John Cena Reveals He Once Pulled Out of a Startup Venture On Advice From Vince McMahon

Former WWE Champion John Cena recently revealed an instance when he pulled out of a startup deal on the advice of Vince McMahon.

During a recent appearance on Wild Card, the 17-time World Champion revealed that he once got involved with a social networking startup without informing his then-boss. Despite what Cena termed a “direct violation of trust” on his behalf, the former WWE Chairman calmly walked him through the nitty-gritty of the project and what could potentially happen.

As it turned out, following Vince’s advice, John Cena decided to pull out of the startup.

Here’s what Cena said [quotes via F4Wonline]

“One time, I tried to get involved with an entrepreneurial social network startup, and I didn’t tell my boss, and we talk about everything. This wasn’t like, ‘Man, we’re going to do this together.’ In potentially being a part of the startup, my name’s John Cena, so I would essentially be leveraging intellectual property. That’s a team decision. I love and trust my boss; he’s far more than my boss.”

“I was just trying to get more money, simply. I have my own philosophy on social networks, some very limited in my use by design. So it’s not something I’m interested in. Not too fond of limited access stuff. This was a curated idea that seemed nice, but I looked at the projections. My boss found out, and to be honest, he was great. He walked me through it, like, ‘Okay, this is the choice you’ve made; let’s walk through all the tentacles of what might happen.’ In a moment, it was a direct violation of trust to somebody I had worked for years.

“He invested years in trusting me, too. It was a moment where he could’ve just got nuclear, because trust takes years to build and moments to destroy. He didn’t. He had patience, tolerance, and I think possibly, as an entrepreneur himself, he tried to put himself in my shoes and walked through it. It took five minutes or less to realize, ‘I’m such an idiot.’ I immediately called the company back and said, ‘I’m out; this isn’t for me.’”

Listen to his comments below: