Vince Young: From NFL Star to Super Dad: Vince Young's New Life! | Live Life by Design #27

Alchemy Fest 2024 I'm excited to announce that Doug cartright and Alchemy sales are launching their third Alchemy Fest this is going to be the best one yet I will be there you will have exclusive access to me a lot of my trainings my design work so that you can dominate in all aspects of life I focus on the whole person Paradigm and I will help you live your life by Design through my framework that you will receive at Alchemy Fest join us at Alchemy Festival 2024 from October 4th through the 7th at Camp Navaro in the Redwoods of California head over to the link in the description and remember to use code llbd 2000 for the special discount that I am offering can't wait to see you there now let's all jump into this next episode all right welcome Vince Young to Introduction: Jeff Mendez welcomes Vince Young the show thanks for being here um what are you up to nowadays what's keeping you busy kids and so they at that age of how many how many kids you got three kids so I got two girls and a boy so uh they all Vince Young's current life and family in sports they all living their own life and you know you know how it is it's it's this time of the year that they trying to figure out who they are their identity so um you know I wish I was still playing ball but uh it didn't happen how I wanted to but uh I'm just happy that I'm a part of their Liv this the important part of their life the teenage years um so how how old your oldest uh 14 14 be 15 coming up yeah and is he playing she oh she the old is the baby is the boy and my daughter is going to be turn 15 in October so uh but yeah they keep me busy and then what kind of sports are they playing uh they running track just about everything golf you know they all about they love tracking swimming and my son's football and basketball and uh track and my girls are running track and swimming and volleyball that's cool so you're super busy yeah full yeah well my wife and I only have my boy but I had two girls before I got married so um you know they all over the Houston area and you know Houston is huge so hon everything is 35 to 40 minutes dve country with traffic so you got to you know know your you know get your butt up and get out the house a little bit earlier when you want to make their games and these type of things so you got to know that point about about Houston yeah no doubt and then tell me this like you've been a dad for a long time now 14 plus years um parenting advice what have you learned that you're like man this is working what I used to do didn't work and this this is actually a good guiding principle for you fathers out there well patience is the the main thing so so uh if you can handle traffic LA traffic New York traffic Houston traffic you can you can handle a kids so Parenting advice and the importance of patience uh I tell people there's no book to it me you can try to read books there's books out there but to me I go off instincts I go off uh you know just love you know um you want that that young man that young lady um to be the best they can be even better than you and and the mother um so I was I tell my son today I want him to be better than me because I'm better than my dad my dad was not around he was in jail strung out on drugs he wasn't around I don't really have a relationship with him um so I took that in my everyday life to have a relationship with my kids you know with my daughter and my son to know that dad's going to always be here um I don't put my hands on them I just kind of change my voice tone yeah uh but you know that love and you know I say with sports wise because I go a lot of these games a and be in these places a lot of people are too rough on their kids uh I can tell you that just to be a father um don't try to be a coach U so I tell my son and my daughter I'm not here to be coaching you I'm here that I'm your dad I'm proud of you if you do good or bad I'm enjoying watching my baby play um so I can tell I tell parents that uh try not to be too hard on them because that's going to I feel like that's going to mess them up in the future because you being too hard on them and then you got to hand them off to another person a coach that's that's probably how he coach or she coaches tough and you know your your kid might break down so I I tell people to kind of just chill out little chill out and support your kid and then be very patient because this generation of this life with the social media all the stuff that they have going on uh you just got to be patient with them U and then you know and have dinner a lot of people don't have dinner with their kids as a family um I think a lot of families have took that out of it I really feel like that helps me my family we eat we eat dinner together we talk we talk about everything we go to the movies together The value of family dinners and therapy we do a lot of personal things together to to make him or my daughter feel comfortable when is that time for them to talk to me yeah how often that's beautiful and I don't do a good job at having family dinners it's tough yeah and my excuses I got five kids you know I've got my oldest is 23 my youngest is 12 all kinds of crazy schedules three actually out of the house now how often do you strive to have that family dinner is it a nightly thing or is it a few times a week just curious uh probably because I agree with you I think so many cool things can happen at the dinner table yeah I mean you