Had I not become a professional golfer, I think I would have pursued some type of career in aviation.
I don't feel like I should just be a rapper. That's boring to me.
I'm quite sure there are other things that I could have done in life whether it's working for Humana, teaching in college, high school teacher. Coaching stuck.
Being prime minister isn't the only job in life! As far as I'm concerned, I could live in a village and be satisfied.
Like many students, I found the drudgery of real experiments and the slowness of progress a complete shock, and at my low points I contemplated other alternative careers including study of the philosophy or sociology of science.
I'd have been a filmmaker or a cartoonist or something else which extended from the visual arts into the making of narratives if I hadn't been able to shift into fiction.
I don't feel like basketball is the only way to make a living.
I love doing independent films, but it's very hard to make a living that way.
I don't want to inspire the next generation of tight ends or linebackers to play the game. If I could inspire the next generation of architects and technology leaders and writers and illustrators and film directors, then I feel like I have fulfilled my life purpose.
There are a couple things that I could be doing, maybe owning a coffee shop or work in construction, building houses back in Nashville or British Columbia. I've also thought about being a property owner which would give me income and allow me to fix and maintain those properties to keep me busy.
I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing.
I don't really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I'd like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.
I do believe that by virtue of having a volunteer army, you are going to have men and women who decide to serve and others who decide to pursue different careers.
I've always enjoyed acting, but there's a part of me that's shied away from living a celebrity life. I don't feel comfortable being noticed all the time. Sometimes I even fantasize about doing things other than acting. But I can remember being back on set the third day of my latest project and going, "Ahh, this is what I have to do for a living." It's what makes me happy.
That I was not suited to commerce or academic study in no way proves that I should also be unfit to be a painter.
If I wasn't going to be a surgeon, I wanted to be a farmer or grow oranges or something like that. I grow flowers now - orchids. That is something that I find very interesting.
I had the privilege of being able to choose, or at least have the opportunity to work at, being anything but an actor.
I'll always have acting. But then if I had to choose something else it'd probably be singing or dancing - if I had to. Or maybe, like, designer, like sketching designs.
I would advise budding writers some other kind of job, unless they think they're very, very lucky.
Man, I don't wanna do what all the other guys do. I don't wanna end up in the booth after the games telling you what I think and talking smack about the guys on the floor when they are a lot better than that. I wanna be different. I don't wanna be known as Commentator Shaq. I wanna be a doctor or something good. I wanna be Dr. Shaq, Officer Shaq, Deputy Shaq.
I knew at university that medicine was just not for me. I saved many lives by not being a doctor!
While working in advertising, I channelled my creative energy into elaborate escape fantasies: cake making, dog breeding, the Peace Corps.
There's this old saying that, if you aren't particularly gifted in natural sciences, if you don't want to become a teacher or pastor or doctor, and don't know what else to do, then you become a lawyer. But I've never regretted it.
[Referring to public service:] Men can make a living with far more satisfaction and many less wounds to the souls at some other calling.
I'd have worked with an orchestra, been a chef, or a zoo keeper.
