All journeys arent created equal
[Music]
it’s 2018.
people are brushing past each other’s
shoulders struggling to move through the
hallway they’re anxious excited to get
to their seats everything’s loud but
while they’re busy i’m preparing
soon everything around me is just white
noise and i start to go down my
checklist
did i study enough
do i know my opponent
did i do enough work this week to
prepare
it’s showtime
my headphones are locked in and so is my
mind
running through every scenario every
possibility how do i attack the next
three hours
every few songs i look up and i catch a
glimpse of the world around me the world
outside of my preparation i see their
faces and i can tell their anticipation
is building
next i look at the clock
and it’s closer to game time
i pack up my notebook and begin walking
toward the stadium entrance
here come the nerves
my palms get sweaty knees weak arms get
heavy
see what i did there
i walk into my coliseum for the day and
as i go through the white smoke i see so
many faces of people ready to see what
they’ve all paid their hard earned money
for
anxiously my brain switches from i’m the
best that’s ever done this
so what the hell am i doing here who do
i think i am
but i gather myself
act like i’ve been here before like this
is nothing
as the leader and the captain of this
team
it’s my time to address everyone
i stand tall
knowing they’re all here to see me
staring at me ready to hang on to every
single word i say
good evening everyone my name is brandon
copeland but you can call me
professor coat
that was my first day at my new job a
starting nfl linebacker working in the
off season as an ivy league professor at
his alma mater the university of
pennsylvania it caught the attention of
a few people and when i sat down in
interviews i was constantly asked so
teaching
is that your post career plan your
backup my answer to the question has
always been some version of
hell no
and after seeing teachers try to educate
my seven-year-old twin niece and nephew
virtually this year i strongly stand
behind that statement
education isn’t a side hustle
i care about sharing what i’ve learned
along my own personal journey with
others it’s just what i’m passionate
about
although a lot of outsiders saw this as
a stunt a way to create a safety net in
the form of my next career
i was just a young man pursuing a
passion of mine
we’ve all heard that you need seven
sources of income to build wealth
however we also commonly hear that plan
b distracts from plan a we live in this
culture of side hustles
but
is it really a hustle or is it something
that can provide us with financial
security
how many of us
are thinking of those side hustles as
true legitimate businesses as passions
we first mobilize and then monetize
now let me take you back a bit further
all the way to the 1940s
where a boy is born
in georgetown mississippi
but this boy’s father died prior to his
birth
however he had a strong beautiful mother
there to raise him and his siblings by
herself
now
he’s just five years old and he and his
brother are in the living room playing
during a thunderstorm
while his mother souls from her rocking
chair in front of the window
out of nowhere both of lightning crashes
through the window and strikes his
mother with so much force that he and
his brother are knocked off of their
feet and against the walls of the room
rendering both of them completely
unconscious
he woke to a room with pieces of his
mother’s candy red white polka dot dress
stapled to the walls
at only five years young this young boy
was an orphan
moving from one home to another
he went to live with his aunt and uncle
in mississippi on by blood uncle bob
marriage
unfortunately his uncle took some sick
frustrations he had with the world out
on him
he was abusive even making this young
boy eat a rat
at 13 years old this young boy mustered
up enough courage to run away from this
terrible situation and towards an
unknown
but what he hoped would be a better life
a young black boy
running away alone
in mississippi
in the 50s
young black boy
on his own
in mississippi
in the 1950s
fast forward to 1960 and somehow with
all of these obstacles stacked against
them many which would be considered
justifiable excuses to lose all hope on
life’s potential this young boy managed
to keep a’s and b’s on his report card
throughout high school
graduates from jackson state university
and goes on to be the 15th round draft
pick to the nfl’s baltimore colts in
he played in the nfl for 11 years nine
for the colts one for the new york
giants and one for the atlanta falcons
he played in super bowl three against
joe namath nicknamed the greatest game
ever played and super bowl five where he
played a pivotal role in defeating the
dallas cowboys
on his journey this young boy hit more
roadblocks than i could count hell his
car broke down the gps stopped working
and there was traffic too
but he
never stopped
this young boy was resilient
this young boy was courageous
this young boy is my hero
this young boy became
my grandfather roy hilton
unfortunately my grandfather passed away
on january 6th of 2019
and since then i’ve had the opportunity
to reflect on his impact on my life
