Meyers Leonard: Miami Heat Center, Co-Founder of Level Foods, Philanthropist

11/18/20 • 51 min

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This week, we spend some time with Meyers Leonard, an American professional basketball player of the NBA’s Miami Heat, and Co-Founder of Level Foods with his wife, Elle. Meyers’ outlook on life, hard work, and the relentless pursuit of excellence will motivate you. His never quit attitude has brought him through many personal and professional difficulties. Listen as Meyers shares his inspiring stories. In this episode you will hear:

I’m just a normal, blue-collar dude, who’s been thru the struggle, on and off the basketball floor.
2 things that help get me by - no matter what: My character and my work ethic.
How can I help my team? Selflessness.
There’s no chance I’m giving up.
I want shit to get tough, because that when the mental edge takes over.
Patriotism runs deep in my family.
I can support the military because of my connections to it, but I still understand that there are issues in America, and I can support my teammates and what they have felt in their lives.
I could’ve quit – I gave it 7 years – Then I went from getting booed to crowds chanting my name.
People think that because I’m 7 feet; I’ve got millions of dollars; I drive nice cars – everything is great, but I’m still a normal human being. Sometimes things are hard.
You are gonna get your opportunity and you better be ready.
I wanna be known as a man who did something for someone else.

I’m just a normal, blue-collar dude, who’s been thru the struggle, on and off the basketball floor.
2 things that help get me by - no matter what: My character and my work ethic.
How can I help my team? Selflessness.
There’s no chance I’m giving up.
I want shit to get tough, because that when the mental edge takes over.
Patriotism runs deep in my family.
I can support the military because of my connections to it, but I still understand that there are issues in America, and I can support my teammates and what they have felt in their lives.
I could’ve quit – I gave it 7 years – Then I went from getting booed to crowds chanting my name.
People think that because I’m 7 feet; I’ve got millions of dollars; I drive nice cars – everything is great, but I’m still a normal human being. Sometimes things are hard.
You are gonna get your opportunity and you better be ready.
I wanna be known as a man who did something for someone else.

Previous Episode

Chris Osman: Marine, Navy SEAL, Founder of Rhuged

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Chris Osman has a myriad of incredible personal experiences to share in this week’s TNQ Podcast. He is a former Marine and a former Navy SEAL who participated in numerous classified operations, a husband and parent. He has experienced everything from incarceration in a Haitian jail to dealing with a rare, life-threatening disease affecting his wife. Chris currently owns and operates Rhuged, a direct-to-consumer ammunitions distributor. Listen as Chris shares some of his “Never Quit” stories. In this episode you will hear:

I learned as I failed.
I couldn’t shake the desire to be specialized. I wanted to be tested to see if I could even do it.
The most isolated and depressed I’ve ever felt was being in a Haitian jail. I had zero control – there’s nothing we could do. Bare-footed with a shirt & pants, and that’s it.
My headspace was in survival mode.
I had never been so terrified. When I finally got on that plane with my passport on a commercial airline to Miami, tears were streaming down my eyes.
One day my wife started slurring her speech, and we learned she had contracted Myasthenia Gravis, an auto-immune disease that affects the immune system from the shoulders up.
One night while in the hospital, she was looking at me, and her eyes rolled back into her head. I quickly assembled the bag mask and called for help. I’ve never been through anything like that. It was a never quit moment.
You push forward by being the positive light in someone else’s miserable experience.
You gotta be a rock for your people.
You can’t bail on people when it gets to be the hardest part of their life.
It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got, you can’t be a Navy SEAL. You gotta put the work in.
No matter how much someone would pay me, I’d never put myself back in a position to work for someone else.
My goal in life is to never work for somebody else.

Next Episode

Jeff Tiegs: US Army Ranger & Delta Force, Counter Terrorism and Counter Insurgency Expert, COO of All Things Possible Ministries

Jeff Tiegs is an amazing difference-maker. He uses his extensive experience in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency to counter sex-trafficking in the United States. With over 25 years is in U.S. Army Special Operations, as well as combat experience and multiple tours in Afghanistan & Iraq, Jeff is applying that expertise in his endeavors. Jeff is The Chief Operating Officer at All Things Possible Ministries, whose mission is to identify, interrupt, and restore those affected by trauma. In this episode you will hear:

In the U.S., we are unbelievable consumers of prostitution, and what comes with that is minors.
You’re on deployment every time you walk out of the house.
One in four women is sexually assaulted or sexually abused.
The sex trafficking crime is so open. It’s openly advertised.
There are people that think we should defund the police. I think more reasonable people think we should reallocate funds and figure out ways to do this better. There are people out there who can augment what law enforcement is lacking.
The [funding] money is gonna go where the people demand it.
[Our organization], All Things Possible does everything from simple counseling to freeing sex slaves.
Find strength in simply being alive.
What comes off of your tongue – what you speak – is what you become.
The term “Yahweh” is the sound of breathing.
The mere fact that we, as humans, are breathing, we’re saying the name of our Creator every time we breathe.
What is God’s name? The thing that gives breath to everything that lives.
The first thing a baby says is that breath of life.
One family, who lost their son on the battlefield, found relief in the fact that the last breath their son took was the name of our creator.
Find strength, find solace, and find peace, in that simple act of breathing. If you’re alive, you’re saying God’s name, and He’s there to help to you.