Rehan Rayani - The Importance of Character in Sport

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Interview 2 - Rehan Rayani

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Ty Summach: Welcometo the Sports Share Community Huddle. So today we are sitting down with RehanRayani, a football player, a philanthropist, and founder of My Soccer Journeystory is a masterclass in the Power of the Pivot. After nearly a decade in professional French football, he chose to return home and redefine his purpose.From a shy kid in Markham an advocate for the underdog, he's here to show uswhy who you are as a human always outweighs your performance as an athlete.Rehan, it's great to have you today.

Rehan Rayani: Thankyou so much. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

Ty Summach: Awesome.So I want to start off with the early days. Your parents moved from Kenya toCanada before you were born. How did their immigrant story and journey shapeyour work ethic before you even started kicking around a soccer [00:01:00] ball?

Rehan Rayani: So thiswas in 2002 when they moved. It was to give my sister and I, my older sisterand I, a better life and they moved to Canada. And they really had to do a lotto make their way through that shift and to make it their way through thatpivot. And they had to put in a lot of work.

And I think growing up and seeing that and being a part of thatwas a huge part of my story and what, developed in terms of that work ethic,like you mentioned. Because, early in the morning to go out on these walksevery single morning without a fault and he still does it to this day. When Istarted to get older, even join so he would be walking on his own and I'd berunning just back and forth. This is like when I'm nine or 10 years old. thatstuff was just so ingrained in my habits.

Ty Summach: Did yourparents have a sporting background prior to moving to Canada, or was thatsomething that you picked up?

Rehan Rayani: Yeahthink my dad might've played a couple sports here and there but I [00:02:00] kickstarted the whole sports movementwithin the family. My parents, they received like this pamphlet in the mailtelling them about Timbits House League soccer program locally.

And they were just like, yeah, do you wanna do this? I waslike, okay. So then That's how it happened.

Ty Summach: That's agood segue. You mentioned and kinda just describe yourself as, a very nervous,scared child. You started playing football when you were four.

Rehan Rayani: Yeah.

Ty Summach: How didthe Timbits program and Markham, how did soccer and just getting into the gameat that level. Help you find your own personal voice and break outta thatshell.

Rehan Rayani: I wasso shy and so nervous that I was literally on the sidelines while all theseother kids are playing and I'm crying and I'm holding onto my dad's leg and I'mlike, just, I don't want to go on there. And he's like nudging me to go.

Eventually like I did, I stepped onto the field, but I probablydidn't even touch the ball from what I remember. But then they put me onto oneof the teams because obviously it's about including everyone and I'm happy theydid because then from that point on, I just started [00:03:00]to play and I started to love the game and as I started to do it and justdevelop it slowly just became like this thing that I love to do, it became thispassion of mine it led me on this path and this journey of discovering moreabout myself. It led me on this path and this journey of discovering not onlywhat I wanted to do, but who I truly was. And that was a big game changer forme. And it, in the beginning, I was still shy. I was still like a nervous kid.I still, didn't have all of that stuff figured out per se, but having somethingthat I could always go back to, having something that I did love, having anoutlet to express myself and to just be who I was, that is where I guess myjourney to also like just becoming a better version of myself started as well.

Ty Summach: A wordthat you used there a couple times was play - you just tell me a little bitmore about the importance of play how your parents reinforce that, [00:04:00] how play helped you fall in love with thegame. Just tell me a little bit more play.

Rehan Rayani: Yeah,there's so much to say about this. I'll use it in soccer terms. When we look atthe Brazilians the Brazilians have a style of play called Joy Gabinito and thatliterally means to play beautifully. There's two things that I want to touchupon with this. It's like when we're playing sports we wanna be able to playthese games beautifully and that also means putting in the work, and beingcreative and, expressing yourself in the best way possible. And then I alsolike to, draw parallel from that to also life I think that it is very importantfor people in general to play life beautifully and to approach life in thatway. Where you're giving it your all, you're being creative, you're creatingthe life that you want for yourself, at the same time, you're just present andgrateful and you're enjoying it. I like to draw those two parallels because Ithink that they make a lot of sense for people and growing up it's a really bigpart of my story, this idea of play, and [00:05:00]especially with football, is that. When I wasyounger, I'm having fun and enjoying it and I'm smiling all the time and thenat some point there's a switch that turns on where you're like, okay, I reallylike this and maybe I want to take it to the next level. Maybe I want to playprofessionally and then the play gets mixed in with this ambition and thisdrive. And there's a very cool, sweet spot there that you can find where you'reable to use this love for the game and this playful energy along with thisworking energy. And you combine the two and you can really create some prettyincredible things and make some really cool decisions and shape your life,forever. And I think that's what I did. But it's interesting too becauseit got to a point where I actually found an imbalance where I started to workon the game more than I was actually playing it and enjoying it and having fun.And that was the tipping point for me actually, where I stopped enjoying thegame.

I stopped loving the game. So that was really interesting forme to learn and to discover for myself, and then [00:06:00]to make decisions based off of that feeling. Now, like for example, I'm notplaying professionally or anything like that, but I have never had more funplaying the game as I do right now.

So it's really interesting. Yeah,

Ty Summach: Yeah,even just the way that you work with kids and you mentor kids and you help themalong with their journey. I can tell that you're still playing, which is areally cool, consistent line throughout your career. You mentioned that, atsome point you decide, you fell in love with the game and you decided that,this is what you wanna do from a professional standpoint. Was there a singularmoment or was it a combination of things like, can you walk me through any. Keymoments in your life where that light bulb went off for you.

Rehan Rayani: Yeah,it was definitely at a young age. I was doing House League for about fouryears, this is literally the lowest level you could say where it's literallyjust about having fun and bringing people together. So I did that from aboutthe age of four to eight and at that point I wasn't thinking about anythingmore. in my [00:07:00] last year, I do rememberthat there was someone who had just come up to myself and my dad and he askeddo you wanna play more competitively? I think it would be a good fit for you.that was like the first sort of sign of oh, okay, maybe I'm better than I thinkI am.

So I join. At the time it was rep it was called Rep. So it waslike the competitive the competitive league at the time. I think now, forexample in Ontario at least, it's like the OPDL. I played on like the B team ofUnionville, Milliken Soccer Club. And then one year later I was playing on theA team and a year after that I moved to an academy and this academy had,international contacts and we would go on these trips abroad so we went toChile, we went to Mexico, we went to England and played against ManchesterCity's Academy. And I'm starting to have all of these different this exposureto the game outside of what it was like in Canada, outside of kind of thisbubble. And I think every step of the way, it was almost like a, an indicatorof okay, can actually do more. You can be better, You can [00:08:00] be better. And because I love the game somuch because I would watch these players, and I'd see them on TV and I waslike, wow, like is something that I want to do. So it was a combination of allof these different moments and these stepping stones. And then also just beinginspired by watching these other players do what they love to do, perform atthe highest level and then, obviously when you're a kid you dream and it, youdream about, getting to that level.

You dream about having that type of a career, you think aboutall these different things. So I think all of that just compounded, not evenadding up, but literally multiplying was enough to just pull me in thatdirection. For sure.

Ty Summach: You spent nearly 10 years in France goingback to that shy kid, the immigrant journey. did the underdog life, actuallylook like when you were playing for Chantille?

Rehan Rayani: Yeah, great question. So I, one thing to [00:09:00] understandis that I didn't move to France because I was necessarily like scouted, when Iwas in Canada, it wasn't like a club had come to see me and they were like, oh,wow, this kid, he is incredible. He's amazing. We want him. That is not what itwas like. So at the academy that I was playing at here in, in Canada. was agood player. I wasn't the best player. I wasn't the player standing out. Thatjust wasn't me. And because I had this goal, I had this dream, I realized thatI had to do something differently. If I wanted to make it a reality, wasn'tgonna be able to do it by just doing what everyone else was doing. I understoodthat at a pretty young age, which is why at 12, like at 12 years old, I wrotedown the goal of okay, I'm gonna move to France to pursue this dream of mine.And then seven months later, just a couple months after I had turned 13, that'swhen I moved. And it was a big move too. 'cause like I'm moving on my own, myparents and my family, they stayed, they're in Canada,. And then obviouslythere's this little Canadian kid who is going to France, which is like one ofthe biggest football nations in the [00:10:00]world. You would almost expectthat I would not be anywhere as close to the level that these other kids wereat. And that was the truth. Like I just wasn't. They had grown up in thisculture.

They had grown up justlike playing the game. They had confidence. They had all of these things that Iwas still trying to find within myself and I didn't know where to go. But megoing in the first place, like me going on trial and even the whole thing aboutgetting selected, to be a part of this like soccer school program over thereand everything, I think that they literally just took a chance on me.

'cause when I did go forthe tryout, I wasn't part of the best players there either. So all of thesethings had to fall into place first of all. it was also a thing of meunderstanding that I had to do things differently. I had to, there's a quotethat I love and I dunno if, honestly, I dunno if I came up with it at a youngage or if I just saw it somewhere or whatever it is.

But you must do whatothers won't to achieve what people don't.

That quote has been like such a staple for me throughout mylife. Because the truth is that if you do want to [00:11:00]achieve these big things, you have to do things differently because otherwise,it's just, it's not gonna be possible.

And I think that really carried me. So despite the fear,despite the self-doubt, despite the lack of confidence, despite me being shy,these were the things that I just had to do. I had to make these decisions andjust go for it regardless and not think about it. 'cause if I thought about it,that would limit me. so that's what happened. And then when I moved and I wasin France like I said, I wasn't part of the best players there. I was playingon the B team, on the C team. And I was like, okay, now what? Now what do I do?Like, how am I now going to, I have to be the best here. I literally have to bethe best player here.

Otherwise it's my whole dream, like it's not gonna happeneither. when I start putting in the extra work. That's when I start training onmy own. I start doing all these things. And even then I was like nothing'shappening. Nothing's improving. that's when I realized that it was all up here.

There was a big block that I had in my mind. going back to mebeing shy, going back to me, lacking confidence, going [00:12:00]back to having a lot of self-doubt, it was very mental. There was a mental gamethat I wasn't tapping into yet, and that's what unlocked other side of me whereI was like, okay.

I started to discover more about myself. I started to learnmore about my brain, how it works, and tap into that so that I could becomebest version of myself, just in general, whether that was in soccer or just asa person. And that transformed not only my game, but my life forever.

Ty Summach: A quote that you say often is, talent isn'talways enough. You laid it out there that, you weren't the best player on thepitch. You had to lean into, the mental side of it. Tell more about that. Likewhat work you were doing. And I also just wanna know like where that came from.

It seems like there's,from this shy, nervous, scared kid and you having to do all this work yourselfto get to this point where like you're building those tools. Just walk methrough how you [00:13:00] built that up and just what that felt likein the moment as you were navigating, the professional game in a foreigncountry.

Rehan Rayani: Yeah, I think one thing that has to berecognized is support from my parents, right? It goes back to them in so manyways because even though I'm far from them I still had their support. Iwouldn't have been able to move to France if they didn't sign off on it. 'causethey could have easily been like, look dude, not happening.

You're not going.

It was a big sacrificeon their end too. A sacrifice that, a mother makes when she lets her13-year-old kid go to a different country

Ty Summach: 13.

Rehan Rayani: is crazy. Yeah. It's, now when I think aboutit I my mom all the time, I am, I'm just like, I don't know how you did it. ButI'm extremely grateful because I it almost it makes me emotional because I'mlike, the amount of love that you must have for your kid put your own feelingsaside to [00:14:00] allow them to go on this journey and to dowhat is best for them. I don't even, I don't even have the words sometimes toexpress how grateful I am to her. And then to my dad as well. Both of them havejust been super supportive right. Throughout this entire journey. So I'm veryblessed in that regard and I think that's one thing that needs to be said fromthe get go. and thanks to that support, since I had that almost as like afoundation, that is what helped me navigate things.

'cause I always, I had

to go to I was able to,them what do you guys think? What should I do? So my dad, for example, he usedto be really into personal development, so he would share these differentthings. And, coming from a parent, sometimes it's not always received the sameway as it would from like another person, but there were certain things that Iwas able to grasp and certain books that I was able to read.

There's one book thatcomes to mind, it's called With Winning in Mind. And was like, almost like thegateway for me to understand, my, my mental game and how I could develop it. Sothat was a big thing. And then it was honestly me just like having this hungerand this desire to just want to [00:15:00]be the best, and I needed tomake it happen. So I started things like, affirmations, visualization,meditation, like doing all of these things at a young age to set myself up inthe best way possible. And. With a lot of the players that I work with, I'm, I,affirmations is a big part of what I share with people because it is such agood gateway into helping rewire your brain and your thought process and thestory that you're telling yourself and the beliefs that you have. I stillremember the affirmation that I would repeat to myself every single day when Iwas walking to the bus stop, when I was on the bus, when I was at school, whenI had free time, when I was working out. It was glued, like everywhere in my house,everything. And it was, I am happy, healthy, confident, and strong, and I'm onmy way to becoming the best footballer that I can be. I can repeat that easilybecause it is so ingrained. so ingrained. And I was just constantly repeatingthat to myself and first of all, like there is science behind it, right?There's the scientific explanation of, even how our brain, [00:16:00] whenwe're visualizing things and we're thinking about things, it doesn't.Differentiate what is actually happening versus what we're thinking and theimages that are in our head. It's similar to like, when you're having a dream.When you're having a dream and you're dreaming about something, it feels soreal. Our body is like physically reacting. Sometimes we wake up and it's likewe're sweating because we just I don't know, went skydiving in our dream and orlike we wake up and like our leg twitches or something like that because it isso real. So there's science behind it, but there's also, there's some elementsthat even I'm not able to even explain because these things just started tofall into place. It's almost

Ty Summach: Yeah.

Rehan Rayani: manifestation in some way or things likethat. But literally things just started to align and started to fall intoplace, and I started to become, literally become that person.

I became happier, I wasconfident, I was stronger, I was healthier. I was becoming the best player thatI could be, like constantly putting in the work. And as soon as I found outthat there's a balance between merging the work that you put in and the mindsetand the story that you're telling [00:17:00]yourself. That's when everythingshifted for me.

Ty Summach: If you were to, and I'm sure you do thisright in your mentorship, but if there is a family that has, a 12, 11, 12,13-year-old, and this is they're looking to almost follow in the same trackthat you went down, two part question is, what advice you give to that player,that young athlete, and then also what advice would you give to the parents?

Rehan Rayani: For the athlete, as simple as it sounds, theadvice is just go for it. For it. And what I mean by go for it is not try is togo for it fully. Put your heart and soul into it, and if you truly want thisfor yourself, do whatever you can to make it happen. Sports is such a. gatewayfor so many things in life, whether that's professional sports or coaching orwhatever it may be, experiences that you will have along the journey are going [00:18:00] tobe your biggest teacher, who you become along the way priceless.

And that is the onething that I will tell any athlete or any person for that matter.

Anything that you aretrying to do, anything that you want to do, whether it's a dream, whether it'sa passion, whether it's something that you feel pulled towards, go for it. Doit now. Just take the action now. And you hear it all the time. You hear somany people say it, but there's this one phrase that I really like.

It's when would now bethe best time? Like when would now be the best time to take action? Because wealways say oh, we'll do it later. We'll do it tomorrow, we'll do it, whatever,right? But tomorrow was yesterday. said that we would do it tomorrow and wesaid that two days ago, right? When would now be the best time? The best timeis literally right now in this moment. It's just make that decision and takeaction and just go for it and go for it fully. So that is the one thing that Iwill definitely, recommend for the player or the athlete. And there's anotherthing that I want to throw in there for the player as well, is [00:19:00] tofocus on the journey and enjoy the journey. Enjoy the process. Learn as much asyou can. Be curious, be open to, to, be a sponge. Try and ask questions, andjust be as curious as possible to really absorb everything that is out there tobecome the best version of yourself, because we get focused and fixated on theresult and the outcome of what it is that we want to do. But I mentioned thisbefore, the more important thing is who you are and who you become. And. iswhere the focus should go. And if you are the best version of yourself, thenyou will be able to achieve the things that you wanna achieve. So yeah, that'swhat I'd say for the athlete. And then for the parents. I'll preface this bysaying that I'm not a parent myself, right? However, I have worked with manyparents, and I have it from the perspective of the player, of the kid, and alsofrom yeah, having these interactions with hundreds of parents at this pointwhere I'm helping them support their kids because it's a different dynamic,especially, at that [00:20:00] age, they're starting to become liketeenagers or, they're in that teenage phase and everything.

It's a very differentphase of life. They're discovering more about who they are. They're steppinginto almost their own self, right? I would definitely recommend that you letthem guide the journey. So let them be in control. Let them. Make the decisions.It's good to, to be there and to, push them, guide them, be there to supportthem so that obviously, when things aren't going the way that they should begoing or whatever something might happen, you're there to, to protect them.

You're there to, lovethem, hug them, give them what they need. And at the same time, there has to bea balance of letting them do their thing. if they truly want it, they're gonnamake it happen. And if they don't want it, then they won't, and that's totally

I think at that age whatthey're really craving is connection. That's the one thing that they'recraving from you as a parent, is they just want to feel like they're connected.They want to feel as like an, almost like an [00:21:00]equal as a peer versus feeling like they're being controlled or feeling likethey don't have choice when it comes to these things.

That's what I would say for the parents. And I don't know howthat comes across because, again, like I said, I'm not a parent. But, I thinkit's important definitely to, to let them almost spread their wings and letthem

That they can, they can learn and grow and evolve in that way.

Ty Summach: Yeah. Ithink I appreciate, you preferencing it of I'm not a parent, but I think it'salso an important view of what your parents maybe did for you and explaining itfrom that perspective of what you appreciated as a young athlete. I think thatjust, flipping that around is is really important. One of the things that yousaid which I want to go back to was that there was a moment in yourprofessional career o over in Chantilly where things got outta balance and youfelt like you, there was less [00:22:00] play.Fell outta love with the game. Walk me through that. What happened and how'd itfeel?

Rehan Rayani: Yeah,so this was towards the end. So by this point, I'm not playing in like theyouth system anymore. I was, an adult. I was thinking I was like 21. Yeah, 21years old at the time. I mentioned before, there's this thing where it's playwith energy versus work on energy. And it just felt play with energy is whenyou're just having fun, you're enjoying it you're having a good time and youalmost feel? pulled to towards it. Work on energy. It's like this push feelingwhere you're just constantly pushing towards something and it feels likethere's a bit of resistance. And I just felt like the work on was definitelyway higher than the play with when it came to my football and to my soccer,which was, that's where the imbalance came from. I think a lot of, there were alot of factors to it. During my career I went to different clubs as well andthere was [00:23:00] a, I had some injuries andstuff like that, so there was even a time where before, that started happening.I got an injury, it was a shoulder injury, I had to get surgery done, so I'dgone back to Canada. I got my surgery done. The doctors were saying that it wasgonna take me six months to recover. I told my athletic therapist, I was like,we need to get me back in three. And he was like, okay let's do it. Let's makeit happen. So then we literally, in less than three months, I was back toplaying, which was incredible.

It was really good. And that allowed me then to go back toFrance find another opportunity. And in that position I had to actually startlower. So I actually went to join a six tier club then played there for sixmonths and then joined a fifth tier club, then a fourth. And that's how it canmoved up until I went back to Shante When I was at Shante, it was like acombination, like accumulation of things. Because what happened was at theprevious clubs that I was at, there are things that happen where, clubs are infinancial situations where they can't pay you or certain things like that. [00:24:00] So your lifestyle, starting to look atyour life as a whole and soccer instead of being the whole of it and beingeverything in your life, it's a part

And all these other elements in my life were they were also offbalance. And then when Chantilly happened, I think had time to almost reflectand I was, spending more time with myself and really trying to understand,'cause I could feel it inside. I could feel like there was something that wasoff.

It wasn't the feeling that I used to have when I was younger.It wasn't this feeling of oh, I really want this for myself. Anymore and I'll.I'll walk you through what was going on in my head and what that process waslike. Because from a very young age, and this is like before I even moved toFrance, my mission in life has always been to make the world a better place.

I've always wanted to contribute. I've always wanted to help.I've, that was like the main focus in terms of the mission. Soccer, footballwas my vehicle. It was like the thing that I love [00:25:00]to do and as a young kid, my thing was like, okay, I'm gonna become aprofessional soccer player. I'm gonna use all of that influence and money andfame and all this wonderful stuff, and I'm gonna use that to give back to theworld.

That was the idea as a really young kid. But then very early onI realized I don't have to wait for that to happen before I can give back. LikeI can give back now. So when we would travel to different places, we'd do theselittle projects with my family and, found like different organizations thatwere involved with soccer and youth and things like that, and loved doing that.And then I think it got to a point where, yeah, I was about 21 years old and Iwas thinking to myself like, spending so much time sacrificing so much towardsthis sport, right? And it doesn't feel like I love it

By then I'd already started to mentor players. I'd alwaysalready started to go on this journey of helping people a lot more and doingspending more time doing that. that was giving me so much more fulfillment. AndI think that's where things shifted, where I realized, I was like, look, isalways [00:26:00] gonna be my thing. is like mypassion. It is the thing I love to do. It's for me, I'm not doing this foranyone else. And it, I just went back to that original mission and focused onthat of okay, I wanna make the world a better place and I don't wanna waituntil I, achieve the ultimate goal.

