Leland Hardy | BH SS March 2024

Leland Hardy: "My name is Leland Hardy, and my professional sport was boxing. I was a professional fighter at heavyweight for some years. I was in the amateurs from '79 to '84, just missed the Olympics in '84. Both Mike Tyson and I lost in the trials, which is why Mike didn’t make it to the Olympics. I then turned pro after that. Ironically, you sealed your intro video with Dr. Oz interviewing you. Dr. Oz and I are classmates at Wharton. We both graduated together—he was MD/MBA, and I was MBA/MA at Wharton. So, yeah, I fought professionally from '86 to '91, both out of the Cronk Boxing Team in Detroit alongside Tommy Hearns and also out of Madison Square Garden in New York."

Interviewer: "That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool."

Interviewer: "What is the $1 million lesson you've learned as a pro athlete that you plan to implement that helps you get into beast mode outside of sports?"

Leland Hardy: "Well, there are a number of missed opportunities, I would say, that came along. One of them was at the beginning of eBay, I was given an opportunity to be a very early investor and missed that opportunity. Since then, I’ve been early on in some other major investments. But the opportunity is to see the landscape and look at what's coming in front of you. That would be a clear opportunity for a million-dollar investment.

One of the things I did was I created an institute for professional athletes to learn about finances and marketing themselves called Biceps—an acronym, just like the muscle on your arm: BIC EPS, which stands for the Business Institute for Continuing Education and Professional Sports. That has since become the official business education program of the NFL, and the NFLPA has toured at Harvard, Stanford, the Kellogg School. In terms of giving back, countless of the biggest stars you know in the NFL have been to my program."

Interviewer: "Wow."

Interviewer: "What visualization, affirmation, goal-setting rituals, and strategies have you used to become one of the top 0.1%ers?"

Leland Hardy: "What I used to do, and still do, is ask myself, 'What do I have to do to earn a post-fight interview?' The only way I could possibly be interviewed after the fight is if I won. So, what do you have to do? That means you have to be better prepared than your opponent. You have to go in knowing that you’ve out-trained them, that you’ve worked harder than they have to get yourself ready. There’s no way on earth that someone could be more dedicated than I am as I go into battle. So, if you apply that to other aspects of your life and business, I think that’s the lesson I would give."

Interviewer: "Awesome."

Interviewer: "What was the most costly financial mistake you've ever made, and how can you show other pro athletes how to avoid those?"

Leland Hardy: "I’ve invested in a couple of projects early on that I didn’t do sufficient due diligence on. But not everything turns out like that. When you look at a diversified portfolio, you’re diversified because some of those things may not achieve the results and returns you would expect, and others hopefully will outperform. So, the idea is to do as much due diligence in advance of making investments as possible."

Interviewer: "Thank you."

Interviewer: "If somebody wants to be a 0.1%er in their field, how can they out-compete everybody around them, be more disciplined, run circles around them, and become the best version of themselves?"

Leland Hardy: "It comes down to dedication, work ethic, and preparation. You can’t go into a project or prepare for an opportunity without total dedication. You have to be willing to suffer the pains of total dedication—study, advance, and look at all aspects. What are the negative implications? What if I don’t do this? What if I don’t research this fundamentally enough? So, it comes down to absolute hard work and dedication."

Interviewer: "Awesome. We have 45 more seconds. What are you up to today?"

Leland Hardy: "Today, I’m involved in the investment banking space. After my boxing career, I spent time at some of the bigger investment banking firms on Wall Street. I was at Bear Stearns for years and several boutique firms. Now, I’m a private investment banker, raising capital for sports-related acquisitions. I was Venus and Serena’s manager for about 15 years, and I currently have a player, Taylor Townsend, who just won yesterday and is playing today out at Indian Wells. She’s currently number five in the world in doubles and number 83 in singles. We have a mission to try to win a Grand Slam by the end of next year. So, I’m still very involved in sports—not boxing, but other sports. I’ve been punched in the head a lot too, so I’m with you."

Interviewer: "Thank you. Appreciate you."

Interviewer: "Give him a round of applause, guys."

Interviewer: "So, I’d love to throw one thing out there. If you guys know a pro athlete who would love to speak or be on a panel and give more added value, this will be part of the Athlete Office Club video series that we put on the website. We want to build this so we can impact more people's lives, give more people advice and ideas on how they can become the best in business and in their personal life. If you guys have time, meet these guys—they’re amazing. But we’d love to get referrals if you know anybody that would be really good, whether in New York, Florida, or any of the other states we’re doing stuff in. Thank you guys very much, and have an amazing day. Appreciate you, guys."