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In Mizuho | Greenhill’s Beyond The Obvious podcast channel, we uncover the value that others miss.
Our podcast is a source for the latest discussions on topics related to capital markets, dealmaking activity, business leadership and more.
Delve into insights from our investment & corporate banking thought leaders to hear their unique perspectives on current trends and market influences.
Learn how industry icons and influential figures began their journeys, overcame adversity and rose to success.
Discover insights that look deeper.
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- Welcome to our Storytellers in Business podcast.
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My name's Andy Laszlo, and I'm the Group Head
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for Technology, Media and Telecom,
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Investment and Corporate Banking at Mizuho,
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and I'm hosting today's podcast.
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I am delighted to be here today with Rick Fox,
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a former professional basketball player,
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an actor, a serial entrepreneur, a philanthropist.
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Rick played his college basketball
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at the University of North Carolina, where in 1991,
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he won the ACC Tournament Championship
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and also participated in the Final Four.
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- Who was that against?
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- No comment.
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You're referring to the ACC Championship
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or the NCAA Final Four?
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Okay, very nice.
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I see this is how this is going to go already.
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Rick went on to play for the Lakers and for the Celtics,
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where he won three consecutive championships
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from 2000 to 2002, also captained both teams.
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And then he pivoted into acting,
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where he starred in numerous films, TV shows.
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And then if the pivot wasn't done there,
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he went on to form several business ventures,
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worked with top Fortune 500 brands as an angel investor,
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founded a esports franchise team called Echo Fox,
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and then more recently, he is the Co-Founder
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and CEO of Partanna Global, which is pioneering
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and CEO of Partanna Global, which is pioneering
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commercially scalable carbon-removable solutions,
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mostly in the form of concrete,
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and we'll dig into that in depth.
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We're going to learn about why he started that business,
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so with that, I welcome you, Rick.
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Welcome to our show.
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- Thank you, Andy, it's a pleasure to be here.
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- Let's start with your college career.
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You had the great fortune to participate
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in what many, if not most, will say
00:01:38:14 - 00:01:40:08
is the greatest college basketball rivalry
00:01:40:21 - 00:01:42:15
known as the Duke-Carolina rivalry.
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Now, you might say it's the Carolina-Duke rivalry,
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but obviously, everybody else will call it Duke-Carolina.
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So, talk to me about the intensity of that rivalry,
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and what did it teach you about competition in general,
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and about you as a competitor?
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- Well, thank you for that question,
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because it takes me back to, I think,
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the foundation of what has, I think,
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served me exceptionally well throughout my entire life,
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having an opportunity to play
00:02:06:05 - 00:02:08:19
at University of North Carolina under Dean Smith.
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Obviously, at that time, we had a huge rivalry
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with Duke and Coach Krzyzewski
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with a bunch of other great players on the other side
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there in the Research Triangle.
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But for me, I saw at the highest level of excellence,
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a commitment to being a student athlete
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on and off the floor, but what that can look like
00:02:26:24 - 00:02:28:24
when you're really challenged
00:02:28:24 - 00:02:30:13
to be one of many great players.
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And so, at Carolina, I was fortunate
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to have a lot of great teammates.
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We were fortunate to play in the ACC
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against other great teams,
00:02:38:02 - 00:02:39:11
with other great coaches and players.
00:02:39:25 - 00:02:41:29
And so, the level and height with which
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I experienced college basketball was at the best.
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I mean, the Carolina-Duke rivalry,
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as I like to say, instead of Duke-Carolina,
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was college basketball when I was in school.
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It was.
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It was an example of what everyone aspired to be.
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And so, I took away four years, a degree,
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some great memories and a foundation for life.
00:03:05:24 - 00:03:08:13
- And did you, you know, that experience
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and that competition at those levels,
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what did you learn about yourself in terms of,
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and how did that project you to the NBA
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and to the business ventures
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that you've done more recently?
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- I learned the balance and the responsibility
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to community as well as to my team and my teammates.
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I learned leadership, going from a freshman
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where responsibility was not handed to me
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to my senior year as the captain of the team.
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Under Coach Smith, I grew as a man first,
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as a student athlete second,
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and then became a professional athlete.
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And throughout that period of those four years,
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I learned what it was like to serve my teammates.
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I learned what it was like to sacrifice my game.
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And I also learned how to play within the pressures
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and the demands of meeting the moment at its highest level,
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whether it be in the NCAA Tournament,
00:04:06:10 - 00:04:07:21
whether it be in the ACC Tournament,
00:04:07:21 - 00:04:09:06
all of those moments were moments
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where it was called on me to be a bigger
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and better version of myself every game, every year.
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And I felt like I reached the highest level
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of my college career that I could possibly reach
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under that disciplined approach by Coach Smith.
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- So you captained the Carolina team,
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you captained the Celtics, you captained the Lakers,
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all incredibly successful teams during your tenure.
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What was it about those teams
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that made them so successful,
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do you think, in your mind?
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- The mentorship from the coach, quite frankly.
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The foundation was set by Dean Smith in college
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that we were going to play the game the right way,
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as in his book will say, you play hard, you play smart,
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but more importantly, you play together.
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And we learned how to honor the game.
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We learned how to honor the process
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of keeping the team as the most important equation.
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Our individual goals were third if not fourth
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on the list behind our academics.
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And all of us obviously wanted
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to become NBA basketball players,
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but how we showed up walking campus,
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how we showed up in the classroom,
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how we showed up in the community
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was something that Coach Smith instilled in us.
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And I think that served me well
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once I did become a professional athlete.
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It showed me that being a beginner every day
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and learning something new and then dedicating myself
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to improvement on a regular basis
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would serve me throughout my life and my career,
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whether I'm in the NBA or as I've gone on
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to do other things in my career after.
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- So we'll talk about that transition.
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So after 13 years in the NBA,
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your next adventure was acting.
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Now, in 1994, you appeared in your first film, Blue Chips.
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Yet you went on to play in the NBA
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for another 9 or 10 seasons.
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So while you were playing in the NBA,
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you had a side gig going as an actor.
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So how did sports prepare you for that transition
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and how did you make those things work together?
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- Well, I would say that sports,
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when you're in a stadium of 20,000 people,
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you're on TV globally,
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there is a young way of falling in love
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with the attention, the validation, the applause
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that would naturally have you gravitate
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to wanting more of that.
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For me, when I discovered the craft of acting,
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I probably discovered the fame of being an actor
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first before I actually went on to study the craft,
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which every actor will tell you is a muscle you need
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to have just in any professional endeavor in your life.
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There's a craft to it.
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But I found that the applause could continue
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if you were in the entertainment and Hollywood industry.
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And so I think I naturally saw the bridge
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between being an entertainer on the basketball court
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with being an entertainer on a set,
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producing television and movies.
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And then I saw other athletes that had come before me,
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the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
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who was a Laker, quite frankly,
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had been in movies and other athletes.
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- The Airplane movies.
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- Yeah, other athletes had been in movies.
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So it seemed like a natural transition living in L.A.
