Billionaire Michael Jordan Quit His First and Only Job before NBA Fame, Going against His Mother’s Wishes

Michael Jordan was the pinnacle of the basketball world. He was truly a prodigy. His unwavering self-belief, attitude, competitiveness, and arrogance complimented his talent perfectly. Everything was personal with him. His utterly successful NBA career laid the grounds for him to become one of the most iconic personalities in the sporting world.

MJ soon got up the stairs of financial success too through multiple endorsements, investments, and businesses. But before MJ “completed” the NBA, achieved the GOAT status, and reached the $2 billion net worth mark, he was just a young boy in a working-class family. 

The Jordan family was not even middle class. The family as a whole worked together to reach where they did. And when it came to MJ, he made sure that none of his family members would ever “need” to work again as desperately as before. When they were all growing up, Michael’s two brothers had jobs and both his sisters had jobs too.

While the brothers drove buses the sisters worked at McDonalds. So it was his mother Deloris’ duty to make her youngest son Michael also work somewhere. He had not worked anywhere before that and as it turned out, he never did again either. 

Also Read: Breaking a Long Standing Family Rule, Michael Jordan Was Not Allowed to Attend His Brother’s Party, Simply Because of Motherly Instincts

Michael Jordan once revealed in a 1989 interview how he disobeyed his mother just because he wasn’t cut out for regular hours. He said, “One summer, my mom said, ‘You just got to work,’ and she got me a job as a maintenance man in a hotel. Man, I quit that job so quick! I just couldn’t do it, I could not keep regular hours. It just wasn’t me. From then on, I never, ever had another job.”

Michael Jordan broke barriers to become successful

The Jordan family was full of athletic people. Starting from his father who cut wood, cropped tobacco along with MJ’s other siblings, and did all things possible to feed his family. One of his brothers was in the military and the other one had real basketball talent. So for MJ it was just a matter of time that he realized his talents. And that did not entail him working as a maintenance man in a hotel.

No matter how talented MJ was, without the support of his family he would likely not have broken the barriers to become what he did. He never worked and never helped his family in any work but he certainly learned the value of it all. He learned how determined one has to be if they wanted to be successful no matter the field. These values were what he grew up with. 

However, quitting the only job he ever had, Michael Jordan was going against his mother’s wishes. Deloris obviously wanted a secure future for her son and doing a job, no matter how small it was, would prepare anyone to work for themselves in the future. 

WATCH THIS STORY: What does Michael Jordan’s mother Deloris do now?

However, MJ wasn’t made for it. So despite going opposite to what his mother wanted, MJ made a name for himself by doing what he loved. Well its undoubtedly safe to say Michael Jordan never needed another job.