Intro Music - Then all of a sudden, you know, it goes just like a movie where everything just slows down, your ATV's flipping.

It's like a Michael Bay action scene.

- And you look down and you see your hand.

Bloodied I imagine.

- Oh Yeah, Its like an Esploxion just took place.

♪ We're gonna take over - [Lisa] Every life has a moment, a shift that changes the way you see everything.

- You gotta have hope in tomorrow.

If you don't have open tomorrow, it's game over.

- [Host 2] In those moments, people discover what remains and the courage to step forward anyway.

Tell me about the moments where you didn't succeed.

- I'm coming to realize there's room for redemption.

- Were you prepared for what you were about to embark on?

- [Lisa] What comes next is not the end of the story, but the beginning.

Resilience.

What does that word mean to you today?

- Life's a blessing.

Appreciate the blessing by living it fully.

♪ We're gonna take over (upbeat music) - [Lisa] Mo, you're out here in this heat, but you're used to it, huh?

- [Mohamed] I love it, I love it.

How you feeling?

Dehydrated?

- I don't know.

I'm from Phoenix, but still, it takes a lot to get used to, but you've been doing this forever, right?

- [Mohamed] I'm right at home.

- You're right at home in the sun, so.

I am so honored to be here and sitting with you in this Atlanta heat today.

- I'm looking forward to it.

We gonna stay cool.

- We are.

We are.

Mohamed "Mo" Massaquoi is a first generation immigrant and former NFL receiver who played for the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets.

- [Commentator] Oh ho, I think it's a touchdown.

It is!

Massaquoi!

- Mo agreed to meet up with me at Morgan Falls overlook in Sandy Springs, Georgia to chat about a game-changing moment in his life, one that he championed both psychologically and physically through resilience and a driving desire to ultimately help others.

How did you put on all that equipment in the heat like this (laughing) as we're sitting here melting away in the Atlanta heat.

You were there day after day, right?

- I'm a lot more domesticated now.

(both laughing) - Like you know what air conditioning is, right?

- But you get acclimated to it though.

- Yeah, you do.

In everything in life, like you said- - Everything in life you gotta get acclimated to.

- You have to get acclimated.

So Mo, when I stumbled upon you and you flash this big smile, you know, I immediately think about resilience.

And after all these years of playing football and your accident, which we'll talk about later, and living in your life now, resilience, what does that word, what does that word mean to you today?

- Today I think resilience is your opportunity to step into your potential.

Like, there's something that is holding you back some way, some shape or form, and can you overcome that to get to the other side, regardless of what it is.

- You have all these accolades as a football player, in college, professional career, but talk about your journey.

Talk about your childhood and where you're from and how you came to be here in Georgia.

- I'm a child of immigrants.

My family escaped the civil war in Liberia.

And so coming here, it was just really trying to reset life.

I moved around a little bit as a kid.

So I was born in Charlotte, went to Liberia as a kid.

The war had kinda calmed down a little bit, then it escalated again, came back to Charlotte.

We moved to Chicago.

We were in Chicago for a number of years, came back to Charlotte, and just kinda bounced around a little bit in the city.

And once again, sports was the thing that was always the central thing.

- [Lisa] Connected the dots for you.

- And so this is back before internet and social media where everybody wanted to be an athlete.

You wanted to be it, but you didn't really know how to make it make sense.

And so I think like all immigrant parents, my mom was like, "Hey, you need to go focus on school."

And so you get the, you know, the duality of wanting to be a athlete.

- They want you to be a doctor or a lawyer, right?

- Yeah, straight up (both laughing) You're like, "Yeah, that's not in the cards."

(Lisa laughing) But I was fortunate to go to this school, Independence High School, with a guy Tommy Knotts, and, you know, our claim of fame is we won seven straight championships and 109 games in a row.

- And didn't lose a game.

Didn't lose a game.

- Didn't lose, but it's, when you get a guy like that that is just like helping you become a better version of yourself, or my receiver coach, Steve Shipp, and you're getting these people that just develop you, you almost become failure-proof almost, because they're giving you all the keys- - Everything you need.

- to test.

And that led to Georgia, four years there.

It was a great experience, studied psychology there.