I don't wanna wait another five years or six years, howevermuch longer it would've taken me to get to the highest level. wanna wait forthat to happen before I started, making the world a better place or making theimpact that I wanted to make. And when I weighed out the pros and cons, it wasjust so obvious to me that, the path that I'm on right now, at least in my lifeof coaching and mentoring, but also doing the philanthropy work and doing allthat stuff, is yes, way more fulfilling for me as a person, but it's alsoleaving, it's making an impact.

It's changing other people's lives and that to me is way moreimportant. And I still get to play. I still get to play the game I love, Istill get to have so much fun doing it. So was almost like I was having thisinternal conflict, but I was forcing it. I was forcing the game so much. Sothat was a [00:27:00] big part of it, but itwasn't an easy decision to make because of the identity that I had.

My identity for the longest time was like, I am a soccerplayer. The identity that other people had of me was also, yeah, Rehan is asoccer player. everyone back home in Canada was like, oh yeah, Rehan is a guywho lives in France. He's the one who plays soccer in France. That's whatpeople knew me as. so then when I'm having these thoughts, I'm like what are,what's everyone else gonna think of me? Are they gonna think oh, I just gave upand I quit and it took me time to like literally just sit with myself andpretty much meditate on it, to just realize it doesn't matter what other peoplethink about me.

This is who I am and that is way more important. And Yeahthat's the path that I'm gonna choose and I'm gonna make that decisionregardless of what other people are gonna think or assume, or, if someone wantsto learn about it and talk to me about it, then they can learn about it andtalk about it, but. Aside from that, like it doesn't really matter. Whatmatters is, what's best for me and what I believe in and my values and that'show I made that decision. Yeah.[00:28:00]

Ty Summach: Yeah, Ithink a lot of people, when they think about. Finishing their professionalcareer in France and moving back home. It's, it can easily be framed in yourmind as a step backwards in your life.

Rehan Rayani: Yeah.

Ty Summach: When you left France, I think you clearlyreframed it as moving forward. You already answered the question around how youdid that, but is there any advice you give to other people that are in thatkind of career transition of helping reframe that, that you are still movingforward and that know, what happened in the past, it doesn't define you and,stay present as you were talking about and focus on what fills your cup today?

Rehan Rayani: Yeah. I I look at it this way, the analogythat I'll use for this specific situation is it's like a book, right? Bookshave different chapters in them but it's still the same book, right? And inthis case, obviously we are the book, we're each an individual book. So thebook is the same. [00:29:00] chapters, they move forward. When you'rereading through a book, it's not like you're reading one page and then you'reflipping the pages back and then reading. It's, that's not how it works. It'sconstantly the next page. It's just the next chapter everything that hashappened before, every decision that you've made, everything that you havedone, everything that you've experienced, that is not necessarily it's not abad thing, it's not a waste of time.

It has helped you insome way, shape or form, whether we know it now, or we'll figure that out, inthe future. It's all part of the story. It's all leading up to where you aretoday. the cool thing is that we can't actually go back and flip the pages backand rewrite the story, right? 'cause that's already been written. But what wecan do is make a decision today about the story that we wanna write forourselves for the future, right? another thing is we don't necessarily have toknow the ending of the book. As we're writing the story. I think that's alsoanother big misconception is like we, we feel like we have to [00:30:00] haveeverything figured out, and it's okay to not have everything figured out.

I think, me as a kid,when I looked at all these adults, I was like, wow, everyone has like theirwhole life figured out. And then now as I'm becoming an adult and I'minteracting with other adults, I'm like actually, we're all just still figuringit out. We're all learning new things and growing.

Like it's a constantevolution. And that evolution doesn't stop. It'll be there forever. So when itcomes to, I think that when it comes to the mindset, just reframe it as this isjust the next step. It's just the next chapter in the story and the journey.the second thing is that, I mentioned pull motivation and push motivation,right?

Being pulled towardssomething versus pushing for something. When you're pulled by something andyou're meeting that pull, your results are just gonna multiply. And many peopletalk about this in like the personal development space, but. You usually get pulledby something that is greater than yourself, right?

You're willing to goabove and beyond for these things, whether that's helping other people or yourfamily or [00:31:00] whatever it may be, right? These are verystrong emotional anchors, that ultimately, like that's your mission. That'slike the big picture, the vehicle that you're using, right? So for me example,in my situation, like the mission has been to help people.

The vehicle in thebeginning was, soccer, like playing soccer as an athlete, and then eventuallynow it's become, mentorship and coaching, and then also doing philanthropywork, and also being a speaker and running youth events. Like it's all of thesedifferent things, still falls under the same mission that will pull you. Thatultimately when you identify like what it is that your mission is, that willeventually pull you. And it's funny because just this weekend I did I did aworkshop for the members inside my community, and it was on finding the meaningfor your life. And it was using this Japanese concept called Ikigai.

Ikigai is so iki, if youbreak down the word iki means life in Japanese and Kai is effect, right? Solife effect, which essentially means like the meaning [00:32:00] foryour life, right? The reason, the purpose. And it's a combination of a bunch ofthings like figuring out, what the world needs, figuring out what you're goodat, figuring out what you love, right?