way beyond both of us playing in the nfl
or even for the same team but through
his unique perspective on the world and
all that he has survived
my granddad gave me a life’s worth of
experiences through some of the simplest
sayings in the world
now
growing up my mother working extremely
hard to provide a valuable education for
her two sons would often have to choose
between taking me
her firstborn
best looking
most intelligent
most athletic and
well you get the point
she would have to choose between taking
me to school or risk being late to work
this meant on some days my grandad will
be getting an uber call from my mother
at six in the morning
to give some context
school was an hour away from my home and
30 minutes away from my grandfather’s
house
first off i don’t know who consistently
picks up the phone this early especially
out of their sleep but to my amazement
every time my grandfather would and
every time he’d say yes to driving me to
school
he looked at it as an opportunity to
spend time with one of his six grandsons
so without fail he would get out of his
sleep to pick up the phone and ask what
time will you be here
as we drove to school we always seem to
be at the mercy of traffic
a five-minute delay in getting out of
the house could be the difference
between a smooth ride and
bumper-to-bumper traffic
frequently however we will be driving
along minding our own business listening
to a smooth jams radio station when out
of nowhere traffic would just pile up on
us
without fail my grandfather exhaling his
frustration and stretching his neck to
peek around the traffic was never
satisfied with waiting
after a couple peaks
left
and right
he began to move the car ever so gently
out of the lane
and after a few peaks he would say cope
you know what
what’s up granted
it’s a poor rat that only has one hole
huh
i said it is a poor rat that only has
one hole
before i could respond granddad would
start to make some rapid cuts in and out
of the traffic choo choo choo choo
and get us onto a path that took us
smoothly
to the front door to school
thanks for the ride granddad you’re
welcome colt do you need me to pick you
up
no i think my mom is getting me okay
well call me if you need me thanks
granddad i love you i love you too colt
it’s a poor rat that only has one hole
i didn’t realize it at the time but this
phrase was my granddad’s way of pouring
his entire lifetime of wisdom and
experience on me in just nine simple
words
what he was actually saying was
we must expect
and prepare for the unexpected
if we had only one hole to rely on a
single way to get to school
when the unexpected happens and it was
cut off we would have no way of reaching
our end destination in time
by having more than one route to get to
the school my grandfather literally
guaranteed that we would get there on
time
even if it meant me jogging into the
door at 7 59 a.m
my grandfather ultimately had four or
five paths to get to the same place so
that regardless of what life threw at
him
he would find a way to reach the
destination
what if your plan a doesn’t work out
does that mean the journey to your
personal finish line ends right there on
the spot for you
you see your career is not the
destination
it is simply the vehicle
we can switch cars along the way but
ultimately reaching the destination is
all that matters
i love my granddad’s story
because it has always been a powerful
reminder to me that there is literally
no excuse
i can come up with valid enough for me
to not create the life that i want
while we all face our own battles
his struggles to simply survive
seem like they come straight from a
movie
this scenario the destination was school
the car was just where we sat the road
was just what we traveled
but the destination has his focus it
didn’t matter if he had to off-road or
throw me on his back and run the last
few miles he was going to get us to our
destination on time
in order for us to take complete
ownership of our lives we must remember
this simple nine word phrase one that my
granddad taught me on our car rides to
school
envisioning and claiming your why is the
first step in creating security for your
life
realize that your chosen career path or
side business is simply a vehicle
that will help you reach your end goal
you may change cars or switch routes
along the way hell even the people
riding with you may change but
ultimately nothing prevents you
from reaching your
destination brandon copeland is not
simply a football player
or a professor
you are not just a doctor or a lawyer a
student or a teacher
these are just vehicles that describe a
part of us
a passion or a hustle that we’ve been
blessed enough to just monetize
these are merely tools to help each of
us reach our end destinations because at
the end of the day
that is what life is all about
ultimately nothing and i literally mean
nothing
should prevent you from getting to your
destination
so the next time we are faced with a
challenge or obstacle trying to prevent
us from reaching our own destinations
we must remember
it is a poor rat that only has one whole
thank you for the life lessons grandad i
love you and i will see you after school
you