After 15 years in the National Football League, Emmitt Smith took the lessons he learned on the field into the next season of his life.
The three-time Super Bowl champion has, since his retirement from the NFL in 2004, built a number of ventures, including commercial real estate developer ESmith Legacy and construction management firm EJSmith Construction.
“The key for me in football was it all started with a vision. And then I was able to learn what was required to achieve that vision,” Smith recalled to Yahoo Finance at JPMorgan Chase’s “Make Your Move Summit” in Frisco, Texas. The journey to become a professional athlete was long and arduous, and Smith mastered the skill of listening to others and striving for more.
“You gotta go through the process of learning the game itself and allowing people to bring out the best in you and teach you some of the things that you don’t know about the game… and challenging you to become the very best,” Smith added.
When Smith traded his jersey for a suit, he became a rookie again. Running a business may appear glamorous on the outside, but requires immense grunt work and and practice behind the scenes. And just like football, you have to earn the right to play.
“Like anything else in life, you’re just looking for an opportunity,” Smith said. “Actually get in and get some work and prove that you are worthy to not only work with the individual company, but you’re earning the right to do business with them on a much larger scale.”
He threw himself into learning every component of the real estate and construction industries, eventually founding a real estate firm, a construction business and a solar company, creating a vertically-integrated operation. But the former running back couldn’t do it alone.
In the stadium, he propelled the Dallas Cowboys to the top as part of the “triplets” with quarterback Troy Aikman and wide receiver Michael Irvin. In business, he looked towards his leadership experience as an athlete to build a new group of co-stars around him.
It took time to develop a team that “had the skillset to execute against the game plan” and trusted each other, said Smith. “I had to develop the trust on the football field with Troy and Michael and everything else. So similarly, these things kind of work together.”
Now Smith is confronting new tests in the industry, such as the lack of affordable housing and the decline of in-person work. He thinks there is still a place for office as a place for collaboration and discussions, even in the Zoom era. And outside of the office, he’s keeping an eye on the field. This Sunday, he’ll be rooting for his Cowboys as they take on the Philadelphia Eagles.
“The challenge is can we beat a team that’s a front runner?” said Smith. “We don’t have to score 40 some points. But can we score enough points to beat Jalen Hurts [and stop] the rest of them.”
Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @agarfinks and on LinkedIn..
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