Emmitt Smith on Faith, Dallas Cowboys & Staying Relevant | NXT Chapter with T.D. Jakes

How do you prepare your son for the price of being this son? Who? By trying to make sure that he understands that he has to earn his own way and become his own man in that way. I think that's one reason why his name on the back is Zerz's E.J. Smith. Not Emmett Smith. Hello friends, hello family. I want to welcome you to the next chapter. I'm very, very excited today because today's guest didn't just redefine greatness at his position. He also went further than that and set a new standard, a paradigm shift in a class all by himself. He has done absolutely amazing things three times Super Bowl, Champion Super Bowl MVP and Pro Flip Bowl Hall of Famer. His impact on the game is etched unto the walls of history indelibly so. He currently holds the NFL record for the most career rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in history. He marks that and has been done more than that. He continues to be relevant and to be a force to be reckoned with and nobody has beat him yet. I'm talking about Emmett Smith with something. That should be his good senior. Emmett is a member of my church and I've had the privilege of being his pastor. He's been on my board. He's done a lot of different things and so we just think a lot of him. I've seen you do so many things in the community. I've seen you be philanthropic when you didn't have to. I've seen you make impressions on young people. What is that that makes you have that propensity to give back? Well Bishop, I have to give my mother, Mary Smith, the credit for that but also my upbringing itself. My mom always told me never forget where you come from. No matter where you go, no matter how you get, how you get, always extended helping hand to people that are in need. Well, you don't realize who the people are in need until you get to a place to where you can look back and reflect and you see that there's a lot of need. Doors to be open for access to do certain things in terms of business or need for clothing or need for haircuts and so forth. When you get to a place of success and you feel this responsibility to give back and to help others and so the doors stay open and not close behind you. That's where you have this sense of responsibility to mankind, not necessarily to yourself. Because I'm living my life and I'm enjoying my life as I live it because of the different things that I've gone through and the different levels of success I've had throughout my life thus far. But when you look back and you see others that may be less fortunate, may not have access to certain things. You want others to experience some of the things that you have experienced and that's one reason why I wanted to give back. That's the reason why my mom stays in my mind when I hear about no matter how you get, don't forget those who are less fortunate. And I also had the honor and the pleasure and the privilege I would call it right now that I'm old enough to recognize it as a privilege to take care of my grandmother who was a paraplegic when I was like nine, ten years old. And I was like, well, I was just still in my grandparents house when my grandfather used to go and work shift yard. He worked at Armstrong. So he would work seven to three, eleven to seven or something like that. And in the middle of the night, so I would be there with my grandmother having to get up in the middle of the night and give a water, turn over on the side. All those kind of things. I was a caregiver before caregivers had names. And so that experience in itself taught me how to take care of people who couldn't necessarily take it themselves. So when you become a professional athlete and you do the things that I've been able to accomplish through sport, been exposed to certain things, you start to see that others are not as exposed. And others are thinking certain ways. And they're limited in that experience. And I think life experiences have taught me that there's more to the world than just what you grew up in. Right. Right. Right. You know, I was going to talk to you about that next because you've come a long ways from Pensacola. A long ways. Yeah. You've come a long ways. And sometimes coming from Charleston, I find that an awkward place to be in. Because you can't totally fit into where you are now, because there's a part of you that still relates to them. Right. And then when you try to go back and fit in and assimilate to where you came from, they almost abort you. Because you know, you don't necessarily have the same ambiance that you did fit into the situation. Of course, I mean, I used to know how to get a retread, tie-up fix in the where to go and how to get a jack lead to work on a carburetor. I knew you used to know how to get a used card, a good price. And I used to know all of that. And there is a psychology to poverty. Yes. There is a certain Scientology to poverty. And you begin to realize and to understand how to make it in the most adverse situations. But as you move into other situations in the process of fitting in, do you find it difficult to find a place that can engulf all of you and not just part of you? Yeah. I do, because my philosophy of what America is, is different in the philosophy of someone that's lived in America. Right, right. I'm growing in America. Right, right. I'm learning to adapt to really truly what's really valuable. Right. As a young man coming out of Pulsacola, as we mentioned, growing up at 138 addicts court in the projects and having government cheese and pot of milk, I don't know what someone else had, but I knew what I had. And that was fine for me. Up until the point I got exposed to other things. Right, right, right. And then once you start to get exposed to other things, you start to realize that there's more to the world than just your four-corner block. Right. And what does that look like? And you get exposed to more. Right. And as you start to see different things, go different places that other members in your family has not even. Right. You start to see the world differently. And when you come back and try to assimilate back in, there's no connection. There's a disconnect there because they have not experienced what you have experienced. That's right. And so when you try to, when the song becomes a teacher, that's odd. That's awkward. And so, yeah, I mean, when they used to call me by my nickname, 90 called me by my government name. It's a different thing. It's a different thing. I'm like, what happened? I'm the same old kid. And so, and I'm to my cousins, I'm to my friends and so forth. Not many people call me by my nickname no more than when they do. And I hear it. It's like a big gong just when somebody know me. Yes. And that's a wonderful feeling also. So wonderful. But, but having to venture off from the nest, I will. And, and being exposed to things that you're not really privy to. And being new in that area, man, it's like a kid in a candy shop, like looking around like, oh my gosh, which candy do I want to taste? And what's this? What's that? And, and that's what it has taught me. And that's what life has taught me to. And the game, yeah, a great appreciation for the humble beginnings. Right. And the village of people. Right. That has poured into me when he saw that I had potential to go places. Yes. And, and that's the part that I've never, ever wanted to mess up. You have had to our show is called Next Chapter. You had a lot of different chapters. And we'll have more chapters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you turn the page, you know, and, and you're knocking them dead in college. Okay. You've gotten on the radar of the NFL. You finally get, you get picked in the first round, I believe. Yes. For the NFL. And you go out there and get a award as a rookie. First one up. You've, you've done a lot of amazing things. You, you went to the Super Bowl over and over and over again and had a stellar career, worked in Phoenix for a while, worked with Troy Aigman, who worked against him, worked with Michael Irwin, worked, worked against him. Yes, sir. You, you had a lot of that. And then you come down to the end of your career on the football field. Was it hard to walk into a room and not hear the roar of the crowd and to discover life after football? No, it wasn't for me. Really? I literally, I literally saw it wasn't. And I think it was, it wasn't because I was preparing for football to end much sooner. Okay. Growing up, Charlie Ager and I, and I'm going to talk about some of the village. Yeah. He taught me how to read Blueprints and Four Plans at the age of 11 years old. Wow. He also told me never put all my eggs in one basket or learn to diversify myself. Other words, and then he said go on to get your education because your education is going to last a lot, last a lot longer than your actual talent. Now, that stayed in my mind. And so from that point on, I was preparing to figure out, because I saw what he was