Ep52 - DuJuan Daniels
23 Dec 2020 · 38 min
DuJuan Daniels, player personnel director for the Las Vegas Raiders, talks about his time with the Patriots, scouting for intangibles, and overcoming a serious knee injury in college. He explains what attitude means and how he learned it at different ages.
Chapters
This episode is brought to you by KPMG Risk Services. KPMG believes that when you've earned the trust of all your stakeholders, that's when your business has a solid platform to grow. That's the trusted imperative. KPMG Risk Services develop and put in place dynamic risk strategies designed to help your business earn that all important trust. Go to reit, KPMG US Trust to learn more.
If you had something negative happen earlier in the day, did it affect your practice habits later in the day?
Right.
It's just your overall approach and mindset as to how you attack everything you do day to day.
That's good. Yeah. I may have to get him on my team for sure. Yet attitude means how can I proactively change the way I think? How can I proactively increase my life? How can I proactively create better relationships relationships and better work situations for me to enjoy it and welcome to the Gap. The Get Attitude Podcast. The Gap Bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to become and from where you are to where you want to be. Hello, my name is Glenn Bill, founder of the University of Attitude, keynote speaker and author of the international best selling book the ABCs of Attitude. I've been fortunate enough to help tens of thousands of people get Get Attitude and this podcast is going to help you get yours. So let's get some. We are here today with a fantastic guest. Welcome to attitude booster number 10, be a part of something bigger than you. I have pulled a gentleman in from Las Vegas, Nevada. The player personnel director of the Las Vegas Raiders, former Boston College football standout academic all Big east player. And you know what? He was Indiana Mr. Football and one of my favorite players whom I coached, Coach Duan Daniels. Duan, welcome to the Gap.
Appreciate you having me Coach. Thanks for having me here.
Yeah, my pleasure, my pleasure. We are here. We got a. We're just so thankful to have you. You have. Boy, you've done the circuit since those high school days, didn't you?
Absolutely. 20 years, man.
It's been 20 years.
20 years. Turned 40 November 6th of 2019. So not trying to make you feel old or anything, but I'm 40, got a little bit of gray myself now, but.
That's right. And you got in 40 with two young kids. Tell us about your kids.
Oh yeah, we have my wife and I, Natalie, who also is from Indianapolis. She was an athlete at Lawrence North High School here in the city. She was a three sport athlete, cross country, basketball and track.
Right.
So we got some pretty Good genetics going on there, hopefully. And we have a son, Kingston, who's 6. He's in the first grade. And we have a newborn, Rocky, who is 4 months old. So they keep our hands full. And it's been fun so far.
4 months old, 40 years old. I mean, hell, I had kids graduating when I was 40. You started a little late.
I did start late. Had to get some career things on track first and do it the right way. It's funny now when I see players who were born in 2000, 2001.
Right.
So we took a little bit of time, but we're prepared now to be good parents.
That's good. Well, gappers, you guys are in for a treat. You know, dejuan operates at the highest levels. I mean, when you talk about the success of any business and when you talk about a brand, the National Football League is something that is. Is uncomparable. You can't compare it with what the brand of the NFL does, with what the business is. When you think of there only being 32 opportunities in the NFL, it's a. It's a crazy business. So when you talk about being a part of something bigger than you, you are a part of something huge. Talk to us a little bit about your thoughts on the NFL, and we're going to talk about your time with the New England Patriots and the six super bowl appearances and Boston College. But in the scheme of things, when you think about the NFL as a league, probably one of the biggest things you can have. Talk to me about your perception of the NFL and what does it mean to be a part of that for you?
Well, first and foremost, I look at the NFL as. There's only 32 teams in the NFL, right. Talking about something huge. And everybody has pros, right? I would say that one thing that you have to pinch yourself about sometimes is there's only 32 head coaches. There's only 32 personnel directors, there's only 32 starting quarterbacks. So every day you gotta be at the top of your game, the top of your profession. And if you don't do well, simply put, you'll be gone. Right? Because everybody's fighting for your job on some level, right? So you have to respect the game. You have to work at it. You have to keep your family in mind. There's. There's a lot of pressure, but it's good pressure, right? And I love it. It's football.
I can dig it.
It's football.
Talk to me about. You've been around the league now for, you know, what, 20 years? Right. Or 15 years?
Yeah, roughly. Roughly 15 years.
