's like, I like it. I said, no, are you committed in terms of, I am going to stay true to, what I said I would do, long after the mood that I've set it in has left? It's not transactional, right? Like in my marriage, it's not transactional. For me to try to drive to be a better man every single day. With my children, it's not transactional.

• 40:19Inky Johnson?

  To try to be a great father, it's not predicated upon situations, circumstances. It's not driven by that, right? It's not transactional. I don't have transactional behavior, right? I tell my son all the time, I'm like, man, it's a big difference between being somebody that works hard and a hard worker, right? If you're somebody that works hard, if the situation plays in your favor, if you get what you want from a transactional standpoint, you might give me everything you got. I said, but when you're a hard worker, we could take it to the bank. And Mallet's a monster. We could take it to the bank. He's wired that way, right? And so it talks back to that point about the transactional behavior.

• 40:57Ed Mylett?

  Oh my god.

• 40:58Inky Johnson?

  Based upon situations, circumstances, people, and things.

• 41:02Ed Mylett?

  The way you said that about, long after the emotion of making the commitment and the decision is gone, then who are you? Oh my god. I've always, I did the show because I really wanted to learn, what is it that separates happier, more successful people in their life? Like, really, what is it? Like, not the memes, you know what I mean? And that is one of the huge things, is that in the moment when you're in a relationship, it's all beautiful and awesome, okay? And once that emotion's gone, who are you in the relationship? I want to change my body. Ah, I'm all motivated, I want to look like this person. Then, once that's gone, and it's day 92, right? And it's raining out and you gotta go on your run,

• 41:47Ed Mylett?

  then who are you?

• 41:48Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 41:48Ed Mylett?

  Do you think that's, part of that is character? I don't know, is that a character thing? Like, when I meet you, I honestly, like, there are people that I've met and I'm like, I want to be better.

• 42:01Ed Mylett?

  I want to be better. Before you uttered a word, like, this is a good man. I want to be better. You seem to have, to me, Inky, exceptional character.

• 42:09Inky Johnson?

  Thank you.

• 42:10Ed Mylett?

  You know what I mean? Like, it seems to me, when you give someone your word, just so you know, everybody, you talk about 13, you have a 13-hour round trip today to come see me.

• 42:18Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 42:18Ed Mylett?

  So that first speech for the coffee cup,

• 42:20Inky Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 42:21Ed Mylett?

  right? Not so different, almost a decade later,

• 42:24Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 42:25Ed Mylett?

  sitting here today with me, he's doing one of those trips just to be with me today. And I'm grateful for that. My audience is grateful. This man still keeps his word.

• 42:31Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 42:32Ed Mylett?

  I just want to know, do you think it's a character thing with you, or what do you think it is?

• 42:36Inky Johnson?

  Yeah, I think so. And the beauty of it is, like, character is something, I always say, character's not something we inherit. Right? Character's something we gotta wake up every single day, we gotta fight, and we gotta build it. And so the character you possess right now, even though your son is your son, he can't inherit your character. He can inherit some of your traits, but he can't inherit your character. He's gonna have to build that from the things you've instilled in my son. Right? Even though I'm his father, he can't inherit my character. He's gonna have to wake up and build it through actions, through decisions, and through choices. And so when we speak to character, if it is a character situation, I think it can play in people's advantage if they're willing to build it.

• 43:16Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 43:17Inky Johnson?

  Right? But most people would say, well, I don't have, I didn't inherit it. Like, it's not, it's not who I am.

• 43:23Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 43:23Inky Johnson?

  Character's something, you wake up every single day, you fight and you build it. Every decision you make, how you treat people, I call them destiny moments. Right? The moments that when you bump into somebody and it's really not convenient for you, how you treat that person.

• 43:37Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 43:37Inky Johnson?

  The moment when you come into somebody's home and there's something on the floor, you grab the tissue, you wipe it up, that's my man. I'm gonna treat this home like it's my home. Right? Character, building it.

• 43:46Ed Mylett?

