An NFL Player’s Mistakes On and Off the Field: Lenny Walls

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An NFL Player’s Mistakes On and Off the Field: Lenny Walls

My guest for Episode #51 of “the My Favorite Mistake” podcast is Lenny Walls, a retired professional football player who played for four NFL teams and three teams in the Canadian Football League. He is now a San Antonio-based Certified Personal Trainer, entrepreneur, coach, mentor, and community leader.

I had the opportunity to meet Lenny when I was living in San Antonio and I did a number of personal training sessions with him, as I wrote about here. His businesses and community ventures include Walls Next Level Fitness, the Breaking Down Walls Foundation, Walls2Walls Coaching, and Walls2Walls Capital.

Below is a photo from his days with the Denver Broncos. See other photos from his playing days.

Embed from Getty Images

In today's episode, Lenny shares some reflections about his “favorite mistake” — not the money-losing investments, but his self assessment that he lacked humility “during his most successful time in life.” We talk about what Lenny learned from his NFL experience and that time and how he's applied it to his second career.

I had the chance to ask Lenny about his mindset on making very public mistakes on the field — when do you take the time to learn and correct? We talk about his phrase “the hustle is entertainment” and we also chat about workout mistakes that many people (including myself) have made. All that and more…

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Quotes:

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"My biggest mistake was not having enough gratitude and not showing and demonstrating enough humility during the most successful time of my life. It's easy to be humble when you're down."
"At the cornerback position, you definitely can't be too concerned with making mistakes. You have to play so fast. I mean the game is so fast. And even at that position, we were taught to have a short-term memory."
"Well, one thing that I can take from the NFL is you can never stop growing. Peyton Manning only took two weeks off. What I've learned is to develop better habits each and every day, no matter where I'm at in my life. "

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About

Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker who has worked in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. His latest book is Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More. He is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, as well as The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. He also published the anthology Practicing Lean that benefits the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, where Mark is a board member. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus. He is also a Senior Advisor and Director of Strategic Marketing with the healthcare advisory firm, Value Capture.