Got drafted by Cleveland- - Who was your coach at Georgia?

- Mark Richt.

- Makr Richt was the coach.

Before he went to Miami.

Okay.

- CMR.

And it's weird because you look back and you say like, a kid's game did all this.

Like this simple beginning created everything else.

And I think that's why we shouldn't dismiss things that are, like they seem simple on the surface or elementary on the surface that you just never know what they can become.

Yeah, and so played, played at Georgia, got drafted by Cleveland, ended up getting five years in the NFL.

Kept getting concussions and so you start retiring, or thinking about retirement and decided to retire early, went to Morgan Stanley.

Was there for a number of years.

went back to school, started focusing on organizational psychology.

And here we are all these years later.

- [Lisa] You set foot on the Harvard campus too, right?

- Yeah, Harvard as well.

- You could talk about that.

- Yeah.

So I think one of the things that you have to continue to develop yourself.

And so I looked at that as an opportunity to just continue to develop and grow because you could wanna do something, but you may not have the skillset yet to do it or the tools to do it, and so you gotta go get the skills.

- Okay, so again, you're conquering the world of football and world here in the States, but how often were your thoughts of home and the people there who did not have the opportunities that you had?

- I think about it all the time.

I think my life would be drastically differently, just geographically, if I was somewhere different.

And if you have an opportunity, you got to take advantage of it because not everyone has it, so you don't wanna waste it.

And so I do think about, I still think about that now where I get an opportunity to do a lot of different things, not because I'm overly special, just like because of where I am, and so I do carry that with me.

- So for you, the United States really was the land of opportunity?

- Whether it would've been here or it would've been Europe or would've been another African country, I think once you get to that place, you still have to make it something because it... And that's the harsh reality of life sometimes where we don't all get the same starting place.

We don't all, you know, get the same opportunities, but you can't use that as an excuse.

You still have to figure out how to, you know, play the game and overcome, you know, all the obstacles that get in front of you to get to the other side.

(upbeat music) You ready?

- We're about to do yoga.

I'm a Pilates girl, but I think I can handle this.

Hi, Carly.

- How you doing?

- You gonna take us through some moves, right?

Good to see you, good to see you.

- How you doing?

So I brought some blocks here to bring the ground closer to you.

When you hinge down, it'll keep you from rounding.

So you just wanna make sure that everything, your spine is tall and in alignment.

So I put those here so you can put them on a high height if you want.

Like that.

We'll start there actually.

- Perfect.

- So you wanna stand with your feet hip-width.

At the top of the mat.

Right at the top there.

Good.

And just put your palms out this way.

Breathe in through your nose.

Good.

And exhale through your nose.

Good.

Inhale through your nose one more time.

Hold it at the top for one, two, three, four, and exhale out of your mouth.

Sigh it out.

Good.

Just feel the ground beneath you.

- [Mohamed] How you doing over there?

- Exhale, arms down.

- This has been a breeze.

I'm worried about the blocks that I see down there.

- [Carly] We're gonna keep it chill.

- Okay, so Mo, is supposed to be good for mind, body, and soul.

True or false.

- You check out.

You let the instructor lead the way.

You don't think about nothing.

- Okay, don't think about anything.

- [Mohamed] Kinda declutter the mind.

At least what that's what they say.

(laughing) - And and this helps you after Sunday football.

- Yeah.

A lot of guys do this multiple times in a week.

- I heard, I heard football players do this.

- They dance, they do Pilates, they do yoga, they get massages.

All the wellness stuff that people don't think is important.

- Is it a routine you're sticking with?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- I would say when I was playing, two to three massages a week.

Get stretched once or twice a week.

Chiropractor probably twice a week.

In the training room every day.

- And this is where your mind just can go, what, blank for a minute?

- Well, a lot of it is, and you gotta think it's like a sports car.

Like each athlete, male, female, high-tuned sports car.

And so if one thing is off, it throw the whole body off.

- Wow.

- And so all this puts it back in alignment.

(upbeat music) - [Lisa] So how many injuries, football injuries, did you have to nurse?

- Broken foot, torn knees, separated shoulder, multiple concussions - [Lisa] Oh my God.

