Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Sports is really unique.
Speaker 3: There's not many businesses where, you know, you go to
Speaker 3: New York and it will be very difficult for a
Speaker 3: financial advisor on the fifth floor to go upstairs and
Speaker 3: talk to Jamie Diamond, right and have a conversation with him.
Speaker 2: But you can do that. In sports.
Speaker 3: You can go talk to you know, Mark Lazar, you
Speaker 3: can go talk to Mark Cubans. You know, some of
Speaker 3: the most successful business people in the world. You have
Speaker 3: direct access to them, and so why you would not
Speaker 3: utilize those opportunities makes no sense to me.
Speaker 4: So, Larry Fitzgerald, this is another one we've really had
Speaker 4: circled on the calendar seventeen years as an Arizona Cardinal
Speaker 4: College Football Hall of Fame inductee this year, certain first
Speaker 4: ballot Hall of Famer for the NFL, and an incredibly
Speaker 4: successful businessman already.
Speaker 5: And everything you just said, Jason is the least impressive thing.
Speaker 5: It's really who this person is as a human being,
Speaker 5: a humanitarian right, what he does in philanthropy, his relationships,
Speaker 5: his EQ.
Speaker 2: Is off the chart.
Speaker 5: And this is a guy that in business has become
Speaker 5: a titan. Larry and I have gotten to know each
Speaker 5: other very well of the last dozen years or so,
Speaker 5: and I think he's going to be even a more
Speaker 5: successful businessman than he was Wide Receiver.
Speaker 2: And that's saying a lot because he's payed the all
Speaker 2: time greats.
Speaker 4: And one of the biggest choices he made was to
Speaker 4: really root himself here in Arizona. He gets close with
Speaker 4: the late John McCain and really truly embeds himself in
Speaker 4: this community in a way that feels like has made
Speaker 4: an exponential difference for his impact.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he's a believer of going narrow and deep. Yeah,
Speaker 5: But the fact that he made a conscious decision to
Speaker 5: stay right here, be loyal to one market, to one
Speaker 5: team pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 4: So it's interesting because as he's built this portfolio, you know,
Speaker 4: he's made some you know, venture type investments. He's on
Speaker 4: several big boards Qual Tricks, He's on the board of
Speaker 4: Dick's Sporting Goods. These are big public company boards that
Speaker 4: he is really contributing to. He's invested in things like
Speaker 4: Infinite Athlete, my Favorite Chess dot Com.
Speaker 2: You played chess. I love chess, my favorite game.
Speaker 4: And what's so fascinating about that is he's played since
Speaker 4: he was seven years old, and then he sees the
Speaker 4: business opportunity. He looks at this global potential for it.
Speaker 4: And so it is this combination of his personal interest
Speaker 4: but also very very sharp business document as well, so.
Speaker 5: Many things that I'm really interested to unpack over the
Speaker 5: next hour.
Speaker 2: On this episode of The Deal.
Speaker 4: Larry Fitzgerald, all right, well, let's start by having you
Speaker 4: introduce yourself and what you do.
Speaker 3: My name is Larry Fitzgerald. And you know, I would
Speaker 3: say I'm a serial entrepreneur. Say that's I don't like
Speaker 3: to box myself in any any one way. I'm always
Speaker 3: looking to grow and learn. I think I'm as a
Speaker 3: student of life.
Speaker 4: Is that how you thought of yourself even as a kid.
Speaker 2: I would say that.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I thought of myself like that
Speaker 3: as a kid, but I would say I was described
Speaker 3: that way as a kid.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I would even be reprimanded by my teachers for asking
Speaker 3: too many questions often.
Speaker 2: I was I was the kid that was that kid?
Speaker 2: So how does it work? Again? Like so if you
Speaker 2: did it this way, would it work that way? You know?
Speaker 3: So I was I was always I was always that,
Speaker 3: but I was never afraid to ask the questions. If
Speaker 3: I didn't understand it, I want to understand it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and if I don't ask, I'm not going to get
Speaker 3: the information I need.
Speaker 4: You know, it's interesting Alex being here in Arizona. Like
Speaker 4: your dad, I'm a journalist and so I have a
Speaker 4: lot of respect for that. But you know, like you
Speaker 4: love asking people questions. I know you do this too.
Speaker 4: My favorite people to ask taxi drivers and Uber drivers.
Speaker 4: So of course, the last couple of days here, I'm like,
Speaker 4: Larry Fitzgerald, what do you think.
Speaker 2: They're like, Oh, that's my guy.
Speaker 4: I mean, but what's interesting is they say that's my guy,
Speaker 4: and he is out everywhere. You're like deeply embedded in
Speaker 4: this community. So I want to talk about Arizona. You
Speaker 4: come to play here, but you really choose to make
Speaker 4: it your place.
Speaker 2: Why. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying this dispar as anybody else in
Speaker 3: the way they go about their business, but I think
Speaker 3: the younger generation are really shortsighted in how they look
Speaker 3: at their careers, right. And I always wanted to kind
Speaker 3: of think about a forty year plan as opposed to
Speaker 3: a four year plan. Yeah, I could go over here
Speaker 3: and chase a ring there, but there's no way I
Speaker 3: would be able to have a deep, thoughtful relationship with
Speaker 3: the city and the people there. You know, I can
Speaker 3: go to the Boys and Girls Club here and I've
Speaker 3: had a relationship with them for twenty years. Big brothers,
Speaker 3: big sisters, you know, Zion Institute of Education, like I
Speaker 3: can go on down the list that I've known the
Speaker 3: CEOs board members for a decade and we have a
Speaker 3: relationship that is it's not transactional, and they understand it.
Speaker 3: They see me in the field, they seen me working,
Speaker 3: you know, in terms of real estate development, you talk
Speaker 3: about restaurants, government relations like all of those. I have
Speaker 3: great relationships here. It's because I was I've been here
Speaker 3: for twenty years and they've seen the good. They followed
Speaker 3: me during the bad, and they see that I'm loyal
Speaker 3: and they've shown me the same loyalty. And I just
Speaker 3: don't think I would have been able to do that
Speaker 3: if I would have bounced from city to city to city.
Speaker 3: Arizona's given me everything seventeen years. They'd help me live
Speaker 3: my dream. Now I almost spend the next fifty sixty
Speaker 3: god willing years I'm here on this earth giving back
Speaker 3: what I feel like I received and like, that was
Speaker 3: my thought process at twenty years old, is my thought
Speaker 3: process at forty, and hopefully it'll be my same process
Speaker 3: thought process at sixty.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was reading about the College Football Hall of Fame
Speaker 4: and even the folks at Pitt were talking about this.
