Marques, how many years did you play in the NFL?

So I was fortunate and blessed enough to play ten years, all with the New Orleans Saints.

Wow, that's pretty cool.

Ten years?

Ten years.

That's awesome—ten years.

All-time leading Saints receiver.

Wow, give him a round of applause for that, guys.

Super Bowl winner.

Okay, we're not gonna take up your time.

How do you stay disciplined, ultra-healthy, and consistently outpace others?

Similar to Kyle's answer, it's about indexing to my standard. You know, I don’t necessarily pay attention to mediocrity. I don’t pay attention to what’s going on around me to the extent that I know that my standard—
 I try to operate at a standard that is above and beyond the status quo.

And, you know, the realization that you do fall to the level of your preparation. When you can prepare at a level and a standard that is higher than most, even when you fall a little short, you're still able to create the kind of success that you're looking for.

I like that.

What do you invest in? What business holdings do you focus your energy on?

So, obviously, being a partner in the fund with Kyle, we do the same thing. But he told you a little bit about the what—I'll tell you a little bit more about the why.

You know, our fund is really based around access. So as former players ourselves, former front-office people ourselves, you know, you're creating the product, but you don't typically get access to opportunities to own the product.

And when we looked across our community of athletes and the types of investment vehicles that we get access to, it’s typically real estate or early-stage investments.

And, you know, real estate is what it is—it’s a great store of wealth, it’s a great place to invest in something more secure. But what you also know is that early-stage investments are the riskiest asset class there is.

And when you have a group that has an earning potential or an average career that's less than four years, when you know that your income is probably going to get turned off within four years, but yet you're investing in early-stage companies that have a 10-year time horizon, there’s a misalignment from the jump.

So we wanted to create this fund and this vehicle as a way to not just invest in these properties but bring a different investor base to this ownership class.

So we still work with family offices, we still work with institutions, but our interval fund structure will allow us to get access to investors in that retail class.

As people that invest in sports in some form or fashion—whether it's us up here on the stage with our bodies or as parents investing in our kids’ youth sports and club sports—we wanted to create an opportunity and a vehicle to create meaningful ownership in sports for every investor.

That’s awesome.

What visualization, affirmation, and goal-setting rituals and strategies have you used to be one of the top 0.1%?

It's really about understanding that performance is fluid.

What I mean by that is, as an athlete fortunate enough to play 10 years, if my standard is here, every single season, the pathway to get there is different.

Whether it be through injury, something going on scheme-wise, you figure out what the end game is and reverse-engineer your success.

And as long as you understand that performance is fluid and it's going to take a different pathway to get to the same goal, it allows you to maneuver in a way that people with more of a static, fixed mindset can’t compete with.

What’s a million-dollar lesson you learned from being a pro athlete? Or in your case, a multi-million-dollar lesson?

I would say alignment is everything.

And it’s not just alignment—it’s alignment across the board.

We live in an industry where we get access to opportunities and wealth really early.

And we’re, in a lot of ways, forced into a situation where we're hiring people around us for jobs that we don’t fully understand.

So figuring out those places where you can align with people—align with values, align on personality, and align on the end game—it takes really knowing the direction you want to head in.

But if you’re able to align with the right people, it gives you an opportunity to get comfortable with that person while you learn different skill sets.

That’s awesome.

What’s the most costly financial mistake you’ve made or seen other pro athletes make?

I’ll speak for myself.

I didn’t take my own advice—I didn’t know it quite yet.

One of my earlier investments turned out, on paper, to be a great investment.

The challenge was the vehicle I got into was an SPV.

And at the time, I didn’t know a whole lot about SPVs, didn’t know a whole lot about the management fees and everything that comes along with running an SPV.

So as a larger investor in an SPV that I didn’t have control of, we got to a point where the company reached a stage where it would have been an opportune time for an acquisition or liquidity event.

But not having control of my own capital in the SPV, I had to sit back and watch the company drive off a cliff.

So when I say alignment is everything, it really is across the board—it’s the people, the values, and the vehicles you use. It’s universal.

If somebody wants to be a top 1% performer in their field, how do they outcompete everyone around them?

By focusing on your own standard.

Be hyper-focused on your destination and be very aware of who you are at that moment in time.

Because that’s always going to be your foundation—your starting point.

The more you understand who you are, what your unique value proposition is, and what unique skills and talents you bring to the table, the better you can build the right pieces around you.

Your performance becomes a function of who you are.

And if your skill set and talent are built on a unique person and a unique value proposition, then what you bring to the table will always be unique.

You got anything else you want to drop? You got a lot of wisdom.

No, that’s it.

I’m normally the guy that brings the time back into alignment, so I’m good.

Guys, give Marques a round of applause.