{"id":333656,"date":"2026-06-12T14:07:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/333656\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:07:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:07:29","slug":"how-former-dallas-cowboys-jaylon-smith-cracked-the-code-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/333656\/","title":{"rendered":"How former Dallas Cowboys&#8217; Jaylon Smith &#8216;cracked the code&#8217; in business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FRISCO\u00a0\u2014 He opened the front door himself\u00a0\u2014 the 30-year-old who has taken a sledgehammer to the trope about NFL players going broke.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-channels-pixel.ex.co\/events\/0012000001fxZm9AAE?integrationType=DEFAULT&amp;template=design%2Farticle%2Fplatypus_one_column.tpl\" alt=\"\" class=\"x1px y1px vh abs\" aria-hidden=\"true\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s Jaylon Smith, shuffling about as \u201cSo Amazing\u201d by Beyonc\u00e9 and Stevie Wonder resonates through his 5,000-square-foot home. His 9-year-old dog, Achilles, meanders. Follow the former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/cowboys\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> linebacker into his office, past the golden skull and giant mirror, for a glimpse into the mind of a man who stands to make more money off the field than the tens of millions he has made over the last decade on the field.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Jaylon Smith slaps hands with then-Cowboys coach Jason Garrett before facing the Green Bay Packers at AT&amp;T Stadium. Smith stands to make more money off the field than the tens of millions he has made over the last decade on the field.\" loading=\"eager\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofct bgsct block bg-black mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jaylon Smith slaps hands with then-Cowboys coach Jason Garrett before facing the Green Bay Packers at AT&amp;T Stadium. Smith stands to make more money off the field than the tens of millions he has made over the last decade on the field.<\/p>\n<p>2019 File Photo\/Tom Fox<img alt=\"\u201cI\u2019ve played 10 years in the National Football League. I beat a lot of odds,\u201d Jaylon Smith says. \u201cBut I have a real purpose beyond athletics.\u201d\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofct bgsct block bg-black mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve played 10 years in the National Football League. I beat a lot of odds,\u201d Jaylon Smith says. \u201cBut I have a real purpose beyond athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chitose Suzuki\/The Dallas Morning News<img alt=\"Cowboys players (from front left): Dak Prescott, Jaylon Smith (54) and\u00a0Darius Jackson\u00a0 server an early Thanksgiving Day meal at the Salvation Army\u2019s Mabee Social Service Center in Fort Worth in 2016.\u00a0\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-black mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cowboys players (from front left): Dak Prescott, Jaylon Smith (54) and\u00a0Darius Jackson\u00a0 server an early Thanksgiving Day meal at the Salvation Army\u2019s Mabee Social Service Center in Fort Worth in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>File Photo\/Staff<img alt=\"Jaylon Smith (right) speaks during a panel discussion at the Rise Athlete Enterprise Symposium, a sports business networking event in Frisco. Heath Butler, Mercury Fund partner (left), and\u00a0Marty McDonald, founder of Elle Olivia and Boss Women Media, were also on hand.\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-black mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jaylon Smith (right) speaks during a panel discussion at the Rise Athlete Enterprise Symposium, a sports business networking event in Frisco. Heath Butler, Mercury Fund partner (left), and\u00a0Marty McDonald, founder of Elle Olivia and Boss Women Media, were also on hand.<\/p>\n<p>DMN<\/p>\n<p>A whiteboard with his hand-written message: \u201cHave you been choosing your favor, or have you been choosing your demise?\u201d Shelves with a globe, a Louis Armstrong record, boxed bottles of Hennessy. Dozens of books \u2014 Weapons of Mass Instruction, The Science of Scaling, The Motivation Manifesto\u00a0\u2014 about which Smith can rattle off quick commentary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis one,\u00a0Rocket Fuel,\u201d he says, \u201creally, really, really good. A business operating book. So, one of my very first investments was in an entrepreneurial operating system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Talk business with Smith and topics ping-pong from the venture he\u2019s most proud of, his life insurance company with his oldest brother, to the 65 acres he owns in Sherman. Watch him beam when he details the academic curriculum he\u2019s creating about entrepreneurship, business ownership and leadership that he\u2019s piloting in high schools in northwestern Indiana, where he grew up and owns a home.<\/p>\n<p>He walks to a living room chair facing the swimming pool in his backyard. He sits. He leans back. He smiles. A decade ago, when the Cowboys selected him <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallascowboys.com\/news\/cowboys-draft-notre-dame-lb-jaylon-smith-in-second-round-no-34-overall-403111\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">34th overall<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/cowboys\/2016\/04\/30\/mosley-for-now-cowboys-luxury-pick-with-jaylon-smith-makes-them-look-foolish\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second round<\/a> of the NFL Draft, he started letting his money make money. Unsigned for next season, he eyes the horizon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve played 10 years in the National Football League,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI beat a lot of odds. But I have a real purpose beyond athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>The devastating injury Smith suffered a decade ago in his final game at the University of Notre Dame derailed a potential Hall of Fame career. But it also set him on a trajectory \u2014 before he had even played a down for the Cowboys \u2014 to create generational wealth for his family and serve as a blueprint for professional athletes looking for an entrepreneurial playbook.