And then, just combiningthose three things. And there's one other element, which I'm not, I can'tremember right now, but it's combining all of those things using that. And onceyou find like this sweet spot, you're able to come up with this really powerfulidentity. your mission of something that is greater than yourself that you knowcan give back to the world, but still aligns with the things that you love todo, the things that you want for yourself, the things that you are good at. Andwhen you're able to almost take this perspective of reflecting from within andfiguring this stuff out about yourself and learning more about who you are andthe things that matter to your values from that point on, you can use all ofthat as a compass versus what it is that you want to achieve or what it is thatyou want to do. Because, and I've mentioned this before, who you are is waymore important. And when you

That path, [00:33:00] it'seasier to pivot because you're still going in the same direction. It's not likeyou're taking a hard left or a hard right turn into a completely differentpath. It'll always be aligned.

It'll always be in linewith that same path, with that same direction. And I think that's the biggestthing that happens. And then the last thing that I'll mention there is alsothis question about identity. And this is something that. experiences throughoutdifferent phases of life.

Parents, they experiencethis when their kids go off to college or they move out of the house. Youngpeople like athletes for example, who might not necessarily make it asprofessionals or whatever, they experience this, but we attach ourselves tothese identities, right?

Whether that's, oh, I aman athlete, whether that's, I am a teacher, I'm a parent, I am a son, I am adaughter, I am a mother, I'm a father. These are all things that we attach toour identity. I think understanding that we are so much more than these labelsthat we put on [00:34:00] ourselves. I'm a footballer and I am also,all these other things, right?

Ty, you are, you're anentrepreneur, but you're also so many other things. For anyone watching, likeyes, you might associate your identity with this one specific thing primarily.But the truth is like there's so much more, there's so much more to life andthis experience of life. And I feel like when we look at it from thatperspective, us to breathe a little bit more. It allows us to almost be like,okay, yes, I have this thing that I love to do, but that doesn't define me.This isn't everything of who I am. I am so much more than that. And that helpedme a lot. And that's a perspective that I like to share with people who aregoing through type of shift or change in their life when it can be hard to letsomething go from the past or move in a different direction or kind of changethe vehicle in their life.

Yeah.

Ty Summach: Stayingon the same as, this mission you're on. giving back to the world a bit of afull circle moment. Your [00:35:00] family'sfrom Kenya and you, you work with VSA Kenya, you've been doing that for over adecade. Just tell me a little bit about that organization and how you gotinvolved and what the mission is there.

Rehan Rayani: Yeah,so VSA Kenya is an organization that supports underprivileged youth througheducation and through soccer. And they're based in Kenya. This was when I was11 years old, so when I was 11 years old, I was going to Kenya with my family.'cause we still have family there. And I remember telling my parents, I waslike, guys, like we've been there so many times, we know what the situation isthere. If we're going there, let's do something. Let's

Do something to help. So my parents were like, okay. Figure itout. And I was like, nice, let's do this. Yeah, I just did some research and Iwas able to find, this contact of Dennis Tiano, who is the founder of VSAKenya, and I just reached out to him and he reached back out.

And then from there we just talked about what their needs areand all these [00:36:00] different things. Andbecause we knew that there were an organization that, really supported youngpeople through soccer especially, like that was the biggest pull for me. I waslike, okay, this is really something that I want to get behind. So that veryfirst time with my, the soccer academy that I was at, and my sister also playedsoccer at the time, so we like just got a bunch of donations from everyone andwe brought I dunno how many suitcases of donations to Kenya for. For Dennis andfor VSA we even partnered up with the airline that we were traveling with sothat we could get some free suitcases additionally to bring more donations andstuff like that.

So it was really cool. So we did that then from then it's justbeen like this constant thing of like just wanting to support them because thatwas the first real gateway that I had towards, making an impact or doingsomething and keep in mind like, it was a really small thing in the grandscheme of things.

You're there, we want to go and see the kids. We want to, spendtime with them. I even trained with them. We gave them like a meal and stufflike that. And these are, sure, they're handouts. It's not like a [00:37:00] sustainable solution. But that was, atleast for me, my gateway towards experiencing, the power of contribution. Andthen since then, it's just been this ongoing conversation, like I said before,of like just supporting them however we can. And now we're definitely at apoint where it's okay. We want to continue support supporting them, but wewanna do it in a very sustainable way. We want it to be something where we'replanting seeds for sustainable growth for the organization and for the familiesthere, for the players there, for the kids. So that they are literally beingable to grow and their lives are changing from these interactions or from thesemoments that, that we're creating with them. So we have, some really cool stuffthat are coming up with other, like nonprofits and partnering up with them tojust help out with that.

One of them that comes to mind is there's a nonprofit called100 Humanitarians, and they pretty much have the solution to world Hunger. Theyhave these garden towers and it's nothing, it's not like rocket science oranything. And this exists, in many parts of the world, but they're literallythese vertical [00:38:00] towers that cost $25to make and to build with all the material and even to have come, someone comein and actually build it for the families. This gives a family of five foodforever.

They just have like meals throughout the week for the rest oftheir lives. And if you give them two garden towers, then what's able to happenis they're able to take all of the excess and additional like vegetables orcrops or whatever they're able to grow and sell it in markets and start toactually start a business from that where they can then, get more money andinvest it into like things like chickens and other stuff like that to just growfrom there and create like sustainable living for themselves. And theneventually to help and do the same thing for other families, right? So theycan, there's a whole program where they do it for themselves. So we give themthe seed money to build these towers, teach them How to build the towersthemselves as well. from that, they start their business and then after a fewmonths they're actually able to raise money.