- You know, neck, ankles, back, almost everything.

- So every time your mom got that phone call... (laughing) - I mean, it's literally you, I think literally, once the season, once camp starts, nobody's healthy again.

Something's bothering you.

- Isn't that the truth.

I had a football player, and I just I used to cringe, you know, every time that phone rang because you knew it was something.

- So you just learn how to deal with it.

I think that's what sports allows you to do though.

You learn to just work through things that bother you.

You never feel great.

- But painful.

Yeah, right.

Now do you have lasting injuries?

Like a lot of people walk away with, you know, chronic back pain, chronic- - You do.

- Leg pain.

- That's why you gotta stay in shape and stay working out just so... It's when you not working out is when stuff starts to hurt more because your body, your body just isn't strong and it's not mobile and it's not where it needs to be.

- [Lisa] You still work out every day?

- No, not every day.

Three days a week is probably good, and then the days you not working out, you try to still stretch a few minutes here and there, try to walk, get your heart rate up a little bit.

- Inhale, arms up.

Exhale, bend your knees, hinge at the hips.

Come on down, find those blocks.

Look up.

Exhale, head down.

Release the spine and the neck.

Good.

Inhale, look up.

Exhale, head down.

Good.

Inhale all the way up.

And arms down.

Now bend the knees like you're about to sit in a chair.

Arms up.

- That's the worst one.

- Right?

Exhale, push up.

We won't stay there too long.

(Lisa laughing) Good.

- You said you were gonna be nice.

- Yeah, nice and easy.

Let's step out two wide legs.

Good.

I'm gonna bring these up.

- So Carly, why is this good for our minds?

I know why it's good for our body, but why is this good for our minds?

- This helps us get our brainwave state instead of that fight or flight beta that we're all functioning at most times during the day.

This gets us to a more coherent brainwave state.

- Oh, okay.

- So our mind and heart are more coherency.

So we can react less and respond better.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

(relaxed music) - How did you build your foundation on your parents and what they went through?

What are some of the things that they taught you that stick with you today?

- I think you understand mortality a lot differently.

Like it could all be over.

I learned that as a kid.

We would watch videos of people who, you know, were losing their life.

You know, they would send those videos back to the States.

And so in seeing that, you understand, like, this kid is my age and, you know, they're stretched out, or when my accident happened, a lot of people don't make it from those type of accidents.

So you get an opportunity to say, "It could all be gone today," and I don't think people realize that.

But since it can all be gone today, I should live life.

I should enjoy it.

I should go for the things that I believe in or that I think about when nobody's around.

- During college, during football, NFL, on paper and on the screen and everywhere, it looked like you had a storied career, and you did.

And then all of a sudden 2017 comes along.

And that infamous ATV accident.

Take us back to that day and what happened and how that drastically changed your life, and even your outlook.

- Yeah.

So I was retired from football.

I was transitioned into a new career at Morgan Stanley, you know, kind of life after sports that we all have to go through.

One day just riding ATVs, you're doing something that is normal with great people that you're around, and then you go from normalcy to chaos instantly.

And we're on our normal trails, and we're going in, and we're going out, and as you're riding on normal trails, then all of a sudden, you know, it goes, it's like a movie where everything just slows down.

Your ATV's flipping.

It's like a Michael Bay action scene, and then you see your friends, they're running over or whatever, and everything is just like chh, chh, chh.

- And you look down and you see your hand bloodied, I imagine?

- Oh yeah.

It's like an explosion just took place.

But once again, you see it but you're not processing it.

Like when you're too close to a, I think a traumatic situation, your body just tricks you into believing whatever you want to believe at that time.

Because you have adrenaline, because I have adrenaline, we all do, you don't really process the severity of the thing.

Even though you're looking at it, it's not till you get into the hospital that they're like, "Hey, Mr.

Massaquoi.

we're about to amputate your hand."

You're like, "Whoa, whoa, slow down."

And then you try to save it, and they do multiple surgeries to try to save it, and then you just see the hand deteriorate over time, and then over 12 surgeries, you finally get left, you know, I got a functioning thumb, but everything else is gone.

And then it gets to the point where you understand what it is, you understand the gravity of the situation, and that just takes a lot longer.