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And people were telling me I had movie star looks, I guess.
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They've kind of faded now, but...
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And that kind of pushed me in the direction
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of pursuing what that career would look like.
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- So as I said, you kind of overlapped for a while,
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but then you went full steam ahead
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when you retired from the NBA.
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What was harder?
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What were the compare and contrast the two efforts?
00:07:47:00 - 00:07:47:18
- Yeah.
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Physically, the NBA obviously is more daunting on your body,
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but both crafts require physical, mental,
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emotional discipline that you bring
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to your day-to-day job there.
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In my case, I look back and I can think on my body
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and how it felt at the end of my career, much more taxing.
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But emotionally, the craft of acting was a stretch for me
00:08:14:13 - 00:08:17:06
initially until I realized what the calling was
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as an actor, which was to open up, was to connect,
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was to be vulnerable, to expose and serve a character
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by bringing versions and parts of yourself
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that connects to that character to the table
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and sharing that with the world.
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And so for me, once I discovered the craft of acting,
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which was about four years into my pursuit
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of a career after basketball as an actor,
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I started studying for the next 10 years
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and really got to the depths of an emotional availability
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that I didn't have as an athlete.
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And so athletics served me physically,
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the suit up, show up, the discipline,
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the means with which we're capable of pushing ourselves to.
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And then emotionally, the craft of acting taught me
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how to be open, how to connect, how to share, to storytell,
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how to bring those gifts and traits
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to what has served me in business.
00:09:06:15 - 00:09:08:22
- And a different level of vulnerability too, I imagine, right?
00:09:08:22 - 00:09:09:08
- Very much so.
00:09:09:08 - 00:09:11:29
- Because you are laying yourself out there in a different way, right?
00:09:11:29 - 00:09:14:29
- Yeah, I'm using my craft as an actor right now
00:09:14:29 - 00:09:19:00
to be in the room with, obviously, a Duke alumnus and fan.
00:09:19:10 - 00:09:20:25
- And you're faking it really well.
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I can tell.
00:09:23:25 - 00:09:26:16
- I'm trying to pass on great empathy and understanding.
00:09:27:22 - 00:09:28:01
- Exactly.
00:09:28:23 - 00:09:31:04
Okay, well, moving on from your acting career,
00:09:31:20 - 00:09:32:17
which, by the way, is it done
00:09:32:17 - 00:09:34:20
or are you still doing some acting here and there
00:09:34:20 - 00:09:35:22
or look to do some acting?
00:09:35:23 - 00:09:37:27
- Well, the last five years of my life
00:09:37:27 - 00:09:40:26
has been dedicated to the current journey of Partanna.
00:09:41:03 - 00:09:43:24
But I will share, the trailer came out yesterday,
00:09:44:19 - 00:09:46:22
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington,
00:09:46:27 - 00:09:48:28
their next endeavor called Highest 2 Lowest,
00:09:49:14 - 00:09:52:10
will be in, it's an Apple movie
00:09:52:10 - 00:09:53:23
it'll be out later this year.
00:09:54:08 - 00:09:57:00
It's at Cannes, I think, next week.
00:09:57:21 - 00:10:00:02
I did a day of work for Spike.
00:10:00:02 - 00:10:00:20
He called me.
00:10:01:04 - 00:10:03:02
He said, Rick, I need you on this for one day.
00:10:03:20 - 00:10:04:18
I said, I can give you one day.
00:10:04:21 - 00:10:05:19
And he said, what do you need me to do?
00:10:05:21 - 00:10:07:19
I said, I need you to do a scene with Denzel.
00:10:07:19 - 00:10:08:18
I said, I can give you a month.
00:10:09:04 - 00:10:10:27
He's like, I'm available.
00:10:10:27 - 00:10:11:23
- What's the film called?
00:10:11:23 - 00:10:12:23
- Highest 2 Lowest.
00:10:13:01 - 00:10:14:13
- So, Storytellers in Business,
00:10:14:15 - 00:10:16:01
brought to you by Highest 2 Lowest.
00:10:16:05 - 00:10:17:17
- Yeah, there you go, there you go.
00:10:18:18 - 00:10:21:04
- A little plug there, nicely done, nicely done.
00:10:21:06 - 00:10:21:24
Let Denzel know.
00:10:22:01 - 00:10:22:25
- I got to work with Denzel.
00:10:23:03 - 00:10:25:14
I'd worked with him before in a movie called He Got Game,
00:10:25:21 - 00:10:27:01
but not on camera together.
00:10:27:21 - 00:10:31:29
And in this time, I got to actually be in a scene with him.
00:10:32:01 - 00:10:34:19
So, I felt like I'd reached my moment
00:10:34:19 - 00:10:38:16
of higher learning as an actor to be in a scene with him.
00:10:38:16 - 00:10:39:05
- You know, it's amazing, right?
00:10:39:07 - 00:10:42:02
No matter what you do, how old you get,
00:10:42:08 - 00:10:47:17
there's always somebody that you aspire to associate with
00:10:47:17 - 00:10:51:05
or learn from, or you can still get the goosebumps
00:10:51:05 - 00:10:53:19
about how cool is it that I'm getting to work
00:10:53:19 - 00:10:54:22
with these folks right now, right?
00:10:54:26 - 00:10:58:07
- Amazing, 28 years into my acting career,
00:10:58:21 - 00:11:00:07
that moment arrived.
00:11:00:26 - 00:11:02:29
But in an example in basketball,
00:11:02:29 - 00:11:05:25
I was fortunate to have Michael Jordan as a mentor
00:11:05:25 - 00:11:07:24
and have him raise me when I was in college.
00:11:08:12 - 00:11:09:21
And he was at the Chicago Bulls
00:11:09:21 - 00:11:12:04
as a four or fifth year player in the league.
00:11:12:24 - 00:11:16:07
Examples of that, you know, that's excellence you chase
00:11:16:07 - 00:11:17:26
and they push you to new heights.
00:11:18:06 - 00:11:20:05
Being in a scene with William H. Macy
00:11:20:05 - 00:11:22:28
or working with other great actors and directors,
00:11:23:15 - 00:11:25:11
when you finally, you are the company you keep.
00:11:25:14 - 00:11:27:02
So, when you finally find yourself in the room
00:11:27:02 - 00:11:29:11
with the greatest and the best of the best,
00:11:29:18 - 00:11:32:22
it says something about what you've given to the game
00:11:32:22 - 00:11:33:25
or what you've given to the craft
00:11:33:25 - 00:11:36:17
to finally be worthy of being in those rooms.
00:11:37:02 - 00:11:39:12
- You have an amazing diversity of experiences,
00:11:39:19 - 00:11:40:26
which is why I knew you'd be great
00:11:40:26 - 00:11:42:05
for this kind of conversation
00:11:42:05 - 00:11:44:19
because it spans so many different things
00:11:44:19 - 00:11:49:03
that the average person doesn't get to touch one of them,
00:11:49:04 - 00:11:51:14
right, let alone all three that you're doing.
