The $17 MILLION Test of Integrity | John Amaechi (PT. 1)
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.5 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How much is your word worth? For former NBA player turned psychologist John Amaechi, the answer is $17 million. In this episode, John and Ryan unpack why he walked away from that payday, why integrity is his ultimate non-negotiable, why your job should never define you, and more.
John Amaechi is an English psychologist, consultant and former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Vanderbilt Commodores and Penn State Nittany Lions, and professional basketball in the NBA for the Orlando Magic, Utah Jazz, and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Since retiring from basketball, John got his PhD in psychology and has worked as a psychologist and consultant, establishing his company Amaechi Performance Systems.
Follow John on X @JohnAmaechi and on Instagram @JohnAmaechiOBE
📚 Grab a signed copy of It’s Not Magic by John Amaechi at The Painted Porch | https://www.thepaintedporch.com/
🎙️ Listen to Ryan's solo episode You Are What You Won't Do For Money on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
📖 Preorder the final book in Ryan Holiday's The Stoic Virtues Series: "Wisdom Takes Work": https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wisdom-takes-work
👉 Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/
🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast
🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast
✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail
🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/
📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand. Marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time from startups to scale ups online in person, and on the go. Shopify is made for |
| 0:22.9 | entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. |
| 0:30.6 | Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.coed. |
| 0:35.5 | U.K. slash Wondery. That'scom.uk.w. Wondery. That's audible.com. |
| 0:38.9 | dot UK slash Wondery. Look, ads are annoying. They are to be avoided, if at all, possible. |
| 0:47.1 | I understand as a content creator why they need to exist. That's why I don't begrudge them when |
| 0:53.1 | they appear on the shows that I |
| 0:55.1 | listen to. But again, as a person who has to pay a podcast producer and has to pay for |
| 1:01.2 | equipment and for the studio and the building that the studio is in, it's a lot to keep something |
| 1:06.9 | like the Daily Stoic going. So if you want to support a show but not listen to ads, |
| 1:13.8 | well, we have partnered with Supercast to bring you a ad-free version of Daily Stoic. We're calling |
| 1:22.1 | it Daily Stoic Premium. And with premium, you can listen to every episode of the Daily Stoic podcast |
| 1:27.4 | completely ad-free, |
| 1:29.0 | no interruptions, just the ideas, just the messages, just the conversations you came here for. |
| 1:35.4 | And you can also get early access to episodes before they're available to the public. |
| 1:39.3 | And we're going to have a bunch of exclusive bonus content and extended interviews in there |
| 1:44.1 | just for daily |
| 1:45.0 | Stoic premium members as well. If you want to remove distractions, go deeper into Stoicism and |
| 1:49.7 | support the work we do here. Well, it takes less than a minute to sign up for Daily Stoic Premium, |
| 1:54.8 | and we are offering a limited time discount of 20% off your first year. Just go to daily stoic.com slash premium to sign up right now |
| 2:03.1 | or click the link in the show descriptions to make those ads go away. |
| 2:13.5 | Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast, where each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired by |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.