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TheUPside Podcast
The Vow That Started Everything: Coach Lawrence Mann and the Making of a Top Achiever
00:38:41
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- [00:00]
A
I have a coach in the house with us today that you are gonna love hearing from. Welcome to the Upside Podcast, where we help you get unstuck in life and business by elevating your thinking and provoking meaningful change from the inside out. Coach Lawrence Mann. Welcome to the Upside Podcast.
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B
Welcome, welcome. And thank you for inviting us.
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A
Oh, my goodness.
- [00:21]
B
This is so excited. Upside, man. I love that word, that upside, because that's just life itself. It is upside.
- [00:29]
A
That is.
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B
It's a perfect privilege and a pleasure to be on your podcast.
- [00:33]
A
This is going to be so fun. And this is actually the second time that we've been in studio together, because a few weeks ago, we brought in some of the girls from your Top Achievers program and shot a podcast episode with my girls, who are 14, and then three other teenage girls, and they were incredible.
- [00:51]
B
I tell you what, from that podcast, the girls saw themselves as. Okay, this is cool. I've never experienced this before, and I think, you know, it just falls in line on what Top Achievers is about. We call it the AED Assessment, Exposure, and Direction. So the assessment piece was, when it came to the podcast, they said, wow, we never did it before. But what we found out, when you give kids exposure, they have the directions because now they want their own podcast. Right?
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A
They're all raising little stars.
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B
Oh, my good.
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A
It's amazing because I've always been a big believer in teenagers. Tommy and I were youth pastors for years.
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B
That's great.
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A
And so I love teenagers. I love having teenagers. You know, we're at the early. The beginning part of raising. Of raising teenagers. And I know it's not an easy season as a parent, but I do believe in the. The goodness and the potential of teenagers. They're just amazing human beings, and they should be developed and celebrated and the things. But I didn't really introduce you yet. I. We've just gotten into the conversation. So you Coach man is the founder of Top Achievers Foundation. You've been in business since 1996, celebrating your 30th anniversary as a nonprofit, which is unbelievable. So. And we were connected because my girls are a part of Top Achievers. They play basketball for the Sparks.
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B
That's correct.
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A
For the last Go Sparks. For the last, I think, two years almost. We've been a part of your. Of your organization and just has been an incredible blessing to our family, to Jillian and Jed. And so I always. I love a coach's perspective because I think sports is such an analogy of life. There is so many lessons to learn from playing Sports from watching sports and learn from coaches. Because I think great coaches are more than great sports.
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B
That's right.
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A
Sports people, right. They're, they're great. They're, they're geniuses and human beings potential. But I want to hear your story. So tell me a little bit like where did you grow up? Where did you come from? How did you get involved in basketball to begin with?
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B
Right. Well, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.
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A
Okay.
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B
The Motown city. And you know, growing up was. We had a great time. There was times early on in our my life that it was really, really rough. We lived in some rough neighborhoods. And then dad took us out those neighborhoods to give her a better life. And we winded up. We stayed in a middle class neighborhood from my teens.
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A
Okay.
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B
And then we saw the flip and how it turned and how the drugs plagued the cities, man. And things were going sparring down. So you had the drug, you had the economy flipping up. The car industry was going down. So it became very, very rough in the 80s, the mid-80s.
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A
Okay.
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B
And so, yes, I played football for Cooley High and had a leg injury. So I didn't finish up my career. But my younger brother came behind me and you know, became faster, quicker, stronger. I'm like, man, this dude.
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A
It's fine. It's fine.
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B
Well, how can this be? You know, I thought I was the youngest and the biggest and the baddest. I was the baddest. But he was the best athlete. And he developed a knot for speed and quickness and grew to about 6, 4, 200. And I want to say 45 pounds, running a 4, 640, which is extremely fat.
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A
Wow.
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B
And so he got noticed by a lot of the coaches across the country that he had over 250 colleges recruiting him. Wow. So every college came to our doorstep asking my mom for permission to interview my family. My mom made it clear you take the star, you got to take the older brother to watch over it.
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A
You were a package deal.
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B
I was a package deal. So if you ever watch the.