00:11:51:16 - 00:11:52:19
So, the third being business.
00:11:52:27 - 00:11:55:01
So, talk to me about your shift
00:11:55:01 - 00:11:58:00
from acting to becoming the entrepreneur.
00:11:58:12 - 00:12:01:05
I don't know if you want to start with the esports gaming
00:12:01:05 - 00:12:03:21
or what has led you to where you are today.
00:12:04:12 - 00:12:05:11
- Well, thank you for that.
00:12:06:07 - 00:12:07:19
It's a tribute to my dad.
00:12:08:00 - 00:12:10:13
My dad was an entrepreneur at heart,
00:12:10:26 - 00:12:13:08
built the first ice factory in the Bahamas
00:12:13:08 - 00:12:14:23
back in the 1970s.
00:12:14:23 - 00:12:15:24
So, I grew up in a household
00:12:16:19 - 00:12:19:24
watching a man of the community build a business
00:12:19:24 - 00:12:21:28
and then serve the community through our business.
00:12:22:15 - 00:12:24:00
I worked in that, that was my first job,
00:12:24:08 - 00:12:26:01
delivering ice, going into the freezers
00:12:26:19 - 00:12:28:27
and servicing the hotels, the fishing boats,
00:12:29:11 - 00:12:31:01
the grocery stores.
00:12:31:07 - 00:12:34:07
I saw what suiting up and showing up on a daily basis
00:12:34:07 - 00:12:35:08
looked like in business.
00:12:35:14 - 00:12:37:17
So, I knew someday I would always gravitate
00:12:37:17 - 00:12:39:23
to either having the baton handed to me
00:12:39:23 - 00:12:41:18
and running our family business.
00:12:42:02 - 00:12:43:25
But basketball took me to the States.
00:12:44:06 - 00:12:45:22
I went to high school in Indiana.
00:12:46:13 - 00:12:48:01
I went on to college at North Carolina
00:12:48:01 - 00:12:49:23
and then I was drafted by Red Auerbach
00:12:50:08 - 00:12:52:11
to go to the Boston Celtics for the first six years.
00:12:52:29 - 00:12:55:02
And then Jerry West came and got me from L.A.,
00:12:55:19 - 00:12:58:23
put me in a situation to be the glue with the Lakers
00:12:59:11 - 00:13:01:29
and played under Phil Jackson and with Shaq and Kobe.
00:13:02:03 - 00:13:05:29
So, I had a great experience that led then on to Hollywood.
00:13:06:11 - 00:13:08:23
And so, this entrepreneurial journey of mine
00:13:08:23 - 00:13:09:18
kept getting delayed.
00:13:10:08 - 00:13:13:11
I guess the entrepreneurial journey was producing myself,
00:13:14:17 - 00:13:16:09
which I think is always the case.
00:13:16:16 - 00:13:18:24
Most of us are passionate about our individual careers.
00:13:18:29 - 00:13:20:10
But when you think about entrepreneurship,
00:13:20:28 - 00:13:22:10
it's really about what drives that
00:13:22:10 - 00:13:24:00
is either passion or survival, right?
00:13:24:00 - 00:13:26:03
Passion for something or you're in survival
00:13:26:03 - 00:13:27:05
and you have to solve a problem.
00:13:27:21 - 00:13:29:10
And that's how Partanna came about.
00:13:29:13 - 00:13:31:07
That's how Echo Fox came about.
00:13:31:12 - 00:13:33:22
My first venture was Echo Fox,
00:13:33:24 - 00:13:35:01
which was the esports venture
00:13:35:01 - 00:13:36:27
that I started out of a passion for my son,
00:13:37:11 - 00:13:38:15
passion and love for my son,
00:13:39:03 - 00:13:41:14
and video games, which I had played throughout
00:13:41:14 - 00:13:42:10
my entire life.
00:13:43:03 - 00:13:46:13
And so, that led to starting a business out of passion.
00:13:47:06 - 00:13:49:23
And then in Partanna, which is my second endeavor here,
00:13:50:22 - 00:13:52:03
started out of survival.
00:13:52:21 - 00:13:53:17
We had a...
00:13:53:17 - 00:13:53:27
- Need-based.
00:13:54:01 - 00:13:54:19
- Need-based.
00:13:55:03 - 00:13:56:14
And so, the passion for my home country,
00:13:56:22 - 00:13:57:12
which is the Bahamas,
00:13:58:00 - 00:14:00:15
and survival for us as a nation
00:14:00:15 - 00:14:03:02
where we're slowly moving towards becoming
00:14:03:02 - 00:14:03:28
climate refugees
00:14:03:28 - 00:14:06:09
as we slowly sink underwater as a nation.
00:14:07:00 - 00:14:08:21
And we live in Hurricane Alley.
00:14:08:28 - 00:14:10:26
So, we had in 2021,
00:14:11:22 - 00:14:13:16
a few things happened for me personally.
00:14:13:22 - 00:14:17:01
In 2019, I turned 50 and made a committed —
00:14:17:21 - 00:14:21:21
— dedicated a commitment to myself to be more of service
00:14:22:03 - 00:14:24:14
and not solely focused on my own individual career,
00:14:24:18 - 00:14:25:15
but to give back.
00:14:26:09 - 00:14:30:02
And then Kobe Bryant passed away at the top of 2020,
00:14:30:07 - 00:14:32:04
right after we had this hurricane in the Bahamas
00:14:32:20 - 00:14:33:23
called Hurricane Dorian
00:14:33:23 - 00:14:35:02
that destroyed two of our islands.
00:14:35:08 - 00:14:37:01
I got on the ground there and
00:14:37:26 - 00:14:40:16
I saw for the first hand the aftermath
00:14:40:16 - 00:14:43:12
of what a hurricane could look like in today's era,
00:14:43:12 - 00:14:45:18
not in 1980, 1970,
00:14:45:27 - 00:14:48:05
when I used to get excited about a hurricane.
00:14:49:03 - 00:14:52:06
They were hurricane Category 6 and 7.
00:14:52:25 - 00:14:54:03
We still report them as 5,
00:14:54:06 - 00:14:56:05
but they're far more intense.
00:14:56:26 - 00:14:58:22
And I just, I wanted to solve a problem
00:14:58:22 - 00:15:00:13
that I thought wasn't going to go away.
00:15:00:17 - 00:15:02:08
And that was how do we survive the elements
00:15:02:08 - 00:15:03:15
during these hurricanes?
00:15:03:25 - 00:15:06:03
How do we meet the saltwater, the flooding?
00:15:06:15 - 00:15:07:26
How do we build hurricane-proof housing?
00:15:08:02 - 00:15:09:24
And I committed to that,
00:15:10:06 - 00:15:12:23
to solving and being a part of that problem to solve.
00:15:13:09 - 00:15:15:17
And then like I mentioned, Kobe Bryant passed away shortly
00:15:15:17 - 00:15:16:27
thereafter, a couple months later.