Roughly 15 years. When we talk about bridging the gap from where you are to where you want to become, when we talk about bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to become, what are the lessons that you've seen from specific players or coaches about bridging the gap? What's the difference between the people that maybe aren't so good in the NFL or the people that are on that? Have they bridged the gap? They're on the other side of the bridge. And the people. Maybe you have a story of somebody you saw at the beginning of a bridge, and they bridged the gap and they ended up on the other side. That's what our gappers are looking for. What did you learn about that?
Well, speaking from personal experience, just relating myself to the question you just asked. Everything is about a foundation. Right. In our league, you can't build a house without a foundation.
Right.
So in every level of sport, whether it be little league, junior high, high school, college, the pros, I try to take everything that I've learned from each team I've been a part of to build my personal foundation and my own personal beliefs of how to build a team to help the Las Vegas Raiders become a better football team.
Right.
So there's things I love that I learned from a great coach I played for by the name of Jack Van Nuys.
Right.
I took toughness from him.
Right.
Grit from him. He was a junior high football coach. Tough as nails. All right.
You get a Vietnam veteran.
Vietnam veteran.
Right.
And he coached us like a Vietnam.
Veteran, like a Vietnam War warrior, which he was. Which was the name of your team?
The Immaculate Heart. Yeah. IHM warriors, no doubt. That was the name of our team. It's fitting, but so from him, there's things that I drew from Jack van Nuys at 10, 11, 12 years old that I still apply to our team. Right now with the Oakland Raiders, there's things that I learned at Bishop Chittard High School.
Right, Right.
How to be a good teammate, how to lead, how to talk to teammates in different ways to allow them to reach their maximum potential. This guy, you got to talk to him softer. This guy, you got to yell at him.
Right.
All right. Different things trigger different people. That's something I learned as a leader in high school.
Sure.
College. Boston College.
Right, Right.
I'm going halfway across America to play football.
I remember you calling me, going, I don't know that this is for me, Coach.
Exactly what I learned at Boston College, I learned that you're not as good as you think you are. You got to work a little bit harder, and somebody's always trying to replace you. Oh, yeah, they gotta recruit players every year, right? Right. And they're not recruiting players just to recruit them. They recruited me to replace other players.
Right.
My job right now, I have to evaluate players every day, the total package to ultimately make our team better. So each level, man, I mean, there's so many things that you draw from to be a part of something bigger than you.
Right. And then you. I'm sure that you got something from the New England Patriots because you left them out. They obviously taught you a lot. So when it comes about being a part of something bigger than you, what are the New England Patriots and all those Super Bowls that you were not lucky enough that you earned to be in? What's the thought on that?
There's this saying that everybody's heard. Right. That the Patriots follow, and it's, do your job. And there's nothing fake about that. Everybody in that building lives by that slogan. Do your job.
Right.
Okay. So if your job is to prepare the food in the cafeteria, do it to the best of your ability. If your job is to make copies, do it to the best of your ability. If your job is to be the offensive coordinator, do your job. And if everybody does their job, you have a chance to win on Sundays, correct? Just a chance.
How hard is it to win on Sunday?
It's impossible. People think it's easy. Listen, I tell people all the time, it's hard to win a Little league football game.
That's true. Yeah.
It's hard to win. It gets hard on Friday nights, high school games, right?
Yeah.
Saturday is a little bit harder. But again, in the NFL, everybody's got pros, so they're there for a reason.
Yeah. There are no C players.
No.
But I'm. But I'm guessing, though, at times, because, you know, that's what you do is analyze players. Certainly as you break down film of another pro team, you go, oh, man, they got a couple garbage players, or they got some dude that's, you know, he's in year 13, we can exploit him.
Right.
Some of that's going on.
There is some of that. And you. The situation is, all right, nobody has a team full of first rounders.
Right.
So how do you manipulate your roster? Okay. And put people in the right positions to be successful is not about what you can't do.
Right.
It's what you can do. And it's our responsibilities, all right, as scouts, as coaches, to put those players in the best positions to be successful.
One thing that you mentioned to me, that I mentioned in our keynote addresses on leadership is finding the value in undervalued players. Talk to us a little bit about what that means, what that meant to you, and maybe a good example of, you know what, Here's a person that was completely undervalued. And when we talk gappers, the point of this interview here is to help you in your life, to help you, if you're at the bridge at the beginning or at the end, find the answers and to glean the knowledge that dejuan's giving us. On success. Dejuan has been around some very successful programs, and perhaps you are an undervalued player right now, or perhaps you're a business owner who has undervalued players. Talk to us a little bit about what that means to you, what it.