- Take us back to that day in the hospital and the triggers that you must have had realizing that, you know, you had this injury and your life was changed forever.

- I remember being there, but it's an out-of-body experience where it's happening so fast that I can't consciously, like, remember all the small moments.

I'd just be grouping things together, honestly.

It's, you know.

Vaguely remember who came in and out.

Vaguely remember, you know, what the doctors were saying.

It's not until you're further removed from a lot of that stuff that you can kind of sit back and internalize what was taking place.

- Was that when you went, were released from the hospital and you went home?

- Mm-hm.

- What was it like at home, those first few days?

- And it, once again, it's, you know, my wife's taking care of me.

Just kind of sitting in recovery.

It's not very eventful.

It's painful because you're, like, everything is still new- - Are you still in denial or?

- You're not in anything at that point.

You're just in pain and it's not until... It's almost like you go through, you gotta go through these checkpoints of, like, when the pain is done, then you can get to the next step, and then when you're frustrated, then you can get to the next point, and then after you've been depressed, then you can get to the next point, and then you kind of calm, and then it gets to the point where you can actually start to heal.

Like the healing doesn't take place until you, like, crashed out a little bit.

And that could take months.

And so you gotta be patient with people when they're going through their own stages of whatever they're dealing with 'cause they just may not have crossed that checkpoint to get to where they need to be.

(gentle music) - How much time did it take for you to get on the other side of that, and were there bouts of depression?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's normal.

We throw out these words, and I think we got to be careful because sometimes we can label ourselves, that it's permanent, where I'm depressed and that's a character trait for the rest of your life.

But there are moments where you're high anxiety, where you're depressed, where you're, you know, internally struggling, where you're sleep deprived, where you're, you know, panic attacks, like all the things because you have to address whatever you're going through.

- So you had retired from football, and sadly had lost four fingers.

What was it you thought you couldn't do, you know?

Some people say, "Oh, you know, you could still, you have your life."

You know, but you weren't hearing that at the time.

- Yeah, it's not that simple, and if somebody comes to me and they say, I got a paper cut that's bothering them, I tell them address it, because you just don't know the gravity of how somebody is.

- [Lisa] How it's addressing them.

- It's fixing that.

People say, "I know what you're going through."

You don't.

Like, we don't.

Even if somebody's an amputee, I don't know what that experience means to you, and so you gotta give people an opportunity to go through stuff and process it.

And I think people suppress that so much that they never fully get to the other side of it, and that takes years and years and years.

I can speak about anything now because the therapy's been done, the work's been done, every range of emotion has been had, but you gotta give yourself grace, once again, to go through those things and have those moments where I don't feel like smiling today, I'm not happy today, or I'm sad today.

And once you start to, like, address those things, you can get to the other side of it.

And I would say the first year was denial.

The second year was trying to process.

The third year was dealing with the trauma.

The fourth year was stepping back out, the fifth year... And it's ever evolving.

And so for me, getting to the other side of that then allowed me to now see life in a different way, which, in 2017, I couldn't.

I'm still learning about life now.

I'm still learning different perspectives.

I think this just gives me a different reason to look at life with more intentionality.

- If you look at your hand today, what feelings does it dredge up, and what do you feel?

What do you see?

- Like, my hand changed the trajectory of my family, of my life, and then that's no longer.

But what you start to understand, once you get over that, it's like, all right, I still have life and I still have an opportunity to do other things, and then redefine other parts of myself that can change the trajectory of my life in a way that I can't even anticipate.

With the hand, it's everything's you have to adapt.

I have multiple prosthetic devices that I have to use for certain activities, and you have to figure out how to work.

Work around really everything to get to the same, I guess, same outcome.

- What would be the first thing you would say to a person who has gone through a traumatic event and really not sure about tomorrow, and they wanna talk to Mo?

What is the first thing you would say?

- You gotta have hope for tomorrow.

If you don't have hope in tomorrow or something greater, it's game over.

But after that, then you gotta figure out what are you living for now.

If you don't answer that next question, and it's only what you lost or what happened or what you thought it was gonna be like, or whatever it is, you gotta shift your mind to, "All right, there's a lot of life to live.