00:15:17:09 - 00:15:19:07
And that pushed me into the immediacy
00:15:19:07 - 00:15:20:17
of solving the problem
00:15:20:17 - 00:15:23:12
where we're not promised tomorrow.
00:15:23:22 - 00:15:24:23
Kobe was 40 years old
00:15:25:07 - 00:15:26:16
and I went through the experience
00:15:26:16 - 00:15:31:02
of really realizing that nothing is promised.
00:15:31:19 - 00:15:33:10
He was a guy that was a dear friend
00:15:33:10 - 00:15:35:28
and very successful for 40 years of his life,
00:15:36:12 - 00:15:38:20
but I wasn't going to be guaranteed another 50
00:15:38:20 - 00:15:40:08
like I thought at my 50th birthday.
00:15:40:27 - 00:15:42:01
I was thinking, what do I do
00:15:42:01 - 00:15:43:08
for the next 50 years of my life?
00:15:44:03 - 00:15:47:06
Well, I thought if I was going to have a contribution
00:15:47:21 - 00:15:50:15
to my home country and to solving this problem,
00:15:50:17 - 00:15:52:24
there was no time, I needed to do it now.
00:15:53:09 - 00:15:54:28
And so that pushed me into immediacy
00:15:55:14 - 00:15:56:13
and then Covid happened.
00:15:57:07 - 00:15:58:09
Covid shut the world down
00:15:58:09 - 00:16:00:25
and I had the perfect amount of time on my hands, Andy,
00:16:01:04 - 00:16:03:09
to really become more adept
00:16:03:09 - 00:16:06:15
at the challenge of building a hurricane-proof house.
00:16:07:07 - 00:16:11:11
And I found a material in the lab with my co-founders
00:16:11:11 - 00:16:13:17
and some really smart patented scientists
00:16:14:00 - 00:16:15:09
that had patented this formula.
00:16:15:29 - 00:16:18:02
They just didn't know how to get it out into the world.
00:16:18:20 - 00:16:20:00
So over the course of 2020,
00:16:20:06 - 00:16:21:23
- We are talking about concrete, so just...
00:16:21:23 - 00:16:22:11
- Yeah.
00:16:22:11 - 00:16:23:24
- Spend a moment on what that is and why
00:16:23:24 - 00:16:25:23
it is so awesome, franky.
00:16:25:23 - 00:16:26:24
- So I'll start first of all
00:16:26:24 - 00:16:29:14
by making it very clear to the audience that's listening
00:16:29:14 - 00:16:31:13
that I'm not a material scientist.
00:16:32:05 - 00:16:34:03
I didn't go to Carolina for material scientists.
00:16:35:00 - 00:16:36:11
- You went for basketball, we know that.
00:16:37:12 - 00:16:39:11
- I went for radio, television and motion pictures,
00:16:39:16 - 00:16:41:22
which I put that to work, thank you, Andy.
00:16:42:02 - 00:16:42:14
- Yes, well done.
00:16:43:03 - 00:16:45:17
- But had I wanted a different degree,
00:16:45:19 - 00:16:46:27
I probably would have went somewhere else.
00:16:47:03 - 00:16:48:01
- Like a couple of miles down the road.
00:16:48:09 - 00:16:49:25
- Maybe a few miles down the road.
00:16:50:28 - 00:16:55:20
But I did find out through my career
00:16:55:20 - 00:16:57:04
how to be one, like I said,
00:16:57:05 - 00:16:59:21
one of many that's solving a problem or chasing a goal.
00:17:00:12 - 00:17:06:02
And I found this material through these friends of mine
00:17:06:02 - 00:17:08:18
and I became the leader of this mission
00:17:08:18 - 00:17:10:29
from a CEO position and as a Co-Founder
00:17:10:29 - 00:17:14:07
to bring this binder that replaces Portland cement
00:17:14:07 - 00:17:17:00
in the production of concrete 100%.
00:17:17:16 - 00:17:20:27
So when we talk about cement versus concrete
00:17:20:27 - 00:17:24:04
for the audience, a lot of people call concrete cement,
00:17:24:14 - 00:17:26:02
but it's actually not cement.
00:17:26:08 - 00:17:27:24
Cement is a glue, it's a binder
00:17:28:11 - 00:17:31:01
that to get to you have to use extensive clinkering,
00:17:31:05 - 00:17:32:22
which is heating at crematorium levels
00:17:33:09 - 00:17:34:10
and use a lot of energy,
00:17:34:22 - 00:17:36:25
but it also emits and generates a lot of negativity
00:17:36:25 - 00:17:37:19
into our atmosphere.
00:17:38:05 - 00:17:41:08
So the cement industry has been under a charge
00:17:41:08 - 00:17:44:24
to evolve its efforts to become a cleaner material
00:17:44:24 - 00:17:45:15
in the world.
00:17:45:25 - 00:17:49:01
But it has been the backbone and the anchor to development.
00:17:49:18 - 00:17:51:19
It's what we build our cities and our world with.
00:17:51:26 - 00:17:52:29
So it's not going anywhere.
00:17:53:06 - 00:17:56:01
It's how do you make it a cleaner opportunity?
00:17:56:17 - 00:17:59:02
And in my case, we have a binder,
00:17:59:14 - 00:18:02:00
a glue that replaces that Portland cement glue
00:18:02:16 - 00:18:04:28
to get us to a concrete that performs the same way,
00:18:05:05 - 00:18:06:16
but avoids all the negativity
00:18:07:12 - 00:18:09:14
and actually generates a lot of positivity.
00:18:09:21 - 00:18:14:00
So we upscale big industry waste from brine and slag
00:18:14:00 - 00:18:16:01
and a lot of other pozzolans that can be used
00:18:16:01 - 00:18:18:23
to get to our material that is going to change
00:18:18:23 - 00:18:19:22
the way we build in the world.
00:18:20:10 - 00:18:23:14
- So it actually, in the curing process,
00:18:23:14 - 00:18:26:17
sucks CO2 out of the environment
00:18:26:17 - 00:18:29:12
as opposed to the production of standard concrete,
00:18:29:19 - 00:18:31:06
which emits CO2, right?
00:18:31:18 - 00:18:33:12
So yeah, so enormously green-friendly.
00:18:33:12 - 00:18:34:29
- Very friendly.
00:18:34:29 - 00:18:36:16
- Same strength, everything is.
00:18:36:16 - 00:18:37:19
- Same performance base.
00:18:37:19 - 00:18:40:28
- So this venture of yours has taken you all over the world.
00:18:41:18 - 00:18:43:21
I know you spend a lot of time in the Middle East.
00:18:44:14 - 00:18:47:14
One of the key ingredients for you is brine,
00:18:47:15 - 00:18:48:09
which you just mentioned,
00:18:48:12 - 00:18:50:00
which is a by-product of desalination,
00:18:50:07 - 00:18:52:19
which of course the Middle East produces like crazy
00:18:52:19 - 00:18:54:05
because that's where they get their water source from.
00:18:54:17 - 00:18:56:28
So talk for a moment about your experience,
00:18:58:06 - 00:18:59:18
part-time living, I suppose,
00:18:59:28 - 00:19:01:13
but working in the Middle East.
