Shaquille O’Neal is teaching his kids to earn their own way. The retired NBA player recently sat down with Earn Your Leisure to discuss his principles regarding wealth and entrepreneurship.
“My kids are older now,” Shaq told the show’s hosts. “They’re kind of upset with me,” he added. “They’re not really upset but they don’t understand. I tell them all the time, ‘We ain’t rich. I’m rich. No, you got to have bachelor’s or masters and then if you want me to invest in one of your companies, you would have to present it to me and I’ll let you know. I’m not giving you nothing (sic).’ The girls, I’ll take care of the girls, but the boys, they’re not getting nothing (sic).”
Shaquille O’Neal previously told the press that his kids needed to show him a few degrees before garnering his attention pertaining to the family’s business. “My motto is, ‘You have to get three degrees to touch some of my cheese,'” Shaq revealed.
“You can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have [an] education, you can’t make it grow,” the celebrity father said. “I didn’t want to be like 80 percent of the athletes who stop playing and have nothing. I don’t want to be part of that statistic. So I educated myself. I want that for my kids, too.”
Shaq reiterated his quest to promote education over everything during his recent interview with Earn Your Leisure. “I try to let them figure it out,” the celebrity father said regarding his decision to guide his children instead of forcing his will on them. “There’s one rule: education,” Shaq shared.
“I don’t care if you play basketball. I don’t care about none of that. Listen, I got six kids. I would like a doctor, somebody to own a hedge fund, a pharmacist, a lawyer, someone that owns multiple businesses, someone to take over my business. But I tell them I’m not going to hand it to you. You gotta earn it.”
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