February 13, 2024 • 23 mins
The BluePrint Connect Podcast LIVE is an extension of this year's 7th annual, 2023 Waymaker Men's Summit. "Dive into the world of success, ambition, and inspiration! Join us for a special podcast episode featuring Chicago’s very own, Dwyane Wade and WAYMAKER Founder & CEO, Louis Carr. Discover their insights on adaptability and career challenges, as Wade emphasizes the importance of pursuing dreams and surrounding oneself with supportive allies. Explore themes of growth, community giving, and familial guidance as Wade shares personal experiences and life lessons. Dive into managing discomfort and chaos with resilience, and uncover Wade's reflections on the power of obsession and building a supportive network for success.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm Lewis Carr, host of the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Waymaker Men
some where we have consistently given men a prescription for growth,
not just for themselves, but also their families and their communities.
During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate our listeners
(00:25):
about entrepreneurship, careers, finance, health and relationships. We're at the
seventh annual Waymaker Men Someone in Chicago. This episode is
brought to you by Procter and Gamble. P ANDNG is
dedicated to providing branded products and services of superior quality
(00:45):
and value that improve the lives of the world's consumers
now and for generations to come. We're live at the
seven annual Waymakers Men Someone in Chicago, So welcome to
this special podcast episode. I'd like to introduce to you
our next guest, the twenty twenty three recent Hall of
(01:07):
Fame inductee, three time NBA Champion, one of the newest
owners of the Chicago scot and author of his own memoir,
A Father First, my friend Dwayne Where.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Welcome to the Waymaker Studio. We have very special guests here.
You know it's special because when Lewis Carr shows up.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You know it's real. We're here with Lewis.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Carr and none other than Dwayne Hall of Famer Dwayne Wade.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Man, that sound good head again.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hall of Famer Dwayne Wade, Dwayne Welcome man, good to
see you here.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
It's good to be here. Man.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I'm thankful for Lewis, make sure that I came here
and the energy I felt just now in that room
with a young man and a molder gentlemen as well.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
It felt good, man, feel like I was talking to family.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, you're getting right to the first question, because talk
about what it feels like to be here at this
summit with all of these men and being able to
relay some conversation to them, some stories about some lessons.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Man, you know, we walked through life sometime and we
don't feel like maybe like we belonged at times.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I've been in Africa, so I know what the difference is.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I know what it feels like when your feet on
the ground you feel like you belong somewhere versus where
you go somewhere you feel like a visitor.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
And so most of the.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Time and a lot of rooms are going or the
walk through life, I feel like a visitor, but in
a room like today, you know, I felt like that
felt like the crib, fel like my home.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
So I felt good being in that.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Man, Like I told Litis other, I was like, man,
we could have talked for a few more hours, like
you know what I'm saying in front of this audience,
because I know we walk in the same journeys in life,
in some of the same stories, and so it was
just great to be in there.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, then I want to thank you for coming because
it was so important, as you could see in that room,
for them to hear from somebody who came from the
same communities that they live in. Now that you hadn't
forgot those communities, that you hadn't forgot people like them,
and that even at your success, you still understand the
importance of communicating and being part of a community. So
(03:06):
thank you so much for that.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know, it's interesting do Ane sitting here on the sofa.
I've had so many guys sit here just over the
last couple of days doing these podcasts whose professional athlete
dreams died somewhere along the way. Many basketball players who
didn't continue on for different reasons, yours didn't die. You
(03:29):
kept going. You're a Hall of famer. Talk about what
it's like to be successful, and talk about what it
was like really to keep going, because certainly there have
been challenges along the way.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
In your career. Yeah, well, my R and B dreams died,
so you couldn't tell me. I thought I sound good
in the shower, baby, But.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
I do feel like you know, I feel lucky, I
feel blessed, I feel all that feel so many emotions
to be a kid and to have a dream and
do something. From the first the first dream I can remember,
it was a basketball dream. I mean I wanted to
be a football player somewhere in there too, but basketball
was what I gravitated to. And to know that my
career was that right, I got a chance to actually
(04:12):
live that dream. And you know, one thing throughout my career,
which I always told myself, no matter through the injuries,
no matter through the times where you know I perceive
myself as the best in the game, was you know,
make sure that I make make sure that I'm not
just trying to do something for other people to hush them.
Make sure that I'm doing this to make sure that
(04:33):
I show myself that what I said and who I said,
I am, that I am, that that I am correct,
that this player that I think I am, or this
person that I think I am, And so I tried
to focus on that in my career more than I
try to focus on Oh man, okay, I got haters.
Let me show the haters. Don't show the haters. Show yourself.
Because we all say what we would do, what we
could do if we got opportunity, and I got one,
(04:54):
and I try to take full advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Talk about what's driven you to that point because you
were drafted the year you would draft may have been
one of the best draft years ever.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
We think about the people who came.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Out Lebron, Carmelo Bosh, you talk about talk about what
it was like and what's driven you to get to
the levels that you've got.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Well, first of all, man, just that drift class. I mean,
I know we got some basketball. You know, some basketball
headsn't here, so they probably say that was not the
best one.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
But arguably said it was the best one. You know,
it was that was pretty good.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
But to be a part of one of them, you know,
obviously you could take it how you own.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You could take it.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
As pressure, right, we got to live up to this,
or you can take it as opportunity. And so I
didn't need to be You need inspiration along the way.
