The Resilient Mind - Thriving Through Adversity - Inky Johnson

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

Inky Johnson is a husband, father, collegiate athlete, entrepreneur, and renowned author. Known for his raw energy and thought-provoking messages, Inky shares insights on leadership, teamwork, overcoming adversity, embracing change, and perseverance. Get inspired by one of the world's most sought-after speakers.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to from setbacks to comebacks, thriving through adversity with Inky Johnson. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. But as I stand right here on this stage before you tonight, you know, a lot of thoughts come to mind. You know, and first and foremost, I think about my life and I think about adversity and I think about opposition. But for the most part of my life, I've been on this quest to figure out how can I work hard for something and my performance is not based upon the outcome. How can I work in my effort and my motivation and my drive is not based upon what the product will be but more so based upon me taking pride in what I do. And so I came up with this thing

called process over product and I firmly believe the process saved my life. And what I mean by the process, I'm talking about the way I handle my business on a daily basis and the way I go about every single aspect of my life. I live by this thing called empty the bucket. And when people hear it, they think it's a cute slogan. Empty the bucket, but what they don't understand, it's an unspoken law and empty the bucket. It's an unspoken law of accountability and responsibility to me

on this earth and my existence. And everybody that is connected to me, I may be crazy, but I don't know. I just believe that I'm supposed to give everybody that is connected to me the best version of me. I just believe I deserve to give my wife and my children the best version of me. I just believe the people that I'm of service to on this earth, I deserve to give them the best version of me.

You see, the thing about chasing a product, and what the product is, the product is money. The product is a house. The product is a car. The thing about chasing a product, the product can always change. And if your performance is always based upon the product, what happened when the products change, and you don't take pride in what you do? But the thing about loving the process, everybody wants the prize, but nobody loves the process. Everybody wants to be a champion, but nobody's willing to put in the work that it takes to be a champion.

Everybody wants to hold up the trophy and say, man, I did it, but nobody's willing to put in the work that it takes to do it. I love the process. I love the thought of working for what I want. And I firmly believe you never supposed to wish for it more than you're willing to work for it. Your expectations never supposed to exceed your effort. But a lot of people they wish, and they're not willing to work. And the great thing about life, life has a funny way of testing all of us and seeing how bad we really want what it is that we say we want.

Because the thing I know about people, people can talk to talk. And people do it very well. But life is going to hit you at a certain level of opposition. Life is going to hit you with a certain level of adversity. And life is going to say to you, you said you wanted it. Now let's see how bad you really want it. But the great thing about it, if you love the process, When opposition and adversity hits, you will have a way of embracing it and using it,

not only for yourself, but you will use it to make everybody that's connected to you stronger because your vision has to be larger than yourself. If everything that you do is just about you and for your personal gain, something's going to come up against you that's going to be a lot tougher than you. And if it's just about you, the moment you hit it, you're going to quit and give up every time. But I believe in giving the backstory. Because I think the backstory shapes and molds situations and circumstances, And so I have to give you the backstory of what shaped and mothed me into the man that I am today.

I'm 29 years old. My mother got pregnant with me at 15 years old. I grew up on the east side of Atlanta, about five minutes away from where the Atlanta Braves play. In a neighborhood by the name of Kirkwood, drugs, gangs, violence, you name it. And I came up in a two-bedroom home, 14 people. And I used to sleep on the floor. My grandmother, Miss Daisy Johnson, she used to come to us, and she would say, one night out of the week, you all get the opportunity to sleep in the bed.

And so when I got to sleep in the bed, it wasn't like I got the bed to myself. And I'm like, man, I got the bed to myself. It was five more of my cousins in the bed. And so we slept three to the foot and three at the head. And so as a kid pretty quick, I had to make a decision of what I wanted to do with my life because in that same house I had eight uncles, all eight of which are still going in and out of prison until this day because they sold drugs and they were in games. And so I looked at it.

And it's kind of like that quote that says, learn from the mistakes of other people because you can't make them all yourself. And so I saw them selling drugs. but it also saw the outcome. And so I said, I'm not selling drugs. I'm not joining a gang because I see what that role leads to. Either I'm going to end up better in prison. I said, so my best bet may be to go to the NFL. And so I went to my cousin by the name of tomorrow.