doing. He owned his own construction company. I was inspired to live in a house that was 3600,000 square feet. And, and I was like, as big as in my house in the hood. And it looked comfortable. So I can, if I do what he's doing, maybe I can get the same thing. Right. And, and that opened my mind's eye to the possibility and not knowing how far football would care him. It carried me from Pensacola to Gainesville, Florida where I went to the University of Florida for three years. Then it carried me from there to Dallas, Texas where I was exposed even further to new thought, thought processes and new things and been exposed to finances for the real first time when I started getting the equivalent to FICA and all the taxes that came out your check. So you understand and now you get thrust into this world of financial literacy where you have to get caught up. So you had no man's land and no one is really, no one is really teaching you. They hold on your hand. Yeah. And so if you don't have the questions or know the right questions to ask, they're going to continue to hold your hand. Isn't that a problem with people who get sudden money, who came out of the hood or come out of normalcy? And all of a sudden they get it sudden money knowing how to handle that money and finding people that are not sharks, trying to take advantage of that money and when everybody around you's on your payroll. Isn't it difficult to find the literacy you need to invest on that level? Yeah, it is because people want to do for you versus educating you through the process. Right. And as an athlete, we're conditioned for people to do things for us in terms of scheduling, when to work out, what to eat, how to eat it, what to drink, how to train. And how to study, take the teaching you all these things, where you come out of that world and your schedule is set for you. In this world, they can talk about, okay, or your risk taker and ask you all these different questions. Do you really understand what risk taking is? Right. Do you talk to your about a cap rate or rate of return and you understand what an hour is? You're learning what these things are and you understand it. Now you have to learn how these things really impact financially what you're doing. Right. Whether you're making an investment into the stock market, what you're expecting to get out of it. You're investing in the individual stock, what you're expecting to get out of that individual stock. Who that is? Blue chip and all these things like chips. Right. I only chips out, I know chips are whole. You know what I'm talking about? Blue chip stocks and all this kind of stuff. Tech stocks and everything else. You're like, whoa, I never knew this even existed. My parents never talked to me about this. No. The government never even gave me the opportunity to learn this. And that's where it starts in the conversation around the dinner table. Yes. Not being exposed to that in the terrible disadvantage. Well, around the dinner table when grown people talking they told the kids to get away. Yeah. Yeah. Go back there and do what kids things do. Yeah. But in today's society and with that change and that thought process, it doesn't work. No. I think exposure and what I've come to learn the more you get exposed to different things in life. Different people, different culture, different languages, different everything. The more you get exposed to the more curiosity you develop and the more you will into learn and apply yourself. So, when you look at things that are coming up now that you have financial literacy about, but financial literacy is changing every day. Every day. So, you take XRP, you start talking about blockchain. You start talking about cyber currency, you start talking about cyber money. And then really gradually moving away from paper money and the way that we did business. What do you think the world is going and are you comfortable with it? I would just say the world is moving in at a pace that we have to learn how to get comfortable with it. The one thing about football and they taught me this, you got to learn how to be uncomfortable with being uncomfortable. Technology is going to change the way we do things, the way we see things, and how we approach it. It's like learning a new skill. Even in my football career, when I played Pop Warner Football, it was a basic level football. High school was a basic level football. College got a little bit more finesse and a little bit more strategic about it. Professionally got very, very down to the expertise of it all. And so everything evolved and got better and better. Technology and financing and everything else is kind of the same way with the emergence of the super computer systems now. Information is coming at your hands fairly quickly. What you do with it, how you process it, and what you utilize it for, and how you make it work for you, gives you an opportunity to do something spectacular. Absolutely amazing if you're in the room where it happens. Yeah, well, yeah, if you're in the room, or if you even study in it, you're learning it, and understanding like a computer program and can sit back and say, yeah, blockchain is where it's going to be. To me, blockchain is a glorified ledger. That's all it is. It's like you take this camera A and camera B and camera C, and you put a piece of camera A and camera B and C on the blockchain, so you can recognize where they are in the room, and you got this room in the structure that's modeled after something digitally. So now you know where everything is at. And so anytime camera 1 comes on a piece of going into the blockchain. So the authentication component of how the blockchain actually works is validated by the cameras behind it. Right. In the seat that you're sitting in as well as the seat that I'm sitting. Right, right. So that's what it does. Now with that, can you go in further? Right. Yes, you can. Yeah. And that's where technology is taken us by speed. Really fast. And not only by speed, but by the information that it's been that's processing. Listen, y'all, the first time, well, maybe the second time I went to the New York Stock Exchange, I don't want to elevate or open up. And there's since the Emmett, I have seldom walked into a room, a business room, an executive room, a board room, a business meeting that he wasn't, he didn't beat me into the room, so I'm kind of way together that kind of information. It's not like there are a whole lot of athletes in the room. Right. So you're not on your home turf, and it's not like the boys in the hood are in the room. Right. You are way away from your home turf, and you're not just dealing with the owners of the football team and all of that. You're dealing with people who own banks and businesses and that sort of thing. Is that uncomfortable? It's becoming less uncomfortable. Okay. Well, initially it is a little bit uncomfortable because you're an unfamiliar territory. Just like anything else in life, when you're not used to being in an area, you're very cautious, very leery of the people. You're trying to figure out who's moving and why they're moving in certain ways and what's going on. You're trying to figure out, okay, how do I fit in? And do I have something to offer? Right. And so early on, you become a sponge. I became a sponge. I wanted to just listen at everything. And when wisdom is talking, sometimes you just got it, not sometimes. You need to just shut your lips. Right. And so there's nothing more humbling than to sit there and listen at people. And all you're doing is just read the confirming what you already thought, validating thoughts that you did not have, and looking to grow in areas of challenge and areas of limitations. Did you ever think that the dollar would equivocate the way it is right now, and begin to slip down and it's valued? No, I didn't. It's scary. It's crazy. It's funny when you look at it, and you have to actually set the question, it's a question of why. What's causing it? And there's a dynamic shift to digital currency. And I think you talked about it earlier. That in itself is showing signs of weakness of the actual dollar. Right. Not only that, but then you start talking about cost of goods and everything else that you pack on top of that. Just tears. So you've got the time to see how this is going to turn out. When you get my age, you want something solid, something stable, that's not going to change. Yeah, yeah. Because here's the thing. I think even at my age, we all have been conditioned for this to be this way for a period of time. Now you have something that's so disruptive, like the digital currency that we're talking about. And people are lyrier, but because we don't know if it's a Ponzi scheme, we don't know what it is, because we have never seen it before. But there's a convergence of certain technologies now that's coming in play. And things that needs to be in place in order for those technologies to truly exist and work at a level that's that's yielding