Some days you don't feel like you have it, some
days you don't have it right. But I didn't need
to be driven. I was driven from how I was raised.
You know, that was just something that it was just
in me. Like as I said on the Stay, I
(06:00):
was driven by watching my dad get up every morning,
go to work, grind or something to try to put
some food on the table. Sometimes he wasn't able to
do that. Sometime he wasn't able to provide, but he
still kept getting up. And so that fall down, stand
up eight model for me really came from my childhood
of watching you know, my people fall down but keep
getting up every day. And so because of God, you know,
(06:22):
blessed me with the opportunity to be able to have
this talent in basketball, I took those same principles and
applied them to basketball, which made me a great player
because of the matter how many times I was knocked down,
I was gonna keep getting back up and go provide
for my family every day. And so put all that together,
put a couple of good days together. You fucking around
and have a good career.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I want to ask you about you know, family. We
have a biological family and we have family that we
sort of becomes part of our family along the way.
We share a family member named Andre King. He's been
with you for a lot. On my nerves, he's been
big for a long time. Talk about the importance of
those rides that people in your life.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Man, Listen, the older you get, the more and more
you realize you need those rout of die people in
your life.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And you know you're going to.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Be exposed to who's not raw of die versus who is.
And when you get to, you know, grow older in life,
you get to actually choose, you know, your rout of
die or your friends or your family. You know, I
think it means even a little bit more when you
actually choose, because you're choosing people that you know cover
up your weaknesses, that you protect your weaknesses and things
(07:32):
of that nature. Right to me, I'm building a team.
And so you know, it's been great man. You know,
Dre just turned six, So my guy just turned sixty.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
And for me to be a young.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Guy going through this life going through these world like
having someone who has actually been forty one before or
thirty seven whenever I was, and has experienced life at
that time helped me out in so many different times
where I thought it was like the world was blowing
up or everything. He's like, kid, I've been thirty seven before.
You be all right, you know you're gonna survive this.
(08:02):
And so just have a mentor, like I said, of
stage in life and whatever capacity they are in. It's
so important, man, for us to be able to get
that knowledge, like we need that knowledge just as much
as we need the knowledge that's in these books.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
We need the knowledge from.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
People who's actually experienced life, has done things that we're
gonna do what we're gonna see as black men. And
so I appreciate you know, my gy Andre and all
the individuals like Andre that are in people lives to
just give back what they know, and I be selfish
with it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And giving back happens on so many different levels. And
this is for both you and Lewis. This summed and
all you've done to bring all these men together. This
has really been special, Lewis, and I've been here before
last year, but this is when you just kN knocked
the ball out of the park. I want you to
talk about what it means to you to have this
summit happen now. And I like to talk to you
(08:53):
as well about your philanthropy, because you've done some phenomenal
things there too.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
But Louis talk about that well. For me, you've heard
me say this Rufe has so many interviews. I'm trying
to pay back this debt that I know can never
be paid. All I can do is pay interest, so
it'll be an ongoing mortgage that all oh to all
of the people who helped me and poured into me,
and I continue to give them every single day. I mean,
(09:20):
having this relationship with Dwayne, I mean that's very very special.
You see how this audience responded to him. We had
d Rose yesterday, we had Nick Cannon this morning, we
had David Mann. I mean, these are people who understand
what I'm trying to do because people have poured into
them also, so it's not this strange thing that like
(09:42):
why is he doing it? They understand intimately why I'm
doing it because all of us kind of grew up
in the same type of places with the same type
of challenges. We didn't know if we're going to get out.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We all were trying.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
We got out, and now we're saying, hey, we owe
something back to those communities and to those those people
who were trying to do the same thing that we did.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
You and that rufus we got.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Out, went to lang Tech High School, all right, the
only two from our school, only two from our school,
and we were in this uncomfortable place being at lang
Tech because it was all white and we had to
swim new Absolutely, we still don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Why we had Dwayne's got that look.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, it was something about that. I still ask people
why were we swimming naked?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
They're like, I wonder why I left after my freshman year.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
To jump in on the philanthropy part of it. I
I didn't get my back to school booklets and pencils
and pins and jackets and stuff from the store. Got
it from the church. We didn't get our food from
the grocery store all the time. We got it from
the church.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
We were the family that were in line when other
families gave away clothes or the church provided that government
cheese with that bread and that macaroni and cheese, and
that that box that we got so I remember that
I remember being a kid, and that's that was our lifeline,
receiving those things from other people.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And so I said, if I ever.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Getting a place in a position where I can get
back in any capacity, it is my duty and my
job to do that, to make sure that I'm providing
for other kids that other families like mine that it
was in need and dire need of things. And I
mean even showing up. Sometimes all you need is somebody
just to show up.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
You know. I remember being a kid and hearing about.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Celebrities that showed up at other schools, and I was like, man,
I just want somebody to show up at ours. Nobody
comes to our community to show up, and so I
just try to show up, you know, at times where
I can. And so being able to have these platforms,
you know, light weightmaker and the platform it allows us
the space to show up the way that we.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Can we want to.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
And Son, it's just the philanthropy part is it's not
even it's just life.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
It's a way of life.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Will be right back with more of my interview after
this quick break.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
When you've also mentioned family a few times in your conversation,
and you've been an incredible father and an incredible son.
