Latest / Color Commentary / Ep 41 | Rules to Success Spiritually (Feat. CJ McCollum)
Transcript
- Charles Cole: Welcome to Color Commentary, a podcast where the stories shaping our world are told in black and white first, and then we dig into their deeper meaning in full color. Each week I'll be bringing you the news like this. First, we'll start with what I like to call the black and white section. A clear, straight shooting, rundown of the facts in the tradition of greats like Ed Bradley, Walter Cronkite, and the classic voices of journalism. Then we'll shift into the color commentary section where I add my own personal opinions and insights. Sometimes it'll just be me, sometimes we'll have guests. All right? But look, I am a scholar, I'm a hip hop junkie, a movie and culture nerd, and an avid book reader. So in these shows you will get glimpses of all of that. ⁓ so come with your whole self, bring your whole self, because I'm gonna be my whole self. Let's get into it. So I was scrolling through X the other day, and I ⁓ came across this post from CJ McCullough. And if you don't know, CJ McCullough is a pro in the NBA. He's been in for over a decade, I think twelve years, I'm not sure. ⁓ but he was never like a phenom, you know. He he he went to a really small school. ⁓ he's not actually super athletic. ⁓ as far as NBA people go. He's at more athletic than the average person, obviously. and, you know, he's been, I think, the president of the ⁓ players union, either the president or vice president, one or the other. He's very active and involved and he's really articulate. And I I really hate that we're in a world now where it's a problem calling black people articulate, because one, being articulate is very difficult. I'm I'm somebody who articulates for a reason and I struggle. It's difficult. You know, I like to ramble, hence my podcast. I just hate that we've that that that that got ⁓ that racist people messed up articulation because they were so not used to seeing black people articulate themselves well. But in the grand scheme of things, he's really good. ⁓ he's really great at breaking down complex issues that the union might be dealing with to the everyday consumer, ⁓ from a player's perspective. I just respect it. But anyway, it doesn't matter. I came across him and he was talking about how he's been successful in the league, how he is always one of the first people signed, despite him not being a superstar. And I thought that some of those skills are really transferable. And I really want to get into it. I wanna I wanna show the clip, and the clip caught me in such a way ⁓ that I put out my notebook and and I wanted to capture it. I wrote down everything that he said. So I'll go through it in depth. So I'll probably speed the video up since I'm gonna go through each point. And I wanna also preface this too, as I've been getting asked a lot. Like people been asking me to mentor them or talk about how I became successful. And I don't know if I always see myself as successful because I'm still striving. I'm still trying to get there. I'm trying to get to it. But I I I I I'm from what I came from, I'm fairly successful. I think that's safe to say. ⁓ you know, I think from growing up in the type of poverty that I grew up in, ⁓ losing friends, which a lot of people do, that doesn't make me special. Just having a lot of chips stacked up against you. And to be in a place now where I have a ⁓ a college education, I got a lot of student debt, but for the most part I can pay that bill. ⁓ I own a home. You know, I I run two companies that do fairly well. I ⁓ and it it's I'm pushing myself to say these things because I don't always see myself as this, but I know it is important to people that listen to me. It's important to people that come to this podcast and some that just watch clips, but some that watch the full thing. ⁓ I assure you there are there are It's a hundredfold more of you that watch the clips than watch the whole thing, but I appreciate ⁓ my small group of people that do watch the whole thing and that's why I'm doing this episode like this, because it's specifically those people that asked. And they wanted to know, ⁓ from my perspective as a first generation college student, ⁓ as somebody who grew up poor and somewhat changed the trajectory, you know, of his of my life and my family's life, you know, through education, through academics, through working hard, and making a lot of mistakes along the way. I try to be really humble because I I in that stuff in a way because I I do believe that you can jinx things. ⁓ and I'm not better than anybody. So that was more uncomfortable for me than it probably was for you. but it's because of those things that I want to go into this episode. So we're gonna talk about it. We're gonna get into it. And so here are the facts. This is in our black and white section. The context around this is that there are 30 teams in the NBA. Each of those teams has 15 spots. So that makes up roughly 450 jobs in playing in the NBA at one time. Okay. Keep that number and hold on to that number. Because CJ McCullough is gonna break down. He's probably kinda obviously too saying, I'm not