can't have it just about every day but you know you can try to you know uh probably twice or three days a week I try um and even if I'm not uh you know with my immediate family my wife and son I still go and you know have go to her game and then you know her mom and and my daughter will go eat dinner after the game and we'll talk about everything how you feel blah blah blah and then we go about our business but that main point is is like you want them to be comfortable with their parents instead of someone else you know what I mean a lot of times uh your kids uh will get to the point that they not comfortable with their parents um so what I did I I I uh went to therapy with my kids I go to therapy for myself and then I do therapy with my kids so I don't want them to go through that to health problem issues that they kind of keep stuff botle in you know how it is right now a lot of kids are doing that but I tell a lot of people like it really helped me to um you know go to therapy you know once or twice a week when I can with my kids so I was it was it hard at first going to therapy it was hard for me when I cuz you know being a man you kind of like you don't feel like you need it yeah especially I'm I'm guilty of that especially in my generation from where I'm from my background my household um you you don't go to therapy you kind of go to your pastor uh you go to your coach you kind of try to get um that mentorship and things like that for them but they're not quote unquote certified for that you have to go get a someone that's certified I know what they're doing and um when I got my second DWI um I went and went to THB here and actually in Malibu um for a month and a half and changed my life and now I'm at peace I used I got tools now that help me when I go through different situations I didn't know that not having my father around triggered me a lot uh with attitudes and getting accept getting upset and stuff like that I didn't know that till I talked to an expert wow and the expert taught me a lot about myself so now how Vince’s personal growth through therapy I'm dealing with things in my life now uh I have to take a step back and kind of think and re-evaluate the situation and also be quiet and just listen to some people sometimes that's beautiful that's that's a that's a super power right there it's just yeah so I'm trying to add that to my kids too today that's fantastic now let me let me ask you this you mentioned just loving your kids whether they do well not do well you still love them Etc has it always been that way because being the elite athlete that you are you know cter intuitively I would assume people would assume that you expect the absolute Excellence on the field so has it always been that way where you kind of just let them do their thing and not over Coach them yeah I mean when you uh understand the background of it uh when you went through the pain uh when you go through the good and bad um sometimes a lot of kids don't react to constructive criticism as they should um I didn't accept it in a way yeah um until I got older and older and started to talk to my coaches and understood what they was doing uh and if you can't handle constructive criticism and you can't handle somebody on your butt you're not Balancing love and discipline in parenting going to be successful in life period not just in sports or anything because they really they own your butt because they see potential in you um so just take that as um an opportunity or accept it that you you're going in the right direction they see potential in you to be a leader or outstanding whatever you may be in life they see that in you so you want to take constru construction criticism to better yourself um so it took a little while for me I used to throw my helmet I used to throw the ball to throw my mouthpiece get upset uh used to get upset with my mom growing up but um just to see it now as I'm a parent now you start to see all the things that your mom was doing to you or your coaches they saw the potential in you and they wanted you to be great so now I'm trying to teach my kids that that hey I'm not you know when we talk I'm not saying this to be yelling at you like I'm saying this because I love you and I want the best out of you I want you to be better than me so when you hear your coach on your butt he's not on your butt because he just messing with you or he he's trying to get on your nerves you know how they think no he see potential in you now it's a problem when somebody don't talk to you now you might need to get your together if nobody's talking to you they mean they don't see anything in you so you need to flip that it's like they say pressure is a privilege exactly so that's kind of how I kind of teach my little rascal I love it and then in in a bio that I read when I was you know doing my research you credit your mom and your grandmother for helping you you stay out of gangs um maybe elaborate on that if you don't mind yeah I mean growing up in har Clark Houston Texas it was mostly Growing up in Houston and avoiding gang life prominant you know Black and Hispanic so you pretty much if you ain't playing sports then you definitely out in gang selling drugs or being a running run man for the head guy or whatever getting in trouble stealing fighting you know all of above but I have some strong women in my household my mom and my grandmother even though my mom was kind of out there partying and strugg on struck out on drugs as well but she changed her life around um