Stick to your vision. Support your community. Embrace your rivals—even if one of them happens to be Larry Bird.

At the Opening Keynote of the ASAE Annual Meeting & Expo, NBA Hall of Fame player Earvin “Magic” Johnson spoke on all of those themes, sharing stories from his personal leadership journey. Moving from the stage to directly engage with audience members—“I’m not a stage guy, I like to be on the floor,” he said—he took questions while stressing the importance of compassionate leadership and entrepreneurship.

As chairman and chief executive officer of Magic Johnson Enterprises, Johnson leads an investment conglomerate whose holdings include sports franchises, technology companies, financial services firms, and more. 

What binds all of those efforts together, he said, is a determination to build communities.

“I wanted to invest in the poorest neighborhoods in America, the inner cities of America, the urban communities, because not only did they need options to take their families to a great restaurant or to a movie theater, but also it created job opportunities at the same time,” he said. He discussed how he encouraged LA gang members to set aside their conflict and work at one of his movie theaters, and tailored the menu at his Starbucks investments to better attract neighborhood customers.

Johnson noted that he himself grew up poor, one of ten siblings in Lansing, Michigan, before becoming a star high-school and college player, helping Michigan State University win the NCAA men’s basketball National Championship in 1979 over Indiana State. As a professional player with the LA Lakers, he was a three-time NBA MVP and 12-time All-Star while leading the Lakers to five championships.

Johnson credited his success to mindset as much as talent. “As leaders, it doesn’t matter how we grew up,” he said. “It doesn’t matter about our circumstance. It doesn’t matter what kind of rules they put in to try to stop us from trying to do good and great things. Leaders just make adjustments. Leaders still find a way to win. That’s what leaders do. They don’t make excuses.”

Leaders just make adjustments. Leaders still find a way to win. That’s what leaders do.

Earvin “Magic” Johnson

To that end, Johnson regularly returned to his rivalry with Larry Bird, who regularly faced off against him as a player on the Boston Celtics. “Your competitor can make you better,” Johnson said. “All of us in here, we’re better because either your competitor or somebody that you work with has pushed you to be. And now you’re doing that for those who work with you and for you. Larry Bird made me a better basketball player.” 

Change is a constant in every industry, Johnson noted, and encouraged attendees to look at change not as barriers but opportunities.

“Change is good,” he said. “Change is hard for some of us when we’ve been doing our job a long time a certain way, but with AI and new things coming in technology-wise, sometimes we have to make a change. I’m always changing, evolving, trying to get better so I can serve my customers better, my clients, and do a good job for my partners as well.” He added that those changes are prompting him to look for opportunities to provide AI-related jobs in underserved communities. “It’s going to be important that those kids don’t get left behind because there are a lot of job opportunities there,” he said. 

Concluding his appearance, Johnson stressed the importance of being flexible as leaders. He pointed to the example of Michael Jordan, who was invited to serves as captain of the USA men’s basketball “dream team,” which won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Jordan deferred the role to Johnson and Bird instead. 

“Sometimes you’ve got to step back,” Johnson said. “He wanted us to lead the team, because we were older than him… When he did that, everybody had to leave their ego at the door. Five thousand people are in this room, and you left your ego back home because you’re willing to learn, pick up new ideas and new strategies.”

In his own role at Magic Johnson Enterprises, Johnson said he strives to demonstrate openness and understanding of his people, and asked attendees to do the same.

“Understand who’s working with you, and how to motivate them, how to get the best out of them,” he said.” I know who I will put that pressure on, and I know who doesn’t work well under pressure…. Being a leader is understanding your team and then always setting a strategy. I’m a demanding CEO, but at the same time I’m an understanding CEO.”

[istock/sinngern]