Lessons - Why Athletes Often Lose Their Wealth Too Soon | Marques Colston - NFL Veteran & Entrepreneur

In this lessons episode, examine the hidden risks athletes face when sudden wealth and fame collide with inexperience. Learn why lack of financial literacy causes many to squander multi-million dollar contracts. Discover how unvedited advisors and exploitative relationships amplify vulnerabilities. Understand how early self-awareness and proactive investment strategies secure a resilient post-career foundation. I mean, I've had this conversation with other athletes before, um, just about, you know, the seasons of their career and how they set themselves up for success. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I would assume if you are early, if you're earlier in the draft, sometimes a little bit of ego creeps in. And then I think, because you know, athletes blow through their money and they end up, and there's some wild stats out there, but people that don't have post-professional, uh, sport careers. And it's just kind of sad that they can take so much money and then, you know, pardon the pun, they fumble it. They, they, they fuck it up. So when you look at some of the people you played with, I'm sure that you see stories, not everybody's successful post-career. What happens in this, in this situation where you're given sort of the world that's such a young age as an athlete and it could be football. I mean, I have examples from hockey of people that screwed up post-career and they're almost broke and whatnot. And I'm sure baseball, basketball, like everything, there's always these examples. What happens to the athlete? Like walk me through that, that mindset of a young athlete just handed so much money and fame and influence. It's not too dissimilar from, from a lottery winner, right? Um, you know, you, you live your everyday life. Um, and, you know, all of a sudden, there's this, there's this influx of cash, right? And, um, you know, you get drafted and, and you kind of see it, you kind of see it coming. But your life is not set up, you know, to receive that, that kind of notoriety is not set up to receive that kind of income. And, and ultimately, more often not, um, you know, I, I speak for myself. So I came from a situation where I didn't, I didn't have access to capital. I didn't have access to entrepreneurship and, you know, high level business. And, um, most of the people that I knew growing up in the families that I knew, you know, were more blue collar, right? So, um, I just didn't have exposure to what that world looked like. And, you know, if you are 22 years old, coming out of, coming out of college, um, you know, you give anybody this 22 year old, 22 years old, coming out of fresh out of college, you give them, you know, a couple of million dollars, um, is no tell what might happen, right? Now, you, you take that same situation, you put them under the limelight and you surround them with an ecosystem that, that is not necessarily set up to, um, to really give a shit about your best interests. Um, your best interests are, are secured once somebody else's best interests are, um, you know, it becomes a really nuanced situation, right? So you got somebody that has not had exposure, um, typically your family and your inner circle still has not had that same exposure. So now you've got to, you got to depend on people from outside of your inner circle, um, you got a higher and agent, you got a higher financial advisor and it really becomes this game of, do I feel like I can trust this person? Because at 22, I don't really know exactly what they do. Um, I don't really have the, the financial knowledge and expertise to even check them if they are doing some fucked up. So you, you kind of get into this place where you're, you're choosing people to play really pivotal roles in your career and you don't really know how to evaluate and hire for a job, right? So it, it, it lends itself to, um, you know, bad decisions that lends itself to, you know, making young people decisions, but it also lends itself to being in a situation where you are more vulnerable than most because you just don't have that, you don't have that expertise and that exposure to be able to hold the people in your circle accountable. And the people that you trust the most, they don't have the, they don't have the experience and the education to be able to do the same. So you kind of find yourself as a captain of his ship, um, but you don't really know how to operate the ship. And I mean, there's a lot of, I'm sure there's a lot of great good ethical people out there that help athletes, but I think there's a lot of bullshit too. I mean, I've spoken to Chris Prager, he's a good friend and he, he was like a very big hockey player. It's sort of like my reference point. And he's, he's spoken about some of the people that have, not as agents throughout his career were good, but like people that have solicited investments and then he's, he's had some that were just absolute misses and everybody's asking for money because every, and also everybody sees the contract sizes, but I've also seen, and I didn't even know this, he, Chris did a really good job doing this and some other people on social do this. When you break down like all after tax, after agent fees, after association fees, like it's still a lot of money. Don't get me wrong. It's more money than most people make out whatever 22, but you end up spending a lot of it before you actually have any in the bank. And I think that you also just completely don't have the, the understanding of what money is at that point. And I think that's, that's really where you screw up. And I mean, I don't even know if you know stats. Maybe you do because you were an athlete, but I've heard some ridiculous stats about how many professional athletes with, you know, seven figure, eight figure contracts are bankrupt and broke. And after they, after they finished playing. So just sad. It's just very, very sad. Yeah. And it is, it is a nuanced conversation again because, you know, I've seen this step for a decade and it's pissed me off every time I've seen it. It talks about 70% of NFL players are within five years of retirement or financial distress. Right. So yes, there are some of the horror stories. And I think by those stories becoming more and more visible, you know, past generations, I think, I think this generation of future generations are going to be able to learn from those, those challenges and those mistakes. But also baked in those numbers is, is the guy that, that played two years and made league, league