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Jaylon Smith smiles during a Rise Athlete Enterprise Symposium in Frisco. Rise Family Office, founded by Michael Ledo, helps pro athletes become business savvy.\u00a0\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jaylon Smith smiles during a Rise Athlete Enterprise Symposium in Frisco. Rise Family Office, founded by Michael Ledo, helps pro athletes become business savvy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>2025 File Photo\/Staff<\/p>\n<p>During a 90-minute visit with The Dallas Morning News at his home, Smith called the injury the \u201cgreatest thing\u201d to ever happen to him. Whenever the football-playing chapter of his life ends, he says, will mark the beginning of another, one with unlimited potential.<\/p>\n<p>He says he has made $44 million gross\u00a0\u2014 $33 million net\u00a0\u2014 to date during his playing career, which began with the Cowboys from 2016 to 2021 and most recently included <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallascowboys.com\/news\/cowboys-draft-notre-dame-lb-jaylon-smith-in-second-round-no-34-overall-403111\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signing<\/a> with the Las Vegas Raiders in spring 2025 before being released in August. In 2021, according to his business plan at the time, he had a net worth of $12.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>He says he\u2019s on track to have a net worth of $100 million by 40. He\u2019s ultimately planning to have a net worth of $250 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiquid, liquid, liquid,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMagic Johnson made $30 [million] to $40 million [just from on-court earnings] in his career,\u201d Smith says, noting Johnson made exponentially more in his post-playing career. \u201cThe trajectory of the b-hag \u2014 the big hairy audacious goal \u2014 is that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith wants to be a beacon as an athlete entrepreneur. He began his career with the end in mind. Because of the injury, he was forced to. He maximized the opportunity, putting himself in \u201cuncomfortable situations, learning about business, about terminology, being okay with being incompetent but putting in the work to learn,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, four operating companies that are cash flowing, 21 investments, and I\u2019ve got a lot to give.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There may be current NFL players with more capital\u00a0\u2014 Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, among others. Smith hasn\u2019t merely been an active investor but rather an active entrepreneur during his career. His story flies in the face of statistics revealing that 78% of NFL players go broke. His story highlights how the paradigm is shifting compared with the previous generation, known as the \u201cbling, bling\u201d or MTV Cribs era, when many athletes were awash in excess and financial troubles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Sports agent Leigh Steinberg has represented some of the most prominent NFL players in history, including Troy Aikman, Steve Young and Mahomes, and was the real-life inspiration for the movie Jerry Maguire. He said many athletes of the 1990s had little to no understanding of wealth management\u00a0\u2014 but a shift is well underway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why you had so many horror stories from that era,\u201d Steinberg told The News in a lengthy interview. \u201cWe had enough problems just keeping them from bankruptcy, divorce. There is a quantum leap to a contemporary athlete who is eminently more savvy and sophisticated. Contemporary athletes have been totally aware of the problems of past athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Working closely with Smith has been his mentor since the age of 14, Michael Ledo, founder and CEO of Frisco-based Rise Family Office.\u00a0Ledo is the nephew of the acclaimed late sports agent Eugene Parker, who represented Deion Sanders. Ledo said his company serves a purpose to \u201ccrack a code that we don\u2019t believe has been cracked.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Jaylon Smith has worked closely with his mentor, Michael Ledo, the\u00a0founder and CEO of Frisco-based Rise Family Office. Together they crafted what they called the \u201cathlete enterprise plan.\u201d It was a 10-year plan they reverse-engineered based on what they wanted his net worth to be by 2026.\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:4 \/ 3\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jaylon Smith has worked closely with his mentor, Michael Ledo, the\u00a0founder and CEO of Frisco-based Rise Family Office. Together they crafted what they called the \u201cathlete enterprise plan.\u201d It was a 10-year plan they reverse-engineered based on what they wanted his net worth to be by 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Elias Valverde II\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJaylon is a great blueprint. He is the blueprint.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>In a 10th-floor office high above Frisco, Ledo looked for a way to detail Smith\u2019s business strategy over the past 10 years. He grabbed a notebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018End goal was our North Star\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sitting in his living room, Smith remembers one thing about Jan. 1, 2016: Dinner plans were set. He was to join Larry Fitzgerald and Parker after Notre Dame\u2019s Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.