Means to, I think, every individual, okay, we all have strengths. We all have weaknesses. A big part of it is, all right, what are your strengths? You recognize those. All right. But what do you need to do to improve your weaknesses? Don't be afraid to point out what you don't do very well and ask for help and how to improve in those areas.
Right.
For example, if we have a wide receiver. All right. Who's got great hands. Okay. But not very quick. Okay. Not very fast. Well, Coach, I need to work on my quickness and my speed. Okay. I have to recognize those are weaknesses.
Right.
Okay. If you were. It applies to all facets of life, in business and being a parent. You know, my wife is very calm.
Right.
You know, she's.
You sound very calm on this podcast, but I know you're not.
There's. There's ways to. I call it get my son's attention.
Right.
Or grab his attention.
Right.
Sometimes I want to grab his attention instead of getting his attention. Right.
Sure.
She knows how to get his attention in a. In a calmer way. So it's about balance and knowing her strengths, knowing my weaknesses, and vice versa.
Right. And leveraging that for success.
Exactly.
Of something bigger than you.
And it translates not only in football, but it translates to me in life in general.
Right. And to your family, like you said, you know, being a part of something bigger than you look at. If you're a father listening, if you're a mother listening, if you're a son listening. The most fundamental unit in our society is the unit of the family. And so how many of us strive to Be a part of something bigger than us. When we think about that, we think about global movements and Super Bowl. Maybe we should just be looking at our own family when it's all said and done.
I completely agree. I don't. I don't think at all. I believe.
Right.
That many people sacrifice family over career.
Yeah.
And if your own house isn't in order, likely, you know, your, your, Your career is going to be in order as well, in my personal opinion.
Yeah. We always, we always say it. When I work with corporations, I'm like, look at. If their home life's a wreck, they're going to wreck your business. So you better make sure that we're working on you. Think about attitude. What does attitude mean to you and how would you define attitude?
That's a great question.
Thank you. That's why it's called the get attitude.
Is that why it's called get attitude?
And there is no wrong answer. But certainly you grade college players like you've graded college players for 15 years. A lot of people don't know the definition of attitude, which is the way you dedicate yourself to the way you think, quite simply. But when you look at scouting a player, analyzing a player, and there's a box that says, how's his attitude? What does attitude mean to you? How would you define it? And what does that look like when you're evaluating?
To me, it's your approach in everything that you do.
Right.
Okay. It's your pride. Right. They say personal responsibility and daily efforts. Okay. Your attitude. How do you wake up in the morning? How do you put your shoes on? What's your mindset? How do you attack the day? Do you let things. If you had something negative happen earlier in the day, did it affect your practice habits later in the day?
Right.
It's just your overall approach and mindset as to how you attack everything you do.
Yeah.
That's day to day.
That's good. Yeah. I may have to get him on my team for sure. When you think about your attitude and who affected your attitude, I know that you've mentioned your coaches, but when you think about who helped build the Djuan Daniels attitude, who comes to mind and what were the lessons that they taught you?
Without a doubt. Number one would be my mother, who.
You know, I do.
She was very hard on me, and that'd be an understatement.
You deserved it is what she would say. He deserved it.
But just. Just helping me. When you're young, a lot of times you don't know why your parents are Doing certain things. But there was always a bigger plan, a broader plan ahead for, you know, for me.
Right.
In her eyes. Tough love, for sure. But at the same time, having positive reinforcement.
Yeah.
You know, there was times I wanted those new Jordans really bad.
You didn't get them.
You know, I know I ran for 200 yards last night, but you're still not getting those Jordans. You gotta take out the trash first. You gotta mow the lawn. A lot of things to be done.
Right. And she ran a Subway store. Yeah, yeah. So when you think about her attitude, give me two or three words that describe her attitude.
Relentless. Dedicated.
Right.
Fun. Successful.
Nice. That's good.
Those are just outstanding traits to have.
Yes, it is. Well, that's how you get successful. That's how you have successful kids. Right. When we talk about players in the NFL, players that you've actually brought on, talk to me about the attitude of some of the players that you go, that guy's got an outstanding attitude. And why, when you think about the men with the greatest attitude that you've been around, you've been around, again, exceptional people in the NFL who sticks out to you that has an exemplary attitude. And why do you feel that way?