Like these 75 families, for example, that we'll be workingwith. They're gonna raise enough money through this whole process. To be ableto sponsor another [00:39:00] 75 families, andthat just creates like a whole ripple effect. And 100 humanitarians has beendoing this for, I dunno how many years now many years.

And they've planted over a hundred thousand of these towersacross Africa and other places. So it's a really cool and exciting thing thatwe're, looking forward to introducing to them very soon in a couple months. Andthen just, continuing to literally and figuratively plant seeds for VSA and forother organizations out there who just need support.

Ty Summach: How dohow do people get involved with VSA and to go check them out?

Rehan Rayani: Yeah.So one, the easiest way is to just reach out to me directly. That would begreat. So I can, just help you guys understand and find a good fit into how,you know you wanna support and stuff like that. You can also just go straightto 100 humanitarians website. It's 100 humanitarians.org and you can literallyfeed a family for $25 like that. It's as simple as that. $25 literally feeds afamily forever. And $25 is like [00:40:00] whatsomeone would pay, if they were going out for a meal or something like that. Soit's really not that much and it's just a one-time payment, which is crazy.

Even as I'm saying, I'm like, that's, it's actually insane.It's nuts. So yeah that's, those are two ways that immediately you can getinvolved and those are like the easiest ways.

Ty Summach: Coming from, as a professional footballer,coming from the European game, I think it's really easy to transition yourbrand, to be more influencing as opposed to mentoring and being impact focused.Can you just tell me about how clear that was for you and maybe just some ofthe feedback you give to other players who might have that same kind ofplatform to give back and to, start sharing their knowledge online?

Rehan Rayani: Yeah at it this way. I think that everyonejust in general, everyone has a responsibility in some way, right? Whetheryou're a person of influence or you're a former athlete or anything like thatthere's [00:41:00] some level of responsibility when it comesto the world and everyone has a different way of doing it. Everyone has theirown kind of individual gift, their own individual way of doing things. And theone thing that I think is the best way is to give the best version of yourself,which is to give your gift, right? Whatever that may be. Someone might bereally good at coaching, right? And if you're a really good coach, then thatcan be such a good way to give back. Some other people might be really good at,yeah, maybe inspiring or speaking, right? And if that's your gift, then goahead and do that and use that as a vehicle to make a difference. And someonemight be really good at entrepreneurship. And if you wanna start a businesswhere you're having an impact on people in whatever way, shape, or form,through the product or the service that you provide, go and do that.

I think that no one sizefits all, that's for sure. I do think that when we're able to come from a placeof service and a place of giving in whatever field that we're in any moment orgiven time, [00:42:00] I think not only does that have an impact onother people, but it ultimately gives us a lot of fulfillment as individuals.

Then it elevates our lives and, our quality of life as well.There's a nice little quote, and I love giving quotes if you haven't realized,but it's the secret to living is giving, and that is by Tony Robbins. And Itruly believe in that. I think that, when you just come from a place of givingto others, and you can probably think about moments in your life where you havegiven to people, whether that was literally a family member, it could be yourkids, it could be your parents, it could be, siblings, it could be cousins, itcould be anyone or even just people you never, you've never met before, but thefeeling that you get inside when you give to people. A lot of the times it'sunmatched.

So like whatever phase of life you're in, if it's just likegiving a smile or just giving a compliment, whatever it may be, and it soundscheesy, it sounds corny, but it's true. Like you don't know what ripple effectthat can have on someone's life.

You don't know how that can [00:43:00]change or impact someone and how that can change the world, right? So whatever you do, whatever it may be, right? I think as long as you're coming from aplace of you want to stay true to yourself and, give back in some way, shape or form, that's the best way to, to go about it.

Ty Summach: Is that the mission?

Rehan Rayani: Yeah,it is.

Ty Summach: Yeah, you talked about, what you're doing from a philanthropy perspective, what you're doing from a mentorship. I wanna talk about coaching and what's happening on mysoccer journey. But, yeah, I was trying to, I was trying to figure out in my mind as we were discussing, what is the mission that kind of is that line that goes through all of them and yeah, if the secret to living is giving that's pretty clear.

Rehan Rayani: Yeah,definitely. And for me at least, like my mission, and it's a big one. It'sambitious and I'm drawn to ambition. I've been ambitious my whole life. Is [00:44:00] that I wanna leave the world a betterplace than, what it was when I entered, when I came here, right? I want to, Iwanna be a part of that change. I want to be able to have an impact on billions of people. And the way to do that is not on my own. It's not just gonna be like me going around and helping billions of people, but it's by connecting with people and, maybe inspiring other people, planting seeds, in other people'slives so that they can go out and make a difference. And I truly believe, like what I said before about everyone having their own unique perspective and having their own gift like that is the best way for each individual to just go about their life. 'cause it's authentic, it's real, it's true to themselves. And at the same time, if you can use that to help other people and make a difference it's like the perfect combination of everything.

So for me at least, like that is definitely the mission. The mission has always been and always will be to have an impact and to make ad ifference and to, whether that's in the field of personal development and helping people, discover the, [00:45:00] like the truest and most authentic version of themselves. Or whether it's, mentoring a player and guiding them so they can achieve the goals that they wanna achieve, or it's speaking at a youth event and, helping of these players or youth or whatever it may be, to step into the best version of themselves, whatever it is. That for me is what pulls me the most.

