Why Jalen Brunson Left $120 Million On The Table

Ben BeeriHere's a fun fact about Jalen Brunson. He was eligible for a contract that was approximately $270,000,000. And Jalen Brunson decided to sign for a $150,000,000 over five years, taking almost a $120,000,000 pay cut. Why? Why would Jalen Brunson leave that amount of money on the table? And the answer is simple. Elon Musk became a trillionaire. A trillionaire. SpaceX went public, and Elon Musk became a trillionaire. Like, how incredible is that? Like, how incredible is it that one man with such an incredible vision can create so much impact in the world that he has created enough value to have a trillion dollars come his way.

On his way to becoming a trillionaire, during the SpaceX IPO, over 4,000 people who work for SpaceX became millionaires. That's right. 4,000 people who work for SpaceX became millionaires at the initial public offering. And sitting there and thinking about that, that's all vision. Like, what an incredible visionary Elon Musk is. And I was sitting there and thinking about what are some other incredible visions that people have out there, and who gets to be a part of those visions? And the thing is is we all get to have visions.

I get to have my visions. You get to have your visions. And the visions can be whatever you choose them to be. Like, you could be sitting there right now. You could be wanting to have a family. You go. You find your partner. You have kids. You've got a family. You got a vision of the house you want to live in, the car you want to drive, the schools you want your kids to go to. That's your vision. You could want to dream about something, a job, a career. You want to perform. You want to act. You want to sing.

You want to be on stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Stadiums. I think Kanye West just sold out a stadium in Turkey. It was like a 118,000 people showed up to his show. That was Kanye's vision. He lived it. He lived in his vision. What if it's yours? What if you want to perform in front of a 118,000 people? That could be your vision. You can go and get it. And here's the beautiful part about having a vision and going and getting it. Other people get to be a part of your vision. You're Kanye West. You're performing in front of a 118,000 people.

He's got a production crew. He's got sound people. He's got people who are videotaping his performances. He's got people that are traveling with him. He's got choreographers. He's got backup dancers. He's got business people who are helping him sell tickets and merchandise. He's got a full team of people that are a part of his vision. And they get to live their vision by Kanye carrying out his vision. He said, there, you think about sports. The New York Knicks just won the NBA championship. Jalen Brunson won the finals MVP.

He had 45 points in game five of the NBA finals, sealed the deal. They beat the Spurs four games to one. The Knicks hadn't won a championship in fifty three years, and Jalen Brunson won the finals MVP. Here's a fun fact about Jalen Brunson. It came time for him to sign his extension with the New York Knicks. He was eligible for a contract that was approximately $270,000,000 over five years. And Jaylen Brunson decided to sign for a $150,000,000 over five years, taking almost a $120,000,000 pay cut.

Why? Why would Jaylen Brunson leave that amount of money on the table? The answer is simple: He had a vision. Jalen Brunson had a vision of bringing an NBA championship to New York. So he took less money. He wanted the New York Knicks to be able to bring in other players within the NBA's salary cap rules. Those players were a part of his vision. As those players joined his team Carl Anthony Towns, Mikhail Bridges, OGI Anunobi, they signed some other players. Jose Alvarado came and joined the team this year.

They brought in Josh Hart, and they kept playing better. And none of this would have been possible if Jaylen Brunson hadn't had the vision to take a pay cut to create more salary cap space for the New York Knicks to sign other players, other players that fit within his system that could help them win, so they could win an NBA championship. It's vision, and it's time to get clear on your vision. What is your vision? Are you hoisting up a trophy in front of New York City after winning an NBA championship?

Are you performing in a stadium in front of a 118,000 people? Are you taking a company public at a trillion plus dollar valuation? There's a day where that vision is born. That day can be today. And you've got to decide what your vision is. And the cool thing about having a vision is there are endless possibilities as to who and what is included in that vision. Like you get to bring people with you. You want to have a family? You want to have a house, and a car, and kids, and the best schools? Do it.

You want to go perform on stage? Do it. You want to quit your corporate job and start your own business. You've always wanted to do that. Like, you have had a dream for years. You have a unique skill set. You value your skill set. Like, you want to spend more time on it. You think you can bring it to the world. You actually don't think you can bring it to the world. You know you can bring it to the world. You can make a difference in the world by bringing it into the world. But you're stuck working your corporate nine to five job that you fucking hate.

All you have to do is quit your job, and step into your vision, and allow your vision to come to life. Like how can you allow your vision to come to life? And like we're not gonna live forever. None of us are going to live forever. And we all have certain visions that we want to see before we are no longer here. And I feel like we owe it to ourselves. Like, you owe it to yourself to live out your vision. Like, you want to be on stage in front of a 118,000 people. Like, go make it happen. Like, sit there, pull out a pen and paper, map out who's coming with you. You have friends that want to see you on this journey.

Great. So I don't know much business stuff. Okay. Great. They can help you. They can help you plan. They can help get you into certain venues. They can help you record. Could literally even hold your phone and just record a video of you playing, posting it on Instagram, sharing it with the world. By the way, never know. Maybe your Instagram reel is gonna go viral. Your TikTok reel is gonna go viral. Like, you never know who's actually going to see the stuff that you're putting out into the world.

And anything that you're putting out into the world is a part of a vision. Like Steve Jobs Started with an Apple computer. Now there's this thing called an iPhone. Steve Jobs wanted an iPhone in everybody's pocket. He didn't get to live to see it, but I bet you've got an iPhone in your pocket. And it's all vision. Like the greatest accomplishments we've ever seen have come from vision. The greatest athletes, the greatest celebrities, the greatest visionaries. Taylor Swift went on her worldwide tour, sold out every stadium she went to, an era's tour, made a movie about it, skyrocketed herself to a level of fame that we probably haven't seen since Michael Jackson.

It was vision. She had a vision. Michael Jackson had vision. He could do it all. Like, Michael Jackson was known by, like, everyone. And to sit there and think about the fact that some of us hold back on our visions and what they could be. Like, we hold back. Maybe we don't feel like we're worthy of it, or that we deserve it, or that we're capable of it. So we stick to what's safe. We stay in what's safe. We stay in what we think we're allowed. Like, I'm allowed to work this corporate job. I'm not allowed to have a business.

And keep working your corporate job. Maybe one day you'll hate it enough to do what you actually want to do. You wanna go and perform in front of a 118,000 people? Maybe one day you'll take the steps to do that. Want to stand on stage hoisting a trophy up in front of a city that hasn't seen a championship in over fifty years? Well, take the step forward. Put your money where your mouth is. And Jalen Brunson, who took a $120,000,000 pay cut, gets to do that. He gets to lift that trophy in the air, in front of the entire city of New York, while the entire world watches.

And he's a champion for life. And the thing about that is, it's really interesting to me, is by winning that championship in New York, he will have more than made up the 120,000,000 in his life. Like the lifetime value of that championship in New York is worth so much more than a 120,000,000. Tom Brady, another example. He would always take pay cuts to keep the New England Patriots able to sign more players and help him out more. People don't even remember that now. People don't even remember that Tom Brady took less money because he's made it up.

He won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. He won a seventh in Tampa Bay. He won seven Super Bowls. He's the undisputed greatest player of all time, the GOAT, because he took a pay cut. But the pay cut wasn't about the money. The pay cut was about the vision, and having the vision to become the greatest player of all time. And now Tom Brady gets to get talked about as the greatest player of all time, for as long as he lives. The amount of money he gave up in pay cuts, he will have more than made up by marketing, and being the greatest player that ever lived.

Investment opportunities he can get into, Jaylen Brunson can get into different investment opportunities. And there's plenty of ways to make money. Elon Musk just made a trillion dollars. Like, you could have some of that. I could have some of that. There's 4,000 people who work for SpaceX who got some of that. I saw a story about a welder who started in SpaceX and made $28 an hour. He started working there over a decade ago. I think they said his stocks were worth close to, if not over a million dollars.

I was making $28 an hour. And he simply fit into somebody's vision who was a trillionaire, who was on his way to becoming a trillionaire. There is no limit to how great your vision can be. You just gotta have the vision. And once you have the vision, anything is possible. So I'd like to know, for you, what is your vision? Like, not the small one that you tell yourself about, like the big one that you keep secret, that you haven't really talked about, even to yourself. Or maybe you have talked about it. Maybe you think about it every single day.

What is that vision? How can you bring it to life? Who's coming with you? Let me know. I'd love to hear about it. We'll talk soon.