Speaker 4: One thing just caught me with this idea that every
Speaker 4: time you scored a touchdown, just handed the ball lead
Speaker 4: to the official, Like there's this psych mindset that you
Speaker 4: have always had that is even It feels like where
Speaker 4: does that come from?
Speaker 2: Well? I was.
Speaker 3: I come from a family of a bunch of educators,
Speaker 3: and I'll take you back to a story from my grandfather.
Speaker 2: My grandfather was one of.
Speaker 3: The leaders of the of the Kappa's you know fraternity,
Speaker 3: and I remember as I was probably my second or
Speaker 3: third year, you know, a couple couple of years, I've
Speaker 3: made all pro and I went back to Chicago to
Speaker 3: see my grandfather. He was there with a bunch of
Speaker 3: his friends. They were there doing a fundraiser for you
Speaker 3: know something I can't remember, and Grandfather's I want you
Speaker 3: guys to meet once you meet my grandson, and I
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, yeah, okay. So he brings me over.
Speaker 3: He's a bunch of like fifteen guys, and he's like,
Speaker 3: this is my grandson, Larry. He's the only grandson that
Speaker 3: I have that doesn't have his college degree.
Speaker 2: That's how he introduced me. No, seriously, that's how he
Speaker 2: induced me.
Speaker 3: So like, it didn't it didn't matter what I was doing,
Speaker 3: how many touchdowns I called. You know, education is something
Speaker 3: that's important to this family, and you're the only one
Speaker 3: that doesn't have it out of your cousin.
Speaker 2: So I need you. I need you to get that.
Speaker 3: They always had a way of like letting you know,
Speaker 3: like sports is great, but you know you're gonna make
Speaker 3: your greatest impact with your brain, and so like that
Speaker 3: was always something that was kind of drilled into us
Speaker 3: at a really young age. And so I really I
Speaker 3: appreciate my career, don't. I don't want to take anything
Speaker 3: away from it. I set out to do it, and
Speaker 3: I was able to achieve great things. But sports was
Speaker 3: just another chapter in the book.
Speaker 2: Larry, let's talk a little bit about Minnesota. I about
Speaker 2: a home there. I love it. Tell me about growing up.
Speaker 5: I mean, who were some of your favorite sports teams,
Speaker 5: some of the people you looked up to, And tell
Speaker 5: me a little bit about the people of Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Alice, you hit it on the head.
Speaker 3: I think you know you hear Minnesota nice quite often,
Speaker 3: and you know, I don't really notice it until there's
Speaker 3: like certain things. You know, you go to New York
Speaker 3: and you go to California, the paces, it's like much faster.
Speaker 3: You go home and you see a lady pushing their bags.
Speaker 3: You know, she's walking out of you know, cub Foods.
Speaker 3: You know it's a local grocery store, and like you
Speaker 3: see people like rushing to her to help her put
Speaker 3: her bags in the car. Yeah, growing up in Minnesota
Speaker 3: was like truly a blessing for me and I have
Speaker 3: so many fun men. Some of my mentors, like Kirby Pucket,
Speaker 3: God rest his soul, Hall of Fame center fielder MVP,
Speaker 3: Like he would invite us by the house for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3: You know, I would go to the park. You know
Speaker 3: my dad. Media interviews were done before in baseball games,
Speaker 3: very different from like basketball football would have happened after
Speaker 3: They go and talk to me before the games. And
Speaker 3: you know, I remember Kirby Pucket for a seven o'clock
Speaker 3: game would be at the park at eleven. You know,
Speaker 3: he'd be at the park at eleven taking pop flies
Speaker 3: because the met you're dome probably played in the metric dome,
Speaker 3: Like when you hit it up into the to the
Speaker 3: roof the white ceiling, would you know, you know, cause
Speaker 3: a lot of problems with You've seen it, and Kirby
Speaker 3: would do it a hundred times before every game, you know,
Speaker 3: twelve o'clock in the afternoon for a seven o'clock game.
Speaker 3: You so, like, I just saw the dedication, the commitment
Speaker 3: to excess. He's been playing ten plus years in his building,
Speaker 3: but he never took it for granted. He worked on
Speaker 3: it every single day. And like that attention to detail
Speaker 3: really resonated with me. Chris Carter, who was, you know,
Speaker 3: wildly known as the guy who had the best hands
Speaker 3: of the National Football League, right and I was thinking
Speaker 3: he had the best hands, and I would see after
Speaker 3: practice he would catch two hundred balls every day, all
Speaker 3: of these little you know, nuggets that I would see
Speaker 3: that My dad was able to let me see. He
Speaker 3: exposed me to these opportunities and it was great to
Speaker 3: be ten, eleven, twelve years old.
Speaker 2: That's a dream. You know.
Speaker 3: Why Kevin Garnett was different. Yeah, you know, practice starts
Speaker 3: at nine and he's there at six and a full
Speaker 3: sweat before practice starts, when these young guys are walking
Speaker 3: in the gym, and his twelve year veteran. I mean,
Speaker 3: like that type of commitment to excellence with things that
Speaker 3: I saw.
Speaker 5: Every day last week speaking of teachers, and you know,
Speaker 5: one of the big themes is mentors. And I saw
Speaker 5: your father just a couple of days ago. He was
Speaker 5: at a Timboles game. Very respected mister Fitzgerald. He says,
Speaker 5: tell my son, I say hello. I was like, yes, sir,
Speaker 5: what impact did he have in your life?
Speaker 3: I mean, my father and my mother were the catalyst,
Speaker 3: you know, for everything. And my mom and dad they
Speaker 3: worked two opposite end of the spectrum. My dad, you know,
Speaker 3: sports journalists for forty four years now in the Twin
Speaker 3: Cities area, and you know, you name it. You know,
Speaker 3: I got a chance to be a around Magic Johnson,
Speaker 3: Shaquille and Neil Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, Kirby Pucket,
Speaker 3: Mark McGuire, you know, and then on the Vikings, Randy
Speaker 3: Moss and Chris Carter and you like, the list goes
Speaker 3: on and long. And then my mom was in the
Speaker 3: nonprofit space and you know, she worked primarily in HIV
Speaker 3: and age and breast cancer fields, and so there was
Speaker 3: times it was really difficult to internalize some of the
Speaker 3: things that I saw, you know, at a young age.