I said, listen, man, I want to go to the NFL. I feel our family deserves a better way of life. Let's work for it. I said, we're going to be patient. We're going to engage in consistent action every night. And so every night we would go out and we race light pole to light pole in Kirkwood. No shoes.

Light pole to light pole every night. And so one night we were getting ready to race and down. down the street came a big blue pickup truck. And it pulled over to the side and out of it got a white guy. First white guy ever saw in my life. True story. And my uncle Bobo who just got sentenced to 40 years in prison, he was on one corner.

My other Uncle Johnny, he was on the other corner. My Uncle Bobo took off running and he looked at me. He said, ink, don't talk to him. Saying to me that guy has to be the police. Coach Tray walked up to us, nicest guy in the world. He said, would you kids like to play organized I stepped to the front. I said, yes, sir.

He said, go in the house and get your guardian. My uncle JJ was there. I went in the house. I said, there's a guy outside. He asked when he liked to play organized sports. I told him, yes. He said, well, I go in the house to get my guardian. I'm coming to get you.

Will you please talk to him? My uncle said, sure. My uncle said, sure. My uncle said, would you like to sign these kids up for organized sports? My uncle said, yes, sir, but I hate to tell you, we don't have the money. He said, don't worry about the money. You get him to the park and I'll take care of it. That same guy still buys me drawers and socks until his day on Christmas, and I'm 29

years old and he started when I was seven. But a weird thing happened one night. You see, most nights after practice, everybody would leave to go home and I always had to sit in the park because my mother worked at Wendy's. And my mother didn't get off work until about 10 o'clock, 1030 most nights, and I'll be sitting there in the park and I loved it. I didn't want anybody to take me home because when I went home, I was sleeping on the floor with roaches and rats. And so anytime I got in solitude to dream, anytime I got in solitude to think about what I wanted to do for my family and my community, I took advantage of it. And so most nights I'll be sitting there in the park and I'll be looking up at the lights.

And I'll be envisioning myself doing things in the NFL, envisioning myself doing things to my community. And just as the lights would always go out, my mother, she would pull up and she used to drive an old Beirich Regal. Hub caps off the car, seats torn up, the car was all beat up. And she will pull up and she will put the car in park. I will always hop up, I'll run over to my mother.

I will give her a hug and a kiss. And I would say, Mom, if you don't mind, can you please sit back in your car? I have to do some extra drills. I have to go to the NFL. She would never have to work another day in your life. And I knew she was tired. And every night, my mother was

say, sure, in because she would sit back in that car, those car lights were hit that field, and here you had a 70-year-old kid doing backpelling drills, running sprints, running laps, chasing his dream to go to the NFL, and just beyond those car lights, I could always connect with my mother's eyes. And so it made me dig a little bit deeper, and made me push myself a little bit further.

It made me work a little bit harder. I live by this thing called, the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. You see, the reason people quit, they don't take pride in what they do. The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. And I'm not just talking about business. I'm talking about winning simultaneously

in every aspect of life. I'm not concerned with a person does well in one aspect of their life and they can hang their hat there and say, man, I made a lot of money. You made a lot of money. You're a public success, but you're a private failure. What good is it to make a lot of money you don't want to go home to your family? What good is it to make a lot of money you don't take care of your kids? What good is it? You're a public success, but you're a private failure. And so how can we win simultaneously and take pride in everything that we do? And one night, my mother couldn't pick me up and she called Coach Tray. She said, coach, I can't make it tonight? Can you please take Enki home? And so he put me in about eight guys in the back of his pickup truck, and he said, I'm going to drop you off last.

And so when he got to my house, I got out on the sidewalk, and I'm standing in front of 125 Warren Street, and I look back at Coast Trade. And I said, why are you doing this? Because where I came from, people didn't just help you. It was, I pat you on your back. You got to pat me on my back. You remember I did that for you. You got to do this for me.

And I said, why are you doing this? And he looked back at me and he said, son, I want to tell you something. And he said, I don't want you to ever forget it. He said, son, the more you make sure that somebody else's life is okay, God will always make sure that your life is okay. And immediately I got it. The light bulb went off. I stopped being this little selfish kid.