<\/p>\n<p>Then everything changed in what served as a seminal moment as well as an ignition point. He tore his ACL and LCL and suffered nerve damage, causing his top-five overall draft status to drop and jeopardizing his entire career. He couldn\u2019t bring himself to think what others did: That he may never play again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI couldn\u2019t afford to think that way, transparently, my biggest fear or initial negative thought was more so about the timing,\u201d Smith says. \u201cIt just sucked, the timing in which it happened, but in hindsight, it\u2019s the greatest thing that\u2019s ever happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This was five years before the NIL era, which now enables star college athletes to earn seven figures while in school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I was a part of NIL, I probably would have been up anywhere from $3 [million] to $5 million while I was in college, based on the university, the stature,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to take illegal money [against NCAA rules at the time] and get disqualified or expelled from school. So it was just more about, man, this is going to be a huge loss to my family \u2014 $17 million like right off the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So while Smith rehabbed, there was something else he was already engrossed in: regular business strategy sessions with Ledo.<\/p>\n<p>They still have the videos of some sessions. They crafted what they called the \u201cathlete enterprise plan.\u201d It was a 10-year plan they reverse-engineered based on what they wanted his net worth to be by 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing was done by accident,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cWe started with the end goal\u00a0\u2014 that was our North Star.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ledo said Smith played his career at 70% of his best. There was always a sense of urgency. They didn\u2019t know if he\u2019d ever play again, at what level or for how long.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHey, we\u2019ve got to make sure, with the little money we got from his insurance policy and the contract with the Cowboys, we didn\u2019t know how long the nerve was going to last,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cSo when you talk to the doctors, he\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, the nerve could go out, we don\u2019t know how long he\u2019s going to be able to play.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Halfway through the plan, at the five-year mark in 2021, they devised another. At that point, according to the plan Ledo showed The News, Smith had a net worth of $12.5 million with sights set on $50 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ledo recalled that Smith would \u201cget a lot of heat\u201d from Cowboys fans because they would see some of his off-field business ventures and feel he should just focus on football.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if that dude would have focused just on football, whenever he begins the transition, he wouldn\u2019t be where he is now,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cThis element of when guys have to transition to the game of life after the game of football\u00a0\u2014 they are totally unprepared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He was my idol at 17\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Smith spends about 60% of his time in Frisco and 40% in Indiana, where he has a daughter about to turn 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In his Frisco living room, he talks for four minutes uninterrupted about his emotions. He said the opportunity to play for America\u2019s team is \u201csomething that will always be in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His mind rewinds to his first of five seasons with the Cowboys.<\/p>\n<p>The 2016 season was a redshirt year for Smith, who learned under linebacker Sean Lee and spent a lot of time with Tony Romo as the two rehabbed from injuries together. He also said he \u201cgot uncomfortable\u201d in learning about business and himself and hearing doctors saying he may never play the game again.<\/p>\n<p>That year gave him the opportunity to learn new business terminology, get into boardrooms and become a sponge. Becoming an athlete entrepreneur was something Smith had targeted since he was 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After he won his fourth state football championship in high school, he opted against playing basketball his senior year. Instead, he got a job at Burger King.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to be able to work in college. I wanted to get an opportunity making my own money, but then practicing \u2018service over sales,\u2019 so in working at fast food I was able to sit with multiple families, serve multiple families,\u201d he says. \u201cYou may have a Burmese family of 12 that I\u2019m feeding dinner.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou may have a pregnant woman that\u2019s coming through the drive-through, that\u2019s cussing me out, because I messed up her milkshake. All these different experiences shaped me into, like, OK, this is what customer service looks like, this is what great sales look like, this is what costs look like, cost of goods and different portions, all of these different things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One day, he went home and typed \u201cmost successful athletes who had great success in business\u201d into a computer. The name Junior Bridgeman popped up. Bridgeman played in the NBA from 1975 to 1987, invested in a fast-food empire of 450 restaurants and died last year with a net worth of $1.4 billion. He spent his off-seasons learning under experts, developing new skills, proving he was more than an athlete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was my idol at 17,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018That\u2019s who I want to be like.