Speaker 3: I mean from the age of probably seven to eighteen,
Speaker 3: I probably saw, no exaggeration, thirty people lose their lives
Speaker 3: to complications of HIV and age and also losing their
Speaker 3: lives to cancer, and so it gave me a really
Speaker 3: interesting perspective on life. I saw the balance. I saw
Speaker 3: how great it can be if you work really hard
Speaker 3: to achieve your goals. And then I saw also the
Speaker 3: human side, where I mean, life can be very difficult
Speaker 3: and it could be a lot of times things that
Speaker 3: were out of your control and circumstances you couldn't control.
Speaker 3: And so I think it helped me develop a really
Speaker 3: strong empathy for people, understanding everybody, everybody's different walks of life,
Speaker 3: and you know, I think it just made me a
Speaker 3: more compassionate person.
Speaker 5: Larry, So, I've talked to Jason a lot about this,
Speaker 5: Like I'm a byproduct of some great mentors, Magic Johnson
Speaker 5: being one of them. I remember twenty five years ago
Speaker 5: he took me out to mastros in La and it
Speaker 5: was supposed to be a thirty minute meeting. We sat
Speaker 5: for like three and a half hours and he literally
Speaker 5: gave me his playbook and I still have notes from
Speaker 5: that mentors. We talked about your father and your mom,
Speaker 5: obviously that's where it starts. Any others that you've tried
Speaker 5: to resemble over the years, or people that have had
Speaker 5: a big impact on you so many and I would
Speaker 5: include you in that. Magic Johnson was similar to me.
Speaker 5: I met him out at the Melcan Institute thirteen or so,
Speaker 5: fourteen years ago. We were on a panel together about sports,
Speaker 5: and after the panel, he spent thirty minutes with me
Speaker 5: to so many people around him at the Melican Institute,
Speaker 5: and he gave me his undivided attention. He told me, Larry,
Speaker 5: you know, you have an opportunity right now when you're playing,
Speaker 5: you know, to really maximize the relationships that you have.
Speaker 5: And he pretty much told me every city I would
Speaker 5: go to, I would reach out and have lunch.
Speaker 2: And I did the exact same thing.
Speaker 3: I go to Dallas, and you know, I would sit
Speaker 3: down with Mark Cuban, invite him down and try to
Speaker 3: get as many teammates I could go to New York
Speaker 3: and John Waldron from Gold and Sacks would come talk
Speaker 3: to us. If I go back even further. You know,
Speaker 3: in two thousand and seven, I was in New York,
Speaker 3: just had a random New York Knicks basketball game, and
Speaker 3: I'll never forget This guy came up to me, introduced himself.
Speaker 3: He said, Hey, my name is Frank. I said, hey, Frank,
Speaker 3: nice to meet you. So I've been following you for
Speaker 3: a long time. I said, that's awesome. He said, my
Speaker 3: daughter went to Syracuse while you were at Pitt and
Speaker 3: I think you have a really bright future. I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking to myself, I'm twenty four years old. What
Speaker 3: does he mean I have a bright future.
Speaker 2: I just started my career. Is my fourth year.
Speaker 3: He's like, no, I think you have a bright future
Speaker 3: after you get done playing. And I'm thinking, like, I
Speaker 3: hope I play a lot longer. Like what is he
Speaker 3: talking about? He said, I want to delve deeper into
Speaker 3: this conversation with He gave me his business card. We
Speaker 3: ended up staying in contact. His name is Frank bizig Nano.
Speaker 3: He's now the CEO of Fisser, largest data processing company
Speaker 3: credit card processing company in the country. He was a
Speaker 3: CEO at the time at JP Morgan. He ended up
Speaker 3: inviting me to do an internship in New York in
Speaker 3: the middle of the football offseason, and I'm thinking, man,
Speaker 3: it would be a lot more fun probably to go
Speaker 3: train in La or Miami do something fun, right, and
Speaker 3: you know, but then I started thinking, like, man, this
Speaker 3: is a really unique opportunity. I'm in a classroom with
Speaker 3: you know, Dartmouth and Harvard and Stanford and Yale and
Speaker 3: Ross and you know, you name all the great schools.
Speaker 3: These kids are all there. And I've never been as
Speaker 3: intimidated as I was hitting that classroom because I wasn't
Speaker 3: like formally trained like a lot of the kids. But
Speaker 3: you know, after the week, I felt like I had
Speaker 3: so much more confidence in myself because like, yeah, they
Speaker 3: might be trained specifically be bankers, but like they were
Speaker 3: kind of linear in how they thought. Yeah, when when
Speaker 3: things kind of changed, you know, they didn't do a
Speaker 3: great job of adjusting to certain things. And like, I
Speaker 3: feel like that was kind of my strength, bringing people together, collaborating,
Speaker 3: you know, helping people with their confidence, and those same
Speaker 3: things I was applying as an athlete, I could do
Speaker 3: that in the business world and so I think it
Speaker 3: gave me, like a it gave me a real jolt
Speaker 3: of confidence that I could I could venture off and
Speaker 3: do some other things. And that's kind of where it started.
Speaker 3: And I started doing internships every off season, you know,
Speaker 3: real estate development, you know, venture capital, private equity, mezzanine funding,
Speaker 3: philanthropy to learn about different foundations. And that would have
Speaker 3: never happened if Frank never took me aside and challenged me,
Speaker 3: you know, because nobody had ever challenged me from a
Speaker 3: business perspective, like you need to start thinking about this,
Speaker 3: You need to start thinking about it right now at
Speaker 3: twenty four years old. And you know, I really appreciated
Speaker 3: that because, like, fortunately enough, I was able to play
Speaker 3: until I was thirty seven. But Alice, you know how
Speaker 3: many great athletes come and they have all the promise
Speaker 3: in the world, but one bad step, you know, blow
Speaker 3: a knee out or a great picture that's god unbelievable
Speaker 3: command and doesn't have Tommy Johnson never able to regain
Speaker 3: what they had in the past. So like time is
Speaker 3: of the essence if you think about it, because we're
Speaker 3: on borrow time, Like you know, you can play twenty.
Speaker 2: Two years if God blesses your life.
Speaker 3: But in reality, that's not going to happen for most right,
Speaker 3: And so I think you just have to be proactive
Speaker 3: and how you approach mentorship and you know, just be
Speaker 3: open to it.