even one of the best four hundred and fifty basketball players in the world, but yet and still I am here. I am signed first. I'm not first, but I'm signed early on. ⁓ and I get to lead this this game when I want to. But he has some very specific rules that he follows and that he coaches and trains, you know, his rookies or the players that come up under him that he trains them on. Here we go. Yeah, I mean I said the same thing to my guys, Herb, Trey, Jose. And they watch. I look, man, I have the answers to everything, man, but I know how to make money. I was like, I know how to stay in the league, I know how to do things the right way. I know how to be valuable. I know how to show up on time. I know how to take coaching. I don't get in trouble off the court. I know how to invest. I said, I know how to a lot of things right and I know what not to do because I've seen it. So I'm like, if you just watch, ask questions and learn. I don't have all the answers, man, but I can help you make a little bit more money if you just pay attention and they listen and ask questions and Herb cash he's another deal, trade hundred million, hundred million, Jose's gonna get paid again. They ask questions, they listen. And I think for me it's about like we have all these examples of what success looks like. It's like follow the examples, like don't be afraid to ask the right questions. I don't have an ego when it comes to like information. Like I asked Eric Snow, like, how did you stay in the league? Keith McLeod, how you stay the league? Gary Grant. What do you what do you wish you could have done better? So it's like I asked Steph, I Steph, like all the like why how do you choose so good? You what I Like don't have an ego, like wherever it comes to improving my game, I think for young players, if you want to be in the league, like just look look around, see who's hanging around, see who continues to get contract after contract. See was getting 20 million, see what getting 10, see he getting five, and they should be getting five. And go talk to them like this is year sixteen. Like you and you get signed early. Like how like you what I mean? Like that's important. And this is money that you're gonna need when you're 50. You know what mean? Like this is reverse for us, like earning potential max right now. You know, you're talking, you twenty, thirty five, which is not how it is in the real world. And you gotta maximize your earning potential. And for I maximize my blessings. And my blessing is I'll be able to stop playing when I want to stop playing. Like I won't be forced out. It'll be like, all right, this was fun. I'm moving on as opposed to guys that get forced out for not doing things the right way. I've been around a long time, and I always say it's not the best, you know, four hundred and fifty players. It's the 450 players that fit the best that do things the right way. And it's like a hundred of the best, like talented players, and then it's like 300 of the guys that just fit the right rules. ⁓ and then 50 that is just like, you know, it's a great piece and like a good person in their audience. Okay. I think that was really good. ⁓ it was so good, like I said, that when I was scrolling, I stopped, I bookmarked it, and I actually wrote it in my notebook, right? So let's let's highlight the rules that he had. I may have missed a few, but these are the ones that that ⁓ this is what I picked up. The first thing is that he spoke directly to the needs of the person that he's talking to. Not the needs, but their interests. And the first thing he said is, I may not know everything, but I know how to make money in this league. Instantly you got a young person's attention, right? Especially a young person in the NBA's attention. And then I wrote down, he knows how to do things the right way. And then he goes into what that is. And He said number three, be valuable. What does that mean? It means have a purpose. Why are you in the room? Why are you on this team? What do you do? What do you add? And if you can't tell, I love this list because this is not just about the NBA. This is about succeeding in life. This is about becoming an adult, becoming responsible adult, ⁓ with one with responsibilities. And whether you work in the MBA, whether you work for a company, a nonprofit, an entrepreneur, ⁓ these a a student, whatever, these rules like permeate. So be invaluable. Like ask yourself, like, when I'm here, like do I add value? And what does that value look like? And once you find out exactly how you add value, You want to maximize that value that you add. That's really, really important. And then he says, show up on time. Listen, man, showing up on time does so much of the heavy lifting because so many people don't. And not only do they not show up on time, they mad at you because you hold them to a standard for them to be at a place when they said they would be there. I think it is one of the most disrespectful things ever to not just be on time, but to not communicate. That you're running behind. To be late is human. These things happen. It it happens a l with everybody. But do are you communicating that? Are you actually showing care and