Steve Young, from Super Bowl MVP to Managing Billions — Hall of Fame 49ers Quarterback on High Performance, Reinvention, Faith, and How to Blend Dreams and Plans (#847)

Steve Young (@steveyoung) is a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback who played professional football for more than 15 years, predominantly with the San Francisco 49ers. He was named the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXIX, securing the titles of Player of the Year by Sports Illustrated and Sporting News from 1992 to 1994 and receiving the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award for 1992 and 1994.

Upon retirement, Steve held the record for the highest quarterback rating in NFL history and remains the only quarterback to clinch four consecutive NFL passing titles. Following his football career, Steve became an ESPN analyst and best-selling author and entered the world of private equity. He co-founded HGGC, a private equity firm managing more than $6.9B in capital commitments, and served as chairman of the board for HGGC portfolio companies IDERA, Integrity, and AutoAlert.

Steve is the founder and current chair of the Forever Young Foundation, an organization deeply involved in supporting children’s charities globally. He also has taken on a significant role in advancing the national women’s flag football initiative and is a former international spokesperson for the Children’s Miracle Network, a philanthropy that has successfully raised more than one billion dollars to aid children’s hospitals worldwide. 

He is the author of QB: My Life Behind the Spiral and The Law of Love.

Please enjoy!

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Transcripts

• This episode
• All episodes

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with Steve Young:

HGGC | Forever Young Foundation | Twitter | Instagram

Books & Articles

• The Law of Love: The Powerful Force That Opens Doors, Overcomes Obstacles, and Changes Everything by Steve Young
• Steve Young Is an Athlete Who’s Actually Good at Finance | Bloomberg
• 49ers Great Steve Young Opens up on Mental Health and His Struggles with Anxiety | The New York Times
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
• Mental Toughness Training for Sports: Achieving Athletic Excellence by James E. Loehr
• Runnin’ Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Actually Love by Bill Gurley
• Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess by Fred Waitzkin
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

Companies & Organizations

• HGGC
• Forever Young Foundation
• BYU (Brigham Young University)
• LDS (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
• Hellman & Friedman
• KKR
• Morgan Stanley
• PowerBar
• San Francisco 49ers
• Sequoia Capital
• The Staubach Company
• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Movies & Documentaries

• Free Solo (2018)
• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
• Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
• Sliding Doors (1998)

People

• Troy Aikman
• Stephen Covey
• Greg Benson
• Leon Black
• Tom Brady
• Edward J. DeBartolo Jr.
• Bob Dylan
• LaVell Edwards
• Bob Gay
• Bill Gurley
• John W. Heisman
• Warren Hellman
• Jim Herrmann
• Alex Honnold
• Jon Huntsman
• James Klint
• Henry Kravis
• Rich Lawson
• Doug Leone
• James Loehr
• Brian Maxwell
• Jim McMahon
• Greg McKeown
• Joe Montana
• Karl Popper
• Jerry Rice
• George Roberts
• Leonard Russell
• Larry Sonsini
• Roger Staubach
• Ted Tollner
• Josh Waitzkin
• Bill Walsh
• Jocko Willink
• Yoda
• Barbara Graham Young
• Brigham Young
• LeGrande Young

TIMESTAMPS

• [00:00:00] Start.
• [00:02:34] The full circle of Josh Waitzkin.
• [00:05:47] The Stephen Covey plane ride that changed everything.
• [00:11:38] Overcoming victimization: The hole you dig, then jump into.
• [00:14:16] How taking ownership led Steve from rock bottom to NFL MVP in one season.
• [00:21:50] Interceptions and the truest truth about accountability.
• [00:26:09] What separates good from great quarterbacks: Adrenaline alchemy.
• [00:31:21] Alex Honnold and the genetics of not panicking.
• [00:32:14] Learning to actually throw a football at BYU.
• [00:35:01] Recovering from the offensive coordinator who wouldn’t coach southpaws.
• [00:37:00] The vulnerability prerequisite.
• [00:42:45] Separation anxiety: Thriving by day, terrified by night.
• [00:48:29] Tears in the Candlestick Park training room.
• [00:52:37] The diagnosis that made the puzzle pieces fit.
• [00:58:32] Dad’s philosophy: Dream (1%) and Plan (80%).
• [01:01:14] Law school between Super Bowl parades.
• [01:02:33] Trading locker room access for venture capital deals.
• [01:08:45] Mourning old identities and heeding Roger Staubach’s transition advice: “Run.”
• [01:11:49] Rich Lawson walks out of Morgan Stanley: “I’ll be the CEO.”
• [01:19:05] 30 years of partnership: Yin, yang, and existential crises.
• [01:23:01] HGGC: The name nobody can pronounce (and why).
• [01:25:19] Faith evolution: From Boy Scout theology to something deeper.
• [01:29:41] The Law of Love: Bill Walsh’s secret weapon.
• [01:32:53] Divine humanity and the irony of losing self-interest.
• [01:43:52] Parting thoughts.

STEVE YOUNG QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I realized right there that the hole I was in, that I thought so many people had dug, that I had dug it. I had no idea that I dug the hole, and I had thought that everyone pushed me in and I didn’t realize that I had jumped in.”
— Steve Young

“My theology is we’re here as humans to learn and grow. It can be tough and miserable, it can be all kinds of things, but that’s the underpinning of what we’re trying to do is learn and grow. Be about it. Don’t be afraid.”
— Steve Young

“[Transformation is] a state of being. It’s not a list of things to do.”
— Steve Young

“You might not have a great practice, but own it. You might not be as strong as you thought you were. Well, freaking own it. Stop dancing around the authenticity of what you’re trying to do.”
— Steve Young

“Part of learning and growing is, ‘I suck right now, but I’m not going to suck tomorrow.’ And once you can start to get into that mode of ‘That’s what I’m about,’ that’s what happens. There’s a clarity that comes because now everything gets fed through that truth.”
— Steve Young

“I remember running up to Troy Aikman, and we were warming up, and he’s a friend, and he’s a quarterback for the Cowboys, and I’m like, ‘Troy, it’s so great that you’re here, man, because I’m on this quest to see how good I can get, and I can only find out against the best, and so I’m so glad that you’re here.’ And I remember Troy looked at me like, ‘Freaking weirdo. What’s wrong with you?’ But that’s what I was about.”
— Steve Young

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Want to hear another episode with someone who has mastered the art of reinvention and phase shifts? Listen to one of my conversations with Josh Waitzkin — the basis for the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer (Steve’s favorite film!) — in which we discussed the art of learning, how to cultivate empty space for creativity, learning the macro from the micro, the power of beginner’s mind, transitioning from chess prodigy to martial arts world champion, and much more.