the information, the consistency of the information, the quality of information and everything else. We have to cycle through so much BS right now. Right. What's real? Right. You don't know who to believe. But it is on the other hand, it is an opportunity because it's new to everybody. Everybody. So it's a level plan for several people to develop it. Yeah, except for the people who developed it. And they're playing on a level that we can't play anyway. So there's a rest of us. We're going to have to find a way to get in and get in. Yeah, get in where we're fit in. If you met an athlete who asks you, I've made a million dollars, what do I need to do with it? What would be your advice to that person? Well, I would probably try, I was first and foremost, I'm learning myself still as we sit here. Developing trust, a trust for yourself so you can protect somebody I says from unscrupulous people. It's just called that. And how to leverage the tax game. Those are the things that I would be looking at. How to leverage the tax game to my benefit. I mean, making a million dollars and cutting the government of $40, $400,000 check. How do I transform? How do I offset that $400,000 check? So you're kind of from the philosophy of using everything on nothing? At the end of the day, that's what a lot of people do. Put it in the treasurer, vocable or revocal. Well, I think if Pizzle High is set up. Yeah. And how much of it that I can help manage without controlling it? You're right. Right, right. And how do I set up? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And one of the great advantages, people don't realize you can have a will. But if you don't have it set up and a trust, it can still be tied up in brobid. And you're learning those things. Yeah, yeah. The hard way. And you're learning the hard way. And you're learning about reverse mortgages that you never thought you would have to deal with, but yes. Yeah. When parents are aging out. Right. And all of a sudden you lose them. Great. And you're left with in a state that sits like looks like this. Right. And you come to realize that they were, they did a reverse mortgage all because they were pride didn't want to come to their son to say, can I borrow? Yes. And be educated and learn the difference between then and now. Right. Because things are steady evolving. It's like me saying to my son, EJ, who went to Stanford and study technology and went to Texas A&M and got his master's in real estate. That's mean like saying, I don't want to hear nothing you have to say. Right. That's not even cool. I mean like bro, I need to know you tell me about this text up that I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know about the blockchain. You know about it. You know about XRP. You know about all these things. You know about, you know about securing all of your digital currency onto a device. So it's not in the marketplace, but it's on your device. So teaching me all these things. So maybe the advice to the person who's made their first millionaire is to study before you move. Study. Yeah, just say. I mean, I had to immerse myself in a real estate game. And what did that consist of? That consisted of me not only understanding performance, not only understanding how to underwrite a project, but also how to do psych selection itself. And psych selection itself is understanding the demographics of a trade area. And then in some cases you go 20 miles out because you're looking at something for a vast perl or someone bigger than that. And then understanding household incomes and how to get those expenditures out to these retailers that you want to bring to a location. All of the different mixes of real estate, whether it's residential, commercial, office, retail, distribution centers, you name it. It's trying to understand it all from the top to bottom, even in the land plays. You're singing my song. It's kind of hard for me to get away from that. When you start doing about commercial real estate has taken a nose job pretty bad. How do you think those buildings are going to be repurposed or are the banks going to eat the bullet on that? The banks are never going to be the bullet. They're going to pass the book. Yeah. To a special service or someone like that. But some of those buildings, depending on the four plates and the wall columns and everything else could be repurposed for something. And high rise condominiums or high rise multi-family, some kind of way, shape a form. However, some of them might not be able to be repurposed that way. Some of them could turn into perhaps even a large data center as if you... Right. It's hard to say because we're talking in general, some buildings might fit better than others. And that's part of the due diligence phase of understanding what type of asset that you have and what that asset has the potential to be versus what it once was. One of our problems with data centers is not just space but finding enough electrical power. Correct. To be able to run it if we don't find some other type of power to be able to run it. That is safe and that is healthy and that then infiltrate the lives of the people who live around it. Right. We're going to have a situation. But one thing is definitely sure. We are collecting more data than we have space to put it. No doubt. And we've got to do something different about it. Several weeks ago a comment was made about $100,000. $100 million wasn't very much money. Okay. I'm not going to throw you under the bus. But what do you think about that? Pins on the usage of the $100 million. And how you break $100 million down. First of all, most like I said, if you could put $100 million into a trust right today and save and find ways to offset that $40 million to check that you got the right to the government, which is most wealthy people trying to figure that out and do. And most of them do that through assets that they're acquiring and invests an end to energy sector so they can get get tax credits and everything else to offset those kind of tax liabilities. If you could figure that piece out and man is just that 40, you survive on those 60. I think having $100 million and understanding what you need to live off of versus what you really need to invest in or keep. That's really cute. I think an important idea is to leverage the money rather than spend the money. There it is. So you can leverage the money in borrow against the money. The money is still there and you get to use the money and you can't charge income tax on debt. So that's one way of looking at it. That is the problem of the right way to look at it. What's the best deal you ever did? Best deal I ever did is yet to come because I think every deal could be a better deal. The best deal is that you do all the ones that you close. Not the ones that you keep. So let's reverse it. What's the worst deal you ever did? The worst deal I ever did. I did not move in a dot com era in a timely fashion. I missed out on an opportunity to be a part of a company that ended up selling for mota beans of dollars. And you were sick. Sick. Straight really sick. I had an opportunity to be the producer of the Butler and I turned it down. And then when they made the movie and I saw the cast and I saw it well it did. I could not only watch the movie, I was just like, you know, but you were thinking about it. But I think you can't be afraid to fail. You have to have the spirit of adventure and be able to do new things and exciting things and get it wrong. And I have gotten things wrong, really. But having the fortitude to try and get back up on your feet even though things are telling you this can happen again. You know, you have that, that evil one on one side and you have the bless one on one side. And that we even want to remind you the things that did not go so well and the bless one said, you can. You can. And so it's those things trying to quiet that noise and really trying to go back to the fundamentals of analyzing things appropriately. You know, a few weeks ago I had the privilege of interviewing Camdude. And not every athlete finds life beyond the goalposts. In fact, most of them, okay, most end up broke, okay. Made a lot of money, spent a lot of money, bought a lot of depreciating assets, go broke. What is it that you all know that they didn't that you were able to switch and make that income be more long-lasting? I think the ones that you see are very good at communicating and articulating the game itself. And therefore they turn that into a career and out that becomes all shoots of other things. Whether it's commercialization or a number of different relationships that they that gravitate to, to the visibility of who that person is. I think then there's others that venture off into worlds like the world stars. Yeah, yeah, like I said, they do things like that. Then you have folks that may not have the courage to step out there. Right. Even though they were great athletes, but they stepping into the unknown could be terrafrying. And