00:19:01:14 - 00:19:02:09
And what has that taught you
00:19:02:09 - 00:19:04:10
about how to conduct business and leadership?
00:19:04:21 - 00:19:07:08
- So the journey of Partanna started on the frontline.
00:19:07:21 - 00:19:09:21
So when the world opened up after Covid,
00:19:10:10 - 00:19:11:15
I went home to the Bahamas
00:19:12:15 - 00:19:15:20
and I had an audience with the Prime Minister of the Bahamas.
00:19:16:19 - 00:19:18:07
And in that moment, he had just been elected
00:19:19:02 - 00:19:22:05
and had been on the stage at COP26 in Glasgow,
00:19:22:05 - 00:19:25:02
where he challenged the developing world
00:19:25:02 - 00:19:27:10
to be more responsible for the impact they were having
00:19:27:10 - 00:19:29:28
on low-lying, small developing nations like the Bahamas,
00:19:30:18 - 00:19:32:06
how they were putting us slowly underwater.
00:19:32:28 - 00:19:34:27
And I shared with him my mission,
00:19:35:12 - 00:19:37:05
which was to change the way we built in the world
00:19:37:05 - 00:19:39:02
by bringing carbon-negative building materials
00:19:39:17 - 00:19:40:28
to the construction ecosystem.
00:19:41:23 - 00:19:45:09
And in that moment, he invited me to come home,
00:19:45:14 - 00:19:46:06
set up this business.
00:19:46:10 - 00:19:48:29
We built the first carbon-negative home in the Bahamas.
00:19:49:19 - 00:19:51:02
And that solution for the Bahamas
00:19:51:02 - 00:19:52:13
became a solution for the world.
00:19:53:00 - 00:19:55:00
And so we went back to COP27 together,
00:19:55:07 - 00:19:58:02
where we introduced this home to the world
00:19:58:02 - 00:20:00:25
and it unlocked, in Egypt at that time,
00:20:01:11 - 00:20:03:20
the introduction of our company to that region.
00:20:04:03 - 00:20:05:01
And as you mentioned,
00:20:05:05 - 00:20:07:29
brine being a very important ingredient
00:20:07:29 - 00:20:10:00
in what we create in our binder,
00:20:10:18 - 00:20:12:20
we extract the raw materials out of brine,
00:20:12:22 - 00:20:15:09
which is a waste material that gets dumped into the ocean,
00:20:15:26 - 00:20:18:04
billions and billions of gallons on a daily basis,
00:20:18:28 - 00:20:21:25
destroying the biodiversity of our marine life.
00:20:22:06 - 00:20:23:29
And we take it and we upscale it for a positive.
00:20:25:08 - 00:20:28:18
And so in that, I discovered that 70% of all the brine
00:20:28:18 - 00:20:30:04
in the world resides in the Middle East.
00:20:30:24 - 00:20:32:12
And at that same time,
00:20:32:20 - 00:20:34:00
a lot of the construction in the world
00:20:34:00 - 00:20:37:00
is residing in Saudi Arabia, in the Kingdom, in the UAE.
00:20:37:12 - 00:20:40:10
And so as I sat down in that region,
00:20:40:22 - 00:20:42:21
being courted by a lot of the giga-projects,
00:20:43:06 - 00:20:45:15
a lot of the government entities there
00:20:45:15 - 00:20:49:04
to bring this sustainable nature-positive binder
00:20:49:04 - 00:20:50:04
to their developments,
00:20:50:23 - 00:20:53:10
I learned and discovered what it was like to do business
00:20:53:10 - 00:20:56:04
outside of my country, outside of the United States.
00:20:56:24 - 00:21:01:07
And I learned that business in the Middle East
00:21:01:07 - 00:21:03:04
is experiencing a completely different culture.
00:21:03:18 - 00:21:05:19
It's experiencing a different way of being and living.
00:21:06:18 - 00:21:09:11
The way of doing business there is completely different
00:21:09:11 - 00:21:11:02
than what I've experienced at this point.
00:21:11:15 - 00:21:13:24
But as I sat down for the last two years,
00:21:13:24 - 00:21:16:05
in and out between the Bahamas and the Middle East,
00:21:16:22 - 00:21:18:10
I showed up with humility.
00:21:19:02 - 00:21:22:29
I showed up with an interest for the life there
00:21:22:29 - 00:21:27:15
in their culture, learning about their way of living.
00:21:28:00 - 00:21:32:00
And I slowly found my way through the paces there
00:21:32:00 - 00:21:35:13
to become established and set up.
00:21:35:23 - 00:21:39:16
And we are now operating in the giga-projects.
00:21:39:19 - 00:21:41:26
We're now a product and a company
00:21:41:26 - 00:21:43:19
that has subsidiaries there in the region,
00:21:43:27 - 00:21:45:06
which took us two years to get to.
00:21:45:21 - 00:21:47:14
But it was work well done,
00:21:47:26 - 00:21:51:18
because now it establishes us as an opportunity now
00:21:51:18 - 00:21:54:18
to scale our binder, not only to the region,
00:21:54:25 - 00:21:56:29
but to surrounding countries in that part of the world.
00:21:57:04 - 00:21:58:02
- So the growth continues.
00:21:58:20 - 00:22:03:20
And you mentioned humility and learning about the cultures.
00:22:03:25 - 00:22:07:12
And I just want to sort of take that
00:22:07:12 - 00:22:12:25
and use it maybe as a core of teams and leadership.
00:22:13:17 - 00:22:15:25
It sounds like to be successful as a leader,
00:22:16:01 - 00:22:17:05
to be successful in business,
00:22:18:12 - 00:22:19:29
humility is always a good thing, I think.
00:22:20:07 - 00:22:23:08
But understanding the folks sitting
00:22:23:08 - 00:22:26:21
on the other side of the table and appreciating them,
00:22:27:07 - 00:22:28:05
and that could be workers,
00:22:28:09 - 00:22:29:19
it could be somebody you're doing business with,
00:22:30:10 - 00:22:32:27
sounds like a core tenant for you
00:22:32:27 - 00:22:35:01
in terms of how you've managed to be successful.
00:22:35:14 - 00:22:38:00
- Being curious, curious, open.
00:22:38:10 - 00:22:39:29
This is what I learned as an actor, right?
00:22:40:07 - 00:22:42:28
Being willing to read and react,
00:22:43:04 - 00:22:44:23
but also hit the ball back across,
00:22:45:17 - 00:22:47:17
as opposed to catching it, holding it,
00:22:48:00 - 00:22:50:29
and being stuck in my own way or my own opinions.
00:22:52:06 - 00:22:54:04
You learn how to tell your story,
00:22:54:24 - 00:22:56:01
but seeing it from the,
00:22:56:07 - 00:22:58:14
and hearing it from their side of the table,
00:22:58:28 - 00:23:01:10
how it's landing, but also being open
00:23:01:10 - 00:23:06:12
to hearing how they perceive our part of the world,
00:23:06:17 - 00:23:08:00
our culture, our history.