Talk about some of the challenges that you've had there
and how you've just been able to be solid what
those things are and what that means.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, I mean, and the challenges my parents had challenges
way before I was born, and trying to trying to
navigate this world and trying to find out how to be.
And you know, you put kids involved in that. While
you're trying to learn how to be in life. There's
gonna be some mistakes that's going to be made, and
so I'm sure some things that my parents were worn back.
(12:47):
But you know, in the midst of that, you know,
I learned a lot and I take a lot of
things that my parents taught me and what they didn't
teach me at.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
The same time, what I had to learn.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
I try to provide those, you know, with my kids,
you know, just some as simple as you know.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
I always felt like I was I was a very
quiet kid that.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Was misunderstood at times, right, but no one really listened.
Adults didn't listen to us. Your kids stand a kid
place and those never listen. But I have something I
wanted to say, and you know, I try to allow
that space for my kids, to actually give them moments
where I listen.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Because they have something that they want to say.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
And not only is me listening to them is going
to help them feel better about themselves, It's gonna help
me feel better and know that I can understand my
kid better. And so the way I go by man
is I go by I understanding that my kids are
going to be adults and they're gonna be running this
family one day, and it's my duty and my job
to impart, you know, life lessons on them and to them,
and I treat them like they're kids.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Because they're not anymore, you know, covey is, but modlmost.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Not and love them where they love them how they
want to be loved, and then give them all the
things that I know they need from me as well.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I want to follow the theme of this conference, which
is being in uncomfortable situations and finding your way through it,
finding your way to something think positive from the uncomfortable
situations that you've been in. Share with us in an
uncomfortable situation that you've been in and how you've worked
your way through that.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Let's see being uncomfortable and everything, but just personally probably
going through my custody battle with my kids. That probably
was one of the most uncomfortable times because it was public.
You don't want to deal with, you know, your family
business in the public. When I grew up, my mom
and dad wasn't together, but my mom and dad was
best of friends to this day, best friends. That's all
(14:33):
I knew, that's all I seen. And it was a
little different for me in my journey, and that was
an uncomfortable place to be in and as you know,
being in the NBA, but also having the negative light
that I had, all the things that was you know,
being portrayed about me, but ended up being one of
the best things that happened to me. I learned so
much about life. I learned so much about myself. I
learned so much about being grown into being trying to
(14:55):
become a man in that, you know, in that experience
with you know, trying to be a to my kids
in the midst of all the madness. You know, it's
a lot of it's gonna be a lot of chaos
in the world. Anybody out there listening understand that it's
always gonna be chaos provided and it's gonna be on
you to figure out how to focus on in the
middle of the chaos, what's important and what's needed from you.
(15:16):
While we had this coach Spoe in Miami, they brought
it in the Navy Seals once and we did this
this thing together with the Navy Seals.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Say hey, we're gonna do ten push ups on my account.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Okay, all y'all got to do is to ten pushing unisons.
And so we did the first five, but one two
as a team. By the time we got the five,
all the Navy Seals starts screaming, they start yelling, they
start coming in our ear. In the midst of that,
the chaos start going, and now they start yelling things
and now you got one doing a push up. When
we were supposed to write the chaos, we couldn't be in
(15:47):
unison no more. And so you have to figure out
how to focus in the middle of chaotic situations. And
to me, you know, that's something that we would I
have to continue to do. I never I didn't grow
up want to be a celebrity or for people to
know and care about everything my family do.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
It's not something that I want it and.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
So I have to I have to realize what's chaotic
and what's real and I have to be able to focus.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Do it all except now you are, So how do
you manage that? Because your life is public, we see
everything that you do. When people are looking to see
everything that you do, how do you manage it?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
So many different ways. Sometimes I sit back, I open
up a bottle of wine. That's how I manage it
on that night, you know what I mean. Some nights
I'll pull up the drake creb at five in the
morning and he in the bed and now manage it
like that.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Come downstairs. I need to talk.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Sometimes, you know, I reach out and I reach out
to a therapist because I need to manage it that way.
I meditate. I need to manage it that way. Sometimes
I need to just deal with it. I need to
manage it that way. You reach out to mentors. There's
so many different ways to manage things. You got to
find and you got to find out what's needed from
you in that moment of how you're going to manage it.
Because none of us know how to do this thing
(16:54):
called life. We are every day we get there. We
got to create what this day looks like because these
days is different. And so I found so many different
ways to manage and and not cope.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I don't want to use I don't want use.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Coke because we cope through medicines and addictions and things
like that. So I've tried to find so many ways
to manage chaoticness of my life that I didn't know
was going to be a part of my life. I
just wanted to play basketball. I want to be great,
and I want to make some bread. That's all I
wanted to do. Well, Yeah, then I got all the
other things come with it.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I got a lot of articipated Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Louis, how'd you come up with this theme for this conference?