You know, I would say, first of all, players in general, overall, the players that last the longest are the players that take care of themselves. They study. They study relentlessly. Because, again, everybody's pros, they take care of their bodies, okay? And then sometimes it takes a little bit of luck, right? You gotta be on the right team, the right fit. There's many stories of players that failed, all right, Somewhere, go to another team, right? And it all works out. Kurt Warner, the guy was bagging groceries. He's in the Pro Football hall of Fame.
Hall of Fame now. Crazy.
He'd been cut two or three times, right? Yeah, but right place, right time, never gave up.
Right.
Had the support of his wife.
Right.
At a young age, they worked at it. And I mean, certain traits, all right, inherited traits, you know, a lot of intangibles that you can't necessarily measure, but players with outstanding intangible traits are very successful. And those are the type of players that I like to target outside of their talent. They may lack a little bit of natural talent, but they have the intangibles.
When you talk about intangibles, and I know this is tough. That's why I'm going to ask you this. And when we talk, I know people are listening to this, who interview people, like, I'm looking for the entrepreneur. That's going, yeah, I have to interview somebody. Or the corporate. You got to interview somebody. But the thing is, when dejuan interviews people and misses because he can't size them up, that could cost millions of dollars. So let's talk about how do you. I don't want to. How do you analyze. How do you break down, Is this guy being for real with me? Is the person showing up in front of me actually what it is? How do you discern over that? Do you use your gut more than your mind a lot of times? Give us. Give us what that feels and looks like for you.
Okay. First and foremost, here's the reality of it. Sometimes you're just gonna miss.
Right? It's gonna happen.
It's gonna happen.
Yeah.
No matter what you're doing. You know what? Just got it wrong. But you can't miss more than you hit. That's the key. And like you said, your gut, you should as you interview people. It's. It's an acquired skill.
Right.
But you may go into a. An interview or discussion not knowing exactly what you're looking for.
Right.
But it triggers. And authenticity matters. Right. The more experience you have and the more practice, you're able to, in my opinion, detect some of those things just through practice, like everything else and experience. Because, again, you're going to miss. And people are smart. Hey, sometimes you get fooled. But when you do get fooled, what do you do to correct it? What do you learn so you don't repeat the same mistake twice?
I love it. I interviewed and talked with a professional baseball scout. Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox. He said, Glenn, we're 10%. They miss nine out of 10 in baseball.
Right.
But I'm guessing if you're at the New England Patriots and you go 50, 50, you're probably not going to have a job.
I don't know the exact odds, but there's a lot more baseball players and football players. There's a lot more teams. But we don't want to be going 50%, that's for sure. But you are going to miss. I mean, the average NFL career is three years.
Yeah. That's just insane.
There are names that you can pull out of a hat right now. You wouldn't believe some of these names. There were outstanding college players that never played.
Mm.
Might have played one year, if that.
Ever, ever. Because it's such a high level.
Right, Right. Everybody sees, you know, the Sundays and the highlights and all that, but majority of the guys in the league you've.
Never heard of, talk to me. You've Seen highs and lows, obviously, in the NFL, but maybe even in your personal life. Talk to me about, personally, one of the toughest times you ever went through, and how did you overcome that? How did you bridge the gap from going, damn, this is hard, or damn, I'm not good enough, or I'm not loved, or where you just felt like, how am I going to get through this? Because, you know, the story of attitude is, you know, love, adversity. Number eight. Tell us. Share with us that story.
Well, I would say losses. I mean, man, I was. In my opinion, that was a part of the biggest loss In NFL history. 2008. 2007. 2008 season run. Defeated. Oh, I remember we did something that had never been done. Right.
You won, you went 16 and. Oh, correct. Or no, we were 18.
We were 18 and 18.
And, oh, never been done.
We'd actually surpass the great Dolphins team who went undefeated in wins.
Right.
Okay. And, I mean, set the scoring record, did all kind of outstanding crazy things.
That were, you know, never done before.
Never done.
Right.
Went to the super bowl in Arizona, played the Giants that year for the third time. He played him in the preseason, last game of the regular season and in the super bowl, and a guy catches the ball off the back of his head, things started happening, crazy things. And we lost.
Right.
And you want to talk about. I mean, you have immortality in your hands within. Within minutes.
Right.
And you lose. Okay. And there's been instances of other teams who, you know, I've been on the other side where we were down 28,3 in the Super bowl right. Halfway through the third quarter, and miraculously we come back and win the game.
