Thrive15.com, a forward-thinking Ohio business college, presents the following transcript featuring Clay Clark, Business Coach, US Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year, and NBA Hall-of-Famer David Robinson discussing business finances.
Thrive15.com, a forward-thinking Ohio business college, presents the following transcript featuring Clay Clark, Business Coach, US Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year, and NBA Hall-of-Famer David Robinson discussing business finances.Clay Clark: Dave. How are you, sir?
David Robinson: Clay. Good to see you today.
Clay Clark: Hey. Thank you, my friend for this opportunity to speak with you. I am a happy business coach. We’re here to talk about saving money to buy opportunities.
David Robinson: Mmm.
Clay Clark: David, As a business coach, I think a lot of people view saving as a chore. I kind of want to save. Saving-
David Robinson: Mmm.
Clay Clark: -but yet it allows us later to buy opportunities-
David Robinson: Yeah.
Clay Clark: -I’d like to ask you this. You hear people say, you should be a good steward of your money-
David Robinson: Yeah.
Clay Clark: -What does it mean to be a good steward of financial resources, in your mind?
David Robinson: A steward is one who watches over for someone else. The idea is that it really doesn’t belong to you. You’re just the caretaker of and it typically is associated as a word of faith. Being a steward of whatever God has given you. We think of our blessings, our finances, our resources, as something that God has given us, even our children. God has given them to us and, we need to be stewards over them until they go out into the world. It just means to watch over something for someone else as if it were your own.
Clay Clark: If you’re watching over your money, if you have the viewpoint, I don’t think that the following stat would actually be possible but here’s the stat. About 60-80% of retired professional football and basketball players, go bankrupt within five years of retirement-
David Robinson: Mmm.
Clay Clark: -From your firsthand perspective, you’ve seen guys. I know the Spurs organization, you don’t really talk about money a lot in the locker room, but you saw guys, I’m sure, who maybe made more money than you or less money than you. You saw the way they spent their money. You can see some of it firsthand. What’s going on and why aren’t people being a better steward of their money when they’re making that sort of paycheck?
David Robinson: Really it’s just a lack of knowledge. It’s lack of understanding. It always seems like you have more money than you actually do-
Clay Clark: Mmm.
David Robinson: -and if you don’t plan very well, you can easily run out of money. If you buy something, you need to put aside money to upkeep that thing.
Clay Clark: Oh?
David Robinson: Those are things that I think guys don’t generally consider, and at the end of the day, when they have to pay out all the maintenance and the replacement and all of the things that don’t ever return anything back to you, they end up with a lot less than they think.
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Clay Clark: Do you remember when you received your first large check? Did you feel like half of it was missing after you paid taxes? Did you have any idea how much taxes were going to be at that point?
David Robinson: I heard the numbers-
Clay Clark: This business coach says, Yeah.
David Robinson: -but it didn’t really hit me until actually after I had to write the tax check-
Clay Clark: Okay.
David Robinson: -so I think when you get your first check, and you think it’s all yours, there’s a number that’s in your mind and it’s in your spirit and, you think I can spend this. But that’s not actually true.
Clay Clark: One thing I’ve found in America as an entrepreneur and business coach, I work with a lot of business owners. I’ll find a small business owner. Let’s say he makes $50,000 a year, let’s say he makes $100,000 a year, whatever that number is, they’ll usually spend that entire amount not factoring in taxes, or maintenance and things like that, and it seems like no matter how much somebody makes, whether it’s NBA, or NFL, or if it’s the neighbor down the street, it seems like people really do spend everything they make.
David Robinson: Yeah.
Clay Clark: I want to know from your perspective, when you got into the league, did you have a mindset that you were going to start setting money aside from day one, or when did you become-
David Robinson: Yeah.
Clay Clark: -a good steward of your money?
David Robinson: I was very fortunate. I think from day one, when I came in, I understood that I was going to be better off if I could save as much as I could.
Clay Clark: Mmm.
David Robinson: I was in a fortunate position where I could sign a long-term contract, and I knew that there would be a sum of money there relatively guaranteed. My initial thought was, “I better put some of this money away and save it.” Other people come in and they have a less stable career, and in those situations, it’s even more imperative-
Clay Clark: MmHmm (affirmative).
David Robinson: -that they understand this may last, this may not last, but I need to put some of this away for future endeavors.
Clay Clark: Let’s say that I hired you to be my financial consultant, or let’s say that you were sitting down with one of your sons-
David Robinson: Disclaimer: I am not a financial consultant!
Clay Clark: Okay. Yeah.
David Robinson: But I will give you whatever.
Clay Clark: Okay. Let’s see this disclaimer. Let’s just say I was reaching out to you-
Clay Clark: -for mentorship perspective and just?” Do you have any tips on that of what you could do to encourage somebody as far as what would be some good, just basic fundamental rules for setting money aside? Tell this business coach some tips.
David Robinson: I have no tips. I think you have to understand what your goals are-
Clay Clark: Okay.
David Robinson: -If you really are thinking long-term and you really want to put away money for tomorrow, then you need to save a significant amount of it. But if you think you’re going to be successful and prosperous, and you have this steady stream coming in, then obviously that number’s going to be smaller that you try put away. I just suggest to people that Number 1, I like to tie. I like to set aside my first fruits, the very, very first bits of my money, and giving thanks to God and just understanding, hey whoo, what a blessing. I’m lucky to even have this. I think that gets your mind in a good frame of mind where you’re understanding that this was a gift. I’m blessed to have this and, then the rest of the money you have to sort through itself.