00:23:09:05 - 00:23:12:09
And so the curiosity that I've probably moved
00:23:12:09 - 00:23:15:03
around the world with is really an honest desire
00:23:15:03 - 00:23:17:20
to get to know the individual in front of me,
00:23:18:02 - 00:23:24:05
not the broad swooping stroke of labels
00:23:24:05 - 00:23:27:29
that can be layered onto anyone, including us, right?
00:23:28:14 - 00:23:30:19
And as Westerners.
00:23:30:19 - 00:23:33:28
And so what I found is that the more I've been able
00:23:34:12 - 00:23:35:28
and willing to sit with an open ear,
00:23:36:12 - 00:23:39:01
and the more I've been able to really get to know
00:23:39:19 - 00:23:41:23
the individual and what they stand for
00:23:41:23 - 00:23:43:06
and what their business stands for
00:23:43:06 - 00:23:47:03
and how they emphasize the importance in their communities,
00:23:48:09 - 00:23:49:24
the more I've been able to take away
00:23:49:24 - 00:23:53:02
some really golden nuggets and apply it to my own life
00:23:53:15 - 00:23:54:20
and how I've been able to impart
00:23:54:20 - 00:23:56:04
some of my own experiences,
00:23:56:08 - 00:23:58:01
whether they be from the Bahamas,
00:23:58:01 - 00:24:00:13
whether they be from L.A., whether they be from the U.S.,
00:24:00:27 - 00:24:04:29
I bring these points of views and I'm able to defend
00:24:05:26 - 00:24:08:17
and introduce and open up their minds as well.
00:24:08:20 - 00:24:09:24
So it's been a two-way street
00:24:10:07 - 00:24:12:06
and it's been a beautiful journey in that regard.
00:24:12:21 - 00:24:15:15
And what I didn't expect to find was thousands
00:24:15:15 - 00:24:17:25
and thousands of people that I've met the last two years
00:24:17:25 - 00:24:19:17
that have gone to school in Boston,
00:24:19:28 - 00:24:22:06
that have gone to school in L.A., that are Laker fans,
00:24:22:15 - 00:24:23:22
that have been in New York,
00:24:24:02 - 00:24:26:17
that have spent most of their youth
00:24:26:17 - 00:24:29:22
growing up in the United States like me
00:24:29:22 - 00:24:31:22
and that have traveled to the Bahamas.
00:24:32:01 - 00:24:34:07
And I'm telling you, I had no idea
00:24:34:07 - 00:24:36:12
that they were staying up all hours of the night
00:24:36:12 - 00:24:37:03
watching me.
00:24:37:03 - 00:24:37:24
- Watching basketball.
00:24:37:24 - 00:24:39:13
- Watching Carolina,
00:24:39:13 - 00:24:40:29
watching the Lakers, knowing Duke.
00:24:41:08 - 00:24:43:12
Some of them, quite frankly, actually having gone to Duke.
00:24:43:21 - 00:24:44:06
- It's unfortunate.
00:24:44:08 - 00:24:46:12
- I haven't found any Carolina graduates yet
00:24:46:12 - 00:24:49:06
in the Middle East, but some of them definitely went to Duke.
00:24:49:13 - 00:24:50:13
It's been a joy.
00:24:50:19 - 00:24:51:09
It's been a joy.
00:24:51:13 - 00:24:52:07
They're my friends now.
00:24:52:09 - 00:24:55:06
They call me when they're in L.A. recently.
00:24:55:21 - 00:24:57:00
- Well, you know, I've said this to you.
00:24:57:02 - 00:24:59:18
I consider you my best Carolina friend.
00:24:59:20 - 00:25:00:07
- I know.
00:25:00:12 - 00:25:01:10
I'm honored, Andy.
00:25:02:19 - 00:25:03:18
You're right behind.
00:25:03:26 - 00:25:04:15
- You're a total of one.
00:25:04:19 - 00:25:07:14
- For me, you'd be right behind Grant Hill.
00:25:07:20 - 00:25:08:18
- Well, that's pretty good company.
00:25:08:18 - 00:25:09:17
- That's pretty good company.
00:25:10:15 - 00:25:11:06
But no, it is.
00:25:11:06 - 00:25:14:16
It's been great in my years after the ACC rivalry
00:25:15:03 - 00:25:17:21
to run into more and more Duke alumnus
00:25:17:21 - 00:25:21:22
in the business world, professional sports as well
00:25:21:22 - 00:25:22:23
that I've competed against,
00:25:23:06 - 00:25:27:13
but also more in the banking and legal world
00:25:27:13 - 00:25:28:17
up here in the Northeast.
00:25:28:24 - 00:25:32:19
- Once you graduate from college, I
00:25:32:19 - 00:25:36:18
think you keep your loyalties, but your horizons
00:25:36:18 - 00:25:37:07
have expanded.
00:25:37:19 - 00:25:40:06
And I think you're a testament to that,
00:25:40:10 - 00:25:43:00
not only because you've now befriended me and Grant,
00:25:43:14 - 00:25:44:20
but just generally.
00:25:44:25 - 00:25:46:14
So you've said humility.
00:25:47:17 - 00:25:49:00
You've said joy.
00:25:49:23 - 00:25:50:27
I'm trying to think of some of the others.
00:25:50:27 - 00:25:51:05
- Curiosity.
00:25:51:07 - 00:25:51:11
- Curiosity.
00:25:52:19 - 00:25:55:21
So how, and empathy you said early on,
00:25:56:07 - 00:25:58:19
how have those, how has your attitude
00:25:58:19 - 00:26:01:20
toward business or leadership evolved,
00:26:02:02 - 00:26:03:22
and I don't want to put a timeline on it,
00:26:03:23 - 00:26:07:23
but say from youth to now, or from NBA to acting to now,
00:26:08:07 - 00:26:12:20
or even in the wake of what led you to Partanna.
00:26:12:29 - 00:26:15:20
Like do you reflect and see a change
00:26:15:20 - 00:26:16:22
in your leadership style?
00:26:16:28 - 00:26:17:19
- It evolves.
00:26:17:24 - 00:26:21:02
I'm a CEO of four years now, going on my fifth year.
00:26:21:13 - 00:26:24:16
And I would tell you that how I led in the locker room
00:26:24:16 - 00:26:26:21
is not necessarily how I lead today.
00:26:27:17 - 00:26:30:09
The tenets of Coach Smith's words,
00:26:30:11 - 00:26:31:20
when I say, what would Dean do here,
00:26:31:23 - 00:26:32:21
what would Coach Smith do here,
00:26:32:23 - 00:26:33:27
what would Phil Jackson do here,
00:26:33:28 - 00:26:35:14
I still ask myself those questions.
00:26:35:29 - 00:26:37:15
What would Kobe do, what would Shaq do?
00:26:38:18 - 00:26:41:01
As captains, what would Larry Bird do, quite frankly?