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A
I don't know if we heard how far apart in age were you?
- [04:53]
B
Well, four years.
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A
Okay.
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B
Three and a half. Four years apart.
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A
Okay.
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B
And so there was a documentary with about SMU in the 80s. 30 for 30 of the pony Excess.
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A
Okay.
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B
And we were part of the Pony Excel way.
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A
That's how you got to Dallas.
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B
Dallas.
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A
I did not realize that. Okay.
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B
Yes. And I, I told mom, I said mom. We slept the whole night. I didn't get any amlamps, no fire trucks, no gunshot. I sound like, this is a great place here. And so my brother became SMU to stand out, was drafted to Miami Dolphins. And after we finished school, we like to stay here in Dallas.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So.
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A
And so your parents and the rest of your family moved down here as well. They're still in Detroit.
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B
Everyone's still in Detroit. It's called Detroit.
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A
Oh, this one. Okay. Well, I learned something I did not.
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B
It's a French city.
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A
Well, my maiden name is Dubois. I should know that.
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B
Yes, yes. But yes, Detroit. I'm passionate about that city. I've learned so much. And today, when I look at how I am and how I became, it was the roots and the foundation of Detroit, Michigan. So I love my city, but it taught me so many transferable skills, even when I came here to Dallas.
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A
What do you think the number one thing you learned from Detroit?
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B
Detroit. First of all, you had to make things happen. You don't sit back and just take from mom and dad. You had to go and provide for yourself. And so dad brought me. He bought me a wheelbarrow for Christmas when I was 8 years old, and he put a big bow over it.
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A
Oh, funny. Every kid's dream.
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B
I learned how to work at her house. So when I think about Detroit, I think about that work ethic and teaching us how to make money and how to be an entrepreneur at an early age.
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A
Yeah, he.
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B
He taught us how to work. And then I think the second thing is keep your head on the swivel. You know, you just don't walk into a room and not know the proximity of who's on first, who's on second. You keep it. Because if you're not. If your head is not on the swivel in Detroit and you're walking downtown, it's serious. Oh, man. Yeah.
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A
Yeah.
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B
You're going to get jacked. So I think even today, when I go to restaurants with my wife, the first thing I look at where the exit doors.
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A
You're not putting your back to the door.
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B
No. So, you know, that's the real world. And it taught me how to survive, keep my head on the swivel, and how to work. And that's one four letter word you would never see on bathroom walls.
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A
Work.
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B
But with the great work at that it's still today.
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A
Anything's possible.
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B
Yes, yes, yes.
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A
So I want to hear the story about how Top Achievers was started. I know it comes from a very profound personal moment that you made a vow to God.
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B
Yeah, I made the vow to God. So my wife, you know, after, you know, Finishing up the college thing and starting a life. I want to say in, I would say, two, three years removed from college, I'm like, okay, it's time for me to settle down and get a wife. And I prayed for a wife. I'm telling you, I said, God, when it's time for me to get married, make sure you send that woman from heaven. So my wife and I, we got married. Ana Margherita is her name. What was her name? Ana Margherita Martinez. Now it's man. So she's from Honduras, Central America, and I'm from Detroit, right. So I told her, I said, baby, we were destined to be together. She goes, why you say that? I said, well, you're from the jungle and I'm from the ghetto. She goes, I am not from the jungle. Well, how. Have a little fun with this.
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A
How funny. I have not had the privilege of meeting your wife, but you had sent me over a photo, family photo, preparation for this. And you have a beautiful family and
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B
it's just the love of my life.
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A
Yeah. Congratulations.
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B
So we got married and I knew I wanted to have kids right off the bat. And our first son, Lawrence Jr. Was born with a ventricular septic heart defect. A hole in his ventricular valve of his heart. And the doctor said, well, it may close, so I'm going to watch it and monitor it. And about age 5, he woke up early that morning. I never forget it. He said, damn, my heart is hurting. I need to go to the hospital. Wow. So my wife, she, I, I called her up and I said, baby, I'm taking the baby to the, to the doctor. She goes, for what? I said. He said, his heart is hurting. So she called me about 30 minutes later. She go, well, how was the doctor business? I said, we're going to Cook Medical Hospital right now. But they have an open heart surgery. And she says, baby, wait, we need to talk about this, Mike. Talk about what? Oh, and that happened. It was like a nanosecond how it happened.
