Business MVP
Business MVP

Sep 8, 2026 · 53 min

Jed Collins turns NFL rejection into a business education playbook

Jedidiah Collins: Triple Your Chances of Scaling to Nine Figures With This One Mindset Shift | E11

Collins connects repeated professional setbacks, financial literacy, and deliberate sacrifice to the challenge of building durable ventures after athletic success.

3 key takeaways
  1. 1Repeated rejection can become useful data when paired with journaling, study, and disciplined action.
  2. 2Financial education matters before athletes and entrepreneurs receive major income, not after mistakes expose the gaps.
  3. 3Exceptional results require intentional tradeoffs, attention to controllable actions, and measures of progress beyond outcomes.

Don't miss

Collins recounts spending his first NFL game check before depositing it, an experience that helped push him toward financial education.

The brief

Jedidiah Collins went undrafted and survived 13 NFL cuts before becoming a Pro Bowl fullback, using journaling and close study of veterans to keep improving.

His first NFL paycheck exposed a financial-literacy gap: Collins spent it before depositing it, then pursued CFP certification while still playing.

Collins built Money Vehicle to teach financial fundamentals before success arrives, while warning athletes and investors not to confuse ambition with immunity from the odds.

Entrepreneurship, he argues, demands intentional imbalance rather than perfect work-life balance, including lower income, loneliness, and tradeoffs most people avoid.

The episode’s practical throughline is control: document difficult seasons, measure improvement beyond scoreboards, and keep acting on what effort can change.

Books & mentions

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