respect to another person's time and not just being selfish? I think people that are chronically late and that don't say anything about it are some of the most selfish people ever. I don't want to be around them. I don't enjoy doing business with them because it just shows a disregard. For people outside of themselves. Now again, there's it's not about being late. It's when you are like making an effort to be on time, doing what you need to. It's not chronically being late. And when you are late the few times that you are, you clearly communicate with the people that you're running late and you apologize. It goes so far. I I know I spent a lot of time there, but that's important. Be coachable. That can be a tough one. For a lot of people, but I've seen a lot of talented people that were not coachable, that weren't approachable, and they don't really make it. And you can have a lot of raw talent, but there's always ways to get better. So if you have a boss or you have a mentor or a professor or a parent or somebody that's just doing well and and they're trying to give you some game, it doesn't hurt to listen. Tuck that, tuck, tuck, tuck the ego in the back pocket and listen. And I and that's not to say that I have not struggled with that, because I have. Sometimes it's hard, depending on who the person is giving you the information. But check yourself. The next one was stay out of trouble. He says I stay out of trouble off the court. Look, when you become a headache for an organization or a job or a university, and that headache starts to outweigh that the great things that you bring, you won't be there. Look in the NFL, there's a lot of great Players, a lot of great wide receivers, and I'll use wide receivers because their position forces them to be a little bit more out front, a little diva-ish, because, you know, they gotta get the ball, they gotta get seen, and they may only get, you know, on a good day, seven balls thrown to them, right? And they catch four. Like they gotta build a career off that stuff, right? So w wide receivers tend to be you hear from them, they have some theatrics that come on with them, right? Like, Stefan Diggs is in the news a lot for not the right reasons. And again, his business, I actually don't care. I have no judgment on it. But you know who does care? The Patriots cared. His team prior cared. And he's one of the most talented, gifted athletes on the planet. He is one of the best wide receivers in the league. He is really, really, really, really, really good. But all this off-the-field stuff is catching up. And guess what? They make a new one of you every year. There's there's there's 30 new ones of him entering the league. And You can blow your own opportunities. And I say this to somebody who's tried to stay out of trouble. ⁓ I've done moderately okay. ⁓ I do I mess up? Absolutely. Have I made some ⁓ mental mistakes? Yeah. But as Stephen A. Smith would say, stay out of the police blotters. You don't want them pri type of problems. ⁓ and this is what CJ is pointing at as part of the big reason as to why he's still in the league. ⁓ after that, it was. Know how to invest. She says, I know how to invest. Learn how to invest. Learn how to make your money work for you and learn how to make your time work for you. I did a video a long time ago. It's a method that I follow. I called it, I I coined it my nine to five and my five to nine. My nine to five belongs to my responsibilities. That could mean working a job that I hate. That could mean dealing with a boss that I don't like. It's the thing that pays the bills and it's something I take very seriously because I had a father that I watched who didn't always man the nine to five well. He was very prominent in telling a boss what he was not gonna do. And you know what happened? He got fired. And you know what happened when he would get fired? We would be homeless. I would be living in a shelter. So that's something that stuck in with me. I don't that don't mean that you don't have self-respect. That don't mean that you let people walk over you. Cool, I understand. I'm not saying that. Trust me, if you know me, you know that's not what I mean. But there are people that go into work every single day that's more so acting like that job is doing them a favor, is doing them a favor. Like they're doing a favor for the job. And again, it's a two-way reciproc reciprocal relationship. That job absolutely needs you, but you also need that job, right? And and the nine to five, and everybody's just not blessed. To do a job day to day that fulfills them or that makes them feel good about themselves or or it it is just not reality. It is for a lot of people, and if you are in a place where you have a modicum of that, you know what I'm saying? Like where you have the freedom and the privilege of being able to to do that, I think that's incredible. You go what I'm saying? But a lot of people aren't. And they have to. So you use you use your nine to five to to fund your life and it's an investment in you. But your five to nine is yours. And I know that hours may not be nine to five and five to nine. Just go with the concept, okay? You have time to yourself, and