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A
So he had been really okay from the diagnosis at birth until this just life changing moment.
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B
That's true.
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A
He said, daddy, my heart hurts.
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B
Yes. Wow. So my wife, at that time, we were living in the mid cities Bedford area and she was working at JCPenney's here in Plano. So she, she drove 40 minutes from Plano to Cook Hospital in Fort Worth.
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A
Horribly long drive.
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B
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. And we're there and they said, we're going to go under the knife and there's a 5050 chance that he may make it. And we're like, what do you mean, 50? 50, right. So I remembered my mom's statement. Before I left Detroit, Michigan, she gave me some great advice. She says, son, so you're gonna go to a foreign country. Let's call Texas. No. She said, look, not wrong. She said, you guys are gonna go in a way, and life is gonna hit you. And when it hits you, you're going to feel like you're in a white box with no windows, no doors, and no way out. And she said at that time, you make a vow to God and he'll bring you through whatever. You face it, but don't make a vow to God unless you're serious. And I watched too many Raiders of the Lost Ark movies that you don't play with God. I didn't want to border lighting.
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A
You've read that chapter.
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B
Oh, man, I didn't want to get struck down. For me, nothing. So I never made a vow until this time. And I said, God, if you save my son, I'm going to quit my job as an act of faith right now in the hospital, and I'm going to dedicate my life to kids and health and fitness. And that was the beginning. Wow. And so I remembered before he went under the knife, I. I touched his chest and I'm like, okay, you're going to have a battle scar when you wake up. I said, well, look, man, when you come out the hospital, you can have anything you want.
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A
Yes.
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B
What do you want? Because as a parent.
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A
Yeah.
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B
You don't care about.
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A
No, I mean, yeah, anything you want.
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B
At that point, I want to inspire him to come out this operation. So he said, dad, can you give me a Sega Genesis set? I'm like, a Sega Gen. I got you a Sega Genesis. At that time, they were $500.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And I'm like, well, you want a Sega? We're going to get a Sega. So I got you. So he goes under the knife, and about four or five days, he's, you know, he's in a coma, an induced coma.
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A
Okay.
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B
And my wife and I, we went into the ICU unit every day. We prayed over them. And the doctor said, look, it's been about a week, so we're going to take all the lung bypass machine off of them. We're going to take the heart bypass machine. Then if we take everything off and he doesn't respond well, you've done all we can do. And, man, when they took all the machines out of him, Right. My wife and I Were just praying and holding hands. And about an hour later, he opened his eyes and he couldn't talk because he still had tubes eroded in the heart.
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A
Right.
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B
But he opened his eyes for the first time in about a week. And we like, wow, he's opened his eyes and he was trying to talk to us. Right. And so I put my ear to his mouth. I said, son, what are you trying to say? You hungry? I said, you're thirsty?
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A
No.
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B
I said, what do you want to say? What are you trying to say? He go, sanga.
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A
Yes.
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B
I said, sangha, you got to get to this. I'll have this by 5:00 this afternoon.
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A
Oh, my God.
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B
And I think I borrowed the money to get that singer game. But that was the beginning of him recovering and an amazing story.
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A
And I just can't even imagine the moments of. Of doubt and of fear and of faith all showing up simultaneously in that week.
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B
Yes.
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A
Right. What a week.
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B
Yes, it was. And. And it was just a testament, you know, you have a setback, but get ready for the comeback.
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A
Yeah.
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B
You know, and boy, it was a comeback because I didn't know because of this situation that I would affect so many people and change. And here's one thing that folks would ask me after I started the journey of fitness and then the basketball, they were like, okay, when your boys graduate, are you going to continue to do this? Yeah, I made a vow.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so I'm still doing it 30 years later. We're celebrating our 30th year at the OmniStar in Frisco on May 1, and I would like everyone to come out and celebrate what.
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A
That's going to be such a great event.
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B
Yes.
