Speaker, author, former NFL linebacker, and CEO of Matt Mayberry Enterprises, Matt Mayberry, shares the 3 big failures in his life that shaped him, the similarities between the field and the boardroom, and why you shouldn’t forget that you are extraordinary.

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He is a former NFL linebacker with the Chicago

Bears. His name is Matt Mayberry. He also played at IU

Indiana University. Was team captain from 2009 to 2010 he is

one of the movers and shakers in the world of speaking. He works

with some of the NFL teams, NBA teams. He shared the stage with

Stedman Graham, and he's just an all around stud and good guy. So

Matt Mayberry, welcome to the show, my friend.

Pleasure to be here.

Can you tell us your story? Because it's like you

made it, and then you have this, this ankle thing, like, just

kind of walk us through how you got started and how you how you

made it to the NFL.

Well, you know, really, it started for me, you

know, I really have three big failures in life that I always

come back to. It all started for me when I was a high school. I

was raised by two wonderful parents provided me and my

brother with really everything that we needed. I had to be

successful young men and really be difference majors in this

society. One of my first big failures came when I entered

high school. I think when we enter high school, we're around,

you know, more opportunity for peer pressure to make wrong

decisions. And that's what happened in my life, you know, I

always say associations, everything. I started hanging

out with, you know, guys doing drugs and doing, you know,

things that they shouldn't be doing, breaking the law, you

know. So basically, I was becoming a keen drug addict at

16 years old. And to put that in perspective for you, I'm not

just talking about a little marijuana here and there. I've

done every single drug besides heroin. That's the life I

started to enter. You know, robberies, getting arrested. You

know, cocaine, almost every day, getting suspended every other

week. My best sport growing up was baseball. You know, people

that were close to me knew that baseball was my best sport and

that I probably could get drafted out of high school.

Well, two months later, I ended up getting kicked off the

baseball team because I stole one of my teammates while and

the other side of the story is it wasn't just a teammate, it

was one of my good friends. So, you know, you see what a dark

place I was in and, you know, my fifth and he came one night

after I went to an outpatient rehab facility, I missed school

for about a month. This was my only way to stay in school. This

is my only way really to keep living. My guidance counselor

called me ID in prison or dead by my 18th birthday, before my

18th birthday, that's what I was being told. So I knew that there

was only one way out now to go to outpatient rehab and and try

to get better. After two weeks in the program, I came home one

night, had a conversation with my father. And, you know, like

every other conversation when I was drugged out and being the

way that I was for the past three years, you know, anything

that he said went in one ear and out the other Well, for some

reason this time, I just started to hear him more in depth. And,

you know, really, it started to hit me and run through my mind,

body and spirit. And after that conversation, I went in the

bathroom, and for the first time in three years, I looked myself

in the mirror, and I hated what I saw. I saw a monster. I saw

anger, I saw disgust. I just hated what I saw. I started to

realize, you know, all the terrible things that I've done

in this world, all the people that I've heard, all the drugs

that I've done. I got in a fight with my father before I broke

both of his ridge. You know, my mother has seen me do cocaine,

personally, all the stuff that I've hurt the people that love

me most through I started to see that those memories started to

play through my mind. And I go into my room, and I really just

cry out to God, and that's when I really get deep into my faith.

That was all I had left at that time. You know, as I talk about,

you know, a lot faith into the miracle. You know, you're not

going to get a miracle overnight, but what will happen

is you can, you'll get clarity and peace of mind and direction.

And that night, when I asked, What can I do to get out of this

better place? What can I do to pay back those people that I

hurt most, and athletic came to mind. That was the only thing I

knew. I knew I only had football. I got kicked off my

baseball team, so I have football right here, right now.

A scholarship was the first one that came to mind. That's how I

could pay back my mother and fire. That's how I could pay

back my grandparents that I nearly killed from all the

stress I put them through. I mean, I think when you're, you

know, grown parents have, you know, cried to you almost every

night for the past two years, and you know, you've seen your

grandparents who were like parents as well in your life,

almost completely die from everything that you've done, you

know, other other stress and how pain to put them through. I'm

so. It wasn't very powerful. It wasn't about what can I do? It's

about what can I pay back those people? And, you know, my father

always just hoped, and I'll put a Bible throughout the house. I

put a motivational book throughout the house. And it

just so happened at a, you know, the late great Zig Ziglar folks

here at the pop was laying on my back, and for whatever reason, I

saw, you know, the chapter was open. We're talking about the

power, of gold. And that's why I truly discovered that that goals

can change our lives, that goals could take it to the next level.