What was the inputus behind that? It's simple for me.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
If you go to my New York office in fifteen
fifteen Broadway, sort of a glass window just like we
have here, and I have the work growth on it.
About each letter is about twenty four inches high, and
everybody thinks, because I do what I do in charge
of revenue, it's about money. It's never about about life.
So my assistant always says, would you tell people what
(17:57):
that means? Because everybody stops and asks me, like, why
does he have growth on his office window?
Speaker 3 (18:03):
It's about life.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I don't think if you're not growing, then you're retreating,
you're going backwards. There's no such thing as I'm good,
I'm staying the same. There's just no such thing as that.
So either you're going to grow or you're going to
go backwards. And I think we all want to grow.
I think that's what our families need. I think that's
what our communities need. But there's no growth by being
(18:27):
in the same comfortable place. You have to be uncomfortable
when you think about some of the most uncomfortable to
learn how to swim, all right, you learn how to swim.
You're uncomfortable until you learn how to swim. Then you
learn that and then you go to the next level.
So I said, hey, our men need to grow, our
(18:49):
families need to grow, our communities need to grow. And
the key part about it is to make yourself uncomfortable.
I talked to Duwayne on stage. You know, coaches, that's
what they do. That's why they be screaming at you
all right, to take you in that uncomfortable place so
you can beat that.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Think about Dwayne and I remember watching some of the
games here in the summertime, some of the All Star
games that took place here in the summertime with then
and ren the and the other folks. You may have
been the first person I ever saw play defense, and
it was kind of interesting because nobody ever played defense.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
But there you were, still.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
In the gone doing things weren't supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When you think about the changes that you make and
the fact that you made it to the Hall of Fame,
what do you.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Attribute most to your ability to be able to get there?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Man, I think the ability to be able to adapt
is probably you got to be able to adapt to
whatever circumstances and situations you're put in.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
You know, I said from a basketball standpoint, it would
have been easy for me in my career.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
My whole career was Hey, you're going to get the
ball for sixteen years and you're just going to run hype,
picking and rolls.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
All right, I know what to do. But it wasn't that.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
It was Hey, of the bench and on this team,
Hey you got to you gotta you know, you got
to backcut on this team.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Hey we need you to set screens and like whatever
it is.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I have to be adaptable, and I think for me
and my career, you know, that's what That's the thing
I love about my career is that I didn't.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Just do it one way.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I found multiple ways to try to be successful and
always wanted to be adaptable. You know, I always tell
my son, don't never put yourself in a position where
coach don't look down on that bench and he can't
put you in You got to be able to do
it any and everything. If he need you for two
seconds to go in there and trap somebody, he better
know that you can bring that kind of energy and
that kind of smart to be able to go with
trap this person so we can get a steal, whatever
(20:35):
it is. And so I've always I've always wanted to
be that. That's why my dad celebrated in me. He
never celebrated thirty five points. He celebrated fifteen, ten assists
and rebounds, celebrated being overall and not just one thing.
And so for me, I've never wanted to be and
even in business, I don't want to be just one thing.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
That's why I'm.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Involved in so many different things because I've always want
to make sure that you know, I'm adaptable in whatever
room going.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
The way, You've been wonderful and generous with your time
being here and with your person and sharing all these things.
And I know we have to let you go unfortunately,
but I'll ask you just one more question. If you
think back, and I asked Lewis this question when I
had a chance to talk to him a few weeks ago,
if you look able to look back to an earlier
Dwayne Wade, what's the advice that you would give to yourself.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
I mean, I get to look back at anytime I
come in the room like this. Every time I see
one of these kids, these kids out here, I go
right back to that was me. That was me, you know,
I think along the way, man, I've been blessed. So
I can't say that, you know, I think I did
the things I would have told a young doing, you
know alone the way I know that things are going
(21:45):
to happen in life, and you know what we got
to be We gotta be ready to deal with them.
And so I can't say I wish those things didn't happen,
because it was meant for me to go through it
and deal with it.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
So someone else possibly may not right.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
And so I believe that the things that made me
successful is you know, especially our kids today, they live
in a world where people are getting a chance to
comment on them in real time, right, they able to
hear all the things that people say about them in
a negative way.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
But you got to be able to shut that out.
You got to be able to be, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Closed minded to someone that's not celebrating your dream. If
you're not celebrating my dream, you are not in my
You don't get a chance of being my orbits.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
You don't get a chance to be in my energy space.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
And so you know, you can use things for motivation,
but keep people around you, keep things around you that
celebrates and puts you the path to your dream and
what you feel like you're on this earth to accomplish
and do.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And don't let nobody get in the way of that.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
I ask my son all the time, are you obsessed
with your dream? I shouldn't care about it more than
you. You have to be obsessed about it. And so if
you got something that is for you and that you
feel like God has put you on his earth to
do or you feel like you want to do, then
be obsessed about it and don't allow nobody in your
energy space that don't celebrate that and don't help you
get to that.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I once had a chance to stand and have a
conversation and with Michael Jordan and doctor j and I
went back and said, I am now on the best
three on three team ever, just because it was the
two of them and I was there. I think this
is this threesome sitting here now compares very well with that.
