 The one thing we all have in common as people is we all face adversity, right? But the thing that makes everybody different is how they deal with it. And a lot of the things that we go around worrying about, some of them never come to shape. Some of them never manifest, but we spend so much time worrying about it that it stills our joy. It was one of the most challenging parts of my life in terms of, you know, hitting something that I didn't understand, that I didn't expect, but also trying to find a level of perspective in it. Just being passionate about the opportunity, you know, like I never planned to speak. I never thought this was what I would be doing just because of the path that I was once on with football. And so every opportunity I get, I always want to make sure that I never take it for granted. And I'm a firm believer of giving everything you got, right? Because when my injury happened, the thing that it did for me, Alan, was it put life and perspective in such a way that I almost lost my life. And so every opportunity I get, everything that I'm blessed to be able to do, I look at it as if, if this was your last time doing it, how would you want to be remembered? So I work out quite a bit still, almost every day. I try to eat decent, even though sometimes, you know, it would be tough back when we were traveling, you know, prior to COVID. But I try to work out, man, and also just studying, you know, making sure I'm taking care of myself. Because when my injury did happen, you know, of course, you know, break your plexus evulsion, erupt your domain artery in my chest, they had to put a lot of grafts in my body, right? And so I got grafts all over, you know, in terms of from the upper extremity standpoint, I got grafts in my body. And so for me, I have to take care of my health and I have to be cognizant of it. Because if something was to happen to me, you know, like they couldn't do certain surgeries that they wanted to do, because so much was messed up from the standpoint of with the artery, with the veins, things of that nature. And so I just try to make sure I'm on top of my health from an energy standpoint. So if something does happen, you know, at least I got my health, I got my energy, you know, I'm taking care of myself. And so I got a better shot at recovery from whatever it may be. You know, to be completely honest with you, it wasn't easy, man. You know, it was one of the most challenging parts of my life. In terms of, you know, hitting something that I didn't understand, that I didn't expect, but also trying to find a level of perspective in it and always credit. Like I had some great people in my life, you know, around that time. And I still do that helped me look at it with a different perspective and be grateful for it. And so that's where that perspective came from. Just the people that had helped me get to that point. I felt so much disappointment because I thought me making it to the NFL or accomplishing this dream is going to help me somehow pay these people back. And what I found out through my energy, my injury was they didn't want me to pay them back. Like it wasn't about no exchange, no transaction. The only thing they wanted me to do was take what they had instilled in me and add value to the world. I didn't owe them a thing. And for me, that made me grateful for my situation. They said, the only thing we want is for you to use what happened to you and go out and add value to every life you come in contact with and every environment you go into. And I can honestly say 90 to 95 percent of the way that I live my life today is a result of my injury and what happened to me. And so I'm grateful for that. I never thought of my story. I never thought of how I grew up to be anything special, right? Because we all know, you know, people that go through struggle or people that, you know, deal with certain things like always tell people. One thing we all have in common as people is we all face adversity, right? But the thing that makes everybody different is how they deal with it. And so I just looked at my life as, man, I've encountered some adversity and opposition along the way, but, you know, it's not anything different from anybody else. And when I started to see how people reacted to what happened to me, like when I would go out to a community service and somebody would ask me what happened to my arm because they would see the atrophy and I would just share, not trying to speak. I was just telling them and I would see how they would react. And at the time I was still searching for meaning and fulfillment because I haven't been playing ball. And so I was like, man, what's next? And when people react that way, people would say to me, man, you need to speak. I was like, no, I'm cool and I'm not trying to speak. And when I made the decision to do it, it was more so based upon I felt as if I had something that I could offer the world and that can help people. And for me, I was extremely grateful for that because I felt like I had been trusted from the creator with the gift, right, to add value to the world every single day. And that was something that I took very seriously when I first decided to do it and it's something that I take very seriously until this day because I feel as if many are called, but few are chosen. And I feel as if I'm amongst the chosen few. Your preparation is everything, you know, and for me as a ball player, man, I prepare at a certain way and I think when you prepare, it brings confidence. But also just being a service to people that have trusted you to come in and serve. And so I prepare the same way, you know, I still take notes. I still study them. I still study communication like we were talking about, you know, before we started, you know, just different ways to navigate what's going on, even with the virtual world, just study and communication so I can best serve the group that I feel I've been called to serve. And it's not so much about what I want to accomplish and what I want to speak about or what I want to talk about. For me, it's more so in terms of what do the group want me to accomplish? What is it that they want me to come and get across? What is it that they want me to touch on? What is it that's important to them? And I try to do my best to pull out different stories, different phases of content that I feel can best serve them so I can leave them with a feeling of empowerment and inspiration. I've had a lot of reps, a lot of practice just from, you know, coming up through the journey of speaking, you know, back when I used to drive everywhere and I would speak everywhere, you know, all type of different events. And the reason I would do that is because I wanted to be prepared, but also I wanted to be able to go into different environments and figure out ways to navigate and be just as effective and efficient with my content. But also, you know, I'm more so of a bullet point guy. And so I don't know every word that I'm going to say, but I kind of know the direction that I'm going to go in, if that makes sense. And so I'll have like certain things up top in my brain that I know I want to touch on and then I'll try to figure out ways to navigate and get to it as I go throughout my presentation and my content. But I'll have certain bullet points that I want to touch on and get to that people trust me, man, you know, like doing this time of, you know, COVID, doing this time of Corona with a lot of people hurting. You know, a lot of companies reached out to me, a lot of people reached out to me, teams, things of that nature. And you know, as well as I do, you know, when people are going through opposition and adversity and they trust you to serve them or to be that voice, that means a lot. And so for me to just be trusted in that way is someone that when they're going through that level of adversity, a level of opposition, or they're having to navigate and pivot, that they trust my words, they trust my message enough to call me to come in. That means the world of me. Looking at life with the perspective of, you know, I once heard a quote that says, worrying is a down payment on a problem that we may never have. And a lot of the things that we go around worrying about, some of them never come to shape, some of them never manifest. But we spend so much time worrying about it that it stills our joy. It stills our happiness. It stills our peace. And so I say to people all the time, like, man, you've got to get up and you've got to fight for happiness. You've got to get up, you've got to fight for joy. You've got to fight to have a perspective to see things on the right side of the coin. And I think sometimes it's so easy to be negative. It's so easy to be pessimistic. It's so easy to find flaws. And I'm not saying that they're not there. Like a guy said to me once, he said, inky man, you're so positive. Do you not see the negative side of things? I said, bro, that's him just like everybody else. I said, but I just haven't seen how focusing on him can help me become the man that I strive to be every day. I just haven't seen how focusing on him can help me become the father, the husband, the friend, the team member that I strive to be every day. I see him just like everybody, but I just choose to shift my focus and my perspective to something else. It's very important having people that you trust, people that hold you accountable, you know, as you know, man, this is something that in terms of life, it's a journey that you have to travel with others, right? Because you encounter things that sometimes you just don't understand. And I have mentors for every facet of my life, you know, got a mentor for marriage, you know, I got a mentor for fatherhood, you know, I got different people that I tug and, you know, prior in terms of what speaking and communication that I talk to. And I got people that, you know, I try to give advice and insight to as well, just in terms of where I am in life, because it's something that's very important to me. And I firmly believe when you can get different perspectives, it balances out your perspective, right? It helps you not to be biased with the things that you may be feeling or things that you may be thinking, but also just having people that's going to pull you to the fire, right? And hold you accountable. That's something that's very important. And I think we live in a world and we live in a society to where people don't like accountability. But I think when you have accountability, it has the opportunity to produce something great.