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A
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about Top Achievers. So you said, I'm gonna. I'm gonna dedicate the rest of my life to helping kids, and I'm going to do that in the field of. Of sports.
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B
Yes.
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A
And Top Achievers is more than just basketball. It is primarily initially a basketball organization that kids become a part of that. But tell us just a little bit about the mission of Top Achievers and really the heart for your organization.
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B
Okay. The mission behind it. You know, we know that I wanted to inspire kids. So Top Achievers inspire and transform kids to empower them to live a lifestyle of achievement. And so when I started thinking about the very first day of how to put this all together, I moved to Plano because I was staying at the Bedford area and one of my good friends, Rod Jones, was playing for Cincinnati Bengals. I Got through a few investments and one was a health club. So I came to Plano. I said, look, let me manage your health club and I'll do it for free. But allowed me to build a kids program inside of this facility. It was located off of Spring Creek and Parker.
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A
Okay.
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B
Yeah, I took it back. Spring Creek and Independence.
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A
You're right. Okay.
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B
Yeah, Spring could get independent. It was called West Plano Athletic Club. And so during this time, I'm working with Rod building his health club. And I'm like, well, how, How I'm going to build this health club for kids. And so I literally went door to door to West Plano as they were building in the 80s. And I, I don't know where I got this information from, but I remember in college learning how to find out people's average household income, where they work, how many kids. So I went to the Schimmel Phoenix Library and I think I pulled up this information to find out who was moving to West Plano. Well, I saw families with two, three kids. I saw the average household income was over 200,000. I'm like, okay, this is a great candidate for this health club for kids. And so I went to the phone book, I called those individuals and said, I'm building this health club for kids, and this is going to get your daughter and son faster, quicker. And I knew that Plano was so competitive.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And person says, well, what are you going to, how are you going to do that? I said, we're going to build a health club. Nothing was set in stone. And I said, well, you know what? If you give me, if you believe in what I'm doing, I want to make you my first chartered member. And they said, what did that mean? I said, okay, you pay me $600 and in three, four months, I'll have this place built out and I will have a facility for your kid to come in. And we'll have after school program, we have computer learning, we'll have Sports Enhancement. So when you come home after dropping your kids off, or we'll pick them up. We had dance services, the time kids are from school. But I had all this in my mind. It didn't come to fruition yet, but I had that. You're talking about the inspiring word of God putting this into your head. Because in the 90s, it was nothing like that, right. In Sports Enhancement. So I, I said, okay, we'll pick your kids up, we'll bring them to the facility, and when you pick them up at home, when you pick them up from our facility, from 5:30 to 6, you will have your homework done, the kid will have to snack, you have more family time. And we wanted to create a balance. And the lady says, okay, that sounds good, but when are you going to build this? I said, four to six months to give me a $600 check.
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A
That was your first seed money?
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B
That was the first seed money. And I went around through the whole neighborhood with the same sales pitch and raised $60,000 in one month.
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A
That's incredible.
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B
And that was the beginning of Top
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A
Achievers facility because people heard the vision. They heard the vision solved a problem for people, Right. There was a need in the community for that.
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B
Yes.
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A
So Top Achievers. I love the name Top Achievers. What does that mean to you? What does achievement mean to you? Because you in the organization so much more than just basketball. It's literacy, it's personal development. It's so many things, but what does it mean for a kid to be an achiever?