may not feel have the confidence of being able to ask the right questions or feel like they belong in certain rooms. And I think that's one of those are things that can hold us back as well. Were you scared when you were on Dancing with the Stars? I wasn't scared, but I was nervous. Yeah. I was nervous and I was nervous because I was so busy thinking about what are people going to say about me? What if I look crazy up here trying to dance? Even though I think I got some rhythm and I got some groove and everything else, but what are people going to say? And so when I did my very first cha-cha, and the people were excited about seeing me dance, I was like, okay, maybe I could do this. Then week two, I came back and did a quick step. And it was one of those where you're in hole and pose. And I had to learn these things body posture and everything else. And moving around and gliding on the floor felt good. It felt, I felt like Fred is there for some reason. I just felt like I'm doing something that I've never done before and it doesn't look bad. And from that point on, I went to the tango. And then the tango, I scored 18 and my friend, Jerry Springer scored a 21. I was mad. That's when the competitive side of me came out. And I'm like, no, no, I can't be focusing on real estate and dancing for four hours. I got to put in eight hours now. I'm not going to get beat by this guy ever, ever again. So that competitive part came out. And when that came out, I had to talk to my partner about breaking these dance routines down in the 32nd intervals. And just like I did a football practice so I can learn it quickly. And once I started learning it quickly and it wasn't in my head. And I knew what to do. It was in my body. And that was just moving around and I was having fun. That's when it became really, really fun. One of the things that's really fascinating and brought talking to you now is that you're a bit of a polymath. You like learning new and very different things. I think that has a lot to do with the diversity of things. I mean, everything from real estate to construction to concrete to dancing with the stars. I mean, the very few people have that many different things on their resume. Is there a common thread between all those different things or are they all unique unto them? I think surely there is a common thread. When I talk about dance with the stars and how I was able to take football practice and break down the routine in the 32nd intervals, that's how we did football. Because once you get bringing it all together, the whole minute routine becomes like a team period in football. In the 32nd intervals, it becomes almost like individual periods. It's individual with my running back group or 101 drill with the running backs and the wire vacillers and the linebackers and the cornerbacks. Or if it's like a 7-0-7 period, offense versus 7-0-7 defense, and you run in plays and everything else, it's like repetition, repetition, repetition. That's how I saw dance with the stars. The work was fundamental, the basics. It doesn't take a whole lot to put effort into something. That work became basic for me. When it comes down to business or learning something new, it's like learning it. What is it that I need to know? What is it that I need to learn? What's the business aspect of this? What's the business processes behind this? Can I learn these things? Yes, you can. Then what's the commonality, performance, consistency, making money, to meet the last one? If I'm consistent and I perform at a level, that's your yield, some type of return. Which I would add another one that's a discipline. Discipline is the fundamental of all of that. You're right. If you're disciplined in this area and not disciplined in there, you're not disciplined at all. As a man once said, the way you do something is the way that you do everything. If you do it the right way and willing to sit back and learn and analyze what you did right or what you did not do so right, that's football. Going to a game, you perform, you win, you come back and look at tapes, you figure out what you did right or what you did not do so right. You make those corrections, you go to practice the next day, you try to work on it. Then the next week, you try to get better and better. That's true of investments. That's true of investments. That's true of real estate. That's true of anything. It's true of anything. Our focus needs to be more focused less on trying to give our children skills for giving them character. Give them character. Give them, let them see the work that you put in. Let them see how difficult it is. Let them feel some of your scars. So they understand that they're going to get their head busted sooner or later by something. Right, right, right. So everything is never like my son, my son, EJ, a couple of weeks ago, last week, we was talking. He said, you okay? I said, yeah. I said, yeah. He said, because you seem like you're a little stressed over the Christmas holiday. I was like, no, I was fine. He said, no, but you was a little quiet and everything. I said, son, I was relaxing. Uh-huh. Because I had put so much energy in everything else that I've done. And it was a time for me not to travel, a time for me not to do nothing. I was just straight chill. So I was quiet, loud, y'all, enjoy y'all, says, and let y'all do whatever y'all wanted to do. But I was relaxing. But it's funny that he was able to pick up on something. So he is a very astute and very aware of what could be going on. My daughter, Reagan would come in at the time to say, hey, how you doing? What's going on? And we were sitting down and having conversations. And it was basically they haven't seen me for four or five days. Right. Because I'm on a road for four or five days. Then it's just a different thing. And so, um, yeah. Just being able to manage all these things. Yeah. And be able to keep yourself sane in the middle of them. No, that's the challenge. Yeah. That's the challenge. That is the true challenge. Well, I really need to keep yourself sane in the middle of it, because you've got all these balls. You're juggling at the same time. You're trusting people that you're working with to handle some of these things when you're not there. What would you tell your younger self? Simplify things. Simplify by doing what? By not trying to create a vertically integrated solution that some people don't even want. Right. Right. Right. Right. Wow. When you talk to your son about the future and about his future, what are those kind of languages? Let me in on this a little. He and his mom and I was talking the other day, because he's going through this period where he has to get prepared for the NFL draft. Right. So he was thinking, and I'm trying to help him to learn how to trust his own instincts, his own decision. That's what we're trying to do with each and every one of my kids. And I think that's where all parents want them to do. The girl can be come independent. But we were having a conversation and he was telling me what his thought process was about preparing for the upcoming draft. And I was like, okay, that sounds cool. That's what you want to do. Let's go ahead and do that. I support you. We're going to support you. Bob, Bob. So he wanted to stay at NM. And so we were talking and I was asking certain questions and I was getting more information. And as I was gathering information, I was like, well, it might be best if you just come to Dallas. And he was, and that's when it threw him for a loop. Because he already had a game plan. And I interrupted his game plan. So then there's a level of uncertainty. Correct. But in the conversation, the beautiful thing happened. He, he was like, yeah, dad, I was, I was cool until you said X. You're right, right. Why did you say X then? Right, right, right. Because I'm trying to be a dad and not run his life. Yes. And that's on me. Yes. And that's something so profound to us. He said, I need y'all. Yeah. He said, I need y'all. I know y'all expect me to be a grown person. I am going to be a grown person. But I need y'all. I need y'all sound. I need y'all as my sounding boy. Otherwise, I need y'all to be my boy of advisors. What's the difference between your father and your father's style? My dad and I would have never had that conversation. Okay. The conversation probably would have been more like... When I scored a touchdown and I did something in his own, some of the great ones don't do things like that. They had likely been there before. Right. Those kind of conversations. Or it would have been something like... It would have been as in-depth. Or as loving. As that was. That back there was a spirit of, hey, you the goat. Right, right. I mean, who else could tell me what to do with it? You, right, right. That's all you, my dad too. You're right. So I value y'all opinion. My mom and your opinion. So both of us on the phone having this conversation with our older son. And that would have been the way we would have