Speaker 4: Well, one mentor do I believe you know, was local
Speaker 4: to you here and obviously he had a big impact
Speaker 4: with John McCain. He spoke at his memorial in a
Speaker 4: very moving way. I mean, tell us about him, because
Speaker 4: that's not a match that necessarily people would wouldn't necessarily
Speaker 4: come up with Arizona obviously in common, but tell us
Speaker 4: about that relationship.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I met him at a like a fundraising
Speaker 3: cocktail receptionist. I'm not a political person. Do you want
Speaker 3: to turn people off you start talking about politics? Yea
Speaker 3: half the people they're gonna be walking out of the
Speaker 3: room in a minute. And so like I met him
Speaker 3: and yeah, he was so kind and generous with his
Speaker 3: time when I met him the first time, and like,
Speaker 3: I knew who he was, but I didn't really know
Speaker 3: who he was. And you know, he was like, hey
Speaker 3: are you are you busy? You know, In the next
Speaker 3: couple of weeks, I ended up having a coffee with
Speaker 3: him and we just started just building a relationship.
Speaker 2: And he used to always try to get me to
Speaker 2: get involved in politicians.
Speaker 3: I was like, Sena, that's not my studies, that's not
Speaker 3: much ease, but but I love getting to know you
Speaker 3: and like his heart.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: I remember coming back from DC one time and he
Speaker 3: used to fly commercial like he wasn't right flying back
Speaker 3: for on private jets, and every single person that walked
Speaker 3: up to him, like, he made time for that person,
Speaker 3: shook their hands, looked him in the eyes, asked him
Speaker 3: how they're doing. Are you happy with your job? Is
Speaker 3: there anything I can help you with? Literally, like I'm
Speaker 3: I mean, it took us an hour to get from
Speaker 3: the gate to the backage claim. And that was because
Speaker 3: every single person he made time for. And I was like, man,
Speaker 3: I'm twenty seven years old, I'm multiple all pros, Like
Speaker 3: I need to start thinking the way he does. And
Speaker 3: you know, then you look at some of the things
Speaker 3: he did while he was running for president and how
Speaker 3: genuinely thoughtful he was, and I just really admired the
Speaker 3: way he went about his business and how authentic and
Speaker 3: intentional he was about his relationships.
Speaker 4: And so when you sort of weave all this together,
Speaker 4: all these experiences, and I'm so fascinated by that Frank
Speaker 4: Bysignano story. What does that sort of either unlock for
Speaker 4: you or how does it help you kind of create
Speaker 4: your for lack of a better term, sort of business mindset.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so my business mindset, I wouldn't say it is
Speaker 3: like like this, this is what I'm going to focus on, right,
Speaker 3: And there's things that I do spend more time on,
Speaker 3: and you know, hopefully as I go further on into
Speaker 3: my business career that I'll be able to focus even
Speaker 3: more on some of the things that I'm like really
Speaker 3: really passionate, like you know, angel investing in venture capital,
Speaker 3: which I really feel like I can make a sizable
Speaker 3: impact with the relationships and the people skills that are
Speaker 3: required to build a company at scale. But like I
Speaker 3: love multifamily, you know, similar to ales. I really enjoy
Speaker 3: the restaurant space, which I've gotten involved in. You know,
Speaker 3: I enjoy sports and sports tech. You know, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of different buckets and things I really enjoy that
Speaker 3: I feel like I can bring I can bring the
Speaker 3: value to And you know, as an investor, I think
Speaker 3: the biggest thing you can do besides writing a check
Speaker 3: into something is to actually bring tangible qualities that actually
Speaker 3: help people around you and your business grow, similar to
Speaker 3: what Alex is doing in Minnesota. You know, like those
Speaker 3: young carl Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards and some man
Speaker 3: of these young guys like they have somebody they can
Speaker 3: just pick up the phone and call, Hey, I'm dealing
Speaker 3: with this off the field, Like what would you do
Speaker 3: with this? Like there's not many owners or our governors
Speaker 3: excuse me, and in professional sports that have his type
Speaker 3: of experience and so like like that's something that he's
Speaker 3: involved in. He wrote a check to be involved in,
Speaker 3: but he can actually bring, you know, great mentorship to
Speaker 3: young people who needed.
Speaker 2: Yeah they're hitting you up. They should? They should? Should
Speaker 2: they should? Yea, they should?
Speaker 4: Yeah did you did you do that as a player?
Speaker 2: I mean were you always you know.
Speaker 4: You had that that sort of relationship here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Michael bill Wells very good to me. Robert Sarver very
Speaker 3: good to me. Jerry Colangelo, former owner of the Phoenix
Speaker 3: Suns and the Diamondbacks, very good to me. And I
Speaker 3: would always try to find those those guys and be
Speaker 3: able to talk to them and help understand like what
Speaker 3: they saw in sports and you know where they see
Speaker 3: sports going in the future and things that they would
Speaker 3: do differently if they could, you know, turn back the clock.
Speaker 2: Sports is really unique.
Speaker 3: There's not many businesses where you know, you go, you
Speaker 3: know to New York and you know, be very difficult
Speaker 3: for a financial advisor on the fifth floor to go
Speaker 3: upstairs and talk to Jamie Diamond and have a conversation
Speaker 3: with him.
Speaker 2: But you can do that in sports.
Speaker 3: You can go talk to Mark Lazaru, you can go
Speaker 3: talk to Mark Cuban. You know, some of the most
Speaker 3: successful business people in the world. You have direct access
Speaker 3: to him, and so why you would not utilize those
Speaker 3: opportunities makes no sense to me.
Speaker 4: Coming up, we discussed Larry's transition from football to the
Speaker 4: boardroom and his commitment to making an impact through philanthropy,
Speaker 4: plus how his love of chess became an opportunity for investment.
Speaker 5: Another thing we have in common is the NBA that
Speaker 5: it is ironic, right because we've been talking about magic
Speaker 5: both of our mentor and he played basketball and owns
Speaker 5: the Dodgers. You played football and you're a part of
Speaker 5: the Sons, and same with based on Timberwolves and links.
Speaker 5: When an opportunity like that comes, How does it come?
Speaker 5: And like, how do you think about the process of
Speaker 5: like I got to write a big check and you
Speaker 5: only have so much capital, walk us through that process.
Speaker 2: How do you think about it? Yeah?
Speaker 3: So, I mean I never really like set out to
Speaker 3: be in the NBA. That's not nothing I was ever
Speaker 3: like really thinking about. But I just built a relationship
Speaker 3: over ten years, you know, with the majority owner and
Speaker 3: one day we were sitting at dinner and he was
Speaker 3: just like, Hey, Larry, I would love to have you
Speaker 3: a part of my group. You know, you're really thoughtful,
Speaker 3: You're insightful. I mean you have great recommendations and this
Speaker 3: and that. And I was like, wow, that's interesting. And
Speaker 3: then he said, you know this is what is gone.
Speaker 2: And I said, I kind of gulf through my water.
