Shaq on why he stopped showing off money

    by Tufail: Shaquille O'Neal

    Shaquille O’Neal talks about why he stopped flashing his wealth. He said: “When I first bought my house, it was 25,000 square feet. I made it 70,000 square feet to let everybody know this was my house.” Then he added: “One summer I came back and a guy down the street had a 90,000 square foot house.”

    Transcript (en)

    I taught myself a lesson the other day. Not the other day, about 10 years ago. Because we, in our culture, we like to do it big, and we like to let everybody know we're doing it big. So when I first bought my house, it was 25,000 square feet. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to make my shit 70,000 square feet to let these motherfuckers know this is my house. So one summer I come back, there's a motherfucker down the street, his shit 90. And there's another dude around the corner, his shit 130. But I'm asking everybody, who are these guys? Nobody knows. and that's the difference. Wealthy people, they just do. Like, for example, who owns this building? Somebody making a killer. On the right? Thank you. That's my point. So, you know, once I realized that, I stopped talking about what I'm doing and what I'm making because if they don't do it, why are we doing it? Dude's house was 150,000 feet. I mean, I finally figured out who it was. He's the owner of Timeshares. And he had, man, this shit. He's the owner of Timeshares. I went in his crib and he made my crib look like a fucking apartment complex. This shit was, it was so beautiful. So I was like, you know what, I'm going to change my mentality. I'm going to just go about my business without telling everybody what I'm doing.