probably like 30 something years ago 36 years ago and you know you know one of the things that the road I was going down I was doing a lot of negativity negative stuff as a boy would do when you have that type of environment you're going to feed into it and you know that one day I got in trouble in middle school going to uh going into spring break and it was a big big fight everybody was fighting it was Hispanics against blacks blacks against spanic it was gangs against gang it was just a bunch of mess and um you know I got in trouble I got in handcuff they put me took me to the back and called my mom and she had to come get me and you know as the were the the drive home all I would you know as she screaming and holling like she F to whoop my butt when I get home the message that I got out of it like you going to end up in jail you're going to end up crippled or dead if you keep you know keep going down the road that you got you going down and that's pretty much what I was seeing U from Friends getting shot at some getting killed um some going to jail that's pretty much what I was seeing and I was hanging out with these guys um trying to prove myself to them and or trying to be a follower I guess and on that that ride home that was the message that I got out of all that screaming and hollering that you you go end up in jail crippled or or dead and that's pretty much what was going on around me so I had to kind of make a change and start doing some different things uh in that summertime that that summer came up so you had that that encounter you had that incident you know you're handcuffed Etc was that the main pivotal point was that like the last straw or did it or was it you know other events that kind of LED you know choosing excellence in sports it was to no extent to that point no not no more my a gr year was totally just focused playing ball um uh she kept me away I was doing a basketball so in the summertime I wasn't there with the rest of the guys getting in trouble so she kept me away it's like they say idleness is the devil's workshop exactly if you think about it anytime we did dumb things as kids it's we were bored exactly there's nothing else to do so we got into trouble got in a lot of troubles so what I try to do as a dad um Choosing sports over a troubled path and I'm sure you have the same philosophy and your grandma and your Mom it sounds like they did as well is we got to keep our kids busy busy with the good stuff correct I want my kids so tired that they don't want to do this dumb stuff they don't want to do the devil's workshop thing so parents out there keep your kids busy keep them busy put them in golf put them in dance put them in theater stay with them like do the dinners care yeah be present cuz you know I mean going around right now is just a lot of people like what is wrong with these kids I just I just feel like the parents are not involved at all so the parents are on Tik Tok and Tik Tock or out partying yeah uh I just seen somebody in Houston had their six month year old six month year old baby in the garbage can like what is going on like what is wrong with you like you saying drugs and parting is more important to this baby yeah and you put him in a dumpster like it's sad so it's to the point like as parents if you young or old I feel feel like it's the younger ones but you know you just have to understand like you know it's places you can drop your kid off more than a a dumpster yeah you know there's places you can do that at so try to get your life together man okay now let's talk about your your uh football career college absolutely dominated what are some of the highlights of your college career when you look back and you're like man those were some amazing times what first comes to mind out of so many cool things that you did well graduating for one knowing that a lot of people doubted me and hated me uh didn't feel like I was going to do it and was going to make it so graduating and making it to the pros uh staying focused throughout those years of um excitement fun um meeting some Highlights of Vince's college football career special guys car uh teammates coaches fans I mean it was a great experience uh yeah tell tell me about the fans how are the fans wow UT fans University of Texas fans they are amazing um still to this day uh you know I can't barely even walk around Texas without someone coming up and just want to say thank you and I'm very proud of you I like I love the way you represent your your family yourself and as well as the University of Texas so um for them to acknowledge that you know it brings a lot of um um humbleness to me because it goes back to mom and grandmother how to way they raised me and they all know uh my grandmother and Mom because in the stands before every game my mom made everybody hold hands and pray and when I go around and meet people like man your mom I love them every time we go to the game or a road game they get us all to together to pray before all not just our players but the opponents and everybody so um just to hear that just to know that's you know how I'm raised so it's it's amazing that our fans still to this day they they they are wonderful fans and they are definitely going to travel they're going to support you not only just in sports but after Sports as well that's awesome are you involved with the University at this point I'll pretty much be involved with the university for the rest of my life so yeah the university is kind of like when you go to UT it's kind of