Dwayne Wade, Lewis Carr. Thank you both for all that
(23:18):
you did.
I'm Lewis Carr, host of the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Waymaker Men
some where we have consistently given men a prescription for growth,
not just for themselves, but also their families and their communities.
During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate our listeners
(00:25):
about entrepreneurship, careers, finance, health and relationships. We're at the
seventh annual Waymaker Men Someone in Chicago. This episode is
brought to you by Procter and Gamble. P ANDNG is
dedicated to providing branded products and services of superior quality
(00:45):
and value that improve the lives of the world's consumers
now and for generations to come. We're live at the
seven annual Waymakers Men Someone in Chicago, So welcome to
this special podcast episode. I'd like to introduce to you
our next guest, the twenty twenty three recent Hall of
(01:07):
Fame inductee, three time NBA Champion, one of the newest
owners of the Chicago scot and author of his own memoir,
A Father First, my friend Dwayne Where.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Welcome to the Waymaker Studio. We have very special guests here.
You know it's special because when Lewis Carr shows up.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You know it's real. We're here with Lewis.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Carr and none other than Dwayne Hall of Famer Dwayne Wade.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Man, that sound good head again.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hall of Famer Dwayne Wade, Dwayne Welcome man, good to
see you here.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
It's good to be here. Man.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I'm thankful for Lewis, make sure that I came here
and the energy I felt just now in that room
with a young man and a molder gentlemen as well.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
It felt good, man, feel like I was talking to family.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, you're getting right to the first question, because talk
about what it feels like to be here at this
summit with all of these men and being able to
relay some conversation to them, some stories about some lessons.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Man, you know, we walked through life sometime and we
don't feel like maybe like we belonged at times.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I've been in Africa, so I know what the difference is.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I know what it feels like when your feet on
the ground you feel like you belong somewhere versus where
you go somewhere you feel like a visitor.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
And so most of the.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Time and a lot of rooms are going or the
walk through life, I feel like a visitor, but in
a room like today, you know, I felt like that
felt like the crib, fel like my home.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
So I felt good being in that.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Man, Like I told Litis other, I was like, man,
we could have talked for a few more hours, like
you know what I'm saying in front of this audience,
because I know we walk in the same journeys in life,
in some of the same stories, and so it was
just great to be in there.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, then I want to thank you for coming because
it was so important, as you could see in that room,
for them to hear from somebody who came from the
same communities that they live in. Now that you hadn't
forgot those communities, that you hadn't forgot people like them,
and that even at your success, you still understand the
importance of communicating and being part of a community. So
(03:06):
thank you so much for that.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know, it's interesting do Ane sitting here on the sofa.
I've had so many guys sit here just over the
last couple of days doing these podcasts whose professional athlete
dreams died somewhere along the way. Many basketball players who
didn't continue on for different reasons, yours didn't die. You
(03:29):
kept going. You're a Hall of famer. Talk about what
it's like to be successful, and talk about what it
was like really to keep going, because certainly there have
been challenges along the way.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
In your career. Yeah, well, my R and B dreams died,
so you couldn't tell me. I thought I sound good
in the shower, baby, But.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
I do feel like you know, I feel lucky, I
feel blessed, I feel all that feel so many emotions
to be a kid and to have a dream and
do something. From the first the first dream I can remember,
it was a basketball dream. I mean I wanted to
be a football player somewhere in there too, but basketball
was what I gravitated to. And to know that my
career was that right, I got a chance to actually
(04:12):
live that dream. And you know, one thing throughout my career,
which I always told myself, no matter through the injuries,
no matter through the times where you know I perceive
myself as the best in the game, was you know,
make sure that I make make sure that I'm not
just trying to do something for other people to hush them.
Make sure that I'm doing this to make sure that
(04:33):
I show myself that what I said and who I said,
I am, that I am, that that I am correct,
that this player that I think I am, or this
person that I think I am, And so I tried
to focus on that in my career more than I
try to focus on Oh man, okay, I got haters.
Let me show the haters. Don't show the haters. Show yourself.
Because we all say what we would do, what we
could do if we got opportunity, and I got one,
(04:54):
and I try to take full advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Talk about what's driven you to that point because you
were drafted the year you would draft may have been
one of the best draft years ever.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
We think about the people who came.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Out Lebron, Carmelo Bosh, you talk about talk about what
it was like and what's driven you to get to
the levels that you've got.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Well, first of all, man, just that drift class. I mean,
I know we got some basketball. You know, some basketball
headsn't here, so they probably say that was not the
best one.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
But arguably said it was the best one. You know,
it was that was pretty good.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
But to be a part of one of them, you know,
obviously you could take it how you own.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You could take it.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
As pressure, right, we got to live up to this,
or you can take it as opportunity. And so I
didn't need to be You need inspiration along the way.
Some days you don't feel like you have it, some
days you don't have it right. But I didn't need
to be driven. I was driven from how I was raised.