00:26:41:20 - 00:26:45:02
These are foundational men in my life
00:26:45:02 - 00:26:46:29
that have impacted me in a positive way,
00:26:47:02 - 00:26:48:03
and have left me...
00:26:48:03 - 00:26:49:00
- Your mentors.
00:26:49:00 - 00:26:50:06
- They've been my mentors.
00:26:50:06 - 00:26:52:12
And so in business, I have great mentors as well.
00:26:53:04 - 00:26:57:22
But my journey as a leader is constantly evolving
00:26:57:22 - 00:27:01:22
in that I've seen it and I've watched it take shape.
00:27:02:07 - 00:27:04:25
But as I show up with the willingness to follow,
00:27:05:11 - 00:27:07:05
with the willingness to have an open ear,
00:27:07:27 - 00:27:12:12
and a door, an open door for my teammates and my employees
00:27:12:12 - 00:27:17:02
to really reach out to me and actually have the freedom
00:27:17:02 - 00:27:19:27
to have an opinion, to have the freedom to have ideas,
00:27:19:27 - 00:27:21:21
to have the freedom to feel like this company,
00:27:22:13 - 00:27:24:13
and to have autonomous ownership as well,
00:27:24:28 - 00:27:26:23
has been something I've learned to get better at,
00:27:26:26 - 00:27:32:14
because I was pretty strong in my direction
00:27:32:14 - 00:27:36:07
and leadership style when I first started as a CEO,
00:27:36:22 - 00:27:38:16
very clear on where we were going.
00:27:38:25 - 00:27:42:20
And I felt I needed that strong rudder of direction,
00:27:43:04 - 00:27:48:26
and wasn't as welcoming for when I first started as a CEO,
00:27:48:26 - 00:27:52:10
I wasn't as welcoming for ideas outside of the vision
00:27:52:10 - 00:27:54:27
I had for where we had to go.
00:27:55:13 - 00:27:57:10
And I think that's just earlier on when you have
00:27:58:00 - 00:28:01:00
fewer employees and you have a clear mission statement,
00:28:01:21 - 00:28:05:17
but you grow into an acceptance of the fact that
00:28:05:17 - 00:28:07:20
you, your team, your team is your company.
00:28:08:11 - 00:28:11:12
A company of one can't grow to the heights
00:28:11:12 - 00:28:12:21
that you aspire to grow to,
00:28:13:04 - 00:28:15:09
and what's being called on us to grow to.
00:28:15:24 - 00:28:18:20
So I've opened that up and I've made our company
00:28:18:20 - 00:28:23:22
more a democratized setting where I still set the vision,
00:28:23:27 - 00:28:25:24
the board sets the vision, I execute it,
00:28:26:08 - 00:28:28:21
but I really lean on my team extensively
00:28:29:06 - 00:28:31:09
and allow them to have the type of freedom
00:28:31:09 - 00:28:33:00
to really have ownership.
00:28:33:06 - 00:28:35:24
- Yeah, I don't know if the right word is softened or not.
00:28:36:00 - 00:28:36:15
I mean, I-
00:28:36:15 - 00:28:37:18
- It is, it's a-
00:28:37:18 - 00:28:38:16
- No, maybe, right?
00:28:38:23 - 00:28:44:05
Because I see this, I manage a group of over 60 people
00:28:44:05 - 00:28:47:29
and I always try to identify the next leaders
00:28:47:29 - 00:28:49:01
and who's going to come next.
00:28:49:06 - 00:28:53:05
And I see strong characters and candidly,
00:28:53:14 - 00:28:57:04
the advice that I give those that have, I think,
00:28:57:06 - 00:28:59:11
what it takes is that they need to soften a little bit.
00:28:59:19 - 00:29:02:12
You can't run it with an iron fist
00:29:02:12 - 00:29:04:14
because then you lose the crowd, right?
00:29:04:14 - 00:29:05:09
You lose the people.
00:29:05:13 - 00:29:08:22
- Yeah, and I had a moment in my leadership journey
00:29:08:22 - 00:29:10:26
where I lost the crowd.
00:29:11:14 - 00:29:14:01
You know, and when you do that and you see it,
00:29:15:11 - 00:29:16:15
it's very evident.
00:29:16:19 - 00:29:18:00
- Yeah, no team, no nothing, right?
00:29:18:00 - 00:29:18:15
- No nothing.
00:29:18:23 - 00:29:19:27
You're a leader of one.
00:29:20:00 - 00:29:21:27
You're standing there as one.
00:29:22:02 - 00:29:23:10
- Reflection was a good part of this.
00:29:23:19 - 00:29:24:26
And so I want to ask you a question.
00:29:24:29 - 00:29:27:01
I don't think it's too personal, but I'll ask you anyway.
00:29:29:01 - 00:29:30:29
When, you mentioned Kobe a few times.
00:29:31:03 - 00:29:36:12
When Kobe passed, there was a not-so-short moment in time
00:29:36:12 - 00:29:38:24
where a lot of people seemed to think
00:29:38:24 - 00:29:40:11
that you were on the helicopter as well.
00:29:41:09 - 00:29:43:27
And there was a lot of media back and forth at the time
00:29:43:27 - 00:29:47:05
where, in a sense, you were witnessing your own funeral,
00:29:47:10 - 00:29:47:25
so to speak.
00:29:48:11 - 00:29:50:07
You know, what kind of impact did that have on you?
00:29:50:14 - 00:29:52:05
Because that's the ultimate reflection, right?
00:29:52:10 - 00:29:53:02
- Very much so.
00:29:53:07 - 00:29:55:25
I recommend it for anyone without, obviously,
00:29:56:24 - 00:30:02:07
shuddering and scaring your family with the reporting of it.
00:30:02:13 - 00:30:07:09
But for you to get a glimpse of what really matters.
00:30:07:26 - 00:30:10:29
You know, and I mentioned earlier about being in Hollywood
00:30:10:29 - 00:30:13:01
and what initially took me to Hollywood,
00:30:13:08 - 00:30:16:12
which was that need to fill the void of being seen
00:30:16:12 - 00:30:18:03
and acknowledged and celebrated.
00:30:18:14 - 00:30:21:01
And, you know, that's the void.
00:30:21:05 - 00:30:21:24
I was in the bridge.
00:30:21:25 - 00:30:24:13
I was looking across to not have to deal with the reality
00:30:24:13 - 00:30:26:13
of life after sports.
00:30:26:28 - 00:30:31:00
And then I saw what life after life looked like,
00:30:31:17 - 00:30:33:00
briefly, for a few hours.
00:30:33:10 - 00:30:36:09
And I would tell you that the things you think
00:30:36:09 - 00:30:38:27
are important fall by the way really quickly.
00:30:38:28 - 00:30:41:28
The people that you think would care fall by the way.
00:30:42:12 - 00:30:44:16
And then you get a glimpse of the impact you've had
00:30:44:16 - 00:30:45:13
on people that you never,
00:30:45:23 - 00:30:46:25
you don't even remember meeting.
