Shaquille O'Neal talks with Robin Sharma about the habits that shaped him: helping the homeless on Thanksgiving, visiting sick kids in hospitals, supporting wounded veterans. He credits his parents and coaches for teaching discipline and gratitude, and says his success came from believing he was the best, practicing what he preaches, and what he calls dreamful attraction: dreaming plus disciplined action.
Chapters
I always do something with the homeless on Thanksgiving.
My father, who was always my coach, every time one of our players get injured, you know, I had to get a cast or something. He'd make us go to the hospital and visit all the kids. So every time I'm in Orlando, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, New Jersey, Louisiana, I try to make a trip to the hospital to put a smile on the kid's face. Also do the same thing for the military guys. Walter Reed. Those guys are phenomenal. The guys that lose limbs in battle. So I do the same thing. Yeah. Wounded warriors. And then.
I just. We love children. Growing up, my father gave me two options. Go work at McDonald's or babysit. And I'm like, fries kids, Big Mac kids.
Chicken McNuggets kids. I take the kids. So, you know, I have five younger siblings, so I had to, like, learn ways of how to communicate with them and how to get to them. And I think that's also helped me with, you know, dealing with kids. So, you know, you can start now. Just, you know, do something that's in your heart and, you know, Just, you know, just have fun doing it. You know, just make sure you spread the wealth and, you know, just make. Make somebody else feel good. You know, I just love. I just love making people smile, you know, especially kids. Like, I haven't seen my good friend in a while, and he has two beautiful kids. I can't wait for them to meet Uncle Shaq. They're going to love him. Of course. Of course.
Thank you. Thank you.
We've talked a lot about DOP as, you know, the neurotransmitter of inspiration and motivation. We've talked a lot about gratitude and what that does to our neurobiology. And, you know, you're a living example. Like, you're driving to the game, and on the way, you're stopping in various neighborhoods, finding kids and just inspiring them.
Yes, because that was me. I grew up in San Antonio, so I always used to go outside the spurs practice facility and just sit and. And just watch them and say, I wish I was good enough to drive a car like that, or, I wish I was good enough to have my name on the back of a professional jersey. And, you know, following all the rules and, you know, following the advice of people who are trusted. Dale Brown, MOTHER and FATHER it was possible. So I like to, you know, I like to spread the wealth. I like to say, hey, if it happened for the Shaq man, it can happen for you.
Well, before we open.
What would be.
Your number one piece of advice to all of the people from 21 nations in the world. First of all, in terms of maintaining the mindset of a champion, maintaining the.
Mindset of a champion, one, you have to always believe, always believe that you're the best. Always believe that there's no one better than you. Second of all, you have to practice what you preach. If you practice being the best and you have the right methods of attacking that, anything is possible. And third, have fun. Do it because you love it. I've been in business a long time, and every business deal that was a bad deal for me is the ones that I focus on the monetary aspect of it. Like a guy coming and say, hey, you see those pants Mark is wearing? We could sell them now for $2 and then later make $8. And I'd be like, you know what? Mark has a nice butt. He looks sexy in those pants. That'll work. And it doesn't work.
But a lot of the deals that I just do it because I think it's going to make the world a better place. Like, for example, a guy came to me at Google, I don't know how many years before, I was at practice one day and these guys came in and said, hey, we want to talk to you. And this was like, I want to say 10, 15 years before Google even came out. He said on the phone, one day you're going to be able to have a search engine. I'm like, what's a search engine? He's like, it's going to be a little tab on the phone and you could type in anything, pictures, maps, whatever, and it's going to pop up. And I was sitting there and I was like, you know what?
That's going to work your life when you get to the very end. And if it could be summarized by a single word, Shaq, what would that one word be?
Can I use two words?
Absolutely.
My words would be dreamful attraction.
Because everything that has been accomplished by me is something that I dreamed about. You know, I was a low level former juvenile delinquent, you know, stealing candy bars, getting into trouble, getting suspended. And my mother would always tell me, dream about what you want to be. Boy, she would always say that. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Nightmares. You know, I always thought dreams were nightmares. So I dream like, I want to be like Dr. J. And I see a guy, you know, an athlete, doing a commercial. I want to do a commercial and I see my favorite rapper come across the screen. I want to be a rapper. And I see My favorite movie star come across the screen. I want to do movies and you know, adding the other principles, you know, what Coach Brown taught me, what my mother and father taught me, and then just seeing it and doing it and doing it like those opportunities came out of nowhere. Like when I got drafted, a guy who owned Paramount Pictures, I'm in the store and the guy just comes up me and says, hey, I'm doing a basketball movie. Do you want to be in it? I was like, I don't know, I'm not really that good. I gave $3 million. Of course, you just let me know where to be, I'll do it. And that was the first movie I did Blue Chips and then second movie, Kazam. Not going to talk about that movie. But.
Like, it's just so as a youngster just sitting there dreaming about it, you know, everything has, you know, come true. And you know, that's why every time I get the chance to thank my mother, my father passed away about two years ago, but he was my favorite guy. So every time I get a chance to thank my mother or thank my uncle or thank my family, if it wasn't for them, my friends, my close friends, I got a close friend in the back. Have been friends. Carlos, put your hands up. Carlos is from Toronto.
We. Every time, every time I get a chance to just thank people, I do because I realize that, you know, I didn't accomplish any of this by myself. You know, like I always give people this example. Have you ever been to San Francisco?
I love San Francisco.
The Golden Gate Bridge is phenomenal, right? Everyone always talks. Everyone talks about the bridge. They light it up, they take pictures. Nobody talks about the legs of the bridge. The legs of the bridge are the ones that's holding it up. So my mom, my family, my close friends, they're my legs. They're the ones that, you know, smart enough to say, you shouldn't have said that, you shouldn't have did that, don't invest in that, don't do this, don't say that. So, you know, without family and friends, without a close knit group that I trust, I wouldn't be here today. So I'm just most thankful that I had the wherewithal to, you know, just fulfill my dreams and follow my dreams and, and luckily, and being blessed, it always come true. Even talking to a good looking man like yours. I want to talk to a sexy man from Canada and it happened.