  I need to tell them that. So there was, we're off camera, and there's a little spill happening, and I noticed, this man goes into the restroom, grabs, he's cleaning up my house for me. And so that's just, that is character. I'm that type of person, too, if I'm in the, my business partner, Andy Foulon, I say, if I'm in the restroom and dudes are throwing stuff on the floor, I pick it up. Like, I just can't stand that sort of thing. So I want to ask you a couple of things as we wrap up, but I want everybody to get the most out of you today. First off, if they I want to hear have you come speak for them.

• 44:12Inky Johnson?

  Absolutely.

• 44:13Ed Mylett?

  Do they go to their Instagram? Is that the best place to go?

• 44:15Inky Johnson?

  Yep, or to the website, inkyjohnson.com. And so just email us there, [email protected].

• 44:21Ed Mylett?

  It's fire, people. It is fire. Okay, trust me. Okay, I want to endorse a lot of speakers. It's fire. Okay, because it comes from a real place and a real life and a real story. But, okay, I want to, there's millions of people listening to this right now or watching, and they're down. They're you on the football field that day. Everything was great. You called a play, you actually went and helped out on a guy that wasn't your guy on that play, did you not? Yeah. And they're down, and they're going, "Look, I, I don't know which way's up. I don't know where I want to go. I, I want to change my life. I want to be happier. I want to, I want to have my test be my testimony at some point. Where do I begin?

• 45:03Ed Mylett?

  What would your advice be to somebody, just in general, relationship, body, business? This is where I should begin. What would you recommend to them?

• 45:12Inky Johnson?

  I would say tie it to something that's real. Like whatever that driving force is, tie it to something that's real, whether that be family, whether that be the life that you aspire to have. And be loyal, right? Be loyal to what you say you're gonna do. Like, like I've heard Tony Robbins say it before, when he said, um, like I asked her, "Was the happiness that cheap?" Right? Like, is your drive that cheap? Right? To the point to where, when you don't get what you thought you were gonna get. I put it on my Instagram today. I said, "Man, everybody will tell you what they're gonna do when things go right. But nobody addresses what they're gonna do when things go wrong." And we both know, in the words of Martin Luther King, right? "Character, right, is built in times of challenge and controversy."

• 45:55Inky Johnson?

  And so when you encounter a challenge and a controversy, I would say be grateful for it. You say it all the time. Things don't happen to us, they happen for us. You say it all the time. Hidden blessings, right? All it is, all the tragedy and opposition in that birth, it's a hidden blessing that you don't know is a blessing yet. So consider it a blessing, grace, right? Consider it a blessing before you consider it a blessing, and watch the perspective. That you acquire about the situation and when you acquire the right perspective about the situation, don't look at it and say, "Why me?" Look at it and say, "Why not you?" And just get up and put one foot in front of the other and use your situation to add value to the world.

• 46:33Ed Mylett?

  Higher!

• 46:34Inky Johnson?

  The quicker you shift your perspective to add value to the world, the quicker you'll get through your situation and your circumstance.

• 46:40Ed Mylett?

  And this is, by the way, from a man who did this. Within hours of waking up from his dream being over, Coach Fulmer, who's a legend, many, he's the AD now at Tennessee, comes in and says, "Hey, you me okay, Coach, I got this. I'm good." What exactly did you say to him? Was it something right around those lines, right?

• 46:58Inky Johnson?

  I said, "Coach, I'm good. I'm blessed."

• 47:00Ed Mylett?

  "I'm blessed!" After his dream had just ended. So this is someone who's lived this, guys, like legitimately lived this. And tying it to something is such brilliant advice because I say often, we say it a little bit different, but I always talk about, "I'm blown away by how easily someone's will to win can be bought." You know what I mean?

• 47:17Inky Johnson?

  Yeah, I heard that.

• 47:18Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 47:20Ed Mylett?

  But they'll say, they'll sell it, right? And so, but you know what most of you won't sell is if you do what this man just advised you to do. If you'll tie your dream to something you wouldn't sell out, like your children, like your spouse, like your God, you'll question selling out your kids. But if you don't tie your kid to your dream, hey, it's easy to quit, but all of a sudden you just sold your kids' dreams? That's harder to do. You just sold God out because you don't have faith something's going to happen? Maybe you'll stay in a little bit longer when you tie it. So there's brilliance to what this man is telling you, okay? I'm telling you. And so, there's, there's, there's just very few people who just speak real truth. And the reason your truth is so profound is because you live it. It's not speeches you give. It's a part of your story. Okay, last question.

• 48:04Ed Mylett?

  Okay, by the way, this is just awesome today. Okay, and I can feel, I just hope everybody hasn't run off the road. You know what I'm saying? That are, that are in their cars because of the fuel that we're giving everybody. But I want to ask you lastly about young people. I asked you this off camera, but I want, I want your answer here. A lot of people here that are listening to this have children or they'll play this part of the interview and you speak a lot to kids. And there's something that we haven't talked about here today that I just want to finish on if, if we're going real. This is, you grew up. Poor. Now, not poor of spirit, poor of family. But when you got 12 people in a two-bedroom place, there was not a ton of money floating around that house of yours.

• 48:48Ed Mylett?

  Okay. So there's somebody listening to this who goes, you know, I'm poor, so I can't win. Or, you know what, I have a, I think I have a disadvantage because of the color of my skin, or my religion, or my sexual preference, or something like that, that they're, they're not in the mainstream, they're not in the majority. There's a circumstance where their dreams end, or they don't have a father in their life. What advice would you give that young person who thinks potentially that's a negative? Is it, are they right, and can they overcome it anyway? Or should they just be grateful for the blessings that they have?

• 49:19Inky Johnson?

  I would say, play the hand you dealt like it's the one you always wanted. Right? Because we all know, like, who you run with determines the direction that you run, who you hang around is who you become. And so the way that I feel as if I got through my circumstance, it wasn't all by my might and my power, even though I had a level of focus, and I saw the collateral damage as it happened, right? The same way that you can be in a circumstance and you can learn from people that do things right, you can learn from people that do things wrong. But I had people that I respected enough not to disrespect. I had people that I respected enough not to disrespect. My coach, highest level of respect, I couldn't disrespect him. Being lazy would have been disrespecting him.

• 50:02Inky Johnson?

  My mother working a double shift, being lazy, cutting class, smoking weed, I'd have been disrespecting her, right? My teachers that went to bat for me and said, "Son, you got it." Right? I would have been disrespecting them if I wouldn't have tried to do my best and accomplish what I feel I could accomplish. And so the thing I would say to them is, it's somebody in life, and this is across the board, not just young people. It's somebody in life that situation and circumstance is a lot worse than yours. And they took their hand and they're winning with it. Their hand is a lot worse than yours. They took it, they pick up the pieces every single day, and they're winning with it. It's only an excuse, it's only a bad situation if you label it that.

• 50:45Inky Johnson?

  Perspective drives performance every day of the week. How you view what you do will affect how you do what you do. Play the hand that you're dealt like it's the hand that you always wanted.

• 50:56Ed Mylett?

  Thank you. My man. I love today. I'm so grateful that we did this today. It's an honor, man. And I know the audience is too. You need to go... It's an honor, man. You need to go follow him, and you all understand why, and I understand why so many of you wanted him here today. I'm so grateful. Thank you, man. And I admire you. I admire you. Anything I can ever do for you. This means a lot to me. We're friends, and I'm here to help you any way I can. Everybody, I'm here to help you too, as you all know. Every day I run the Max Out 2-Minute Drill. If you're not doing it, you need to follow me on Instagram. I make a post every day, 7:30 Pacific, 10:30 Eastern. When I do that, I've created a situation there so I can coach, engage, and meet you. So the winners on this 2-Minute Drill, they fly on my jet sometimes, they get Max Out gear, they come see me speak, they get coaching calls from my guests.

• 51:39Ed Mylett?

  All kinds of cool things. Autographed copy of my book, "Here's All You Gotta Do to Win." When I make a post, in the first 2 minutes, have your notifications on, make a comment. Just make a comment. We pick a winner every day. If you miss the first 2 minutes, make a comment every day on every post I make. At the end of the week, everybody who makes a comment, all 5, we pick winners from that. And if you make comments and other people's comments, we select winners from there as well. So there's 3 ways to win. I'd love to engage with you, and hopefully you'll be engaging with people like Inky through that as well. So God bless you, and Max out, everybody.