re: ESPN 30 for 30: Broke

quote:

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well mark brunell had a bunch tied up to fast food chains, too. they go belly up also

i'm not saying mashburn will go broke, but he's not exactly bucking the trends

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I suspect one of the big differences between Mashburn and Brunell is whether they put themselves in debt to finance the restaurants. I would bet Mashburn saved a bunch of money while he was in the NBA and started launching his restaurants with cash. If one or two went bad, no sweat off his back. Whereas we know for a fact that Brunell put himself in debt for a lot of ventures.

Also, Mashburn may have been more thoughtful. Apparently he owns Outback and Papa Johns outlets. Brunell went into Whataburger. I don't know what the national intake for those chains are but I suspect the first two are better investments.

Theoretically, if you get the kind of money Mashburn and Brunell made, you should never have to go into debt again. The more debt you have, the more vulnerable you become. I think that's likely the biggest factor in all this.