Now by intercepting on the goal line.
That was not that game. But we scored. We won the game in overtime against.
The Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl.
In the Super.
Okay, that one.
So you talk about dealing with adversity and being on both ends of. I've seen both sides of it.
Right.
And the cool thing is. Or the exciting thing is how we responded in New England by coming back year after year and getting over such a big loss like that, where we've seen teams that have experienced losses and they've never been able to recover.
Sure.
From those type of situations.
So what was the trick? How did you guys get over it? What was what. What. What's the secret sauce that got. I mean, my God, like you said, the worst devastating. I mean, you had to be physically.
Ill. Oh, I was ill. There were. There was a lot of anger and a lot of ill There was any negative feeling you could imagine, and then.
So what was the secret sauce that got you past it?
What?
What, what, what was it?
The same thing you do when you win it all. All right.
Right.
You take two or three days, you enjoy it. If there's a parade, great. If not. All right. Close. A yearbook.
Right.
Because that's last year. And as soon as that super bowl is over, everybody has the same record, right?
Yeah. You can't see the future through your past.
You cannot.
And if you are looking at your feet or if you see your feet in the picture, then you're missing the vision.
Right.
You're not looking in the right spot.
And that's a part of great leadership. And it starts at the top. It starts with your owner, your head coach, your veteran players, and it's developed over time.
Right. And so now you've gone from arguably the greatest franchise in the history of the greatest league ever assembled, and now you find yourself with another unbelievably storied franchise. Personally, one of my favorite teams, I'm a huge Raider fan. Moving from LA to Las Vegas. Tell us what your goals are. You're now a part of something bigger than you in Las Vegas. So tell us about the biggest challenges that you face with this upcoming team, with this new position and this new city.
Well, anytime you're moving an entire organ from Oakland, Right. To Las Vegas, I mean, it's going to be. It's all. Everything's in transition. Right. I mean, you're moving an entire franchise to another city.
Right.
So just being on the same page is a challenge. Having everybody just, like, moving. Right?
Yeah.
People moving, their family, that alone, just moving.
Yeah.
That's a challenge, you know, before you even hit the field or a meeting room. Like, all right, we gotta move, we gotta do this, we gotta do that. Yeah.
That's just making sure that thought of that is insane.
Right?
Yeah.
Right. But, you know, starting from scratch, almost. It kind of almost feels like we're an expansion team.
Right.
In my opinion, because you're moving cities. Right. That's only our head coach's second year, pretty much. New personnel department from top to bottom. So it's a challenge, but it's fun.
Yeah. Cool.
And everybody's on the same page, man. We're getting after it. I love the energy everybody's bringing. I mean, Vegas is very excited to have us there. I'm just. I'm just ready to roll, man.
The. The new stadium is a billion dollar, gorgeous stadium.
It's awesome. Sure.
So if it's okay, I'm just going to ask you. We'll play that one word game real quick. I'm just going to throw a name out and then you tell me what their attitude is. Right. Or what comes to mind when you think of their attitude. Right. So obviously you hung around this guy for 15 years. Tom Brady, goat. He's the greatest of all time, right? He is the goat. That's the attitude. Does he walk like the goat? Does he believe he's the goat? And has he already known he's the goat?
He had to work at it. He won't tell you that.
Right.
Because he feels like he hadn't arrived yet. That's what's great about the guy, in my opinion.
Right.
Watching him for years. I mean, he prepares like it's his first day of practice.
All the time.
All the time.
The big tight end who's one of my favorite.
Gronk, Wild.
Just a wild cat, right? Yeah, but he understand, he squeezes the juice out of life.
He does. And he. I mean, you talk about a guy and people don't give him enough credit. This is a smart man, really. Extremely intelligent.
Okay, people. People don't get it.
No.
He single handedly, I think, won you guys the super bowl two years ago. I mean, just push dudes off the beast. Throw it to him. Bill Belichick.
Brilliant.
Yeah, just brilliant. Straight up, straight up. What about Danny Amendola? Quick, very fast.
Quick.
Can't catch. Can't hit what you can't catch. And then how about Jon Gruden, your new head coach? Energy, lots of energy. All good attitude traits.
And I say passion. If I could get another word in there. He's passionate, man.
I like it. What about the owner, al Davis's son, Mr. Mark Davis? Mr. Mark Davis.
It's a great human being, man.
Yeah.