been on a phone with Jasmine, with a bell on the phone with Reagan and Skylett and even Elijah too. So I think our parent's style is bringing, given our kids the room, to come and sit down and have a conversation. I noticed that the same thing is happening to a degree with D.A. What do you think, what are the similarities and differences between how he had to Shadoor and Shomer, and how you were handling your son? I think we parent to what we did not have. Okay. I think we bring what we had, the good things that we had, and the things that we did not have, we tried to pair those things together. Okay. Well, the one thing we know we can never give our kids is our upbringing, that rough part of who. Right. Right. Right. Because they grown up on third base. Right. They grown up in the 10,000 square foot home. Right. They ain't even potter, drinking potter milk or even government cheese. They ain't even craft. Right. They got y'all crudey boys. Right. Right. Right. They got the good stuff. However, but you want them to have that fight. You want them to have that fire. You want them to have that drive. And so, and we want them to have the space in the room to be able to pick up the phone and call us and have a conversation. Yeah. And I think that is more gratifying than almost anything that he'd done in sports or education wise, because that relationship is important. When you, I think you spent some time with Michael Jordan. What was the most meaningful thing that came out of that? You know, I think he said to me, because I asked the question once, I said, Mike, because I, I called him one day and I said, I would like to sit down and talk business with you. He's okay. Meet me in San Francisco when such a such a day. Because I'm going to be staying here at this hotel. Just be there. And we can sit down and have a conversation. So I flew. Sam Fran. Got to the hotel. Checking to the hotel myself. We linked up on the 13th floor. We sit down having a conversation like you and I are talking. And we're talking about business. We're talking about life. We're talking about transitioning from the game and everything else. And how to manage start them. How to grow brands. We're talking about all kinds of stuff. And then afterwards, I said, Mike, I come, many of us don't get together and do things like this. He said, well, look what you did. You picked up the phone and you called me. And you wanted my advice on something. Most people don't pick up the phone and call. Most people don't ask. And so why would I pour into someone that's never going to ask? If I pour into them, innocently, it's going to fly over the head because they're not interested. The ground is not fertile enough. Here, you have fertile ground. You're seeking wisdom and understanding knowledge. And you feel like I'm a person that can help you. I said, got it. He ain't always this time on somebody that don't want the information. And I think Kobe reached out. And that's why Kobe got what he was able to get. And people that MJ feel comfortable with or fight for that. I think he'll give it to him. And I think that's the way anything is in life. You have to be willing to ask questions of the people that you like. And if it's feasible, it's going to happen. Seek and you should find. There it is. Knock on the door. She'll be open. You have to be the aggressor. You can't sit back and wish. I'm waiting on the door to open. On the other hand, he can't be so aggressive that the police come get you. I don't want to start that. We have to find that happy medium. I think and work your way into that circle. Yes. Into that environment. And then when the chance is right. And I think some people don't have to give to reading the room. Right. To know when is it appropriate to say something. And when they're going to drag you away. Right. And imagine it was the same way. Yeah. The same way. Really? Yes. And that's when he helped me. He, him and Rodger stop back at a tube that usher me into the real estate business. And, and I leaned on magic for information to help me understand what to ask for when I'm going to negotiate a joint venture. And that helped out tremendously. Oh, I bet. Because if you don't do that, right, you will be sorry. Yeah. When I met you, you and Michael and, and, and, and, and Dion were kind of like the red pack. Okay. And Omar Stoutman was at the time. But you all have managed to keep a relationship down through the years. So you don't see that so much today where there are long lasting relationships between people who are in the same industry. How do, what, what do you attribute that to? I attribute that to football, which was the most commonality that we all had. That's the one thing we had in Commonwealth football. And we knew we had to train. So every one of us trained, either we trained together, trained with each other, some kind of way, shape a form. And we were around each other, 95, most of the time. And, and when you're training, you're competing against each other. And when you're going into practices, you're competing against each other. And I think we forged a mutual respect and love bond for each other because of what we did. And how we treated each one another. No one cared about who got the glory. We cared about the wind. And we cared about obviously individual performance. We cared about how we perform. But at the end of the day, my performance is going to speak for itself. His performance is going to speak for itself. And he knows that he can count on me showing up every day because he sees how I work. He believes in how I work. And I see how he work. And I believe in how he works. He sees how I perform. And I can see that I am. I think when you are consistently doing the right things, then people can trust you. And when you consistently doing the wrong things, then people can't trust you. It is what it is. And so, which side of the ledger do you want to be on? And for me, performance is one of those key, key measurables. So it sounds like to me that part of the bond that binds you all together to a mutual respect. A mutual respect, all day. Because in football, you have to earn the respect of your peers. It's not given. Yes, somebody may have pointed you as the team captain. You may not have earned it. But they may have appointed you that. But everyone else respect the Charles Hayley. They respect the Deon Sandler. They respect Troy Ackman. They respect the Mike Irving. And here's why Michael is one of the hardest workers that I've been around. And Troy was one of the hardest workers as well. And was very cerebral about what he did. And wanted to earn the right to go to the place. What do you mean by cerebral? It's small indeed. I know what it means. But I mean, it's a physical game. And you're saying he's very cerebral about it. That's right. Meaning, physically, he trained. We saw him working out. We saw him jogging every day, lifting weights and everything. It was running in condition and passing the condition into us. But wanting to be the very best, that takes cerebral. Understanding what's going on in the football field. Not just being a robot. Today, he never had to look to the sideline to change a play. There was times when they were either called dual plays or he was just coming in. Maybe audible out of a play. They gave him the ability to audible out of play because he understood the offensive scheme. And understood the offense and what was happening on the defensive side of the ball. So now only did he put in those hours of study and tape. He put in those hours of understanding the offensive system. And how to manipulate it, how to make it work. And how to take us out of a bad play and put us into a good, better play. That's right there is a whole not a level football. Because he's playing chess against the deepest coordinator as we're playing chess. So it's really up here. Football is 90% mental, 10% physical. What did you think of the moves that should do us Sanders made? And what would you say if you had to talk to him? The moves. Yeah. The moves such as him being accepted for the NFL or not being accepted for the NFL and all the press who blow. Oh, that was coming. I saw that coming a mile away. All because of who he was, who he is and who's the son of. Right. And when he was able to accomplish out of Jackson, when he was at Jackson, people were like, Oh, that's Jackson State blah, blah, blah. Then he go to Colorado. Oh, that's Colorado. But yeah, he's throwing them and he's doing the things that people didn't expect them to do. And then on draft day, I was completely disappointed in terms of how the NFL treated them. I'm going to say the NFL. He was the biggest name coming out of the draft. There was no other kid in the draft that was more marketable than that young man. Okay. And in doing that, I think it sent the wrong message because there's no way he should have felt to the filfrau. No way. No way. I know that this kid was trained by the NFL quarterback himself and meaning Jeff