I stopped being like my four-year-old son. And for the first time in my life, I stopped thinking everything was just about Inkey Johnson, And I realized my existence on this earth is a lot bigger than me. I realize me, my lineage and my family, when I step outside of my door in the morning, what I represent is a lot bigger than me. And so the thing I had to understand, every day I woke up and everything that I was a part of, I first had to understand I was representing a lot more than myself.

I first had to start living by two words, honoring legacy. And what I mean by honoring legacy, you honor the ones that paved the way for you. And you leave a legacy for the ones that's coming behind you. We just have it right now while we're a part of something right now. Somebody has came before us and paid the way, and somebody will come after us. And so while we have it, how can we do it in such a way that we leave a legacy for the ones that's coming behind us? And we honor the ones that paid the way for us. And so everything I did, I took a certain level of pride in it.

People thought I just wanted to be a great football player. What they didn't understand about Enki Johns was this. I could have washed cars. I guarantee you I would have been the best car washer that was in the world. Because the thing I understood, I wasn't just representing myself. It wasn't just about me. Everything that I did, I shifted my mindset for me to wait. Now I was operating with a spirit of collective character,

meaning it didn't matter what I did individually. If I didn't represent my mother in the right way, it didn't matter. If I didn't represent my lineage in the right way, if I didn't represent my team in the right way, who cares what I did individually? I didn't care if we won a game and I scored 40 points individually. Who cared? I shifted from me to we. And so everything I started to do, I was thinking about my family, I was thinking about my community,

and I was thinking about my friends in a different way. And I would never forget I got to high school. And nobody in my family had ever been to college. They all dropped out, ended up in prison. My high school, the name of was Krem High School in Atlanta. They used to call it Crime High. They used to shoot teachers. And my first day I walked through the metal detector. And a cop was standing on the other end of the metal detector.

And he said, what is it? What is your plan, little man? I said, my plan is to go Division I. He said, no, you'll probably go to cell block D1. I said, no, you got the wrong guy. He said, I heard that before your uncles came through and said the same thing. I said, no, I'm telling you, you got the wrong guy.

You know the first person I went to see when I got my scholarship papers. But you know, the most amazing thing happened, it wasn't that I went to college. I had three little cousins sleeping on that same floor. that went to college. I saw friends in my community come off the corner from selling drugs and go to college. I saw friends in my community come out of games and go to college.

All because I shifted my mindset and it wasn't about me. I broke generational curses in my community because it wasn't just about me. I didn't care so much about me going to college. I wanted the ones coming behind me to get it. And now I'll never forget, I went on an airplane and my first time riding the airplane. I was a senior going into a football game and I went in the restroom on an airplane. I was washing my hands, there was a sign on the wall. And I'll never forget it.

My first time on the airplane, I'm washing my hands that was a sign on the wall. And as I was walking out of the restroom, the sign said, as common courtesy to the person that's coming behind you, can you wipe the sink out and leave it better than you found it? And I said, as common courtesy to the generation that is coming behind me in life, everything that I touch, everything that I'm a part of, I bow to God that I will leave it better than I found it. And so now it wasn't even about me.

And I got my scholarship up to Tennessee, and they looked at me when I first at campus, 135-pound kids soaking wet. And the SEC, and the first reporter, he asked me, he said, Inkey Johnson, do you even think you're going to play at the University of Tennessee? He said, you're 135 pounds. I said, not only am I going to play, I'm going to start. I said, you made a mistake. I said, see, what you don't understand, and this is what most people are.

do. They base judgment off of what they can see. But what they don't understand, the moments that make you who you are, the moments that they can't see. You see, anybody can be on their best behavior when somebody is standing over their shoulder, watching them seeing if they're going to do what they're supposed to do. But what they're reported and see, you see, he could see, I came from Crem High School, he could see, I was 135 pounds, he could see I was 5'9, he could see all of the stats, he can see all of that. But what he never saw was when I was in a park with my mother when I was seven years old, she was sitting at Birigua at 1030 at night. What he didn't see was every

Saturday morning at 5.30, I was up running two miles to a fire station and two miles back home. What he didn't see was every time I slept on that floor with roaches and rats with my cousins, I got up every morning and went to school and never made one excuse. What he didn't see was on Christmas Eve when a guy came through me and my cousin's window and he stuck a 9mm and a 45 in both our face and took all of our Christmas gift, and we had to stand on the curve and our mother told us, y'all just be grateful. He didn't see that. And those were the moments that made me who I am.