The little bit of time I spent around him because I'm still relatively new to the organization and he's just a true family man that, that, you know, you get a warm feeling when you're around him. He really cares about the people that work for him. No doubt.
What about Teddy Bruski?
Baller?
Just a baller.
Just a baller.
Now he's a media guy.
He is.
And then what about Mr. Kraft?
Genuine.
Pretty genuine dude.
Genuine.
Yeah. I mean, he's something. He liked the company so much, he bought it.
He did.
That's how he had a plan and.
He got it accomplished.
All right, well, I'm buying what you are selling today. Dejuan, about being a part of something bigger than you You've been fantastic. We appreciate your insights on attitude on the NFL and on being a part of something bigger than yourself. We're going to take a quick break and now that you're 40, you're going to get to play knowledge through the decades.
If you've always wanted to try meditation, but think to yourself, when would I have time? You should check out Headspace. Headspace is your daily dose of mindful in the form of guided meditations in an easy to use app. Headspace is one of the only apps advancing the field of mindfulness and meditation through comprehensive, clinically validated research. Headspace really can help you feel better. Overwhelmed. Headspace has a 3 minute SOS meditation. Need help falling asleep? Use Headspace wind down sessions and parents. Headspace has morning meditations you can do with your kids. Headspace works for you on your schedule, anytime, anywhere. Headspace is meditation made simple. Go to headspace.com c suite for a free one month trial. You'll be able to access Headspace's full library of meditations for every situation. This is the best deal offered right now. Head to headspace.com c suite today.
And welcome back to the Gap, the Get Attitude podcast. We are here with dejuan Daniels, the player personnel director for the Las Vegas Raiders. Dejuan, it's time to play everybody's favorite game called Knowledge through the Decades. You ready to go?
I'm ready, man.
All right, now I'm gonna put you on the spot. Don't worry, we're heavily edited, so if you feel like you messed up, we'll just do it. But I have a feeling you know how to think on your feet, so it's gonna be okay. So this is very simple. We're going to ask you to go back through your life and give us the attitude lesson from birth to 40. You just had a four month old. So my guess is when I say, what's the attitude lesson of a newborn if you can't think of it when you were born, what's that young baby teaching you about attitude?
First and foremost, patience.
Okay?
Patience. He's teaching me how to basically look around and think, okay, what does he need right now?
Right?
Because he can't tell me, right? A facial expression. Can't tell me has taught me a lot about nurturing cool and loving.
Nice. That's good. The first one didn't as much, but.
The second one, the second one definitely.
Has because you can tell. All right, now I want you to think back. My guess is third and fourth grade. You are 10 year old. What was the attitude lesson you took when you were 10?
Be a good teammate.
Nice. Really?
Don't be a little bad guy talking too much.
Who was your 34 coach or teacher that taught you that?
That would be Ms. Monica Kidwell. Really? Yes, her now. She's now Mrs. O'. Brien.
I'll be Doc. And so what was she coaching you in basketball?
Well, she. She was a third grade teacher. Her husband, Carrie o', Brien, was actually our basketball coach. Okay, so she wasn't Mrs. O' Brien at the time.
Right.
But she became Ms. O'. Brien.
And she's the one that taught you that?
Absolutely.
Be a good teammate. That's fantastic. All right, so now, hey, man, you were Mr. Football in Indiana. You were riding high, full ride to the big East. Boston College, you're 20 years old and you're like, damn, what's my attitude lesson now? Right? As a Boston College 20 year old, what was the attitude lesson when you were 20?
Be hungry. Stay hungry, but be humble.
There you go.
I was always hungry. All right, There's a lot of highs, but there's also a lot of lows in there.
Okay?
You got to have some humility.
I got you. I got you. And so the. The lesson that taught you humility, what was that? Or a lesson? I'm sure there was many.
There were many. Well, I'm playing at Notre Dame, I'm running down the field, ball goes up, they throw it to me, I lose it in the lights, die for the ball at the last second, Boom, blow my knee out.
Oh.
Had never missed a game in my life.
Wow.
Had never had an injury, a significant injury in my life, man.
No kidding.
Taught me a little bit about humility and how everything can be taken away pretty quickly.
You know, General Schwarzkopf, when I spoke with him, said, you know, you gotta tell the truth. And the reason you gotta tell the truth to yourself is because none of us know what will happen tomorrow. And gappers. I know that that story might relate to some of you. Some of you may be out there right now where you've had an absolute change in your life. A life changing day. And it could be a life changing day tomorrow. And I always love to ask people, how long does it take to change your life? And it's like it can happen in a second, right? And at Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, that day taught you some humility.