Blake. I know that this kid understands defense because his dad had to help him understand what was happening and understanding body languages and everything. So he has a level of calmness and humility within him. He just plays with a chip on his shoulder. Some people would have got a pat on the back. Make a make feel was one of those would have got a pat on his back for his brashness. Johnny Menzel has another one they got pat on the back for his brashness. Chadorges did the wash name. Why do some people get a pat on the back and some people don't? You see one guy on the back and you see one guy and you say he's can tankers. Because it's the language that people want to use when they don't understand the individual of color. As we know through history you go through history you look at history itself. Everything that's described of a person that has a personality of this this too. There's always a negative thing tied to a person down on the other side. He's a competitor. They use different words. And it comes out of the booth the same way. It comes out of the booth the same way when they're analyzing games. Is it worse? Obviously you're saying it's worse for a person of another race. But is it hard to be you all son? Yeah, I can imagine it can't be hard to be our son. But why should it be hard if the talent is there? Yeah, the talent is there. But why is it? Why should it be hard? I mean, I know why it shouldn't be. Why is it? Why is it? I think it's the gatekeepers keeping the gate closed. And trying to send a message throughout to somebody. I don't know who he trying to send it to. Maybe it's the whole culture. Maybe it's just him or whatever. Maybe because if you don't understand the thing, then you're going to talk about it in the most negative light. Because we don't understand it. I mean, when we talk about Bitcoin and blockchain and everything else, first thing we thought it was, it's a Ponzi scheme. Because we didn't understand it. And now it's moving to a level of digital currency around the globe. How do you prepare your son for the price of being your son? Who? By trying to make sure that he understands that he has to earn his own way and become his own man in that way. I think that's one reason why his name on the back is Zerz's E.J. Smith. Not Emmett Smith. I was at his freshman football game in high school. And they planned the sodol. They called my son out his whole government. And I'm like, I got sick of tired of hearing it myself. So I went down and talked to the coach. I said, listen coach. We call him E.J. I don't need to be in the Smith on the care. Yeah. Don't need to hit it. And from that point on, it's just been E.J. Smith. Did your son enjoy having his own identity in the money? I think he did. I think he did. You might have to ask him the challenges that he may face. But I have a son that truly wants the forages on way. Like most kids do. He's no different. And I think he's going to do that. He loves the learn. And he's studying technology left and right. And right now he's just putting his head towards this NFL draft and his combine and he has to go his protein. It has to go through. I was there when you were inducted into the Hall of Fame. And I remember it vividly. I couldn't think. Wasn't that? Yes. And the pride and the honor and your family being there. And my wife and myself being there. And what a very, very big day it was. As a father, how does it feel to give that moment in the memory of bank of your children? It feels good. Because I didn't have kids to celebrate Super Bowl's with. And so to have the experience of winning Dancing with the Stars. To have the experience of going into the Hall of Fame. And to have all of my kids there, even though Elijah, my youngest son, was in the stomach of his mom at the time. He was in the audience. He was still there. He was still in the womb. Exactly. And so to have them have that experience. And probably not truly understand what it was at the time. But now over time, even my youngest son is starting to get to the point of okay. Yeah. My dad is somewhat a big deal to some people. Very right. But he's getting a little bit. Exactly. That's the way it might do me sometimes. It's been 30 years since the Cowboys had won a Super Bowl. Yeah. It's been back in your day. And when I first came to Dallas, since they won, why do you think that? Well, it could be a number of different things. I think when the league, people say that the NFL is a copycat league. What does that mean? That means you got a Lamar Jackson. You have a Justin Fields. You have other running type quarterbacks. Even have Josh Allen and others that have the ability to run mobile quarterbacks. Patchman Holmes is one of those. And so the league tried to find and adapt to those type of individuals that they can find to become a champion. Because Patchman Holmes has been a champion over times. But you rarely find many Tom Brady's who are pocket quarterbacks. That Presscott is a pocket quarterback. But he has the ability to scramble a little bit and get enough yards to get out of trouble. So when you have a copycat league, I think teams have the tendency or the propensity to try to adopt some of those philosophy. Patchman going through the ball 35, 40, 40 times, maybe 45 times again. I think the Cowboys shifted from the philosophy that helped them become Super Bowl champions. America's team. America's team. You went from the philosophy and what you know to build this organization. And when you go away from that philosophy, you have a 30-year drought. Because there's no commitment to what really helped you build it. So once you get back to the fundamentals of who you are and what built the organization, you've made great decisions in terms of draft picks. We've had some talented teams. Tony Romo had some talented individuals around him, defensively wise and offensively. But man, it never came together because there was no commitment to balance. I think balance was the reason why we were extremely successful in the 90s. Yes, you can say you never, you don't have another emissima impact there. But you have had great caliber running back there. What is Zika Elliott? What is Demaco Murray? What is Felix Jones? What are all those guys including the current running back? And what you saw in the game was the balance which you saw last year was what balance would bring you when you got a George Picken and the CD Laying. And you got a tie-down that can blow up the middle. So you got players now that resemble something that we used to look like. Now the defense is not there. So now you got to upgrade the defense. If it's either one or the other, we need both. All three phases of the game in order for the Cowboys to get back. And the mindset from the organization from the top down needs to be that way. So good players don't necessarily constitute a good team? No, it doesn't because you got to have the right system for the good players. Right. If you have good players with the wrong system. Right. A system that showcases who's fault is that? That's on ownership and the way that they look at what they want. I know that our friend, Denzel, is a big fan of the Cowboys. When I lose, think of Swam, you know, bad 30 years, good 30 years, he's there. He's loyal. Recently he was quoted to have allegedly said all good money and good money to Jerry Jones. What do you think he meant? That's a domino terminology. All money and good money. Yeah. That means all money that comes your way or deals that come your way or decisions that you're making. The decision to try to build a patch with homes or turn your guy into a patch with homes or turn your guy into something different. May not be the right decision. That's what I'm saying. The balance or the throw the ball 45, 50 times a game may not be the right decision. Your guy is not that guy. Who is your guy? What is your guy capable of doing? And what's around him? And how can we support him? Is he efficient between 30 and 35? Or is he inefficient with interceptions and turnovers at 45 and 50 times a game? So how do we build that balance to keep him and keep everyone and keep the chains moving and keep drives going? And we run the ball. Therefore we have our first 1000 year back this year for the first time in about a year or two. And we got Dak dashed through for over 4,000 yards this year. So that's a good thing. But we could stop a cold in Alaska but naked on the defensive side of the ball. So if you can't do that. Oh, that's for not. You have been called the greatest running back of all time. How does that make you feel? Do you agree with me? You know, using the term great could be over emphasized because there have been so many great players that come through the game with football. When I look at what I've done, there's no debating over the yardage at all. But there's always going to be debate on who's the greatest because Jim Brown doing his arrow and of setting the foundation for Walter Payton and Gare Serres and others