\u2019 So me embarking on the journey of all the different endeavors I have is a great testament to the Junior Bridgemans, the Shaquille O\u2019Neals, the LeBron Jameses, the Magic Johnsons, those guys that have displayed you can do extreme things outside of using your body as labor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To that point, Ledo recalled recently asking a veteran player how much more football he knows now than when he was a rookie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot,\u201d the player answered.<\/p>\n<p>How much more does he know about money than when he was a rookie?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the issue,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cThey come in and they leave, in many cases, almost like infants in other respects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They don\u2019t have an identity beyond the field, Ledo said, adding, \u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018Yo, what am I going to do?\u2019 It\u2019s a real question. They\u2019ve been on autopilot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are starting to want to know more,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cThey want to be more empowered, instead of just totally blind, trusting somebody with their money. \u2018Hey, do this.\u2019 But I think the culture of sports for the pro athlete is so destructive that it\u2019s hard to be part of that culture and not operate in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2018An excuse for mediocrity\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Smith says fellow NFL players often ask him about his business blueprint.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He says he wants peers to not treat the NFL like an extended vacation. Prepare yourself for life after the game, and not just financially, but mentally and spiritually.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it stops, when that [cash] spigot cuts off, they don\u2019t even have a slightest idea,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cWhat most of them are doing is they\u2019re saying, \u2018Hey, when I\u2019m done, I don\u2019t ever want to have to work again.\u2019 But you\u2019re 30 years old. While they think they\u2019ve made it to their pinnacle, we\u2019re preparing and developing them for the next stage before it even gets there, where the other guys are just reacting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn many cases, it is too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Steinberg said the first time athletes walk into his office to hire him, he asks, \u201cWhat other talents, skills, interests do you have in the world?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe goal is to empower a player to be in charge of his own life,\u201d Steinberg said. \u201cHe needs to learn about the tax system, he needs to learn about budgeting, he needs to learn how to buy a house, he needs to learn how to invest, he needs to learn how to take his brand and transfer that into not only an endorsement but one that involves equity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we used to look at is if you could just spend your endorsement money and retain capital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former NFL player and front-office executive Rodd Newhouse, a wealth manager with 44 Management, has dozens of former and current NFL players as clients. He doesn\u2019t want to attribute pro athlete-financial issues to mismanagement or bad decisions. He wants to call if life \u2014 the transition to a post-playing career is hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He recalled when he once had $16.17 in his bank account, with a wife and two kids, with a law degree, with a real estate broker\u2019s license, having worked 10 years in the NFL as a player and executive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust because you have this money doesn\u2019t really mean you\u2019re going to have money for the rest of your life,\u201d he said. \u201cProfessional sports is a high-paid, part-time job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s fired a player who had $3 million, was down to $832,000 and told him, &#8216;I don\u2019t want you to go broke on my watch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Jaylon Smith\u00a0says he wants peers to not treat the NFL like an extended vacation: Prepare yourself for life after the game, and not just financially, but mentally and spiritually.\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jaylon Smith\u00a0says he wants peers to not treat the NFL like an extended vacation: Prepare yourself for life after the game, and not just financially, but mentally and spiritually.<\/p>\n<p>Elias Valverde II\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n<p>Technology has changed. Human nature has not. Athletes are inundated by fly-by-night charlatans pitching deals, looking for capital, promising big returns.<\/p>\n<p>Newhouse, the son of former Super Bowl-winning Cowboys fullback Robert Newhouse,\u00a0said there are famous former Dallas Cowboys who invested in bottled water in the 1970s and 1980s and \u201cwent broke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s the craziest pitch he\u2019s seen to NFL players?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve seen the vodka deal,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the \u2018Give me $2 million to unlock $10 million because we\u2019re going to build a casino.\u2019 I\u2019ve seen \u2018Invest in the Spike Lee movie that Spike Lee is not even a part of.\u2019 I\u2019ve seen the construction project that doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ledo said athletes can be inundated by people looking for them to fund their ideas, because they have a lot of capital but \u201caren\u2019t very sophisticated and don\u2019t understand money. They are an easy target to raise capital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you and I got in a plane right now and went to China, and we step off the plane and are not fluent in that language, then we\u2019re probably not going to have a lot of success in that country on how to protect ourselves,\u201d\u00a0Ledo said. \u201cThat\u2019s an athlete in business and finance. You don\u2019t know the language.