minimum. Right. So what is your definition of financial distress? Because at the end of the day, you look at, you look at a salary cap and you look at a roster, you know, the bulk of, the money being paid out, it is going to the top five or six players. And then you've got 40, 40 some odd people, you know, kind of splitting up the, the rest of the pie. And yes, you, again, you see the horror stories. And we have seen the horror stories over the years. But that number is, is, I would say that number is not, it's, it's a little bit more misleading than people realize because you, you have guys that are that have not been invested and they have not reached the, the status where they've getting, getting benefits. You got guys that played one, two, three years that yes, it's, it's really good money. But it's not, you know, kick my feet up and, and retire for the rest of my life money. So, you know, the numbers are the numbers and, and you know, we know there's still work to be done, but it's, it's, it's a little bit more than what meets the surface. Even in your career, you were forward thinking, I think is the best way to, to put it. So even walk me through your mindset when you get drafted, you weren't just waiting for your career to end to start building. So what was the thing that made you realize, like light bulb moment, maybe it was getting drafted at a higher number or whatnot. But what was it that made you realize, okay, so I want to set myself up for a success post career because I think some of your investments were made while you were still playing from not mistaken, correct? Yeah, I got started pretty, pretty early on in my career. So I created that to, I had two financial buyers that were former players themselves, who saw something in me and, and you just kind of pushed me to get out of the box. And for me, I've always kind of been a tinker. I've always been somebody who's been, you know, interested in technology, interested in, and more so electronics than anything else. And I've also known that, you know, football is the thing that I'm, I think that I do that I'm really good at, but it doesn't define who I am as a person. So I think the, the combination of me just kind of having some self awareness and then having those two advisors that really pushed me out of my comfort zone and pushed me out of that box. I was able to get started early and just again, some of it just, just being fortunate enough to stay healthy enough to play 10 years. I like to say I was able over that 10-year run, I was able to give myself a long enough runway to make some mistakes, getting into some situations that I loved, getting into some situations that I, you know, later realized that I hated and didn't ever want to do again. But, you know, over the course of my playing career, when I was kind of at the top, the top of my game from a brand perspective, I was able to get in and get some really, really boots on the ground of business experience that has kind of driven me, you know, in, in return. And the first, I mean, you, you said, just so you had these, these, sort of like these two financial advisors, these peers, like players themselves, they knew the game and knew what you were going to have to deal with when you did retire. What was, so what was the, what was the, the first version of, of you investing, of you raising money of, because you didn't come from an operator background, it's not like you had built a business and then you exited that and then you started investing in something you knew. So now it's like every opportunity to invest is available, but you still lack a lot of operational experience in doing the thing. So how do you bridge that gap? And I'm sure you had, listen, I'm sure you had some, some losses and some, and some things didn't work out so well as well with the, with the investments. But, uh, talking through like just as, as a player turning investor, what was the first version of that? So really, really early on, um, we was just kind of angel investing. Um, I tried to stay in, in a, in a space where I at least knew one part of the business, which was sports. So I, I got started at the intersection of sports and technology. Um, so, so a lot of those early investments were kind of co-investments with other athletes and it was, it was more just deploy the capital and kind of see what happens. Um, but I'd say the, the first investment that, that really, you know, was, was the first time that I rolled my sleeves up and got really engaged with the company. Um, I invested in the indoor football team back in my hometown. And, uh, I want to say 20, 2010. And, you know, for me, it was an opportunity to, to kind of learn the, the, the, the, the, the business side of the sport that I was playing. Um, and it was also, it was in my hometown. So it was a really good platform for me to do some community outreach at scale. That, that's kind of how I viewed it. And, you know, I got in, I made the investment the first year. I was, I was a passive investor. I just kind of watched the owner kind of, kind of shadowed him and, and just watched what it looked like to, to, to, to run a team, to operate team from soup to nuts. And in watching him for a year, I just, I got that itch. And, um, after the first year, I ended up buying my partner out, taking over the team, 100, uh, so ownership of the team. And I assumed the role of president and general manager. And my role was literally everything in the organization at that time. You know, we had a small team. So I was doing everything from, you know, selling sponsorships to, um, putting together, you know, ticket sales and marketing packages. Um, I was actually running the game operations. I had the little headset on. I was directing the game. Then okay. So you dove into this. That's, that's how you figured it out. Yeah. That's how you figured out work. You just do everything. That's good. That's good. Yes. Yeah. So I know. And, uh, you know, it was, it was one of those experiences. It was probably the toughest thing in my life at that point just because everything was new and I was drinking from the firehomes. But at the same time, I was right at home because, as an athlete, you'd kind of make a living, finding discomfort and pushing through this comfort just to get to a place where you find more discomfort. So that, that connection was, was, was really, uh, it was really, you know, top of mind for me. So it was, it was, it was, it was difficult. It was challenging and fun at the same time. And that's, that's kind of what it was. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one. you