that come behind him. That foundation and what he went through and what he had to deal with doing that error when people didn't want him on a football. That in itself is great all by itself because he's standing for for for justice and injustice and fighting for injustice and everything else. That opened up the door for others to follow. So there's greatness in that. There's greatness that should be recognized because he led the lead in rushing before so on us came behind him and broke it. He retired way too. But that's why I look at him and I look at Walter Payton and what he was able to do because he was a man of my stature out of the deltas of Mississippi. The way he trained the way he worked and the haws against him to do what he was able to do in 13 years, he did it. And then I look at myself. I look at it from the standpoint of I'm going to put them to a head of me every day of the week because my love for them and what they did for the game. Supercedes anything that I've ever done because anything that I've done is because they have paid the way for that to happen. And I and I cannot just sit up and say yes from a statistical standpoint that's me. How does faith play a part in your life as a man? It is the foundation which I stand up for. My grandmother whom I talked about earlier who I should stay with her house to watch and take care of in the middle of the night. She gave me my first Bible verse, Proverbs 356. Trust in the Lord all your heart lean on to your own understanding and all I always acknowledge him and he shall be ranked that path. When I look back and I talk about the village of people, I see what God has blessed me with angels on the planet to help steer me in the right direction. And I was humble enough to receive it and apply it. Charlie Eager I talked about blueprints. The white Thomas Maharskoo head football coach is only dreaming to you right down and then it becomes a goal. Never become satisfied with anything because the day that you do the growing stops. I don't ever want to stop growing. Continue to pursue knowledge. Jimmy Nichols who taught me about taking care of the football. The football is the most important thing on the field not you. You got to protect the football. If you cannot protect the football you cannot play for me or any coach in America. Because if you continue to form the football I'm not going to put you on the field. And if I don't put you on the field nobody in America is going to see you play. If no one in America see you play where you're going to go. You're not going to go to college because they ain't nobody going to see you. You're going to stay here in Pensacola? Well what's here for you? All those kind of things make you think about what it is that you want to accomplish. But having that dream and vision here's how faith really really tempted me. I'm a senior in high school and I'm named Getterie National Football Player of the Year. I take my best friend Johnny Nichols and I that we fly to Pasadena, California because I'm Getterie National Football Player of the Year. And I'm going to the Super Bowl for the first time ever in my life. First time getting on the plane to travel. All it's been paid for we're sitting in the Rose Bowl watching the Denver Broncos play against the Denver Broncos play against the New York Giants. And I'm watching these grown men play the sport that I'm going to and I'm inspiring to play. And the back of the hairs on my neck stands up and I turn to my best friend. I said one of these days I want to play the Super Bowl. I want to play it in this stadium. Go to University of Florida, graduate, end up with the Dallas Cowboys. Even after the Cowboys had a one of 15 season, two and a half, three years later we play in our very first Super Bowl. In our Rose Bowl. In the Rose Bowl. God has a way of showing you things before it actually happens. Giving you a glimpse of what you're going to go on. Just a glimpse. You could peat as Marlowe the King said, I've been to the mountain town. I mean I get that with you but I've been there. And so getting there and being able to get a glimpse of what it looks like and then being able to run onto that field and know that he's up there watching. My family's up there watching. Yeah. And then to take the principles right down your goals is on the dream to you right now and do the same thing from college all the way through the pros. And then in 2002 become the NFL all-time leading Russia. I can't tell you why me. I can't tell you why me. There's been many others that came before me. There was a guy that I thought had the ability to blow it completely out the water and that was Barry Sanders. I can't tell you why his heart got cold from the game because he had the potential to go into 20,000. He was just that good. But it's a bad thing. But I can't tell you why. Yeah. Some things are for certain people. Okay. That's all I'm going to say. Okay. And because I always put Barry ahead and say I'm chasing after him no matter what. I don't care if I'm the all the time. I don't care if I let the league in Russian for you and straight. I'm putting him out ahead of me because I'm chasing after him. I know he's going to put up some numbers and I'm going to put up numbers too. There's a lot of controversy around helmets and the safety of football, especially in schools and high schools. And there's controversy around college students getting paid for the effort I want to hear you talk about both of them. Well, let's talk about the head. I don't think we're going to be able to award that. I just don't think so. The head is part of the game no matter if I'm playing flag, no matter if I'm playing tackle. Somewhere or another, somebody's going to butt heads. Somewhere or another, somebody's going to hit the ground, shoulders, head, neck. And it's going to be that whipping. It's just the way it's just the nature of the game. So what about the college students? Should they be paid? Should the college students, yes, they should be. They should be. They should be. It is the colleges of machine, matter of fact, I need to go and file lawsuit because I need some retroactual play and pay myself. Because I know for the three years out of the University of Florida, they sold a whole lot of 22 jerseys. And they did a whole lot of advertising. So at the end of the day, I take that capital today and I take it with interest. So you think it's not a long time coming? It's been a long time coming. I mean, think back and I think back to the 1980s and 90s. Brian Bosworth used to talk about it. He said NCAA stands stood for national calmness against athletes because they did not want to pay athletes. They called us amateurs. They put the marketing spin on it and they made us look greedy to the public. In reality, they were greedy. They were making all of this money. Then the SEC blew up. And the SEC was always a tough conference to play in. But when the SEC and Alabama started winning all these championships, now everybody want to figure out what's going on down in the SEC. And they get television revenue. Billions of dollars. So title nine comes in, which is fine, perfect. That's brain title nine in. It deserves to be in. Women deserve to have the same kind of access to things that we have. So that's great. However, let's look at all this capital that's coming in. Yes. You can sell my jersey with my name on it, but I can't make a dime off of it. So you trying to tell me my college education should be good enough for me? Really? Versus the capital that you're making? I got a $50,000 dollar. Piece of paper. 50. $50,000, piece of paper that says I graduated from the University of Florida. That's not a job. That's just said I graduated. Where's the job? Oh, my job is football. My job right now is football. But short lived. Short lived. In all of them jerseys? Some of them jerseys still exist today and some of them is clonching. But the revenue has been spent. Or the revenue is there to help put new buildings up. Or something like that. At the end of the day, yes, these guys should get paid. But there should be a structure that makes some sense for everybody. And if you don't want to give the players all of the money, which is fine, make sure that they're sitting and putting in the trust of somewhere where it's protected and they can grow so they can get it later. And later in the older world. Think about this. This is what's so disappointing to me about all this. You have all of these smart people that are making these decisions. And they add like they cannot come up with the right structure. Why is that? Is it because you don't want to come up with the right structure? But I can see them think about it. And I can tell you certain things that you probably should do. Put a cap on it. If a guy is making $3 million, give him $2 million to $200,000 a year. Let the other money sit in an escrow. Let it mature, let it grow. Let them draw down on it every year. Something of that nature. There's things that you can do to help manage some of these things. But the NCAA has let it run rampant. Because now I go back to why did you give SMU the deaf penalty? Because all of this right now deserve the deaf penalty. Everything. And you destroyed that school. And that school is just not getting back to where it once was. And that's been over 30 years. Over 30 years. And so do I think the kids deserve to get paid? Yes, they do. But you need to. I think you should have been in the tournament. I think they're they should they should double. They didn't do it right. And they know they didn't do it right. They allow the wild, wild west to come in and you go have schools that have alumni base. Stanford has a alumni base that's so big. Sold us and I'm sort of Texas SMU TCU. They got Texas Tech. They got all money left and right. They got billions and billions of dollars that can flow into the program. And I honestly believe that the NCAA has allowed it to happen so they can sit back and see what's going to go on and then try to come back and look like this. The savior of it all. But these kids on the other side, they are being destroyed. Because now they've been giving way too much way to some. They're showing up in Lamborghini's on a college campus. In the Lamborghini. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. They already think that they pro so now they can talk back to the coach. Yeah. Now they can tell the coach what they really think. And they can transfer at 16 times and not get into no trouble. Right. Now they can go to school for eight years and still get paid. Come on out. Yeah. There's things that you need to put in place. How many times can you transfer? Maybe one. And then after that you transfer again. You got to sit out a whole year. Maybe you lose a year of eligible. It sounds like it's some pros and cons. They're all pros and cons to almost everything in life. Mission. Let me ask you this. If we jump into time machine and we push out from 2026 to 2036. What would Emmett do over the next ten years? What do you see when I say? I see a dynamic shift with the convergence of technology and energy technology. That can change the landscape of the way we see things today. Like the industrial revolution itself. Transform to where we are now. This next wave of technology and energy itself. The energy focus. The natural gases. The natural resources. That's going to be required for upgrading battery systems. I'll tell you right now everything that we know is going to get better. And it's going to get faster. We can shoot this whole segment on iPhone. Don't tell me it can't get better. It's going to get better. And the better things get, the more we as humans going to have to adapt. When I love about football, it requires us to adapt and to think quickly when I feed. I wonder if the better things get the worse we get. Humans. Yeah, because humans want things to stay the same. You're not going to stay 20, as you know and I know. And the sun is going to come up tomorrow. And it's going to go down the same day. And everything is going to continue to evolve and get better. Either you go evolve with it or you're going to live behind. And if you choose to get live behind, that's where the human part of it. That's what people feel like. Somebody downed them wrong. You also have the algorithms that feed you the message that you are interested in. Yeah. So you create this echo chamber where you think everybody thinks like you. True enough. You got AI coming along who's counseling you how to commit suicide. That's some kind of scary stuff. That is scary. On the other hand, you know, I wouldn't be sitting here for wasn't for technology. Right. So I mean, there's good and there's bad to it. There's no legislation that is set up around it now to give it guard rails. So, you know, it's like driving in Hollywood somewhere going around those mountains. Right. If there's no guard rails, you can easily go over the cliff. Yes, sir. And that's my concern. But do you think, do you see yourself in some way engaged in technology over the next ten years? No doubt. Some kind of way. I might have to either engage myself with this chat GDP some kind of way to do something or even crazy ideas that I might have and I'm a very creative person. Flush it all out through chat or flush it out through some kind of algorithm or some kind of system that helps me not only research my thought process, but also help me put it together because now chat and also AI have the ability to write code for me. Right. Right. So maybe my speed to market on my MVP of my product itself could be brought to market much sooner. So whatever ideas or thoughts that I may have around a certain things or creative things that I could put patterns around and I'm learning that patterns are not always the best things but you spend a lot of money trying to get patterns and you think they could become valuable. Well, they don't always. But at the end of the day those type of things for creative people to see where technology can actually go and meet it when it gets there. That's part of it too. If you could talk to chat GPD and map out the next ten years based on the strengths of the talents and the businesses that you started, more and more people are using chat GPD as an advisor, as a consultant, as a business consultant. What would be the prompt? Let's talk about technology. Let's talk about the convergence of AI and power. I probably would ask chat GPD to serve as a lead analyst or consultant in a two different technology, AI technology and the emergence of new and clean energy. How those two would come together to create the efficiencies for local government, power grids. And whatever else is lacking, I may find some other things as I think through it to add on local government and the power grids. This is like something else, something else, something else. To create a smart city that already has the infrastructure in place but is outdated infrastructure. Because you can't just always move out and lead the old way as that, even though some people want to do that. Because how do you repurpose those things? How do you build a friend ladder that connects with your dream ladder? And they tell me that you put your dreams on the mirror. I haven't done that. So it must be true because you're laughing. So all that stuff we got on a mirror, maybe we can put the chat GPD now. Right. So if we put it to chat GPD, how do your associations, are you building the associations at match where you're trying to go? There's the key. Building something within chat or within an application that identifies my whole entire database faster than I can think about the names. As long as I got them in there clean and paired them up with the opportunities that I may have with us on the real estate side, with us on the technology development side. Find me these names in my pattern. And you seem to have the courage to walk up on these people. Oh, yeah. You'll pull right up on them. Oh, yes, sir. I pull up on you. This is true. This is true. Great ideas. And if you have people that truly believe in you, you test it. Right. You test it. And if you've done your due diligence and thought through the process and come through, come to the realization of, of answering the questions of what the MVP looks like, which is expecting to get out of the MVP. Now, only that, but then what does the business model look like? Is it a subscription model or is it just a one-time purchase or whatever it may be? In today's world, people want subscription models. So now you build it towards a subscription model. Then you start to think about other things, marketing aspect of it. What does the demographics looks like for this particular piece or that piece? Or how many different demographics do you touch? Sure. We're in a foundation. The foundation starts with relationship. Always. And then you may run it about people first and foremost for you to go to market. Yeah. In conversation. In conversation. And who's that? Who's the thought leaders that you want to talk to? I'm from there to realization. Exactly. And from there to manifestation. As I'm praying over it all, all the way through. I got you. Because every time you go to sleep and you pray about something before you go to bed, you want to wake up with a new thought. Yeah. And a new trigger that may have to go now on another set of stairs. That innovative thought is a gift. Yeah. It doesn't have to materialize to be a gift. It's an embryotic gift that, depending on the womb of the mind, that it enters into a creed, so safe place for it to gestate and come to full birth. Yes. I will say you're one of those places. Thank you so much for coming. No, thank you for having me. Enjoy this. I enjoyed it too. Hey everybody, I want to take this time to thank you for watching the next chapter podcast. If this conversation inspired you, helps you, reflect on an idea or spark something new inside of you. 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