You know, that was just something that it was just
in me. Like as I said on the Stay, I
(06:00):
was driven by watching my dad get up every morning,
go to work, grind or something to try to put
some food on the table. Sometimes he wasn't able to
do that. Sometime he wasn't able to provide, but he
still kept getting up. And so that fall down, stand
up eight model for me really came from my childhood
of watching you know, my people fall down but keep
getting up every day. And so because of God, you know,
(06:22):
blessed me with the opportunity to be able to have
this talent in basketball, I took those same principles and
applied them to basketball, which made me a great player
because of the matter how many times I was knocked down,
I was gonna keep getting back up and go provide
for my family every day. And so put all that together,
put a couple of good days together. You fucking around
and have a good career.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I want to ask you about you know, family. We
have a biological family and we have family that we
sort of becomes part of our family along the way.
We share a family member named Andre King. He's been
with you for a lot. On my nerves, he's been
big for a long time. Talk about the importance of
those rides that people in your life.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Man, Listen, the older you get, the more and more
you realize you need those rout of die people in
your life.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And you know you're going to.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Be exposed to who's not raw of die versus who is.
And when you get to, you know, grow older in life,
you get to actually choose, you know, your rout of
die or your friends or your family. You know, I
think it means even a little bit more when you
actually choose, because you're choosing people that you know cover
up your weaknesses, that you protect your weaknesses and things
(07:32):
of that nature. Right to me, I'm building a team.
And so you know, it's been great man. You know,
Dre just turned six, So my guy just turned sixty.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
And for me to be a young.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Guy going through this life going through these world like
having someone who has actually been forty one before or
thirty seven whenever I was, and has experienced life at
that time helped me out in so many different times
where I thought it was like the world was blowing
up or everything. He's like, kid, I've been thirty seven before.
You be all right, you know you're gonna survive this.
(08:02):
And so just have a mentor, like I said, of
stage in life and whatever capacity they are in. It's
so important, man, for us to be able to get
that knowledge, like we need that knowledge just as much
as we need the knowledge that's in these books.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
We need the knowledge from.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
People who's actually experienced life, has done things that we're
gonna do what we're gonna see as black men. And
so I appreciate you know, my gy Andre and all
the individuals like Andre that are in people lives to
just give back what they know, and I be selfish
with it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And giving back happens on so many different levels. And
this is for both you and Lewis. This summed and
all you've done to bring all these men together. This
has really been special, Lewis, and I've been here before
last year, but this is when you just kN knocked
the ball out of the park. I want you to
talk about what it means to you to have this
summit happen now. And I like to talk to you
(08:53):
as well about your philanthropy, because you've done some phenomenal
things there too.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
But Louis talk about that well. For me, you've heard
me say this Rufe has so many interviews. I'm trying
to pay back this debt that I know can never
be paid. All I can do is pay interest, so
it'll be an ongoing mortgage that all oh to all
of the people who helped me and poured into me,
and I continue to give them every single day. I mean,
(09:20):
having this relationship with Dwayne, I mean that's very very special.
You see how this audience responded to him. We had
d Rose yesterday, we had Nick Cannon this morning, we
had David Mann. I mean, these are people who understand
what I'm trying to do because people have poured into
them also, so it's not this strange thing that like
(09:42):
why is he doing it? They understand intimately why I'm
doing it because all of us kind of grew up
in the same type of places with the same type
of challenges. We didn't know if we're going to get out.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We all were trying.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
We got out, and now we're saying, hey, we owe
something back to those communities and to those those people
who were trying to do the same thing that we did.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
You and that rufus we got.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Out, went to lang Tech High School, all right, the
only two from our school, only two from our school,
and we were in this uncomfortable place being at lang
Tech because it was all white and we had to
swim new Absolutely, we still don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Why we had Dwayne's got that look.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, it was something about that. I still ask people
why were we swimming naked?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
They're like, I wonder why I left after my freshman year.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
To jump in on the philanthropy part of it. I
I didn't get my back to school booklets and pencils
and pins and jackets and stuff from the store. Got
it from the church. We didn't get our food from
the grocery store all the time. We got it from
the church.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
We were the family that were in line when other
families gave away clothes or the church provided that government
cheese with that bread and that macaroni and cheese, and
that that box that we got so I remember that
I remember being a kid, and that's that was our lifeline,
receiving those things from other people.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And so I said, if I ever.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Getting a place in a position where I can get
back in any capacity, it is my duty and my
job to do that, to make sure that I'm providing
for other kids that other families like mine that it
was in need and dire need of things. And I
mean even showing up. Sometimes all you need is somebody
just to show up.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
You know. I remember being a kid and hearing about.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Celebrities that showed up at other schools, and I was like, man,
I just want somebody to show up at ours. Nobody
comes to our community to show up, and so I
just try to show up, you know, at times where
I can. And so being able to have these platforms,
you know, light weightmaker and the platform it allows us
the space to show up the way that we.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Can we want to.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
And Son, it's just the philanthropy part is it's not
even it's just life.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
It's a way of life.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Will be right back with more of my interview after
this quick break.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
When you've also mentioned family a few times in your conversation,
and you've been an incredible father and an incredible son.
Talk about some of the challenges that you've had there
and how you've just been able to be solid what
those things are and what that means.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, I mean, and the challenges my parents had challenges
way before I was born, and trying to trying to
navigate this world and trying to find out how to be.
And you know, you put kids involved in that. While
you're trying to learn how to be in life. There's
gonna be some mistakes that's going to be made, and
so I'm sure some things that my parents were worn back.
(12:47):
But you know, in the midst of that, you know,
I learned a lot and I take a lot of
things that my parents taught me and what they didn't
teach me at.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
The same time, what I had to learn.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
I try to provide those, you know, with my kids,
you know, just some as simple as you know.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
I always felt like I was I was a very
quiet kid that.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Was misunderstood at times, right, but no one really listened.
Adults didn't listen to us. Your kids stand a kid
place and those never listen. But I have something I
wanted to say, and you know, I try to allow
that space for my kids, to actually give them moments
where I listen.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Because they have something that they want to say.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
And not only is me listening to them is going
to help them feel better about themselves, It's gonna help
me feel better and know that I can understand my
kid better. And so the way I go by man
is I go by I understanding that my kids are
going to be adults and they're gonna be running this
family one day, and it's my duty and my job
to impart, you know, life lessons on them and to them,
and I treat them like they're kids.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Because they're not anymore, you know, covey is, but modlmost.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Not and love them where they love them how they
want to be loved, and then give them all the
things that I know they need from me as well.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I want to follow the theme of this conference, which
is being in uncomfortable situations and finding your way through it,
finding your way to something think positive from the uncomfortable
situations that you've been in. Share with us in an
uncomfortable situation that you've been in and how you've worked
your way through that.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Let's see being uncomfortable and everything, but just personally probably
going through my custody battle with my kids. That probably
was one of the most uncomfortable times because it was public.
You don't want to deal with, you know, your family
business in the public. When I grew up, my mom
and dad wasn't together, but my mom and dad was
best of friends to this day, best friends. That's all
(14:33):
I knew, that's all I seen. And it was a
little different for me in my journey, and that was
an uncomfortable place to be in and as you know,
being in the NBA, but also having the negative light
that I had, all the things that was you know,
being portrayed about me, but ended up being one of
the best things that happened to me. I learned so
much about life. I learned so much about myself. I
learned so much about being grown into being trying to
(14:55):
become a man in that, you know, in that experience
with you know, trying to be a to my kids
in the midst of all the madness. You know, it's
a lot of it's gonna be a lot of chaos
in the world. Anybody out there listening understand that it's
always gonna be chaos provided and it's gonna be on
you to figure out how to focus on in the
middle of the chaos, what's important and what's needed from you.
(15:16):
While we had this coach Spoe in Miami, they brought
it in the Navy Seals once and we did this
this thing together with the Navy Seals.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Say hey, we're gonna do ten push ups on my account.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Okay, all y'all got to do is to ten pushing unisons.
And so we did the first five, but one two
as a team. By the time we got the five,
all the Navy Seals starts screaming, they start yelling, they
start coming in our ear. In the midst of that,
the chaos start going, and now they start yelling things
and now you got one doing a push up. When
we were supposed to write the chaos, we couldn't be in
(15:47):
unison no more. And so you have to figure out
how to focus in the middle of chaotic situations. And
to me, you know, that's something that we would I
have to continue to do. I never I didn't grow
up want to be a celebrity or for people to
know and care about everything my family do.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
It's not something that I want it and.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
So I have to I have to realize what's chaotic
and what's real and I have to be able to focus.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Do it all except now you are, So how do
you manage that? Because your life is public, we see
everything that you do. When people are looking to see
everything that you do, how do you manage it?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
So many different ways. Sometimes I sit back, I open
up a bottle of wine. That's how I manage it
on that night, you know what I mean. Some nights
I'll pull up the drake creb at five in the
morning and he in the bed and now manage it
like that.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Come downstairs. I need to talk.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Sometimes, you know, I reach out and I reach out
to a therapist because I need to manage it that way.
I meditate. I need to manage it that way. Sometimes
I need to just deal with it. I need to
manage it that way. You reach out to mentors. There's
so many different ways to manage things. You got to
find and you got to find out what's needed from
you in that moment of how you're going to manage it.
Because none of us know how to do this thing
(16:54):
called life. We are every day we get there. We
got to create what this day looks like because these
days is different. And so I found so many different
ways to manage and and not cope.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I don't want to use I don't want use.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Coke because we cope through medicines and addictions and things
like that. So I've tried to find so many ways
to manage chaoticness of my life that I didn't know
was going to be a part of my life. I
just wanted to play basketball. I want to be great,
and I want to make some bread. That's all I
wanted to do. Well, Yeah, then I got all the
other things come with it.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I got a lot of articipated Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Louis, how'd you come up with this theme for this conference?
What was the inputus behind that? It's simple for me.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
If you go to my New York office in fifteen
fifteen Broadway, sort of a glass window just like we
have here, and I have the work growth on it.
About each letter is about twenty four inches high, and
everybody thinks, because I do what I do in charge
of revenue, it's about money. It's never about about life.
So my assistant always says, would you tell people what
(17:57):
that means? Because everybody stops and asks me, like, why
does he have growth on his office window?
Speaker 3 (18:03):
It's about life.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I don't think if you're not growing, then you're retreating,
you're going backwards. There's no such thing as I'm good,
I'm staying the same. There's just no such thing as that.
So either you're going to grow or you're going to
go backwards. And I think we all want to grow.
I think that's what our families need. I think that's
what our communities need. But there's no growth by being
(18:27):
in the same comfortable place. You have to be uncomfortable
when you think about some of the most uncomfortable to
learn how to swim, all right, you learn how to swim.
You're uncomfortable until you learn how to swim. Then you
learn that and then you go to the next level.
So I said, hey, our men need to grow, our
(18:49):
families need to grow, our communities need to grow. And
the key part about it is to make yourself uncomfortable.
I talked to Duwayne on stage. You know, coaches, that's
what they do. That's why they be screaming at you
all right, to take you in that uncomfortable place so
you can beat that.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Think about Dwayne and I remember watching some of the
games here in the summertime, some of the All Star
games that took place here in the summertime with then
and ren the and the other folks. You may have
been the first person I ever saw play defense, and
it was kind of interesting because nobody ever played defense.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
But there you were, still.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
In the gone doing things weren't supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When you think about the changes that you make and
the fact that you made it to the Hall of Fame,
what do you.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Attribute most to your ability to be able to get there?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Man, I think the ability to be able to adapt
is probably you got to be able to adapt to
whatever circumstances and situations you're put in.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
You know, I said from a basketball standpoint, it would
have been easy for me in my career.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
My whole career was Hey, you're going to get the
ball for sixteen years and you're just going to run hype,
picking and rolls.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
All right, I know what to do. But it wasn't that.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
It was Hey, of the bench and on this team,
Hey you got to you gotta you know, you got
to backcut on this team.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Hey we need you to set screens and like whatever
it is.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I have to be adaptable, and I think for me
and my career, you know, that's what That's the thing
I love about my career is that I didn't.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Just do it one way.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I found multiple ways to try to be successful and
always wanted to be adaptable. You know, I always tell
my son, don't never put yourself in a position where
coach don't look down on that bench and he can't
put you in You got to be able to do
it any and everything. If he need you for two
seconds to go in there and trap somebody, he better
know that you can bring that kind of energy and
that kind of smart to be able to go with
trap this person so we can get a steal, whatever
(20:35):
it is. And so I've always I've always wanted to
be that. That's why my dad celebrated in me. He
never celebrated thirty five points. He celebrated fifteen, ten assists
and rebounds, celebrated being overall and not just one thing.
And so for me, I've never wanted to be and
even in business, I don't want to be just one thing.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
That's why I'm.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Involved in so many different things because I've always want
to make sure that you know, I'm adaptable in whatever
room going.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
The way, You've been wonderful and generous with your time
being here and with your person and sharing all these things.
And I know we have to let you go unfortunately,
but I'll ask you just one more question. If you
think back, and I asked Lewis this question when I
had a chance to talk to him a few weeks ago,
if you look able to look back to an earlier
Dwayne Wade, what's the advice that you would give to yourself.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
I mean, I get to look back at anytime I
come in the room like this. Every time I see
one of these kids, these kids out here, I go
right back to that was me. That was me, you know,
I think along the way, man, I've been blessed. So
I can't say that, you know, I think I did
the things I would have told a young doing, you
know alone the way I know that things are going
(21:45):
to happen in life, and you know what we got
to be We gotta be ready to deal with them.
And so I can't say I wish those things didn't happen,
because it was meant for me to go through it
and deal with it.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
So someone else possibly may not right.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
And so I believe that the things that made me
successful is you know, especially our kids today, they live
in a world where people are getting a chance to
comment on them in real time, right, they able to
hear all the things that people say about them in
a negative way.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
But you got to be able to shut that out.
You got to be able to be, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Closed minded to someone that's not celebrating your dream. If
you're not celebrating my dream, you are not in my
You don't get a chance of being my orbits.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
You don't get a chance to be in my energy space.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
And so you know, you can use things for motivation,
but keep people around you, keep things around you that
celebrates and puts you the path to your dream and
what you feel like you're on this earth to accomplish
and do.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And don't let nobody get in the way of that.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
I ask my son all the time, are you obsessed
with your dream? I shouldn't care about it more than
you. You have to be obsessed about it. And so if
you got something that is for you and that you
feel like God has put you on his earth to
do or you feel like you want to do, then
be obsessed about it and don't allow nobody in your
energy space that don't celebrate that and don't help you
get to that.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I once had a chance to stand and have a
conversation and with Michael Jordan and doctor j and I
went back and said, I am now on the best
three on three team ever, just because it was the
two of them and I was there. I think this
is this threesome sitting here now compares very well with that.
Dwayne Wade, Lewis Carr. Thank you both for all that
(23:18):
you did.
Host
Louis Carr
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