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B
Yeah. So when I started, when I looked at my son in the operating room, right? And I said, okay, what, you know, what is coming to my mind to. To help me visualize what I want him to become. And the first person I thought about was Martin Luther King speech, I've been to the mountaintop. Yeah, I've been to the mountain. That's all. I'm like, he saw a vision. And so I drew a mountain on a piece of paper and I'm like, okay, this is good. Going to the mountaintop. And I remember my. Probably my sports hero at the time was Muhammad Ali. When he went through all those adversities to get to where he's at, where he was during the 80s, became a world champion after being denied, after being ostracized, after people saying, no, we don't want. This guy's our champion. He fought through that. And when he became world champion, he raised his hands up in the air, said, I'm the greatest of all time. So when you look at our logo, Top Achievers, you'll see this running man like this on top of a mountain. So I'm like, I want him to be. To achieve all his goals, but I want him to be on top of the achievement. So Top Achievers, derived from Muhammad Ali and guys like Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, these guys experience life and they had a cause and a mission to be more powerful. So when I say Top Achievers, whatever adversities you're coming from, and I look at the lifestyle that I live, I'm like, okay, you know what it's conditional, it's not terminal. So there was things around my life and I saw, you know, the drugs play the community. I saw the car industry go down. I saw people being laid off. I had friends who were driving Mercedes Benz and expensive cars and they weren't going to school. I'm like, okay, how do I get something back? But I just knew my mom, a praying mom, she kept us, she tried to do her best to say, look, we're not going to do that route. We're not going to go that route. So when I think about top achievers, we think that we're safe in these environments, even in Plano. But when I moved here in the 90s, we were the probably the youth. I think we have more teen suicides than any other state in the country.
- [21:19]
A
We were known in the nation as, I think, the suicide capital.
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B
That's correct, yeah.
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A
And the drugs were just horrific in wealthy Plano, Texas.
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B
That's right. So when I was in the middle of all that, right, I'm like, okay, this is not just a social economics, this is touch every kid. So how do I change that kid? How do I work that kid and invite them into my world?
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so through sports, we were able to invite them to the world. So, okay, now we got your attention because when I started top achieve, it was no basketball. It was all. We were working out at Jack Carter park, okay, 100 kids per hour for four hours and families. I had a girl, a ladies program. So the mothers were coming in, they had the harnesses and they were jumping. So we were able to impact the community. Because even when we, after we worked out, I had a 10 minute segment where it was called a huddle time. And I would inspire them with words. Most of the time was scriptures. And I said, okay, the words for the day, the words for the week. And people like, wow, this is pretty cool. So we fed them spiritually, we fed them from the athletic standpoint and they walked away saying, this is a holistic program that's covering all the bases to help me feel good.
- [22:35]
A
So good. Well, and I think sports, I think when you're challenged physically, it does break you down a bit to be open mentally and spiritually. Your defenses kind of come down and it just creates an open, an open door for that.
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B
Yes.
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A
You know, and I love the idea too, of, of achievement is. It's really not achievement if we haven't overcome something.
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B
That's correct.
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A
Right. Otherwise it just is. And so achievement means that you have overcome some, you've faced some kind of obstacle and you've gotten through the other side. And you know, I have two 14 year old girls that live a pretty, they live a pretty cush life, coach. I mean they live, they live, they're in a two parent home, they have what they need. They, they get to do a lot. They have a lot of opportunities, they have a lot of love in their life. And I know how important it is to put them in, in hard situations on purpose.
- [23:27]
B
Yes.
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A
Not dangerous situations. Right. I'm not, but, but things like sports and pushing them out of their comfort zone and because life's gonna happen at some point.
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B
That's correct.
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A
They're gonna have a moment where they're face to face with God, where they're making decisions. Life is not gonna always be rainbows and unicorns. And so putting our kids in hard situations on purpose that develop character, that show them that they can overcome that, that show them that they can achieve, I think is. It's important as us as adults to continue to do that.
- [23:56]
B
Yes. And what's really more, you know, what's more important is creating your own world. Right. And so when I say creating your own world of achievement, you know, I grew up in an area where it was most of the folks look like me. Then you go to smu, you're like, okay, we're those folks.
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A
Yeah. Right, right.
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B
And so when I started thinking about top achievers, I started reminiscing about how I want my world to be. I want different cultures.
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A
Yeah.
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B
I want multiple cultures. So when I created these basketball teams and I started the basketball piece, when myself said we want you to coach us in basketball, I'm like, oh, that's gonna be funny because I never coached before. And so I made sure that in order to achieve my goals, to give them a balance. Because that's to me, to have a balance and have friends from all different cultures was so important. It's the real world. I had made sure that I was intentional about picking players from different cultures to make up my little third, fourth grade team. And we trained, we worked hard and we achieved some monuments that nobody. During that time Plano kids weren't known for basketball.