And so now his opinion didn't matter. His opinion would never become my reality. And my freshman year I played special teams, sophomore season came, broke the star and lined up. You know the first person I went to see at Media Day? He quit. He was so embarrassed. And I'll never forget my sophomore season.

I finally made it to the point in my life where I felt as if everything in my life was lining up. Spiritally, I was getting to cycle. Life was in shape. On track, you graduated in three years. Life was in shape, education. education. I still remember the day I was in the film watching film and I was watching the California Bears and my

defensive backs coach Larry Slade came in the room. He said, Inky Johnson, I got some good news for you and I dropped the clicker and I said coach what is it? He says son you're a projected top 30 draft pick. He said all you have to do is play these next 10 football games. You're automatic multi-millionaire. I ran out of the room. I got on the phone. I called my mother and my grandmother. I said, listen. I said after this season we would never struggle. I said we would never miss another mill. I said after this season our lives are

about to change forever. And little did I know our lives were really about to change. The first game we come out, play against California Bears, I get an interception, we shut them down, we get the victory. Second game, we're playing against Air Force. It gets late in the game, found ourselves in a dog fight, quarterback dropped back. He released the ball to the running back coming down my sideline. Now I approached the tackle like I approach any other tackling. The way I'm approaching it, either I'm going to knock you out or you're going to knock me out. I'm 165 pounds. I can't play with anybody. But at the point of contact, when I hit this guy, something different happened. It had never happened to me before my life. I hit him, and it seemed

as if every breath in my body left. My body went completely limp. I fell to the ground, and I blacked out. I'll never forget when my eyes open, my teammates ran over to me. My first guy that was over was Rob Mayo, the middle linebacker for the Patriots, one of my best friends. And he said, ink, get up, let's go. I said, I can't. He said, what do you mean you can't? You're out locked down corner. We need you. Let's go. I said, I can't move. I said, there's a shock going through my whole body. I can't feel anything, man. One of the scariest moments of my life, and the shock eventually left, and they stayed in my right arm and hand. I remember as I was lying there, I flipped my head to the left, and I could see the doctors and the trainers running on to the

field, and I flipped my head up to the sky, and I said, God, I said, surely nothing has happened in this moment that can alter my life. I flipped my head back over to the left and they were bringing the spine board out. I flipped my head up to the sky. I said, God. I said, that's precautionary measures, right? They get me up on the spine board. They're willing me off the field and I looked at the doctor because I couldn't feel my right arm. They had poked me with all type of needles. Inky, can you feel this? Can you feel I couldn't feel a thing? And I said, Doc, can you lift my right arm in hand? He said, sure, and he raised it up and I lifted my left. And I pumped it to our supporters.

I don't believe in using the word fans. I think it's an arrogant term. Who am I to call a person a fan? They pay to see you play. They're supporting you. And as he was bringing my arm down, I looked at the doctor. I said, oh, yeah.

I said, I'll be back. Never thinking that would be the last game that I will ever play in my life. They get me in the ambulance, things turn up a notch. I still don't pay it any mind. They get me over to the hospital. He said, Inky, we're going to take you back and run some cat scans.

They took me back. They ran the CAT scans, and they rode me back into my room, and I'll never forget it. All in about a 15-second time frame. I was lying near my bed, and I could see over my right shoulder. And I looked at my father, and we caught eyes, and my father, he went to take a step in, and he looked at me, and he said, son, I can't do it.

And he walked out. My mother, she came in, she was running. She kissed me on my forehead. She said a prayer. She said, ain't everything is going to be okay, and she ran out. And as soon as my mother stepped outside of the room, when the doctor rushed in from the opposite side, and he said, hey, get in there.