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even when the athlete wants to learn the language, Smith says, the culture of professional sports often discourages it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s encouraged is for us as athletes to wait, wait until you\u2019re done [playing],\u201d Smith says. \u201cYou don\u2019t have time to focus on that right now. You don\u2019t have time to learn that. And it\u2019s really just an excuse for mediocrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He\u2019s going to light the room like a fire\u2019<\/p>\n<p>A can\u2019t-miss prospect, Smith says he knew he was going to make the NFL since he was 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the business world, there was a learning curve. He said he was \u201cilliterate\u201d from a business sense, not understanding rudimentary ROI [return on investment] concepts or\u00a0P and L [profit and loss] documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some of the most important things he\u2019s learned: The best companies fix problems\u00a0\u2014 what is the problem to fix? And it\u2019s essential to have the right people\u00a0\u2014 you need to hire slow and fire fast.<\/p>\n<p>He has his hand strategically in many buckets:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s the Minority Entrepreneurship Institute, where he helps minority founders get support, funding, and mentorship they need to grow.<\/p>\n<p>He opened his first Jinya\u00a0Ramen Bar franchise on Notre Dame\u2019s campus in July 2025, with several additional Indiana locations slated to open in the coming years. He founded The Cycle Management Group in partnership with Globe Life insurance.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>He invested $100,000 in Oura Health during the company\u2019s Series C round in 2021 and cashed out in February 2026, netting a 10x return.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>He cofounded CEV Collection, a sunglass line available in more than 500 Sam\u2019s Club and Eye Mart Express stores nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s the 65 acres he owns in Sherman and the 150 acres he invested in in North Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s shown a laser-like focus on details.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At a recent Super Bowl in Miami, Ledo recalled one of his assistants telling him Smith was out until 5 a.m.\u00a0\u2014 and he had a meeting with a top business leader, a Notre Dame alum, at 8 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, Smith walked into the restaurant promptly at 8 a.m. in a full suit, focused and game-day ready.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is dynamic in meetings,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cYou put Jaylon\u00a0in the room with a whole bunch of people, he\u2019s going to light the room like a fire. That\u2019s his gift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith shows Brianna Dix from D210 Sports what she looks line in his line of Clear Eye View collection at Frisco Lincoln Experience Center in The Star in Frisco, Texas on Dec 14, 2018. (Nathan Hunsinger\/The Dallas Morning News)\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jaylon Smith shows Brianna Dix what she looks line in his line of Clear Eye View glasses at Frisco Lincoln Experience Center in The Star in Frisco. Smith\u2019s sunglass line is\u00a0available in more than 500 Sam\u2019s Club and Eye Mart Express stores nationwide\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nathan Hunsinger\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n<p>Ledo said Smith does not walk into rooms insecure. He doesn\u2019t walk into a room and say, \u201c \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t want to sound stupid.\u2019\u00a0No, he wants information. He feels like he belongs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith always says the No. 1 thing\u00a0Ledo taught him is \u201chow to think, how to process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith is visual. If they are going through financial charts, they\u2019re on a whiteboard. Smith wants to see the plan, have it explained, have the strategy detailed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe loves accountability,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cSome people are allergic to that s&#8212;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith says that\u2019s the \u201conly way to reduce your ego. I truly care about learning. Some people want the result but don\u2019t want to learn the information. Yeah, you can make $100 million, but if you don\u2019t gain another skill or transfer the knowledge, it\u2019s not going to matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t grow up learning about business or how to read a P and L, or even understanding what an ROI really means, and never thought about different tax corporations to help reduce what you\u2019re paying through the IRS and all these different tax strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reason 78% of NFL players go broke \u201cisn\u2019t because they can\u2019t do math,\u201d Ledo said. They need to learn.