like Experience with University of Texas fans you there you B you stuck you're not going nowhere that's cool the alumni base is uh um really outstanding they they make sure you they take care of you they help you with you mate whatever business and things that you're trying to get into uh uh they definitely there to help you out in any way Co you need talk to us about your pro days talk talk to us about the league Pro days was fun too man I I mean I miss it death and I love watching it still to this day um I got a good lot of relationship with a lot of quarterbacks um from from jayen to to you know from Patrick Mahomes from everybody I got a relationship from Lamar Jackson all these guys and they all a lot of respect for me uh for all the stuff that I have done in my my career and it's just a fun game man it's a good Brotherhood you know I can pick up a phone that can pick up their phone and anybody and we going to answer Mike Vic is one of my close friends I mean it's just we all keep in touch with each other Tom Brady we all had the same agent so we all keep in touch with each other we're happy always to see each other um it's just it's really good to neat to see how everybody's doing well uh everybody's a father now taking care Transitioning to the NFL and pro football memories of the kids the ones that retired but uh NFL was fun man I had my hiccups in Tennessee with Jeff fiser and things like that and I mean we forgave each other and moved on wish we could have you know kind of finished that that team in the right way but you know that's the pass but um to see the Tennessee Titans still doing good that should have a good year this year so it's the Dream came true you know it's not easy to make it to NFL a lot of people think is easy uh because you're like well you made it look easy yeah well it wasn't easy at all but um you know it's it's a dream come true to to make it to be on the front cover Madden you know uh cuz we played at Madden just about every summer when I was growing up on Sega Genesis uh all the all the games that they had back in the day um so uh to still be uh um Vince’s near-death experience at age seven involved with the NFL to this day is is is pretty cool that's awesome um you had an accident at age seven right that was pretty much a near-death experience definitely yeah if you don't mind tell us about that and tell us what pivotal moment that was for you and learning lessons there well I was riding my bike not paying attention so coming from a friend house and I guess he was chasing me on the bike and I'm trying to get away from him and I turned the corner wasn't paying attention and got here by a car and definitely saw the blue light if they say the blue light is not real let that's a lie blue light I saw the blue light and uh almost didn't didn't survive man I almost died right there on that corner and 4700 TI Water Texas almost passed away but God uh kept me here on Earth and to do what I'm doing right now so uh definitely was a a scary moment for my whole entire family um you know I had to be in the hospital for some months uh dis ruptured something my kidney or something I forget what it was still got a scar to this day but it definitely uh one of those people moment is that you know you better be careful on that bicycle it's very dangerous and I think that's the time we was always making sure kids have put on helmets I did a whole safety study and everything so I think a lot of kids at that time was getting hit by cars a lot um in my my my area in my neighborhood but it was definitely a a scary moment for me um yeah I mean it's when you see I mean those lights it's it's like the saying that says right it's when you have health you can have a thousand wishes when you don't have health you got one wish mhm so I think those those near-death experiences and I you know I had something happen to me probably about eight months ago where I got really ill and was pretty much staring death in the face and the money the you know the the house the cars none of that Reflections on life and health after the accident stuff mattered no all that mattered was making sure sure that I could get back and be with my kids and and be with the family so I think you know life happens for us it doesn't happen to us and maybe you having that incident at such a young age just propelled you into a lot of what you've become today and it's probably prepared you to be the the great father that you are Etc so gifts gifts just keep on keeping if you as you get old you start to recognize and focus and see things a little bit different compared to when you was younger so you know I'm glad you you better you safe um couple more questions this has been phenomenal um uh books any favorite books that you want to recommend things that you something that you've studied that you would say you guys should definitely read this book yeah well Financial anything Financial wise there's always a help especially like you know me not coming from a background for that um you know anything Financial I I'll say is do you have a favorite Financial book that you want to recommend uh I mean the the what's the one um I gave it out to kids and I read it um I forget the name of it right now Financial literacy and recommended reading but dad's Rich Dad P Rich yes uh so that was a a game changer for it's a game changer isn't it and it explains it so so really detailed and easy for you to understand he really breaks it down there's another one by the way I don't know if you've read