- [25:13]
A
Yeah.
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B
And we were going to Disney World beating teams.
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A
That's fun.
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B
Every year we were in the top 10 in the nation. So we created something whereby, well, if you're a top achievers, you're going to come away doing something positive in the community. We build a culture where people like, that's pretty cool. They're not only just basketball. We had sat Programs for our kids. Early on, we had math programs, we had sports enhancement, we had mentorship. We had pro athletes coming in, talking to kids. So it takes a community to raise our families, right?
- [25:50]
A
It does.
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B
And I think once you get linked and aligned with people with the same common goal to win, to achieve greatness, you can do that. Right?
- [26:01]
A
I love that. Okay, so share with me just maybe a story. It could be a recent story or it could be any time. Just throughout your top achievers history of just a kid that achieved that, maybe that you feel like your organization, you personally or your organization really made a difference for.
- [26:23]
B
Okay, there's a lot of kids, man. Boy. Let's see here. I want to start with Rashad Smith. Rashad Smith is now a licensed therapist, sports therapist in Chicago. His mom came to me right after 9, 11 and said, you need to get out of New York. She took her two boys, and she said, she's going to throw a dart at the map, and wherever that dart land, she's coming.
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A
Oh, my goodness.
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B
And they landed in Plano.
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A
She had good aim.
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B
She had a great aim. And I met him at church at Gracewick. I go to Grace Church in Plano, and I was teaching Sunday school at the time.
- [27:08]
A
Didn't realize you went to Grace.
- [27:10]
B
Yeah, I went to Grace. And so I talked to this young, just little, tall, lanky kid. I'm like, hey, man, you play basketball? We looked for teams. He was in third, fourth grade. I was just developing these great 18. He go, yeah, I play. And I talked to his mom, and she shared with me her story, raising two boys on her own. And she said she had been praying for mentors to be in her son's life. And we literally took her sons, educated them, he worked with them. And Rashad wound up getting a scholarship to Tulsa University and graduated in four years. And now he's a licensed therapist. That was just. And mom tells me today that that was the most amazing thing in her life is to take her son and to help him, because she didn't have a clue on who was going to help raise her kids, you know, mentor her kids. So that was a real neat story. And then I had a young lady that she. She went to one of the. The middle schools, and she said, Mr. Man, I want to be a part of your program. And I want you to know I don't have no money. And my mom was seven of us. My mom don't have any money either, but I got to be in your program. And she was an okay player, right? Okay. I'm like, okay, this girl, she is. She's got some grit to it.
- [28:27]
A
Yeah.
- [28:28]
B
And I allow her to come in.
- [28:30]
A
If he's gonna ask for money. You can do anything in life. I mean, you go, girl.
- [28:35]
B
She is. She came in and she worked really hard, and she was an okay player, but I kept her in it.
- [28:40]
A
Yeah.
- [28:40]
B
Because she wanted to be a part of this community. And I follow all my kids in college. I follow them to their personal. Their professional career. Now I'm a marriage counselor because the
- [28:52]
A
kids that now come back. Have you performed any ceremonies yet?
- [28:55]
B
You know, I've been asked. I've been asked while at my son Malcolm, who's a minister.
- [29:01]
A
Oh, okay.
- [29:01]
B
Got it.
- [29:02]
A
All right. He's professionals to him.
- [29:04]
B
Okay. Yes. But I have baptized a couple of.
- [29:07]
A
Okay, that's awesome.
- [29:08]
B
Is who asked me to baptize them.
- [29:10]
A
That's awesome.
