Welcome to my mind,

As the second star of my Multipotentialite Profiles, Shaquille O’Neal is most famous for being the retired 7’1” powerhouse from the NBA. Since retirement, he has become involved in a multitude of things that he couldn’t do while on the busy schedule of a basketball star. One of his most familiar roles off the court is in acting. He has become an advertising personality for Icy Hot  and more. His recognizable and extremely ginormous character could potentially add ethos to many an advertisement. He has also appeared in many movies as well as television shows in one-time appearances, but he has not yet found, or perhaps even searched for a full-time position on a show.

During his NBA career, Shaq completed his degree in general studies, and in 2005 he earned an MBA through an online curriculum. In 2012, he completed a doctorate program and earned an Ed.D. (much like Bill Cosby who was featured last week!) With the MBA, Shaq also worked for a while in real estate, trying to pay off the mortgages of foreclosed houses while selling them back to the same people on a better deal and more reasonable plan. In this way, despite that he received a small profit, it was somewhat charitable because the process would directly help the homeowners. In September of 2013, he became a partial owner of the Sacramento Kings basketball team.

O’Neal also has had a strong interest in law enforcement for many years, and became a reserve officer in Miami as well as being an honorary officer for different stints with other stations, where he would go on an occasional raid with the rest of the police force. This part of his life is not entirely superficial; he actually was a key officer in the arrest of two perpetrators of a hate crime. Shaq ventured into mixed martial arts, receiving training across several fields, but seems to have never competed in formal matches outside of his training gym.

He has also made moves into the realm of music and video games, both of which haven’t been very successful, but that does not count against his effort! In the 90’s he made a rap album that was received with mixed reviews, and it never flourished much beyond that. Besides being in the NBA games created by EA Sports, Shaq also had a game created called Shaq Fu, which again was more of a novelty than a respected game, but he also recently announced Shaq Fu 2 will be released sometime in the near future.

While not many of us will have the benefits of being a multi-millionaire when we begin to follow our different interests, it shows that delving into many varied interests is possible and great things can be achieved. A lot of what Shaq does seems to be like “testing the waters,” where he knows he is interested in something, so he tries it to see what it is like. Some of his interests, like acting, are more fruitful than others. Shaq has found himself among so many things besides professional basketball, and his success both on and off the court should be inspiring to fellow multipotentialites.

On your six,

And