<\/p>\n<p>Ledo said Smith isn\u2019t afraid to go into a meeting and know the least, because he\u2019s going to walk out knowing a lot. He\u2019s had 10 years of at-bats, 10 years of reps in finance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat experience, the good and the bad, at just 30 years old, has prepared him for this journey of entrepreneurship,\u201d Ledo said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Net worth over $100 million\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Back in the 10th-floor office high above Frisco, Ledo grabbed a pen and notebook and scribbled down several pages of Smith\u2019s business plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe will cash flow $3 million next year,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cThat\u2019s from his businesses off the field, not his investments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ledo flipped a page and continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe invested in 150 acres of land,\u201d he said. \u201cAbout to close here in the next 60 days, so he\u2019s going to get a big return on that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s going to get a 3x. Then he invested into a company called Wizehire, and he\u2019s about to get an investment back on that in the next six months. Then he has a company he invested into called EOS Worldwide that we think is going to sell here in the next 12 months and that\u2019s going to be 10x. He\u2019ll make over a million on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ledo drew a circle. That\u2019s a handful of operating entities. That represents $3 million. As those entities grow, he said, that bucket will be between $5 million and $10 million in annual cash flow.<\/p>\n<p>To the right of the circle, Ledo drew a box.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what we call his financial freedom,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cHis equities are sitting over here in the millions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ledo said, hypothetically, if Smith\u2019s living expenses are $800,000 per year, he\u2019s netting $2.2 million per year. That then goes back into businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd it\u2019s just, boom, boom, boom, boom,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cJaylon is invested in 21 private investments. They are going to appreciate in value, valuations are going to go up. He\u2019s going to have exits. So when he has those exits, it\u2019s going to be like, ding, ding, ding, ding\u00a0\u2014 here\u2019s another million.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ledo said he will have one exit that will pay him more than his entire NFL career earnings so far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNet worth over $100 million,\u201d Ledo said. \u201cHe\u2019ll be worth that kind of money in the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We\u2019re so much more than athletes\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAchilles, what\u2019s up, man?\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n<p>Nine-year-old Achilles, a pit bull, border collie and German shepherd mix, lumbers through the living room like a nose tackle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI rescued him when he was,\u201d Smith says as his\u00a0cellphone rings, interrupting him.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Former Dallas Cowboy Jaylon Smith, with his dog Achilles,\u00a0says he has made $44 million gross \u2014 $33 million net \u2014 to date during his playing career. In 2021, according to his business plan at the time, he had a net worth of $12.5 million.\u00a0He says he\u2019s on track to have a net worth of $100 million by 40.\" loading=\"lazy\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3 \/ 2\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Former Dallas Cowboy Jaylon Smith, with his dog Achilles,\u00a0says he has made $44 million gross \u2014 $33 million net \u2014 to date during his playing career. In 2021, according to his business plan at the time, he had a net worth of $12.5 million.\u00a0He says he\u2019s on track to have a net worth of $100 million by 40.<\/p>\n<p>Chitose Suzuki\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTalk to me,\u201d he says into the phone. It\u2019s a business call. It lasts 34 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Smith likes efficient, a word he uses often. To him, time is gold.<\/p>\n<p>Ledo fields questions from NFL players all the time: They want to know how to get access to unique deal flow, private investments. They want to know how to avoid predatory deals. Most of all, they have another question:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do I become the next Jaylon Smith?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith weighs another question\u00a0\u2014 his legacy whenever he is finished playing football.<\/p>\n<p>Smith says he wants his legacy rooted in understanding you can be elite in everything you do. He has accepted that \u201cI\u2019m the one in my family to bridge the gap as it pertains to misinformation, lost information, new information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re so much more than athletes, we just have to allocate the amount of time that we allocated being great at the sport, you have to direct that to another channel, and with knowledge comes wisdom, with wisdom comes wealth, and more, more, more, and more opportunities\u00a0\u2014 impact most of all. The athlete entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He says less than 1% of pro athletes get the \u201cfairy-tale ending.\u201d But his playing career, once entirely in jeopardy, will have a pretty good ending whenever that chapter closes.<\/p>\n<p>The man some call The Blueprint turns back and smiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO\u00a0\u2014 He opened the front door himself\u00a0\u2014 the 30-year-old who has taken a sledgehammer to the trope about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10058,102,113,104,103,119265,2638,119267,119266,80,20980,8251,33827,5152],"class_list":["post-333656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-brandon-aubrey","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-jaylon-smith","tag-jerry-jones","tag-leigh-steinberg","tag-michael-ledo","tag-nfl","tag-notre-dame","tag-patrick-mahomes","tag-travis-kelce","tag-troy-aikman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}