Trade Off

To the loving memory of my mother,

Ms. Elizabeth Williams;

my baby brother, Vonsha J. Blow;

and my beloved wife, Felicia Katrice Johnson-Smith.

Introduction

What do you want out of life? Think about your biggest desires and dreams. What do you seek? Then be assured that whatever you want will come at a cost, even many costs. Those costs you pay are the trade-offs you must make.

Some trade-offs are easy, and some are painful. Some you make willingly, and some are forced. But as sure as you have to pay for your groceries before you leave the store with them, you must make trade-offs in life to get its greatest rewards.

One price you must surely pay is dedication to your path: that pure commitment to a task or purpose, that singular focus, that eye on the prize. A lot of us know it, but do we live it? You likely know how difficult that struggle can be.

Even though we hear words like dedication, persistence, and grit from the time we’re young, it’s a sad fact that not everyone lives up to their full potential. Many are only dedicated to a point. Once they reach that point, their commitment drops off. The trade-off is not paid, and the reward is lost.

The good things in life only come if you make the right trade-offs. The price—the trade-off—must be paid: life for death, honor for dishonor, wealth for poverty, and strength for weakness. Trade-offs even lead to embodying and accepting that which you once were not.

Yes, many don’t see their full potential, but I believe I did. I pushed when rock-like challenges wouldn’t give, and I fought when it seemed there was nothing left worth fighting for.

I came to my trade-offs through the prism of something some people might view as trivial. But if I told you I was excelling in a business that generates billions of dollars worldwide, you might not think it so trivial. If I told you I worked in a field that brought hope to young Black kids and helped raise some out of the ghettos, who then shared their wealth to start schools, community programs, and scholarships, you might recognize its greatness. If you consider that it has now ascended from an American concern to an international passion in the villages of China, the cities of Greece, the playgrounds of Ecuador, and schoolyards in Spain, it wouldn’t seem so trivial. I’m talking about the sport, the passion, and the art of . . . basketball.

Who am I? While I believe that Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time on the basketball court, I not only believe but had the chance to tell him in person that I could have easily defeated him in a pure shoot-out contest. (Mike, being the true competitor he is, had a laugh and recognized a kindred spirit.)

This isn’t just self-proclaimed success; I have had folks tell me more than once that I was the greatest scorer of the basketball they had ever personally seen. Yet, in an instant, a devastating incident kept me out of the NBA. Still, my gift was not to be wasted.

My abilities brought me to the attention of one Roy Jones, Jr., the legendary boxer and my dear friend. Our lives merged, gifts were exchanged, and talents shared. Although my NBA career never materialized, God allowed me to experience the lifestyle of an NBA player through a different prism: the boxing ring, the trade-off you see on the cover of this book.

Roy was my gateway to a life that reached far beyond normal expectations. He valued me enough to bring me onto his team. He saw something in me that would elevate him as well. I can only smile humbly to think that I shared in the greater portion of his illustrious career.

Join me on a journey to discover what a lifestyle of supreme dedication can do for you.

But it comes with a price. Do you have what it takes?

I am Alfy Smith. Through my story, I hope to show you that when you take your gifts, your talents—everything that makes you special—you can find connections leading to a life that gives you something more than average. This is about the trade-offs we make and how we make them. I made some that paid off, and some that didn’t. There are some that I’m still waiting to see pay off.

But please, take a little time with me. Let me show you the power and the pain, the time and the tears, the will and the way of making the trade-off because the trade-off leads to the payoff.

1. Where It All Started

I sat stone-like in the crowded cell, my head down. I was determined that my eyes were not gonna get wet. I shifted between a searing heat pouring through my body, every hair at attention, and slumping into a hollow shell. Like a broken record, my mind kept pestering me with the question, how did I end up here? Every dream and aspiration I had, everything that Momma wanted—that all my supporters wanted—could not have been leading up to this.

My muscles tensed again, bracing with energy this time. I lifted my eyes, and the gray dingy walls fell out of focus as I saw the faces of those around me. None of these people wanted to be here any more than I did, and that included everyone outside of my cell doing thankless jobs. Mostly, they had faces frozen like weather-worn statues.

The situation just wasn’t me. Life means more than just a circumstance. I could exchange all the callousness and negativity of my situation for something else. My head lifted a little more, and I began to smile.