this is the time that you have to invest in yourself. This is where you do find the things that fulfill you. This is where you do build up those skill sets and you bring those things in. ⁓ and you that isn't a a time investment. So This investment piece is not just in money because you might be like, I don't have money right now. The time investment is important as well. Sweat equity is a real thing. And for your money, you do need to learn how to invest it. So here's the thing I have Cash App. Everybody has Cash App. You can buy stock directly now from Cash App. You ain't got to go in and spend thousands of dollars. What I have, the things that I use, I use, I like Starbucks. Nike, I like Apple, I have stock in those. And what I do is each week, I had a set on auto that there's $10, $20 is going into that each week, and I just don't look at it. And it served me very, very, very well. Okay? Like tens of thousands of dollars very well. and think of it like: how much do I spend at Starbucks? How much do I spend in Nike? How much do I spend on Apple? So sometimes I'll do a thing where I'll look at the cost that I would have spent in in Starbucks for the week. And instead of that, I'll take that money and just invest it in the Starbucks. I'll look at the type of Nikes that I buy. I might want some shoes. I'll I'll skip the pair and put that number, put that money directly in the Nike and so on and so forth. So I have my weekly stuff, and then every now and then I I substitute those things. ⁓ CJ is talking about this on a different level. He's talking about You know, they're in a world where they have a lot of money at once and knowing how to invest that money and find the right people is key. And you can be taken for a ride. But he's that's why he said, I know how to invest. And so learn how to invest. Learn. And start very small because you might lose it. Start with something that i i it it might hurt you a little bit, but it's a band aid hurt. It ain't a surgical hurt. You understand? Know what not to do. Come on, man. You gotta know what not to do. You gotta know who the person that you can't yell at. You gotta know what you, you know, we it is so important. Understanding these rooms and how to read rooms and things like that. Like, that is just sage wisdom. Then he said, watch, ask questions, and learn. Okay. Like tuck that ego in, man. Be observant. Close your mouth sometimes. Just listen. Don't be so judgmental. Listen, especially if it's somebody that's in a place where you want to be or doing things that you want to do, listen. Everything is information. Even if it's something, it's either information on what to do or what not to do, but there's something to be learned and something to be had. ⁓ and then follow examples. This goes really well with that one. Who has done the things that you want to do? What example have they set? What lessons can you learn from their mistakes? And where can you learn from what went well from them? What can you learn from what went well for them? My mouth doesn't want to work today. But seriously, again, there's so much ego. So much ego. ⁓ somebody's done it before. There's nothing new under the sun. Don't rewrite the book, man, if it's one right there. Just read it. Pay attention. Follow the example. Swallow ego when it comes to information. That man said, I've called up Steph Curry and said, How do you shoot that well? That takes a lot of ego. That's like, I have this podcast. Finding another podcast person that I might be in, somebody might say in competition with and being like, hey man, how do you do this, this, and this? Or another friend that does it who might do it differently than you. And asking them. Tucking in your ego. I'm telling you, you you'd be surprised at how far you can get if you tuck that ego in. And then he said the part that I think was the most profound. ⁓ he said, and this is the NBA, we're going back to that number I told you to hold on to at the beginning. It's not the best 450 players that are in the NBA. It's the 450 players that fit the best. And then he broke down the numbers. A hundred of these people are just flat out the best talent. They may be great people, they may not be great people. They may follow these rules, they may not follow these rules, but damn it. They are clearly a hundred of the best ball players in the entire world. Okay? Then he said, but then there's 300 that just fit the best role. And this is where it takes me back to conversations I've seen Draymond Green have or Kenya Martin have, who actually was one of that top 100, but just knowing a role. ⁓ Richard Jefferson, like these are people, and they were the man in high school. They were the man in college. Like Richard Jefferson was the man at Arizona. You understand what I'm saying? And then, you know, but when you get to the NBA, it sometimes you gotta fill a role. When you get to that big company, sometimes you gotta fill a role. When you get to that dream job that you got to, and there's other superstars there, sometimes you gotta fit a role. And then there were 50 that were just great pieces. These are the people that are in year 17 and you don't really know why they're on