Like when I'm in those moments and I'm having those interactions, that is what pulls me the most.

Ty Summach: my soccer journey. So I want to know, from a coaching perspective, I hope that parents and players head over there to checkout your community. What can they expect? What are you building on movingforward? What's the gift that you're giving?

Rehan Rayani: Yeah, so my soccer journey is literally it'sa personal growth and player development community, and it is all about helpingplayers become the best version of themselves so that they can achieve thethings that they wanna achieve, whether that's in soccer or in life. In there,we host monthly coaching calls and, I love to overdeliver, so [00:46:00] Isay monthly coaching calls, but they happen almost every week now. And this isliterally just all about helping players step into the best version ofthemselves. It's learning soft skills, learning about leadership, learningabout mindset. How can they overcome self-doubt? How can they be moreconfident, on the field, but also just in life. how can they discover who theytruly are? And that is the forefront of everything that, is within my soccerjourney. helps with performance, obviously, when it comes to the sport itself,but it goes way beyond that. It goes, it taps into things that are so much moreimportant when it comes to life and developing who you are as a human being.

And these are justthings that aren't taught in school. Like these things just aren't addressed,in the classic environments that people are put into, even in clubs and otherthings like that. This is a way to really add to all of the value that they're getting,whether that be in school or at clubs with their training and everything.because of my experience as a player, we get to, add that little twist [00:47:00] intoit. Where players, they have someone who they can come to. They have amentor and a group of mentors. They also have a network of other players thatthey can connect with who are like-minded, who are on a very similar path fromall over the world, which is another thing that is super cool.

Like right now we have over 20 countries, I'm pretty surerepresented inside my soccer journey, which is just incredible. So yeah. Andthen, even in sports share I have a lot of content that's in sports share aswell, that's available too. Yeah, it's it's a lot of fun.

It's really exciting. I also like to post, courses and trainingprograms in there from other experts. So whether that be fitness coaches or,other mindset coaches or, psychologists or whoever it may be to help elevate aplayer's game, help them, just step into the best version of themselves.

So yeah, that's what it's all about.

Ty Summach: Verycool. Rehan, I just want to thank you again for huddling up with us today. Yourjourney and just all the different steps you've taken. It's exactly why westarted this video series. You show that the [00:48:00]person behind the athlete is really what, creates the legacy and that impactto, to wrap things up, I just wanna see if there's anything else any bit ofwisdom you want to, you wanna leave.

Anything else you wannamention that we didn't touch on in our conversation?

Rehan Rayani: yeah. I think the biggest thing that I wouldlike to say as my last thing is, the word authenticity. it gets thrown around alot about, just be the best version of yourself and be true to who you are andall of that. There's a lot of value that comes to that and of just likeunderstanding who you are and not being like, okay, this is who I am, and thendeciding to never grow and never change from that.

But to acknowledge that,yeah, we are constantly growing, we are constantly evolving. This is like ajourney. This literally is a journey, which is why I even called the communityand the thing that I have my soccer journey, because it's, it is a journey.It's

Destination. It's notabout the end result.

It's not about becominga professional or achieving these [00:49:00]things. It's about who youbecome along the way. And it's okay to not be perfect. In fact, if we'reperfect then we're never gonna be able to grow. It's okay to, mess up sometimesor to have to pivot and to have to learn. I think that giving ourselves likegrace in some way and compassion for the journey and for the different thingsthat we're doing, and to not be hard on ourselves all the time is also a veryimportant skill to have. And I think. Yeah, a lot of pressure when it comes toathletes of making it as a professional or wanting to make it as aprofessional. There's external voices that come into it, and there's also thisinternal dialogue that we have with ourselves. think the one thing is that justwant to encourage players out there athletes out there, even parents who aresupporting athletes to just enjoy the journey to literally like, just focus onthat, to, to focus on the development because that is what is gonna be the constantthroughout your life.

That [00:50:00] growth isliterally gonna be ongoing and way beyond. It's gonna surpass the sport thatyou play. It's gonna surpass the career that you're gonna have. Growth isalways gonna be a part of it. And, just build a relationship with yourselfwhere you can be that support system for yourself.

Spend time alone. Spend time, go for a walk, or meditate, or dosomething where you can just be with yourself so that you can develop thatrelationship so that you can just continuously work on becoming the bestversion of yourself. The same way, if you're in a relationship with someone, oryou wanna have a better relationship with a family member or a friend, you'regonna have those conversations with them.

You're going to grow together. You're gonna do things together.Also, apply that to your own life with yourself, develop that relationship withyourself, develop that connection with yourself so that the times where, yeah,you feel like no one believes in you, or no one's supporting you, and you feellonely, you'll be there for yourself.

You'll be able to just support yourself along the way, becausethe journey can be lonely, especially when you're trying to do things that notmany people understand. Not many people [00:51:00]will be able to empathize with it. But you'll never be lonely if you love theperson that you're alone with.

So just keep that with you. Just stay true to yourself and justjust be there for yourself. I think that's the biggest thing that will help youthroughout your life.

Ty Summach: I loveit.

Rehan Rayani: dropthe mic,

Ty Summach: yep.That's a great place to drop the mic. For everyone listening, to connect withRehan and access all his great mentorship and coaching that he's doing head onover to his community, head on over to sports share. Also I wanna make sure yoube sure to check out what all the great things that are happening at VSA Kenyaas well to see the impact that's happening there.

So don't just play the game, be intentional with it we'll seeyou all in the next huddle.

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