00:30:48:03 - 00:30:49:02
- May have never met.
00:30:49:02 - 00:30:51:03
- And you may have never met.
00:30:51:06 - 00:30:52:25
And for me in that moment,
00:30:52:29 - 00:30:55:23
it really broke the back on needing validation in any way.
00:30:56:09 - 00:30:58:01
And why would I was, what was I living for?
00:30:58:03 - 00:30:58:28
And what was I really doing?
00:30:59:09 - 00:31:01:26
And that happened in, you know, in 2020.
00:31:02:03 - 00:31:04:11
And that was the perfect moment for me
00:31:04:11 - 00:31:08:21
to really reset my way of being as a human being
00:31:08:21 - 00:31:10:24
on the planet here.
00:31:10:28 - 00:31:11:28
And what was I doing?
00:31:12:07 - 00:31:13:12
Like, really, what was I here to do?
00:31:13:29 - 00:31:16:00
And I love challenges.
00:31:16:06 - 00:31:18:25
I love chasing insurmountable goals
00:31:18:25 - 00:31:20:00
and competing and whatnot.
00:31:20:07 - 00:31:23:16
But what really turned on for me was service.
00:31:24:07 - 00:31:25:18
You know, what was I going to be in service of?
00:31:26:01 - 00:31:27:28
Not my own individual accolades
00:31:27:28 - 00:31:31:19
or my own needs of being seen and loved and appreciated.
00:31:32:00 - 00:31:35:06
You know, was I going to bring love and appreciation to others?
00:31:35:11 - 00:31:36:24
And was I going to serve something greater
00:31:36:24 - 00:31:38:21
than my own individual goals?
00:31:39:05 - 00:31:41:10
And man, it's changed my life.
00:31:41:22 - 00:31:43:12
And I miss Kobe, obviously,
00:31:44:08 - 00:31:45:12
but he was an inspiration
00:31:45:12 - 00:31:46:28
of what you could get done in 40 years.
00:31:46:29 - 00:31:48:01
And here I was at 50.
00:31:48:22 - 00:31:49:21
I was like, well, what am I going to do
00:31:49:21 - 00:31:50:27
if I don't have another 40?
00:31:51:08 - 00:31:53:03
You know, what am I going to leave behind?
00:31:53:08 - 00:31:56:28
And so it was the perfect storm of preparation
00:31:56:28 - 00:31:59:12
for what I think I really was meant to be doing,
00:31:59:12 - 00:32:00:22
which is being of service
00:32:00:22 - 00:32:03:00
to something greater than my own individual.
00:32:03:12 - 00:32:07:10
- So with, so Kobe, you know, like family,
00:32:07:17 - 00:32:08:19
right, very close, you said,
00:32:09:05 - 00:32:10:12
I want to say you've had an amazing career,
00:32:10:15 - 00:32:12:03
but I don't know if that career is the right word.
00:32:12:07 - 00:32:13:12
You know, amazing life, actually.
00:32:13:18 - 00:32:15:20
And we're not, knock on wood,
00:32:15:21 - 00:32:16:24
we're not ending it anytime soon.
00:32:16:27 - 00:32:18:22
We're giving you the extra 50, like you've asked for.
00:32:20:08 - 00:32:22:26
But when you look at all the different things
00:32:22:26 - 00:32:26:05
that you've done, is there a standout moment
00:32:26:05 - 00:32:28:25
or is there one thing that you cherish
00:32:28:25 - 00:32:32:02
more than anything that you think about
00:32:32:02 - 00:32:34:19
throughout this, you know, your first 50 plus years?
00:32:35:12 - 00:32:39:25
- Well, before the moment of 50 and the top of 2020,
00:32:40:10 - 00:32:42:07
I would have said career-wise it would have been
00:32:42:29 - 00:32:45:26
just the moments of memories with Shaq and Kobe
00:32:45:26 - 00:32:48:26
and games where we kicked off.
00:32:49:01 - 00:32:50:26
It's the Portland game, quite frankly,
00:32:51:00 - 00:32:53:12
the lob from Kobe to Shaq that just changed
00:32:53:12 - 00:32:57:06
the trajectory of our success for the next three years.
00:32:57:06 - 00:32:59:10
Those moments in L.A. were the pinnacle
00:32:59:10 - 00:33:01:16
of my career in professional sports.
00:33:01:22 - 00:33:03:19
I wanted to play 12 years and win three championships
00:33:03:19 - 00:33:04:28
and I was able to do that.
00:33:05:29 - 00:33:09:28
And, but now today, after that moment in 2020,
00:33:10:17 - 00:33:12:09
the things that matter most are my family.
00:33:12:25 - 00:33:14:14
So the moments that I have with my kids,
00:33:15:02 - 00:33:17:13
they're my greatest joys today,
00:33:17:17 - 00:33:19:04
creating more of those moments.
00:33:19:19 - 00:33:21:07
My daughter and I have a music label
00:33:21:07 - 00:33:22:22
that she's pursuing her career.
00:33:22:28 - 00:33:24:07
My son is a game developer.
00:33:24:27 - 00:33:27:05
The fact that they talk to me on a daily basis
00:33:27:05 - 00:33:28:13
and call me for advice,
00:33:29:04 - 00:33:31:12
the fact that they're pursuing their passions
00:33:31:12 - 00:33:35:25
and that I have a role and a front-row seat to that
00:33:35:25 - 00:33:38:07
is the service of being a dad,
00:33:38:13 - 00:33:40:09
the service of being a man in my community
00:33:40:09 - 00:33:41:09
back home in the Bahamas.
00:33:42:01 - 00:33:43:21
Those things mean the most to me
00:33:43:21 - 00:33:46:10
and that people would call on me and lean on me
00:33:46:10 - 00:33:49:21
and that I would have value that I could impart to them
00:33:49:21 - 00:33:52:10
is really what feels good today.
00:33:52:10 - 00:33:55:21
- Well, and that's just another example of leadership, right?
00:33:55:24 - 00:33:57:25
Leadership within your own family, guiding your children.
00:33:57:25 - 00:33:58:14
- Yeah.
00:33:58:23 - 00:34:01:04
- So you've had a life full of leadership.
00:34:01:25 - 00:34:03:28
That's probably a great place to stop.
00:34:04:04 - 00:34:06:05
So thank you very, very much for joining us.
00:34:06:09 - 00:34:06:26
- Thank you, Andy.
00:34:06:26 - 00:34:08:21
- It was a pleasure to have you on board.
00:34:08:23 - 00:34:09:18
So I thank you personally.
00:34:09:20 - 00:34:10:18
I thank you on behalf of Mizuho
00:34:10:18 - 00:34:13:24
and I look forward to staying in touch
00:34:13:24 - 00:34:16:28
and following what I'm sure will be continued successes.
00:34:17:02 - 00:34:17:24
So thank you very much.
00:34:17:27 - 00:34:18:18
- Andy, it's been a pleasure.
00:34:19:03 - 00:34:19:16
- All right, thanks.
00:34:26:19 - 00:34:29:11
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