The 49ers icon traded the gridiron for private equity, following Roger Staubach’s lead to forge a financial empire while redefining his legacy as an aspirational father.
Steve Young's journey has taken him places others only dream of. After ending his 17-year professional career, with a majority of his time with the San Francisco 49ers, there was a gap between fiction and reality.
Those days seem like a lifetime ago. Some 27 years later, Young has built a $10 billion empire in the world of private equity, educating others on how to build generational wealth. But there's a different title for his game of life.
"I would introduce myself as an aspirational dad right now. To see if I can get people launched," Young told Bloomberg in a recent interview.
Not a three-time Super Bowl winner, MVP, Hall-of-Famer, co-founder of a private equity firm, but just a aspirational dad. That's the evolution of where Young was in his playing career and where he's at now. The BYU Cougars and NFL great has created his story after football. The one not often referenced or told by others. But it didn't come overnight, as was a process for Young, who leaned on one of his mentors.
"For me, it was my own mentor, Roger Staubach, who told me when I transitioned, you know, I said, "How do you transition?" (He said) "You run. Football will never leave you, but you need to leave it." And so I thought that was great advice. Because it's really true football never left me. But you need to leave the thing that's not.
"It's over, and I think that I don't want to drag it around. Everyone has a dream. My dream is to play football and play professional football, and you have a dream come true. But it is going to end, and the day it ends... The day before it ends, you're one of the best in the world. The next day you wake up, that's gone. What are you great at? And the truth is nothing, right? I'm not great at anything else."
Being able to move on from football has been the biggest key to Young's success. The NFL is often said to stand for "Not For Long," which for some players is true. The average career in the league is three seasons. For anyone trying to build wealth, doing it from NFL pay alone isn't possible. Thus, why Young started moving in the direction that he did.
Staubach's sound advice came from having a firm grasp on business tactics. The Dallas Cowboys legend created an entrepreneurial avenue in real estate as a power broker. One that he's still involved with today.
For Young, this is about aligning himself with the right people willing to take the right steps. Not everyone will understand what it took to get where he's at right now. According to a 2015 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, 15.7% of NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring. That figure has likely not declined over the past decade.
Young has beaten the odds several times in his life and will continue to do so at his HGGC firm.