- [29:10]
B
But, you know, she says, I. I want to be a part of this. And again, she wasn't the best athlete. Let her play with us from middle school all the way up into high school. And she has some challenges, and. And I remember her being in the Abbott program. And I was also on the board of the Hendrick foundation, and we provide scholarships for kids. They're from single parents or kids that need some support. And she was like, coach, you know, man, I'm a senior now. And you. Because of you, I stayed in school. And you know what? She says? Can you help me get scholarships and it won't be a basketball scholarship. I said, well, you know what? I'm on this board. We're going to help you get a scholarship. And so she wrote a recommendation. Well, I wrote the recommendation letter. She went through the interviewing process, did a great job. But it was about three. About a month before school ended. The teacher says, Mr. Man, she's making some bad decisions. You may want to withdraw her name. Oh, no. And I'm like, I can't. I can't. Just. I'm like, I hear you, but she's right here at the finish line. I can't. And so I love the teacher who I was working with, the collaboration, but I'm like, I can't listen to you on that one. The girl now graduated from North Texas unt, and she's a graduate. And so we got another one through the door. And that was just a great testimony because it took me every bit to follow the teacher's instinct, but I'm like, no, I got to get her through the door. So that was a great. She wasn't a star but you know what? We helped this young lady fulfill her dream, and now she's a top achiever.
- [30:57]
A
I remember you saying that when we first talked to you about getting our girls involved in your program, and you said, you know, most of these kids aren't going to go on to play professional sports. I mean, just statistically, even if you have the best basketball program in the world, statistically, these kids are not going to make a living playing basketball in their future. And so the most important skills are not the basketball skills.
- [31:18]
B
That's correct.
- [31:18]
A
It's the life skills, it's the academics. It's all of the other things that are going to be the majority of their life that they spend.
- [31:25]
B
Yes. And it's, you know, we call it transferable skills. Right. And my motto, everybody that's come through top achievers over the last 30 years, they know coaches, man, coachman's motto. And it's, do your best and let God do the rest. And so one of my young, one of my young players, just two days ago, I said, guys, everybody knows my motto, do your best and let God do the rest. She goes, I never heard that before. I said, because you only been here for a week. Right?
- [31:58]
A
That's fair.
- [31:59]
B
But again, you know, that's part of the motto.
- [32:02]
A
I love that. I love that. So what do you think? What do you think the greatest lesson that sports teaches?
- [32:11]
B
I think how to fail and bounce back up. You know, there's times, you know, we win games and we're happy, but when you lose, you know, how do you bounce up? How do you lift yourself up? How do you encourage yourself? And who is going to help you put yourself back together after a loss? Because you feel that it's about you, but it's not. It's about the team. So I think learning how to fail, coming back. Because, you know, when you look at just. I want to take it a step further. Sports taught me not to give up. I've been married for 40 years, and I'm. I'm sure my wife and I looked at each other like, okay, we want to do this, or what?
- [33:07]
A
I have been married for 20.
- [33:12]
B
Wow, that's great.
- [33:13]
A
So, I mean, quite a bit behind you guys, but a long while.
- [33:17]
B
Yes. And there's times that.
- [33:18]
A
But we know we've been happily married for 19 years out of 27. They've just not all been, you know, in the same. All in a row.
- [33:27]
B
Yes, but it's the commitment, right?
- [33:28]
A
It is the commitment.
- [33:29]
B
Just like a team, you know, when you commit to a team Whether it's good, bad or indifference, you gotta stick to it. And I think sports, you know, taught. And it teaches you commodity and how to create a good bond. And so my wife, she was an athlete. Matter of fact, she's a better athlete than I. She, she was a track star in Harlingen, Texas.
- [33:48]
A
Okay.
- [33:49]
B
And I didn't realize this till about a few years ago, she go, baby, we're having our 20th year, 30th year, something, something. And she says, I've got inducted into the hall of Fame.
- [34:02]
A
Wow.
- [34:03]
B
I'm like, okay. I'm thinking it's a little ceremony, right?
- [34:05]
A
Yeah.
- [34:06]
B
In the high school gym at Porter High School in Brownsville. I went down to Mission, Texas, man, and it was this big, big deal with, I mean, Tom Landry was a part of this goodness, part of this hall of fame culture. Right. And I'm like, girl, you were really that type of girl? Right.
- [34:24]
A
That was pretty awesome.
- [34:25]
B
Yes. So I, you know, by her.
- [34:28]
A
Isn't it amazing that you can be married to somebody for 40 years and they never cease to amaze you? I think that's so cool.
- [34:33]
B
Yes, yes. She, she's awesome, man. She is. She's my rock. And I thought I would know what
- [34:37]
A
she run in track.
