Give back

Give people your money and you give them something you can replace. Give them your time and you give them a piece of your life.

My mother, Scarlette, raised ten of her own kids and fostered more than 50 others. She always reminded us: we weren’t just her kids, we were everybody’s kids. So many people had a hand in raising us, and she never let us forget it.

Rick Warren, the author, wrote something that’s stuck with me for years: “When you give people your money, you give them something you can replace. But when you give people your time, you give them a piece of your life.”

I’ve had mentors — John McClain, Warren Rustand, Gene Stallings, Larry Smith, Marvin Lewis, Solomon Wilcots, my brother LaMonte — who gave me pieces of their lives without expecting anything back. Every one of those relationships turned out to be mutually beneficial, even when that wasn’t the intention going in.

My resume speaks for itself. Two-time consensus All-American, first-round draft pick, two Super Bowls, Hall of Fame. But none of that outweighs what I get to share with young players now as a coach and mentor. That feeling — passing it forward — replaced something in me that I lost the day I stopped playing.

Others will accept the minimum you’re willing to give them. It should never be acceptable to you. Pursue every relationship, every opportunity to mentor, with real intentionality. Give your time. It’s the one thing you can’t get back — and the one thing that actually changes lives.