the team. They don't really play. This is like Eudonis Haslam. Eudannis Haslam made himself invaluable to the Miami Heat as a cultural icon there. And it's carried him into his next career as a broadcaster. He was absolutely a good ball player in his heyday, but long after he could absolutely give a lot on the court, he plays such an integral role as an extension of the coach as to be the enforcer on that team as somebody who invokes this culture and oversees it. That's how that breaks down. There's different roles that different play. That different people play. Let me take that line again, Tommy. That's how this breaks down. There are different roles that different people play at different times. I just thought it was profound. I I I truly, truly did. ⁓ I'll go into some of my own that I'll add on to this, right? Because I have I believe in all those rules and I have a few that I follow myself. And if you're somebody that's asking me how I went from where I went to, I gotta take that line again, Tommy. My mouth is just not working. And I have some rules to add to this myself, especially if you're somebody looking at me and wondering how I started where I started and am where I am now, and on the path to hopefully get to what I aspire to be. Cause I'm not there yet. I don't see myself as super successful. Some people see it that way, and again, I'm not gonna be play dumb. I'm very educated. I make decent money. I have a little bit of influence. I can get on a plane and go somewhere. I can go into a grocery store and buy food and not have to stress about, you know, how I do that at this point in time. That can change tomorrow. But that's success. Where I come from, that's success. So everything CJ said, I think one of the things that I would add is don't disqualify hard work. And I know a lot of people are disqualifying hard work now. I know we're in a different time. I know people feel like they gotta be happy all the time. They gotta feel fulfilled all the time. And I'm just telling you, that's just not how this cookie crumbles. ⁓ hard work still matters. There are still cases in my own company where I'm the first to show up and I'm the last one to leave proverbably because we work, you know, virtually a lot, because we're across the country. But I've always been like that. I've always been a person that will burn midnight oil and it paid off for me. Maybe I know it don't pay off for everybody. Hard work is not the only barometer of to of success. There's politics involved. There's luck involved. I acknowledge all of that. And yet and still, hard work has gotten me a lot of different places. Hard work has got I there have been a ton of times where I am not the most talented or most skilled person, but I've been willing to work my ass off. It's still there. Two, I teach myself how to run things on my own. Tommy is my producer, and I love Tommy, and we are great partners, and he helps me out a lot. I also know how to edit the podcast if I need to. I also know how to go into Canva and build a thumbnail if I need to. I I know how to utilize the AI features to help out with some of this stuff, or spot out bad AI if I need to. I'm not great at it. But learning those skills will help you in a lot of different ways. One, it'll help you not get robbed. Two, it'll give you a different appreciation for the people that you do hire that do that stuff and make your life easier if you're at that place of being hired somewhere. And three, it allows you to save money and penny pinch when you have to, if you can do things soup to nuts. If you can build the concept, build the script, set up the camera, set the sentence on the camera, make sure you got the right sentence on the computer. Get your lighting situated. Hit replay. I mean, hit record. Watch it back. Edit things out. Make the graphics. Cut the reels. If you can do those things, it's nice to have money and be able to pay people. But most of you, if you bootstrapping something and starting it from scratch, you are the everything. That's really important. Three, when you make a mistake, own up to it and move on. Apologize and move on. I'm somebody, I grew up Baptist. Maybe it's the religious thing. I don't know. Guilt is a real thing for me at times. And I've made a lot of mistakes. And and and there are and it can be tough because sometimes people see you in a certain way or they put things on you. And then you do something that's less than perfect and then now you're carrying that. I am not a perfect person. ⁓ I don't like perfect people. People that exude perfection around me, I don't want them around me because I don't I don't trust it. ⁓ That's that's that's a real thing. So don't let your own guilt, don't let your own mistakes hold you back forever. You get to redefine, you get to move forward. You do. ⁓ people may want to bring you back to that place. They may want you to continue living there. You can choose to appease those people, which does absolutely nothing for you, and they don't mean you well. Or you can move forward. Now, that doesn't mean that you haven't wronged somebody. That doesn't mean I don't want to be flippant in how I say that. You might have done