We got to rush this guy back to emergency surgery. He's about to die. I said, what? I said, my mom just told me everything is going to be okay. Like, this is total opposite. You're talking about I'm about to die. I said, what happened? He said, son, what happened?

You have busted up subclavian artery in your chest. You're bleeding internally. I have to rush you back and take the main vein out of your left leg and plug it into your chest in order to save your life. And when I woke up from recovery, the same doctor was standing over. me, he said, Inky, I have some good news or some bad news for you. I said, you got some bad news for me.

I'm about to die. I'm still alive. How bad can it get? I'm still here. He said, the good news is, son, we saved your life. I said, thank you, sir. He said, the bad news is you have nerve damage in your right shoulder. I said, cool.

He said, we've got to send you up to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I said, cool. He said, but the problem is, Inc., you probably can never play. the game of football again in your life. I said, no way. You said, yeah, ain't you got some pretty bad nerve damage. I said, no. I said, Doc, no disrespect, man, but I'm eight games away.

Like, Doc, no disrespect, but this is about to change my family's life. Doc, I've been working for this ever since I was seven years old, Doc, there's no way. God, not now, God. Like, let me make it to the NFL so I can help my family first. Like, we miss Mills. And you're talking about my career could end right now. like, no way. And I snapped out of it. I said, man, I never cheated. I said, there's no way. I never cheated. I never cheated myself. I gave everything I had to it and I respected it.

I never cheated. There's no way that my career can be over. I said, send me up to the Mayo Clinic. And after several visits, I'll never forget, this is when reality set in. It was me, my mother, my father in the room, and the doctors came in. They said, Inky Johnson, here's the deal. They said, son, you have torn all the nerves and you'll break your plexus. They say, your brachial plexus are the nerve roots that go from your spine, and they come down, they control your shoulder, your arm, and your hand. They say, you have torn them at all levels. They cannot be replugged.

It says, some, we hate to tell you, but your arm, it would never be the same again. Your hand, it would never be the same again. Son, you can never play the game of football again. It says, son, here are your surgery options. We could take a muscle out of the back of your left leg, plug it into your right arm, but there's a possibility that you'll be left with the weak left leg

at the weak right arm the rest of your life. Or we can take a nerve out of your left arm, re-rout it up to your chest, down into your right, but there's a possibility that you'll be left with two weak arms the rest of your life. Or we could take a nerve out of your left rib, re-rotted up to your chest down into your right arm, but there's a possibility that you'll be left with a breathing problem and a weak right on the rest of your life. By the way, tell us what you want to do in the morning? And the next morning I walked into the doctor's office, they said,

some, what option did you choose? I said, no disrespect to you, Doc. I'm not choosing an option. My situation is out of your hands. It said, cut with the cute talk. I said, no disrespect to you, doc. Cut me where you got to cut me. My situation is out of your hands.

I'm not choosing an option. I said, I know I will come out of this situation, okay. And as I stand right here on this stage, thank you. As I stand right here on this stage before you today, they cut me six times down my left thigh. They cut me two times across my right rib. They cut me two times across my right peck. They cut me one time across the left side of my neck, one time across the right side of my neck.

They cut me from the bottom of my armpit all the way down to the bottom of my hand. And after they got through cutting on me, they said, son, you're going to be in this hospital for the next 40 days. I walked out of the hospital on the third day. They said, you broke a record. How did you do it? And I said, first and foremost, the thing I want you all to understand, I would never let a circumstance or a situation define my life. But most importantly, you know what I had invested? I had sweat equity. I had been working my whole life. And what I didn't understand by being determined to chase something, by being committed to it, and what commitment is, commitment is staying true to what you said you were going to do long after the

mood that you have said it and has left. You see, people think commitment is saying, yes, I'll do it on the days when it feel good. But I had been committed to everything that I ever started in my life and I never stopped and I never quit it. And so by being committed to everything that I started, I finished it, it built a certain type of spirit, it built a certain type of mentality, it built a certain type of individual. And so now I couldn't quit even if I wanted to. I couldn't lay in a bed even if I wanted to.