I had a modest upbringing in Pensacola, Florida, USA. Say Florida, and you conjure up visions of Paradise. The orange, glowing sun invigorates youthful bodies while sweet breezes give overworked souls a chance for rest. It’s a real blessing to have daily access to those treasures. Pensacola is a relatively small city in the panhandle of Florida. The sugary white beaches and crystal-clear blue ocean are nothing short of breathtaking. At the same time, travel inland less than an hour in any direction, and you’ll find the traditional features of the American South; thick woods with tall trees that are teeming with wildlife and muggy swamps.

Real-world reality and struggle have no boundaries. Behind the postcard-perfect scenes sit the ugly difficulties of life. Like most folks, I wasn’t immune to struggle as a boy, but I did have a truly happy childhood.

Years before, my granddaddy on my momma’s side, Ulysses Williams, came to Florida from Eufaula, Alabama with one hundred dollars and a third-grade education. Like a lot of Black folks back then, he was determined to make the best life he could for his future family. He worked tirelessly to become a master carpenter and eventually rose to the thirty-third degree with the Freemasons. He started a family. Fast-forward to April 16, 1966, and I came into the world by means of his daughter, Susie Elizabeth Williams.

I was born right at the boiling point of the civil rights era. By the time I went to school, I was already living with the benefits of that powerful shift in our country. Pensacola schools began to desegregate early in 1962. I went to school with a good mix of kids, and I’ve been blessed to grow up with an unprejudiced view of people. I really don’t care what color you are; you are my brother or sister as long as you’re trying to do right.

My father proved to be a big-hearted man. You could really say big hearts run in my family. His pride in me was always clear. When we went to church, he always made sure I had the sharpest hats, just like him. That must have made some kind of an impression on me because to this day, if you ask anyone who knows me, I never leave the house without a sharp hat or a fresh cap. (Man, every color of Kangol cap they made, I got it!)

Naturally, I was a little spoiled. Being finicky at meals usually meant a scolding or a whooping for most poor kids. I never had that worry. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get enough bread, and my family would trip over that. I used to just grab a loaf of bread and start munching on it as my whole lunch meal.

Momma would stare at me like I had grown another head. Boy, what are you doing?

I’d keep smacking away, smirking and oblivious.

Daddy would just let me be. If he wanna eat the bread, let him eat the bread! He’d chuckle and wave Momma off.

Even when he would take me out for hot dogs, I’d grab the dog with my little nubby fingers, toss it away, and dig into the bun. Daddy would laugh and smile.

I loved that smile.

Life flipped inside out when I reached the age of five. That year, Daddy was cut down in his prime by cancer. He was quite a bit older than Momma but was still much too young to go that soon. I never grasped all that was going on around me in the days following. Everything was gray and still.

That stillness was a truly awkward sensation because the days leading up to Daddy’s funeral were full of activity. People shuffled around like they were afraid to wake someone up. Then without warning, a sharp howl of grief would puncture the quiet. There were days of grief, the funeral, and then nothing. Everyone was gone. For a while, there was nothing but a big hole, a hole in the house, a hole in Momma’s heart, and a hole I too felt but couldn’t fully comprehend. Young and determined, Momma braced herself and set to working hard taking care of me.

At that point, I was Momma’s only child with half brothers and sisters from my daddy that I didn’t get to know too well while growing up. But the hole left by Daddy was like a vacuum that other family members quickly rushed in to fill. And family would come in unique ways from unique places.

Romances come and go in life, and they can leave a rocky road of regret and heartache. A lot of people get bitter and resentful. But I learned a powerful lesson about moving away from that bitterness. After my daddy’s death, his first wife and my momma became best friends. When I tell you they became best friends, I’m not telling you any stories. Those were two women who did anything and everything together until the end. The night Momma died, well, they had just been on a trip to Louisiana together that day.

I grew up knowing my daddy’s first wife as Aunt Betty. I didn’t understand the true nature of their relationship. After I got old enough to understand, seeing the power of love that she and Momma both lived out only made me love her more. I then began to affectionately call her Stepmomma.

Their history never became an issue or a cause for tension. The way they didn’t let pettiness come between them taught me a valuable lesson: there is no need to fight or be bitter in life. Treat people good, and you’ll get good