SHAQ ON BUILDING A $400 MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS EMPIRE

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
My graduate from my school, being Forbes, backdrop.
Backdrop. F*** a mic drop. Backdrop.
Right now, we're going to reset the room, and we're going to give you a deep dive into one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, Shaquille O'Neal. If you watch EYL, you know it's no fluff. We get straight to it. And very rarely do you have an opportunity to hear these kinds of conversations. When we interview Mark Cuban, when we interview Mike Novogratz, who's worth $8 billion. When we interview Rick Ross, when we interview Dame Dash.

**Shaquille O'Neal** (0:45)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:46)
It's like you're right there.

**Shaquille O'Neal** (0:47)
Keep going.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:48)
It's like you're right there. So, I want you guys, let's have fun. We're going to have fun with this today. But more importantly, I want you guys to really listen and learn from this man's journey, his experiences and the information that he's about to provide. So, without further ado, the Big Aristotle. Shaq, where you at, baby?
Shaq, Shaq, first and foremost, thank you, brother. We appreciate it. PhD, MBA, gentleman and a scholar, but more important than anything, great father. So before we start, I want to wish you and every father out there, happy Father's Day.

**Troy** (2:29)
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:35)
So Shaq, we're not even going to waste any time. Let's get right into it. Everybody take your seats. It's time to learn. It's time to learn. Pads out.
So Magic Johnson, the great Magic Johnson, gave you some advice when you was 18 years old about financial literacy. You know, we always hear about 70% of NBA players going broke. A lot of the NFL players going broke, rappers, entertainers, but you're somebody who obviously made a lot of money while you were playing, but you probably double, quadruple, tripled your net worth after you're playing. It's a success story. So what are some of the jewels that he gave you as a young man that you still carry with you to this day?

**Shaquille O'Neal** (3:13)
Well, at first, before I met Magic Johnson, I spent a million dollars in one day.
So I know nothing about financial literacy. My agent calls me and said, hey, I got a check for a million. So, shit, you know me. I already had that black Mercedes lined up.
So I said, I'm about to go get the Mercedes with the wheels, the pullout deck, so it cost 150
So when I get back to the crib, my dad said, where's mine at? So in my mind, I'm like, a million minus 150, shit, I got 850 left, right? So I go buy him one, I go buy my mother one, you know, get some ice, get some earrings, get a couple of suits. So I get a call from the bank manager, he says, you spend a million dollars. And I was like, no, I didn't. So then when I'm looking at the paperwork, I see FICA, now I get mad. I'm like, hey, I don't know no motherfucking FICA, he took 200,000. No, I don't. So like, I had no idea what FICA and income sales tax, state tax, I had no idea what that was. So then I said, okay, I don't want to be like the rest of these NBA players. I got to teach myself. Cause this is something that we don't know. Like, you know, my family work paycheck to paycheck. We never had no money, but I had to get that Benz. I had to get my mom a Benz. Like, I just had to get that first. So after I spent that million dollars in the day, I sort of, you know, educated myself. And it's okay not to know nothing. So if you don't know nothing, you just ask questions. So everybody I saw that was successful. How you do that? How you do that? How you do that? And the first book I bought was The Dummy's Guide to Starting Your Own Business.
Everybody should get that book cause they give you all the answers on how to start a business, how to be successful, what to look for. So after that, I became a little more literate, but I still didn't know a lot. Then when I went to LA, Magic was having a function. He got some praise. I got a little bit more praise. I thought I was the man. And he said, it's all right to be famous, but at some point you want to start owning things. I didn't know what that means. So I went back to the book and I'm looking up sole proprietorship, you know, joint venture, all this stuff, and I'm devising my plan.