something to somebody, and they're justified in hating your guts, and they might hate you for the rest of their life. And you try to make your amends, you pray about it, you take it to your God, you take it to them. And then after that, what else can you do? You gotta still live your life. Misery does love company, and I'm not I'm not making these victimized people vic victim. I'm not doing I'm not re-vict. I'm just saying for you, you have to move forward because I know so many. Bouts of greatness that have been left in the alley in the gutter because somebody couldn't get over their guilt. And they curse the world by not letting the world have those gifts and those talents. Telling you, battling your demons is a tough battle. It's a tough, tough, tough battle. But you gotta deal with them and you gotta move forward. ⁓ I think the other thing is don't stop enjoying yourself. In the way that I've been successful is I do a lot of things alone. I go to the movies alone, I'll eat dinner alone. That doesn't mean I won't go out on a date, that doesn't mean I can't take other people out, that doesn't mean I can't. Go out with friends and do those things. But you gotta be able to enjoy yourself because especially if you're trying to be entrepreneurial, especially if you're that kid in college right now that was frustrated like I was and ready to get out into the world and trying to figure it out. You gotta be okay being alone. You have to be okay with you. Because if you can't stand being with you, how can you expect anybody else to? How? And then five, keeping your word. I'm going back to it, it goes back in line with being on time, it and honoring your commitments. I go to conferences, I meet people all the time. Hey, man, I want to work. I want to do this. I want to work with you. I want to do this. I always try to follow up. And I'm sure that I've done this to people, it happens, right? But like that's one of the things that that that burns me the most, man, is people that make a big deal of wanting to work with you or spend time with you or or or have this meeting with you, and then they go ghost. Or then they go in a way where it's like you you reach out and they make it they make you feel like you sweating them. Like you the one that did that. There are some people that play the room. I know people like this. I'm friends with some people like this. They're not bad people. It's a skill set of theirs. They have the ability to woo. They can go in a room and they can make everybody feel like they're the only person there. Bill Clinton was really good at that. It made him a great politician in a lot of ways. But then sometimes people feel burnt on the back end because it's like, ⁓ that was bullshit. I'm kind of the opposite. I say no more and I say yes. I'm the one that's like, I don't know if I can make that, but if I can, I'll let you know. I don't want to break the commitment. I'd rather not build up the expectation instead of breaking it later. Who are you in that world? Because just following up is 80% of the job, man. Showing up, following up, keeping your word. I'm telling you, these things will get you. In successful places that your skill by itself will not. If people see you as reliable and you make yourself valuable and you have a skill and you are pleasant to be around, or you push them and you push them in their thinking, or they just genuinely enjoy you and you deliver and you deliver with fidelity, those are recipes for success. You understand? Anyway, ⁓ I love what CJ said. short episode today, but you know, I have to run to a meeting, so I'm not late for a commitment. But ⁓ at some point maybe I'll cover the other video that he was talking about and how he saves money. and then there's some things coming up on the academic ⁓ side of things in my life. ⁓ something that I've been working very, very hard on. I don't like to announce things prematurely, but ⁓ if that goes through the way that I I I I think it will, and I'm hopeful that it will. You all will be the first to hear about it because it's something I've worked very hard for. I'm very excited by. I am ⁓ humbled by and it's a huge milestone for me. It may not be one for a lot of other scholars or other people, but for me, it means the freaking world. So ⁓ so yeah, as soon as I get more on that, I will definitely share it. And ⁓ With that said, man, I want to thank you all for listening to Color Commentary. We'd love to hear from you. So drop us an email at color commentarypod at gmail.com. Again, that's colorcommentary pod at gmail.com. And if you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show. ⁓ hype it if it's on if it's on YouTube, comment. I need all that stuff. Leave us a five-star rating. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we're on Apple. We're on Spotify. We are currently working to get the videos up in Apple. They are up in Spotify. So if you're on, if you're a Spotify listener, you get the video, you get the audio, you get all of that stuff. ⁓ share the stuff on social media and come shop with us at charlesco III.com. That's charlesco the third.com and join us every Thursday for more color commentary with Dr. Cole. Peace.