No doubt.
And I think it's important that everybody understands and lives and loves and understands that at any day you can blow out your life and your Knee you.
Can and you know, a slogan or a saying or however you want to put it, people say, you know, it takes a minute to pray and a second to die.
Damn, I like that. I haven't heard that one. Nicely done. To wine.
That's the way to look at it. Right?
Okay. I love it. I love it. That's a good one. That could be a gap all timer, Jason. I love it. All right. So now you're out, you're in the mix. It was 10 years ago, you were 30 years old. Right. What was the attitude lesson you learned at 30?
You don't know what you don't know.
Right. It's the unknown. Unknown. Right, Right.
And I'm working for the New England Patriots and I thought I knew a lot about football. Right. In reality, I knew nothing.
Right. Isn't that crazy? And when was the first time you realized you didn't know shit about football when you were there? Who was talking to you? What was the circumstance? What's that?
Well, it was, it was a lot of somebody's. Okay, so I wasn't. Not necessarily a personnel director at the time.
Sure.
Every day was a lesson.
Right.
So even if you do know, sometimes don't say anything. Listen.
Okay, good.
You don't know what you don't know.
Right.
Be a good listener. All right. The best teachers are also the best listeners in my opinion.
Right. And so my guess is when you got asked questions at the New England Patriots, they already knew the answers and they were testing you. Is that possible?
Sometimes. It depends on the day and who was asking the questions.
I'm down. I'm down. I love it. Okay. And we're going to finish it up right here with the get attitude podcast with Dejuan Daniels from the Las Vegas Raiders. Now you're 40. When did you turn 40?
November 6, 2019.
I'll be dog gone. Did you have a nice time and a nice party.
Really mellow, hung out with the family? I went to a lot of 40 year old birthday parties. By that time it was like, man, like another one. I don't need to have one.
So when you think about Since November of 2019, only five months ago, what's your attitude now? What's the attitude lesson now that you're 40 that you're going to take in for the next 10 years?
I'm just getting started.
Right. Okay. You're never too late.
Never too late. I feel like, you know, my life hopefully isn't even halfway over. I have a lot of life left to live.
Right.
A lot of things I want to accomplish. You know, I feel like I'm just getting started, you know, I mean, this is. We're just getting started.
I love it. Well, Duan gappers, hopefully he just got you started. Hopefully dejuan has helped you understand, opened your eyes, and helped you get some attitude lessons on his life. We appreciate you being here. And this is Glenn, Bill and Dewan Daniels signing off with do something bigger than yourself. Let me just ask you this, Djuan. Give us your advice for our gappers. There's people out there listening. They're walking on the beach, they're on the treadmill, they're sitting in the sauna. One piece of life advice and just any other thoughts you have in general that could help our gappers bridge the gap from who they are to who they want to become, from where they are to where they want to be. What's your one big piece of advice you'd like to give them?
Don't be afraid to set high goals.
Love it.
Don't be afraid.
Good.
And go for it.
All right, so we're going to go for it. We're going to go for it. We're going to go out for a little dinner now and dejuan, it's great. We love you, buddy. You know I love you and it's an honor to interview you. Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thank you. God bless. Oh, hold on a second. If you're watching on YouTube, that's a big ass Super bowl ring with the five diamonds. Not the biggest one. Jason, are you able to zoom in on that bad boy? Let's see. We'll go ahead and just zoom on in on that if you guys want to know what it takes and what it looks like. That's a big ring. And he said you can't even wear the sixth one.
I wouldn't recommend it. I'm working on this other one with the Raiders, man, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
We just want to get one with the Raiders.
That's where it's at.
All right. This is Glenn, Bill, Dewan Daniels with the Get Attitude podcast. Peace. Until our next guest and our next time together, this podcast is a part of the C Suite Radio network. For more top business podcasts, visit C suiteradio. Com.
More from Glenn
Here's what's coming up on the LATEST episode of the Get Attitude Podcast with Glenn Bill
Here's what's coming up on the LATEST episode of the Get Attitude Podcast with Glenn Bill
Igniting Your Attitude: Transforming The Real Estate Industry With Remington Ramsey
Here's what's coming up on the NEXT episode of the Get Attitude Podcast with Glenn Bill