What am I focused on now?"

And start putting your efforts into that.

And so you're not trying to become a new version of yourself, you're just trying to become a better version of what already is in you, and that should excite you, because as you live life and gain new experiences, then you discover more parts of yourself that you can then go share out with the world and hopefully help somebody else on their journey.

- And you said something interesting earlier, it's okay to have bad days.

- Yeah, for sure.

I think we've lied to ourself to think that every day is gonna be a good day, you're always gonna win, you're always gonna get everything you want out of life.

You won't, and that's okay, you know?

But more good days than bad days, or that struggle is going to lead into something where you earn whatever the outcome is on the other side of it.

- So many of us have a hard time out here because we try to live up to other people's expectations.

What do you say about that?

- Most people don't know what they want, and so it's almost impossible for them to tell you what you should do.

That they can give you advice from their perspective or what they would do in a situation, but you gotta filter that through what makes sense for you.

You might be telling me something that confirms I should do the opposite of what you're saying, just because of how you're thinking about it, where we may not fundamentally want the same thing or we're going after different things or your level of risk and tolerance are different than mine or where we wanna take our life is a lot different.

And so you gotta go for it.

You know, it's 1600, I think 96 people play in the NFL.

.000000000 whatever percent of the population.

And so that's like ridiculous to try to say, "Go pursue it."

But we see everyday people are doing that, so it's not impossible.

The probability that might be high, but it's not impossible.

And so if you are in the right place where you think you can go do something, you should pursue it regardless of what people are telling you.

- If you had the chance to do life over again, would you still have that as a part of your life?

I mean, would you change anything?

- You know, nothing's good or bad.

It's just, it's what we make it.

You know, there's people that have lost body parts and have become greater than they were before.

There's people that have their body parts and have become worse, you know, and vice versa.

And so once again, I think it's every day you got a decision to make of what am I gonna make of this moment and just being intentional with how I make decisions and how present I am and how I use my time and what risk I take and how I go for things.

And so I wouldn't change it because I don't know what else could have occurred.

(laughing) (gentle music) - Fast forward eight years.

- Eight years.

- [Lisa] You're motivating people and doing what you love, right?

- [Mohamed] Yeah.

- [Lisa] Tell us about VESSOL, your company.

- Yeah, so after my accident, the strangest thing start to happen.

People would reach out.

Company leaders would say, "Hey, we're going through a lot of transition at our company.

Our people are kind of struggling to go through it.

Can you come, like, talk to us, inspire us, help us navigate change?"

And I became really fascinated with that, one, from a psychology standpoint, from a performance standpoint in sports, and then I studied organizational psychology.

And so it's kind of just the combination of all the things that I love and enjoy.

So you get a chance to go into a company that's going through massive change and help them figure out the people side, the emotional side, the mental side, the mindset side, the structural side of, like, how you actually go through change in a way that the people are gonna receive and gravitate to.

And it's like sport in a weird way.

- [Lisa] What do you think about new beginnings, just in general?

- New beginnings?

- And at any age.

- [Mohamed] Wow.

I'll give you a quote.

It's a friend that was starting a different venture, and he said, "The unknown opportunities excite me more than the future makes me nervous."

And so that's what I think about new beginnings.

They're exciting.

There's room for growth.

There's room for creation of what could be.

- [Lisa] Companies called VESSOL.

We're looking out at the water.

What does that say to you in this moment?

- [Mohamed] I mean, water is calming.

It's essential to who we are.

It's always moving, it gives you a little sound, it gives you a little serenity.

So I think water's everything.

- And so is the heat.

- So is the heat.

- You've given us some great time today.

We appreciate it.

(laughing) So we gonna dive in?

Are we gonna get the boat or what?

- No, we ain't doing that.

- We're not doing that.

(laughing) - I'm not gonna not lie to you.

(laughing) (uplifting music) - [Lisa] As you just witnessed, Mo, Muhammad Massaquoi took his setbacks and turned them into opportunities.

Rather than give up, he showed up.

A tragic accident changed his life's trajectory, but with the help of loved ones, he found an open door and walked right through it.

Perhaps it's a lesson for all of us, that resilience is always in reach.

(uplifting music)