Owner of 150 Car Washes and 40 Gyms, Lakers Legend Shaquille O’Neal Took a Massive Pay Cut Even After Selling 200M Units in Walmart

Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal is arguably one of the most successful businessmen ever. He invested in multiple companies, including Google, Ring, and Lyft. He also owns 100s of carwashes and multiple gyms. But even then he took a massive pay cut despite selling over 200 Million units of his shoe.

When Shaq entered the league, he was one of the best players in the league already. As per tradition, the best players in the league get their own shoes. At the time, he had two offers from Nike and Reebok. Shaq signed with Reebok from 1992 to 1998.

But then one incident happened which made changed his decision forever.

Shaquille O’Neal was inspired by a mom to make cheap shoes

In 1998, Shaq was leaving a place where he was confronted by a mom. She complained that his shoes were so expensive. She wanted to buy a pair for her son, but she couldn’t afford them. Hearing that, the Lakers man offered the women $2000 to buy shoes. But the woman was angry, and she smacked the money out of his hand.

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This changed Shaq’s view. He realized that a lot of families couldn’t afford to buy shoes because they were that expensive. So he left Reebok to start a line of shoes that was affordable to everyone. He went to Walmart as they were the biggest retailer in the world. He made shoes in the range of $15-30 so that everyone could buy them.

While many people laughed at his idea, Shaq wasn’t deterred. And as of today, he has sold over 200 million pairs of his shoe. This was surprising, as Shaq had to take a massive pay cut in order to do this.

And a few of the reasons he did this, was because he had done well in other areas. Even today, Shaq makes over $50 million from endorsements. And when he was playing, he was one of the highest-paid players in the lea

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Shaq also invested in the early funding of Google, which is now worth over a trillion dollars. He also is a part of Lyft and Ring, along with owning 155 locations of Five Guys. Shaq may have lost out on his shoe deal, but he has made up for it in other areas of his life.