Speaker 3: I'm had to get back to you on that, you know,
Speaker 3: but you know it's a decision I really am am
Speaker 3: thankful that I made because, like I would say, as
Speaker 3: a minority owner, like I was able to get kind
Speaker 3: of behind it curtains.
Speaker 2: You know, I was a part of the draft process.
Speaker 3: You know, I understood open up the books for me,
Speaker 3: this is this is what we spend money on, this
Speaker 3: is what we try to cut costs on.
Speaker 2: This is every aspect of the business.
Speaker 3: Like he was very open to you know, let me
Speaker 3: learn and see it, and you know, it helped me
Speaker 3: make a more informed decision on you know, the Rogerston
Speaker 3: Rolls opportunity you know, in India in the Premier League
Speaker 3: and cricket. It helped me make a better decision and
Speaker 3: pick a ball right, helped me make you know, better
Speaker 3: decisions and all of those type of opportunities that presented
Speaker 3: themselves to me after.
Speaker 4: That pickleball fascinating. You know, you are a player, an
Speaker 4: owner and an investor cricket. You mentioned as well. Let's
Speaker 4: talk about cricket for a second, Like how does that
Speaker 4: come to you and what's the process.
Speaker 3: I have a friend here, Kolsumani here locally, big angel investor,
Speaker 3: founded three companies that do you know, critical infrastructure work.
Speaker 3: Then he's from India and you know, he was like, Larry,
Speaker 3: there's an opportunity that you know, I really would like
Speaker 3: you to look at. And so I was, I was like, cool,
Speaker 3: because let's look at it. I didn't really understand cricket. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I've been to cricket matches before in India. Still never
Speaker 3: really could understand it. But what I did recognize when
Speaker 3: I went was the fandom. And you think about teams
Speaker 3: here in the United States that aren't very small market.
Speaker 3: You think about you know, the Oakland A's, You think
Speaker 3: about the Green Bay Packers, you think.
Speaker 2: About the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 3: Still great organizations that are thriving in really small markets.
Speaker 3: You think about that concept in India at scale. You know,
Speaker 3: this lead could easily be forty teams. It would not
Speaker 3: saturate the market. So just thinking about the exponential growth,
Speaker 3: who's watching it, how much is followed, We're all, you know,
Speaker 3: big components, And why I wanted to be involved.
Speaker 5: Is there one or two in particular that you're really
Speaker 5: excited about that you feel more connected one of these
Speaker 5: companies you've invested.
Speaker 2: In, Yeah, a bunch of them. You have a bunch
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 3: But if I had to pick one, and it's a
Speaker 3: passion for me, like Chess dot Com. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: unbelievable how fast the game has grown, and it very organic.
Speaker 3: How I kind of got involved in the game. I
Speaker 3: started playing when I was seven years old. I went
Speaker 3: to the doctor. They said I had ADHD and before
Speaker 3: you know, my parents allowed the doctors to put me
Speaker 3: on any medication. They said, let's look at some other
Speaker 3: pathways so we can we can explore. And one of
Speaker 3: my after school counselors said, hey, look, chess is a
Speaker 3: great game. It helps slowest thought press down and started
Speaker 3: helping them be more of a strategic thinker, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of help them, you know, really kind of like
Speaker 3: just be thoughtful on how.
Speaker 2: We makes decisions. And I was like, Chess, Wow, how's
Speaker 2: that going to help me?
Speaker 3: But I started playing, I fell in love with this,
Speaker 3: started competing at a higher level. I started getting in
Speaker 3: some of these city chess tournaments, and like I was,
Speaker 3: I was hooked.
Speaker 5: So, Larry, how does this passion kind of bridge into
Speaker 5: an opportunity to invest in a company like this?
Speaker 2: So it was a passion.
Speaker 3: Initially, I was playing out in Long Island with a
Speaker 3: friend of mine and one of his friends came by
Speaker 3: and we were playing bliss chests. He was like, Larry,
Speaker 3: I got introduced you to a friend of mine. His
Speaker 3: name is Danny Rinch. He's one of the co founders
Speaker 3: of chess dot com. And you know, I was like cool,
Speaker 3: you know, and I, like everybody else during the pandemic,
Speaker 3: you know, everybody's watching all these series around the club,
Speaker 3: and Queen's Gammit, you know, was one of that that
Speaker 3: that was like infatuated with, right, and so I saw
Speaker 3: that there was really great opportunities, and I really like
Speaker 3: the fact that it's an international game. I'd look at
Speaker 3: games that are scalable, that people will enjoy and that
Speaker 3: they will pay, they will pay a premium for.
Speaker 4: It is this amazing collision of both technology because I
Speaker 4: mean you go on the app and you know, and
Speaker 4: I know lots of people from CEOs to you know,
Speaker 4: reporter colleagues who they'll go on and play these three
Speaker 4: minute games like every day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they'll be.
Speaker 4: You know, on hold for something and they'll like pop
Speaker 4: into a game. And yet it also is this very thoughtful,
Speaker 4: almost analog type of game in a digital world. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's amazing. So with all the things that come across
Speaker 4: your desk unity you talked about sort of bucketing things,
Speaker 4: as I know Alex says too, are there any that
Speaker 4: got away things you wish you had done?
Speaker 3: I think it's any regrets. Yeah, there's there's there's opportunities
Speaker 3: that I that I decided not to go against. But
Speaker 3: when I'm doing my diligence process on deals, Like I'm
Speaker 3: me and my team were pretty convicted on the doing
Speaker 3: why we do it. And sometimes there's there's good deals
Speaker 3: that you pass on because they just don't fit right
Speaker 3: in that particular time right, Not that they're a bad deal,
Speaker 3: but they just do. Do I have the wherewithal to
Speaker 3: really do it at the level that I want to
Speaker 3: do it. Not every deals for everyone, you know, I
Speaker 3: think people get formal a lot and make decisions like
Speaker 3: this is hot and we need we need to do this,
Speaker 3: and like that that's not for me right now. And
Speaker 3: so I think we're really good at that as a team,
Speaker 3: as we evaluate opportunities as they present themselves. And we
Speaker 3: both come from teams, you know, baseball, football teams, And
Speaker 3: like Alex, how often did you ever when you went
Speaker 3: to when you went to the clubhouse, when you were
Speaker 3: getting ready for the game, ever worry about your your
Speaker 3: cleat's been in your locker, or the right bats being
Speaker 3: you know, ready for you, or your glove being oiled
Speaker 3: up the way you needed to make you know, throw
Speaker 3: guys out at third base, or or any of those
Speaker 3: type of things. When you performed, like you never thought
Speaker 3: about that And they were just taken care of because
Speaker 3: you know, the clubis were doing this, and never worried
Speaker 3: about the spread after the game if you were going
Speaker 3: to eat, because you knew the mills were gonna be there.
Speaker 3: You never worried about the bustles to be on time
Speaker 3: take you from the hotel. It was a coordination of
Speaker 3: a lot of things. And I think when you leave
Speaker 3: the game as an athlete, you forget how much teamwork
Speaker 3: was required to allow you to be great at what
Speaker 3: you did. You know, you just think, you know, I
Speaker 3: ran the route, quarterback threw me the ball. Yeah that's
Speaker 3: one thing. But you know, the coach had to design
Speaker 3: the place for you. You know, that field had to
Speaker 3: be manicured perfectly for you. Somebody had to make sure,
Speaker 3: you know, your pads were taped down so guys couldn't
Speaker 3: hold you and grab you throughout the game. You know,
Speaker 3: like all of these things that you you never think about.
Speaker 3: You know, the trainers that you get your hamstrings loose
Speaker 3: and get you.
Speaker 2: Ready to perform every day. And you know, I didn't really.
Speaker 3: Appreciate that when I first walked away, and you know,
Speaker 3: I struggled a bit kind of finding you know, my
Speaker 3: groove initially, So.
Speaker 5: Larry, I can relate with that because post retirement, the
Speaker 5: first three years I really struggled trying to find my way,
Speaker 5: and I gained a bunch of weight. I wasn't feeling
Speaker 5: as good and I've been doing one thing for twenty
Speaker 5: five years professionally, and then you're just like, it's like
Speaker 5: those CEOs that retire from like Gomen Sacks with JP Morgan.
Speaker 5: Once you leave that, you know you don't have credit
Speaker 5: in that card anymore. You feel like a little bit
Speaker 5: of an an item by yourself.
Speaker 2: I certainly did.
Speaker 5: And then I made a really big paradigm shift after
Speaker 5: COVID with my schedule, how does your day look like
Speaker 5: today obviously versus how it used to be for so
Speaker 5: many years when I first got I would say the
Speaker 5: first year it wasn't a lack of opportunities, it was
Speaker 5: it was definitely a lack of structure.
Speaker 2: You know. I was very similar to you.
Speaker 3: I was customed to us to be a very structured schedule,
Speaker 3: and I wouldn't say I love structure, but I thrived
Speaker 3: with it, you know, And so like not waking up
Speaker 3: in the morning and kind of like what am I
Speaker 3: going to do? Today, Am I gonna you know, I
Speaker 3: know I got to pick up the kids from school
Speaker 3: at three, But am I going to play golf? I
Speaker 3: was a ship in the ocean with no destination, and
Speaker 3: like that was a very lonely feeling, and so like
Speaker 3: I needed to get the structure.
Speaker 2: And once I got the structure, like I developed the purpose.
Speaker 3: And then once I got the purpose, I feel like
Speaker 3: I was able to find the things an outlets that
Speaker 3: really like suited me and I wanted to be a
Speaker 3: part of. And you know, you talk about being a
Speaker 3: CEO like they have a natural off ramp though you know,
Speaker 3: because you leave CEO, now you're the chairman, so you're
Speaker 3: still working those business mindset and thought and processes.
Speaker 2: As an athlete, there is no off mp. There's the one.
Speaker 3: Percent that gets into TV they can do it, that
Speaker 3: has that ability, but that's for a very farm few
Speaker 3: between Hall of Fame quality caliber player that has that opportunity,
Speaker 3: and everybody else kind of has to figure it out.
Speaker 3: I try to help a lot of guys they when
Speaker 3: they do make that transition, like this is what you
Speaker 3: need to be thinking, this is what you need to do,
Speaker 3: and trying to just kind of give them the blueprint
Speaker 3: as al as we say.
Speaker 4: And so how does it go forward? I mean, you're
Speaker 4: a young guy at this point. You've been able to
Speaker 4: have a number of different experiences from a Wall Street
Speaker 4: you know, internships and team ownership, Like is there something
Speaker 4: that's on the horizon for you? You know, do you
Speaker 4: want to go back to team ownership? Is there a
Speaker 4: big thing out there that that you're chasing or is
Speaker 4: it one step at a time?
Speaker 3: I literally take it one day at a time. My
Speaker 3: accounting team always like, look, Larry, we got we got
Speaker 3: one hundred and ninety one k ones last year. Like
Speaker 3: we like, this is a lot to manage, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, Like, Okay, I get I hear what
Speaker 3: you're saying. I hear what you're saying, you know, but
Speaker 3: like it gets me so excited when new opportunities come along,
Speaker 3: and you know, and it goes back to like my
Speaker 3: first venture deal.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: In twenty thirteen, I was taking executive business courses at Stanford,
Speaker 3: like I always in. I had like a two hour
Speaker 3: window and I started walking around campus.
Speaker 2: I just wanted I.
Speaker 3: Went to the studient Union. I saw some kids over there.
Speaker 3: They were like working on something together. I was like,
Speaker 3: what y'all doing over here?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 3: My name was Larry. They didn't know who I was.
Speaker 3: They didn't care who I was. And I was like,
Speaker 3: what are you guys working on? They were telling me
Speaker 3: what they're working on. It's like, so like, do you
Speaker 3: guys have a space that you said? Oh, yeah, this
Speaker 3: is a Stanford Up incubation lab. You know the former
Speaker 3: students that are now on sand Hill Road, they're at
Speaker 3: Investment and Drees and Horowitz.
Speaker 2: And you name it.
Speaker 3: They come back in and they help the students and
Speaker 3: you know, the idea is good enough they invested in it.
Speaker 3: I was like, Wow, that's really cool. Then I met
Speaker 3: a former student athlete. He was a kicker named Derek
Speaker 3: Beltch and he had a company called Driver. It was
Speaker 3: a VR company, and you know, his original thought process
Speaker 3: for it was to be able to help athletes kind
Speaker 3: of learn outside of what the traditional learning was. And
Speaker 3: you just watch tape from a really far distance in practice,
Speaker 3: right right, but you can't really see the angles, you know,
Speaker 3: and so these they set up cameras around you to
Speaker 3: watch you run arout so I can see, Hey, Larry,
Speaker 3: you're dropping your at the waist too, much. You know,
Speaker 3: you need to drop your hips as opposed to drop
Speaker 3: in your waist and you can actually see it, you know,
Speaker 3: from a three sixty degree angle as you watch it,
Speaker 3: and so like it really helps you with the nuances
Speaker 3: of route running and where your hands are. I saw
Speaker 3: your eyes the ball was coming in. Your eyes were
Speaker 3: already looking away, like that's going to come back to
Speaker 3: bite you. Like, let's focus on that you can focus on,
Speaker 3: like the minuscule details.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And like I really liked that application.
Speaker 3: And then I, you know, made introductions to him, and
Speaker 3: I saw the business start growing. He got a relationship
Speaker 3: with the Big ten and got on with the PAC
Speaker 3: twelve and multiple NFL teams you know, used it, and
Speaker 3: so like I saw that my ability was not only
Speaker 3: just to like see a really interesting, cool deal, but
Speaker 3: I could add value to the under right, And like
Speaker 3: that's when I really started saying, like, man, this is
Speaker 3: something I really enjoy. You get a snapshot at something
Speaker 3: in its infancy state, and you get you get a
Speaker 3: chance to kind of like help it scale r you know,
Speaker 3: got me really geeked.
Speaker 4: You mentioned this sort of it passing that I want
Speaker 4: to dig on it a little bit. You're on some boards.
Speaker 4: What's the perspective that you bring?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I mean when when I first was asked
Speaker 3: to join the Border Dick's you know ed came to
Speaker 3: me and he said, look, Larry, I'm not looking for
Speaker 3: another retail person. Am I looking for a banker? I
Speaker 3: know that's not what your expertise is, but we don't
Speaker 3: have anybody who's coming.
Speaker 2: From your perspective. So I just want you to be authentic.
Speaker 3: I want you to learn, like what I've done, you know, study,
Speaker 3: go on diligence, take some classes to familiarize with board governance,
Speaker 3: and like you're gonna get better and the other things.
Speaker 3: But I need you and your inside as a former
Speaker 3: athlete to give me that inside. And so like he's not,
Speaker 3: they don't ask you to do things that you're not
Speaker 3: capable of showing at the time. I'm not saying you
Speaker 3: can't grow into him, but it really just takes somebody
Speaker 3: like giving you a chance, you know, to be in
Speaker 3: a space that you maybe thought that you would never
Speaker 3: be able to be in. And now I sit in
Speaker 3: the room and I'm a lot more comfortable. I have
Speaker 3: a lot more insightful thoughts because I understand the business
Speaker 3: now after three and a half four years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's funny that now I'm picturing like how you
Speaker 4: described yourself as a as a kid, you know, raising
Speaker 4: your hand and.
Speaker 3: Being like, hold on a second, man, And I'll tell
Speaker 3: you the first the first couple of board meetings, I
Speaker 3: remember getting off and thinking.
Speaker 2: What are you doing? Like, why are you? Why are
Speaker 2: you doing this?
Speaker 3: And it was during because it was during COVID, and
Speaker 3: you've sitting on board meetings before watching the board. Doing
Speaker 3: a board meeting on the Zoom is very different from
Speaker 3: me sitting next to a programmer and saying, hey, Manny,
Speaker 3: you know he's been the CEO of a retail business
Speaker 3: for twenty five years. I can look at him and
Speaker 3: ask him, I didn't really understand that. Can you can
Speaker 3: you help me? Can you help me understand why we
Speaker 3: while we're doing a convertable note, why do we need
Speaker 3: to draw down our line of credit? I don't I
Speaker 3: don't understand that, And he can literally tell me right
Speaker 3: there in a zoom meeting. I can't ask these questions
Speaker 3: because I would be disruptive to the meeting, and so,
Speaker 3: like I needed to be in a more intimate setting
Speaker 3: in a board room where I could do those and
Speaker 3: have the side conversations after our committee meetings and so like,
Speaker 3: once I started doing that, I felt like I was interesting.
Speaker 3: I was actually you know, gaining process. W the first couple,
Speaker 3: I was like, whoa, Yeah, you know you're sitting around
Speaker 3: listening to conversation that people who have been doing this
Speaker 3: for thirty forty years, and you know you're stepping into
Speaker 3: that arena.
Speaker 4: As we start to wrap up, you know, come back
Speaker 4: to the Arizona of it all, because you make this
Speaker 4: very conscious decision that this is your place. I'm sure
Speaker 4: you had chances to go elsewhere, and yet you stayed
Speaker 4: here very sick testly. Obviously you talk about a forty
Speaker 4: year plan, but it's one thing to make a plan,
Speaker 4: and it's another thing to execute it and to really
Speaker 4: stick and to stay here.
Speaker 3: Why well, you know, for you to stay at a
Speaker 3: place for a long time, there has to be a
Speaker 3: joint effort, like the player has to want to stay
Speaker 3: ownership and coaches have to.
Speaker 2: Want you, you know.
Speaker 3: And there's times where they felt like they could have
Speaker 3: got you know, value out of moving me, but they
Speaker 3: decided not to. And there was times that I was
Speaker 3: up for contract and I could have left, but I
Speaker 3: didn't want to. And I think after a while, you know,
Speaker 3: the organization and the player, you start to understand like
Speaker 3: this is this is a marriage that we want to
Speaker 3: make last. When we were in lockstep at that point,
Speaker 3: you know, it became a relationship that wasn't just transactional.
Speaker 3: And it sports, most relationships are transactional. You look at
Speaker 3: the winds every day, you look at the losses, and
Speaker 3: if the losses start adding up, then they make a move.
Speaker 3: And I think we were able to move past that.
Speaker 3: We were able to look at like, what do you
Speaker 3: want to face it your franchise to look like? Do
Speaker 3: you want it to be a consistent presence in the
Speaker 3: community as a person that plays every game, that shows up,
Speaker 3: gives great effort, is a good teammate that you can
Speaker 3: build around, that's not a selfish person, you know, Like
Speaker 3: that's one of the reasons that we were able to
Speaker 3: have like a really good, good seventeen year run.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean you've seen that obviously in organizations and players,
Speaker 4: you know, gelling with the organization, I dare say, we
Speaker 4: don't see it as much anymore. And I mean, certainly
Speaker 4: you see it from the NBA perspective where the movement
Speaker 4: is unbelievable. I mean, I feel like your case is
Speaker 4: increasingly rare. Does it feel like that to you guys?
Speaker 2: For sure? For sure?