cash flow quadrant cash flow yeah cash flow quadrant it's also by Robert kosaki okay where essentially he talks about there's four quadrants right so there's the investor quadrant there's employee self-employed and then there's business owner MH so we're we're in one of those quadrants and there's certain quadrants that you want to be in more than most so for instance if you're self-employed let's say you own a landscaping company but if you're on the lawn mower all day you don't really own a company you own your job which is fine as long as you understand that you're in that quadrant for reason correct employee obviously you're working for a company you're more than likely on W2 investor you're making money off the profits off the cash flow so forth and so on entrepreneur you you you own the business right it comes with all the rewards but also it's a lot of headache and heartache and everything else yeah a lot of work so I would recommend that book yeah Quant so yeah that's a that's a major deal when you come from a background that you not in financial illiterate so uh I was a family that came from a financial illiterate I was the first to Staying competitive through golf graduate in my family I was the first to make you know millions and uh still doing pretty good to this day um so I try to you know help my mom she went back to school my sisters went back to school you know I motivated my whole entire family um anytime I come in contact with friends like they're doing this like well you might as well just start your LC if you doing it you know start your own company and you know build it up how you supposed to do it the right way um compared to how you doing it now so and then um you know kind of you know try to help most people I can because again you don't want to just keep all this knowledge you want to make sure the next person anybody you come in contact with have the opportunity to be great as well so yeah it's like I always say knowledge is not power um knowledge is potential it's the application of knowledge that's power so it's helping other people being just pushing people to be great so and it's not hard so you just got to get your butt to work and and then also it's not going to happen overnight I wish people would stop thinking it happens overnight yeah it takes some time and work to get there yeah it takes forever it's an eternity um and then what do you do to stay because obviously you have you you're a competitor what do you stay what do you do to stay competitive are you playing any golf or what are you doing your golf golf crazy right now uh I just playing this past week so golf uh I still run the morning when did you start playing golf uh what was about my seventh year in the leag I really picked it up the pandemic um didn't we all yeah so I was already playing but um pandemic kind of kind of took off I went to Golf Tech and yeah so so before the pandemic people would invite me to play golf they'd be like hey let's go golf and I'm like uh I'd rather give a talk at church I don't want to go golfing and now I can't get enough of it I'm addicted to it especially you got good Fellowship good people around that's what makes it Vince’s philosophy on living life by design yeah yeah and then you got kids playing golf you said yeah my son plays my daughter she just now starting to play um so I play a lot of golf um that's my kind of your fix meditation Competitive Edge relaxing turn my phone off kind of chill that's awesome and I walk too so oh you walk you don't use a cart ever uh sometimes it depends how is you know it's it's bad in Houston right now yeah human wise but if I'm somewhere like today here in LA or somewhere it's a little cooler than I get steps in for sure yeah then I run in the morning I still not every day but probably Sundays and three days a week awesome I can't miss Sunday if I miss Sunday I'm have a bad week so something after church after we eat with the family or before church or whatever then I you know get the date the week going beautiful so okay last question I want to ask you name of the show Live Life by Design you know instead of living it by default you're actually telling your life what it's going to look like you're the architect of it um what do you want to leave us with what recommendations would you have for the viewers on living your life more by Design instead of just living your life by the wayside living your life by default what would your advice be well I'll just say more positive energy that's what I do when I walk out my house after I pray and get my family together before I walk out my house um I know I'm to the world because um um kind of like I'm Vince Young in Texas so I can't go anywhere without kind of like trying to be ducked off or something like that so I always want when people come into my environment I want to always give out positive energy that's beautiful uh so um no matter what you're probably going through um those people that come up to you really loves you and Final thoughts and positive energy respect you for a reason so anytime I do a Beach anytime I ENT something with kids or adults or well I always ask them can y'all do me a favor you know can you guys give out more positive energy for the world cuz our world is kind of like upside down right now and there's a bunch of negative energy so I try my best anytime I come in pres with anybody I try to always try to be positive so beautiful I'll leave that to you all right brother appreciate that with that said that's a w mic drop