I couldn't stop even if I wanted to. I had too much sweat, equity in my life and everything that I was doing. Because I understood my existence wasn't about me. I went from me to we a long time ago. I understood the process is more important than the product. It wasn't about the outcome for me. Whether I made it to the NFL or not, that was inconsequential in God's plan for my life. But I was going to fall in love with that process.

Because I understood by falling in love with that process, it was going to turn me into a machine. You see, a lot of people need things to get motivated. A lot of people need a little extra money to get motivated. A lot of people need, you know, whatever the case may be a little bonus to get motivated. I don't need anything but breath in my body in life. And every day I wake up, I understand I got two children depending on me. I understand I got a wife depending on me. I understand I got a world that needs me.

The reason I go at life with the passion and the zeal that I go at it with is because I understand every day of my life is somebody in the world that is dependent on me. It may not be you. And if it's just about you, you're in trouble. I'm telling you, you're going to hit something in life that's a lot tougher than you. and it's going to test your will, and it's going to test your heart. And if it's just about you and if it's just about the product, it will quest you.

Every day I get up, I understand. And somebody in a free world that's looking at me to see if I'm going to keep going. And so I can't quit. And so I went back to school to next week. After they had just saved my life, I was back in class. I had to learn how to write all over again. Had to learn how to walk all over again. I had to learn how to tie my shoe all over again.

I had to learn how to live life all over again. I had to learn how to live life all over again. Never one time did I say, let me go home. I need a break. Never one time did I go into the training room and said, I need some time off. Can you all just give me a little leave time? I need to go back home.

I need some time off. My life just changed last week. And they came to me and they said, Inky, go home. We know how much the game of football meant to you. I say, yeah, you know how much the game of football meant to me, but you don't know how much life means to me. You see, the thing we have to understand

about everything that we are part of, first and foremost, it's a blessing by God. And when it's a blessing, you can't help but to give everything you got to it. My life got saved. I got spared my life. Almost died. The doctor came to me on the field. He was on one knee and he grabbed my wrist and he said,

son, you don't have a pulse. I don't even know how you're still living. And my last doctor visited, they came to me and they said, sorry, Enki Johnson, you will never be able to use this arm of hand again in your life. I said, no disrespect to you, Doc, but I would use this arm in his hand every day for the rest of my life by the way that I live my life.

Every day I'm going to impact someone's life. Every day I'm going to empower someone. Every day I'm going to inspire someone. Every day I'm going to encourage someone. The thing we have to understand, what business are we in? You know, protocol, they call me in the world. They say, Enkies a speaker. Enkies are motivational, whatever the case may be,

Inc, whatever it is. But what they don't understand, I'm in the people's business. Not a speaker? I'm a server. Anybody that has direct contact with people on a daily basis, that is an opportunity to change someone's life. Don't ever pass up an opportunity to be of encouragement to other people. Don't ever pass up an opportunity to inspire someone.

Don't ever pass up an opportunity to empower someone. Don't ever pass up an opportunity to show someone love because the thing about it, my wound, like you can see this. You can see my arm. My wound is visible. But it's a lot of people in this room that are wounded and you can't see it. And it's internal. And so the opportunities that we pass up to be a blessing,

to other people, we can save their life with just one encounter. When we talk about meat or we, when we talk about process over product, when we talk about sweat equity, when we talk about better together, do we really understand what that means? Because sometimes the thing about life, life always comes along when we make up our mind and try to distract us. But truth be told, we all know that we're stronger together. And that's in every aspect of life, whether it be sports, whether it be business,

whether it be a marriage, whether it be a family. We're always stronger. Together is kind of like the Planet of the Apes movie. When Caesar and his guys, they were going crazy, they were going bananas, and Caesar stood back on the hill, and Caesar was trying to calm them down, and they wouldn't calm down, and they wouldn't listen to him. And the way he got their attention was phenomenal. The way he got their attention, he picked up a piece of straw, one silly piece of straw.

Caesar picked up one silly piece of straw, and he held it up in front of him. He picked up one straw, and he broke it. And then he picked up two hands full of straws, and he braced it. and what he was telling them along we can do nothing together strong unstoppable can change the world thank you for your time i greatly appreciate it god bless you thank you for tuning in continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes