Many times people come to me for advice about a lot of topics. Whether it's sports, taking chances, public speaking or working with kids. And it's funny but sometimes the best advice you can give to people is not to take other people's advice and to live their own dreams. One of my favorite quotes says "Most of the things in the world were said to be impossible before they were done." I remember in the fall of my senior year at Villanova. My college coach asked us to write down our goals. He wanted our team goals first and then he wanted our individual goals . I don't remember everything that I wrote down. What I do remember writing is that I wanted to be on the All-America Team, which meant I would be one of the top 15 players in the whole country. I also wrote that I wanted to be drafted to the NBA. 
For some strange reason the revelation of my individual goals, really pissed my coach off because they were so "lofty." I remember him calling me into his office and he said "John, forget about going to the NBA. Just focus on what you can do as a player here at Villanova. You're not going to get drafted. You'll be better once you get that pressure off of yourself." I recall shaking my head, nodding yes and leaving his office. My goals didn't waiver one bit. I never for a second listened to him. I was not going to "shrink my dreams to fit his reality." I had the best year of my college career as a senior. I didn't make the All-American team, but I did do enough to get in this picture above. I did do enough to win a championship ring and play for the best franchise in the NBA. Unless there is some kind of trick photography here, as you can see I never took his advice.
The same situation happened to me a second time, but I this time I was already prepared for it. I was working for a sports marketing company in Princeton, NJ. It was first real corporate job after my basketball career was over. I really hated it. I was approached by a guy to do some high school basketball games in New York City for a network as an announcer. I approached my boss to ask him could I come into work an hour early so I could leave an hour early for a few days because of the games. I remember he told me "John, I can't let you do this. It's not going to lead to anything. It's not like you're going to end up being on ESPN or something." I again walked out of the meeting shaking my head. I called in sick on the days of the games. I did the games and I loved it. A few weeks later I heard through the grapevine ESPN Regional Television was looking for some guys to do college basketball games. I sent them my tapes. I was doing games in less than two weeks. I quit my job and told my boss I had to go after what I believed in. That led to me doing radio for ISP Sports and the post game report for the Philadelphia 76ers as you can see in the picture above.
These are tough times for our country. Tough times economically. The old saying goes "Tough times don't last, tough people do. You have to be willing to accept that most times people won't believe in you. The important thing is YOU have to believe in YOU!!!
I have tried so many different businesses. Some have worked, some have failed. People have laughed at me. Even my family and friends. But it doesn't matter. You have to keep pushing to go after what you want. If not, you'll just end up miserable. Whether you succeed or fail, it's better to do things the way you want to do them. There's nothing wrong with taking advice from others, but if it doesn't fit into your values or if it seems that the advice may divert you down another path that isn't where you want to go then take it with a grain of salt, nod your head and move on.
It's better to live life by your own rules then to play someone else's game. Believe in you! And when someone says something is impossible, remember the context in which this following quote was said, "That's one small step for man, one huge leap for mankind."