- [34:40]
B
She did the relays. Okay. 200, 100. But our specialty was the long jumps.
- [34:47]
A
Okay.
- [34:47]
B
Jump. And she had the state record for many years or maybe the city record and I don't know, but the record.
- [34:56]
A
Jillian ran track this year. I don't know if I told you this. She got first place in district in the 800.
- [35:00]
B
Wow.
- [35:01]
A
I know. And then her, her four by four relay team set a school record. That is, they were, I think one second from district record.
- [35:08]
B
Wow.
- [35:09]
A
Which is a little depressing. We won't talk about that. So.
- [35:12]
B
So yes, I think of course it, it teaches you so many transferable skills. And again, being married for 40 years is a testament on my commitment to my faith, commitment to my wife. And then learning how to, to lose and then bounce back up.
- [35:27]
A
Yeah. The only life we're all about the wins. But I think you realize it's a two sided coin. Success. The other side of success is failure. You don't get to the success without the failure.
- [35:36]
B
That's right.
- [35:38]
A
It's the same coin. It's just the two sides. And we often give up so easily.
- [35:42]
B
That's correct. Yeah. Absolutely.
- [35:44]
A
I'm so thankful for you. And three times achievers. What a fun conversation. Thank you for sharing the whole story. I want to know, tell everybody though, about the gala, because we're going to drop this episode before that.
- [35:55]
B
All right?
- [35:56]
A
So if anyone listening wants to get tickets, go be a part of that. Tell us about the party.
- [36:02]
B
It's one of guys, you know, you're talking about the vow. You're talking about being part of something special. You come to the event, you're going to hear the stories. You're going to see the transferable skills that we have helped pour into this community for over 30 years. And the mayor called me up the other day, he says, lawrence, he says, you've been doing this a long time, and I want you to know something. We are going to give you the key to the city that night. And I'm like, wow.
- [36:30]
A
Wow.
- [36:31]
B
That just touched my heart.
- [36:32]
A
Amazing.
- [36:33]
B
So you'll meet my kids, my grandkids. You'll see city officials, state officials, you'll see pro athletes, corporate people, man, everyone that has been a part of this story, they made a vow to come and be a part of this celebration. And we want you to spread the wealth, spread the word, spread the goodness about what we're doing here in Plano to help empower, impact our community in this positive way.
- [36:57]
A
I love it. So we'll drop the. We'll drop the RSVP link for tickets.
- [37:03]
B
Yes.
- [37:04]
A
Into all of the show notes so that everybody can.
- [37:06]
B
That'll be great.
- [37:07]
A
Jump in. Everybody wants to go to a party. Oh, yeah.
- [37:09]
B
A black tie. You come in with your bling bling on. Don't come half step. Gotta come in. You gotta be ready.
- [37:17]
A
Okay. I love it. So. I love it. All right, I can get on board with that. Well, thank you, birthday.
- [37:24]
B
My pleasure.
- [37:25]
A
What a privilege. Everybody. Be sure if you are in Plano, Texas, and your kids are looking for basketball solutions and really whole life development, top achievers is definitely where to be. I cannot recommend them more highly.
- [37:38]
B
Yes.
- [37:39]
A
But it's a great organization if you have a heart for kids to. To give to and to get behind. So.
- [37:45]
B
Yes. And I just wanted to say those five pillars we had, we start off with basketball, but the five pillars basketball. Now we have STEAM Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math esports and Digital design mentorship. And right now for our math, we partner with UT Dallas. Their professors come over every Saturday from 10 to 12. Working with our kids, we provide free math tutorials. We have a waiting list of 500 names right now we can look into.
- [38:14]
A
Wow. There is a lot of need for math tutorials because I'm going to tell you why. Because no one's parents can help them.
- [38:21]
B
That's right.
- [38:22]
A
It is absolutely impossible these days to help your kids with math once they get about above third grade. I'm completely clueless.
- [38:28]
B
Yes. So give it to her free.
- [38:30]
A
That's amazing. I love it. All right, all right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you for listening to the Upside podcast. And as always, when you invest in your growth every single day, it's going to yield you great returns. Keep living on the Upside.