Speaker 3: But I think as a player, I think it's changed
Speaker 3: a lot, especially in the NBA. You know, guys have
Speaker 3: come in one day like I'm not happy and I
Speaker 3: want to move, and you have to do it because
Speaker 3: if a guy has another year on his deal and
Speaker 3: you know he's not going to resign, you have to
Speaker 3: be able to get the value, like you have to
Speaker 3: as a business. You have to do that. I think
Speaker 3: you see that a lot more frequently in basketball than
Speaker 3: you do. You know, in football and in baseball, the
Speaker 3: players have a lot of power, and you know, I
Speaker 3: think it's also a big way how the leagues differ.
Speaker 3: You know, you think about the NBA, the NBA Marcus
Speaker 3: the player first, then the league.
Speaker 2: And then the teams.
Speaker 3: Right in the NFL, it's the league, it's the team,
Speaker 3: it's the player, and so like the league is always
Speaker 3: going to do what's best to protect the shield. And
Speaker 3: then the teams have the brand loyalty amongst the community,
Speaker 3: and the players are kind of interchangeable, right, you know,
Speaker 3: if you have a top ten player in the NBA.
Speaker 3: That player can kind of determine.
Speaker 2: Every much whatever.
Speaker 3: I'll play tonight, I'm not going to play tonight. You know,
Speaker 3: I will play with this guy. You know, like even
Speaker 3: if you trade another one of his teammates, like I
Speaker 3: don't want to play with him, you can't make the
Speaker 3: move because they're not going to jail.
Speaker 4: So, just to give you the whole scope of yourself,
Speaker 4: you're a Minnesota Vikings ball boy, then you're going to
Speaker 4: be in the College Football Hall of Fame. As of
Speaker 4: this year, you are undoubtedly going to be a first
Speaker 4: ballot NFL Hall of Famer. Did you imagine that was
Speaker 4: going to happen.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say I imagined it. It was always a
Speaker 3: hope and a dream. You know, I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 3: start off thinking I wanted to be a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: Just I want to. I want to be able to
Speaker 2: have the opportunity to play.
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, as your ability grows and
Speaker 3: your opportunities grow, I think your your vision and your
Speaker 3: aspirations start to grow as well.
Speaker 2: And I think that kind of they went in sequence.
Speaker 4: You've sort of downplayed the Hall of Fame it feels
Speaker 4: like over time.
Speaker 2: I mean, is that just who you are? None of
Speaker 2: that is in my control. Yeah, Like it's it's so subjective.
Speaker 3: You know, you look out and you know there's guys
Speaker 3: that you say, like they put together a Hall of
Speaker 3: Fame career and they and they should be in and
Speaker 3: they're not. And then there's guys who you know are
Speaker 3: shoeings like. But it's it's media members that essentially are
Speaker 3: are determining, you know, what they think your career. And
Speaker 3: as a society, I think we've really kind of like
Speaker 3: going away from like consistency is not something that people
Speaker 3: value anymore. You know, it's just a Okay, he's a
Speaker 3: he's a money manager and he did sixty percent last year.
Speaker 3: Oh that's that's great. But we're in a bull market
Speaker 3: and I would expect him to have success. Like the
Speaker 3: guy that does, you know, loses two percent in a
Speaker 3: bear market is a guy that you like That that's
Speaker 3: the guy I won't manage my money. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: you think about guys like Warren Buffett, who's a friend
Speaker 3: of Alex's as well.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean.
Speaker 3: He's just been consistent for sixty years, and like people
Speaker 3: don't people don't value that as much.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's interesting to think about, especially where you
Speaker 4: are now, where you were as an athlete. You know,
Speaker 4: obviously you were in that miliu with your father, and
Speaker 4: then you know, philanthropically, your foundation has done a tremendous amount,
Speaker 4: and interestingly, I think in a very focused way.
Speaker 2: I mean, you were.
Speaker 4: Locked in on cancer research and other elements. I mean
Speaker 4: clearly there's a straight line from your mom there.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, very very straight line.
Speaker 3: And also like as I've gotten older, I feel like
Speaker 3: I've gotten better at kind of like being an inch wide.
Speaker 2: And a mile deep with the foundation.
Speaker 3: I think it's really easy to kind of get sidetracked
Speaker 3: because there's a lot of unbelievable foundations doing great work
Speaker 3: in our world, right, and there's a lot of people
Speaker 3: that need help. But in reality, you can't be you
Speaker 3: can't be everything for everyone, right, And so I feel
Speaker 3: like if I really narrow down an education and after
Speaker 3: school activities and programs and bridging the technology gap and
Speaker 3: underserved communities and schools, I feel like I can make
Speaker 3: a tangible difference in that area, right. And if I
Speaker 3: do the same thing in breast cancer, you know, with
Speaker 3: our mobile mammograms and taking them in communities where historically
Speaker 3: there has not been great dialogue and communications with healthcare,
Speaker 3: being able to bridge that gap to help them understand
Speaker 3: like these health professionals are here to help you. Let's
Speaker 3: get you in for these mamagra as. You don't have
Speaker 3: to come in, We'll come to you, you know. So
Speaker 3: like doing those individual things I think has helped me,
Speaker 3: you know, realize that you just need to focus in
Speaker 3: on the things that you're really good and I'm saying
Speaker 3: that they're not others share causes that are important, but
Speaker 3: for you to be most effective and also be able
Speaker 3: to galvanize your donor base, like when you show your
Speaker 3: progress and your impact reports, like these are the things
Speaker 3: that we did in the month of January. This was
Speaker 3: what we had hoped to do. We achieved that, and
Speaker 3: this is why we think, you know, we would be
Speaker 3: a great candidate for another grant this year. You know,
Speaker 3: it's like we need to show tangible impact results.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So, Larry, you're one of the most iconic players of
Speaker 5: your generation. What advice would you give to someone who
Speaker 5: wants to excel at life the way you've been able.
Speaker 2: To How very easy I say, follow Alice Rodriguez.
Speaker 3: I mean, you've done an amazing job of obviously having
Speaker 3: one of the best careers of all time, but you know,
Speaker 3: being thoughtful and how you help people, the advice you
Speaker 3: always make time, you know, I text you, call you,
Speaker 3: you called me back, email like you're You're very kind,
Speaker 3: and how you go about your way approachable and a
Speaker 3: constant student of life.
Speaker 2: You know you want to get better and improve.
Speaker 3: And I think if you take a lot of what
Speaker 3: Alex has done in terms of his mindset, I think
Speaker 3: you will have a lot of success during your career
Speaker 3: and also post career.
Speaker 4: Well, I think a lot of people would say the
Speaker 4: same thing about you. I think, oh, Yeda, yeah, that's
Speaker 4: fair to say. We really enjoyed this.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank thank you, Thanks an pleasure, pleasure, thank you,
Speaker 5: Thank you, brother Sir, always Always.
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