And I from, you know, we all hear about goals and how

important they are, but once we fully know how to set goals, the

proper and correct one, and once you know how to carry out and

you know, make definite plan to achieve those goals, our lives

will never be the same again. And I learned this at 17 years

old. I wrote a goal next year I will have the division one

scholarship. I didn't say, get a division one scholarship. I

said, I will have a division one scholarship next week day I go

into school. Everyone still thought I would drop. Everyone

still thought I was high because I was going in there saying,

Hey, I'm getting a visual on scholarship. I'm going to

Tennessee, to Alabama. I already started head schools and made up

in my mind. No one would believe me. Everyone doubted me. That's

when I devoted seven days a week. My parents helped me out.

They hired a speed coach. I needed to factor. They hired a

strength coach. I had to get younger for seven hours. I'm a

weekend to devoted every ounce of effort. I researched schools

that I had to, you know, get in contact with coaches, phone

numbers, emails, long story short, after so much blood,

sweat and tears, you know, night that I almost cried just because

I wired it so bad, I ended up with 19 Division One scholarship

offers. A year later, I ended up closing Indiana University

Manny, for one reason, I still get it today yet tonight,

football powerhouse, temperature. Some of the other

offers I had, which was Georgia, Georgia pack, Maryland, but I

connected real well with the late coach, Terry Heppner, big

mentor to Ben rock with burger, he told me, Matt, if you come to

Indiana, you won't just become an asset. You become a bright

young man that will make a tremendous difference in this

world. I promise you that you'll be more successful outside of

football then you ever will be inside of football.

So what was your big kind of second failure?

Well, my big second failure came when I was,

you know, as you previously mentioned, you know, projecting

me to go in the third round of the NFL draft. You know, I was

feeling good. I performed well, how my workouts, all the teams

that I met with, the workout with, for with the patriots,

Chicago Bears. So feeling good. You know, me and my family

really thought that I was gonna go in the third fourth month. So

as a player, you already have that made up in your mind. You

know, get the big signing bonus. Okay, you got a little bit of

security, if there's a such thing called security in that

league. So I'm feeling good, and we'll come Draft Day. I didn't

get back Tennessee Titan called me. I'll take a listen to fourth

round. So give my family around TV. We're getting ready to fit

you. They didn't pick, pick someone else. They can happen

three other time throughout that night. And I think a lot of

people, you know, they don't understand the severity of how

that makes you feel when you really project you to go, you

know, in a certain round, you don't get drafted at all. A lot

of things have to question, you know, am I getting up to playing

a big am I? Am I as good as I thought I was? You start to

question your Billy. And luckily, 20 minutes later, that

kind of, when I talk about my blessing in disguise, Chicago

Bears from calling me Jerry Angelo, the general manager

offer me a free agent contract I sign right there. Next thing you

know, I'm a Chicago bear. You know, hometown kid playing for

the hometown King. Kind of a Cinderella story. Everyone in my

community kind of broke the story, and now everyone's not

rooting for me. And that enters my third biggest failure that

kind of really shocked my whole world, which, you know, as I

said, everyone in the community, everyone kind of built up this

Cinderella kid story, rooting for me. Have a great training

camp. I work my way from 14 to second king behind land bridge

playing the San Diego charges on beautiful Saturday evening out

in sunny San Diego, California, second quarter, big 320 pound

lineman comes crashing down on my ankle with all the adrenaline

and everything built up in a first NFL game, I said, Okay,

you know, I might have sprained my ankle. Well, the following

day, when I wake up and I'll continue to play throughout that

game, I had a great game, actually, even though I had a

missed back opportunity, it was still a pretty good game for me,

the rookie, my first outing. But the next day, when I get out of

bed, I completely collapse and I realized, oh no, that can't be

good, because I know that under fells first thing the big

business, big money business, and that decisions have to be

made. Why go into this facility? Good treatment. That's when I

realized that they're going to pick me. We'll get MRIs ray

comes back, that I can put the core bone off my ankle. I'll be

out for nine months. And I knew that...

This is your first game? It happened in your first game?

My first game as a rookie. And then, you know,

obviously, as you know, as a rookie, you can't afford that. I

knew, hey, I'm out for nine months. I still remember sitting

down with my head down. The doctor walked in and said, Matt,

you won't be stepping on a football field anytime soon. I

said, What do you mean, Doc? He says, Matt, you completely tore

a pulling off your ankle. You know, you continuing to play in

that game hurt. You know your ankle. What it was, I said, Now,

what do you mean? This is my dream. I'm living my dream. What

do you mean? You're out for nine months. You know that this is a

part of the game. There's nothing I could do. There's

nothing that you could do except heal and Rise and go to therapy

and do what you got to do to get it healthy. I said, but I'm a

rookie. They're going to cut me. What do you mean? You know why I

was saying that to the doctor. I knew we couldn't do anything,

but I knew that my parent, the dark place, the drug addict of

me, everything was just starting to circulate through my thought

process, you know, man, this is it. You know, we reached an

injury settlement with the Chicago Bears. It means I take

my money and I go my way. You go your way. And, you know that

kind of when you know I was depressed, I was anger. I mean,

that was one of the worst times in my life, because I've really

felt that I was the biggest failure walking, even though, as

an athlete, you can't control injuries, but I felt that that

was the biggest failure.

So let me ask this now, Matt, so you go through this

whole thing, you have this, this up and down story, and such a

great story of redemption. So I know now, as you look to the

professional world and and what you're doing, do you find a big

resemblance, you know, or connection to sort of the

mindset of being successful in companies compared to performing

in professional or division one athletics?

Absolutely, you know, that's why, wherever I go,

you know, I always talk, even if you know the executives in the

audience I'm speaking a corporation or a conference, you

know, I always say, I personally believe, in my personal stories,

that athletics degrees teacher of all. And you know, even if

they want an athlete, obviously they're not going to be an

athlete, you know, five or 10 years from now. And maybe even

that they might have a son or a daughter that you know might be

at age that they want to go into athletics, and my hope is that

one day they get to experience truly, one of the greatest

teachers of all of life. You know, what it teaches about

ourselves and our characteristics and the daily

disciplines in order to be successful? Um, athletics is

just unbelievable in that respect. But to answer your

question, absolutely, I see 100% resemblance between the top

athletes, between the top executives, and not only that,

and from an individual standpoint, from a collective

team standpoint, the top performing corporations compared

with the top performing teams in athletics.

What are some of those characteristics like, what are

some of those things that they have in common?

Number one is vision, first and foremost. And

I think we know as a football team, you walk in the beginning

of the season, Eric and you have one goal of doing the Super Bowl

every single team meeting that you have, you revisit that

subject. And not only that, you know exactly what you have to do

in order to get to that big show. You know what you have to

do day in and day out. Everything is scripted. You have

a set routine, set schedule. The same thing is transferred over

in the business arena. You you have one goal, your one mission,

one vision. You know you 510, even 510, years from now the

business world. But every single day, everybody has to be bought

into that vision, every single employee.

So I guess the part that I didn't know so much about your

story was the low points. If somebody's listening right now,

Matt, and let's say that they're going through one of those low

points, what advice would you give to that person?

Yeah, I think that the first advice is number

one. Just know that you're extraordinary. I think so many

kinds. When we've been hit repeatedly over in light, day in

and day out, we forget how powerful we are. We forget that,

you know, hey, we truly are extraordinary. We come from an

extraordinary guy, and I think once we can first realize that

aspect, we're destined for greatness, no matter how dark

kinds may be throughout life, if we just continually move

forward, find ways to better ourselves, day in and day out,

work to become the best version of ourselves. We will get there.

It's a matter of time.

Well, I admire your courage and stay the path. And

thank you for being here.

Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me.