Name: Illogical
Rating: 3.8 (221 reviews)
Author: Emmanuel Acho

What’s in it for me? Find out how to achieve your wildest dreams like a (football) pro.

Emmanuel Acho suits up for a regular-season NFL game despite a pain in his thumb. At first, everything is going fine. But then, three plays into the game, he hears a pop.

Instantly, Acho realizes that he’s broken his thumb –⁠ and with that, his dreams of continuing as a starter for the Philadelphia Eagles are broken too.

Later, the doctor confirms his worst fear, the thumb will take over four months to heal. He receives a call from the Eagles’ general manager after communicating the bad news and is subsequently released from the squad.

Acho realized at that moment that he had a decision to make. He could wait until his thumb healed, continue training, and hope for a call from a team. That was the logical path. And then there was the illogical path. He could pour all of his energy into something completely different, something he’d no experience in at all, and change career path entirely.

You can probably guess which choice Acho made. He chose the illogical route, deciding to pursue a career in media. In this Blink we’re going to explore what made Acho turn away from the field he knew and was skilled in, to go down such a risky path. These blinks are, in the words of Acho, about embracing chance instead of always wondering, What if?

Today, we’re going to bulldoze through limitation and see what lies on the other side.

In this Blink, you’ll learn

why you should adopt the attitude of a professional gambler;
how to be like David; and
why you should always pick up the phone.

Taking an illogical path allowed Acho to pursue a new and unexpected career.

When Acho injured his thumb, it was as if the fears he’d harbored all his life were coming true. The success he’d fought tooth and nail to achieve was now at great risk of becoming undone. Acho stole traffic cones from a parking lot in Philadelphia and used them to do drills in the alley behind his apartment. He found empty fields to train in by himself.

As you’ve already learned, it was at this point Acho realized he needed to make a choice between a logical and an illogical path. But what exactly is logic, as he defines it?

For Acho, logic is conventional wisdom. And conventional wisdom is any principles or procedures that the majority of society agrees are sensible.

But how sensible are they really? Take, for instance, beauty standards throughout history. For hundreds of years, women have faced societal pressure to conform to constantly-changing ideas about what’s considered attractive. During the Italian Renaissance, for example, a beautiful woman was one with pale skin, full hips, a full chest, a rounded body, and a high forehead. Think Mona Lisa. Today, on the other hand, these things are all strikes against you.

“Conventional wisdom” doesn’t stand the test of time, nor do its standards seem to make much sense. And yet we allow these definitions of beauty –⁠ and many other things –⁠ to run our lives. We’re constantly longing for things that somebody else has decided we should value.

And that’s where illogical comes into play. Acting in a way that is illogical according to conventional standards, can often mean living a life that actually makes far more sense for you. In other words, it’s about not letting your value, your success, or your greatness be determined by other people.

When Acho made this decision to be illogical, he decided to believe there was something more to him than everyone around him ⁠ever expected. He needed to break his old patterns and find new ones. For him, the logical path would be to stick with football –⁠ this is what everyone expected him to do. The illogical path was pursuing a career in media, a career he’d never imagined was possible for someone like him, a career he had zero experience or background in.

Two years after Acho had been released from the Eagles, he rejoined them to celebrate the Super Bowl. But not as a player – this time he joined⁠ as a television analyst. Then, in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, Acho received a call from the Eagles’ general manager. He knew Acho had been using his platform to speak out against racism, and the manager wanted his advice on a statement the team could release.

The path to this point was, by no means, straightforward. Everyone around Acho felt that playing in the NFL was the opportunity of his lifetime. And giving up on that belief was hard. In order to move on, he had to start thinking and acting against other people’s logic.

In order to succeed, engage with your childlike faith.

A gambler known as “The Kid” is sitting at a table in the back room of a casino in Philadelphia. He has more than $20,000 on the table, but he’s, somehow, unfazed. There’s one card left to flip over. The Kid has two fours in hand, totaling eight. The dealer has a ten and an eight, making 18. The point of blackjack is for your total card value to be at 21, or for you to be closer to 21 than the dealer. The Kid has one last chance, one final card, to beat the dealer.

Rise above your own fears and those of others: be David.

Another story to highlight the power of thinking illogically, is the story of David and Goliath. It goes like this: According to the bible there were two nations at war, the Israelites and the Philistines. Goliath was a champion fighter for the Philistines, over 9 feet high, he was a confident giant, so confident in his power and ability, in fact, that he challenged the Israelites to a one-on-one battle; if anyone could defeat him, the Philistines would promise to serve the Israelites, but if they should lose, the Israelites would serve the Philistines instead. There was only one problem: the Israelites were all too scared to take on the giant Goliath. That is, except for one person –⁠ a young shepherd called David, who was barely a man.

Key ideas in Illogical

What is Illogical about?

Illogical (2022) is the story of how Emmanuel Acho, former pro football player turned media star, decided to take the illogical path to fulfill his potential and his dreams. Instead of following society’s rules, expectations, and constraints, he decided to break all of them –⁠ and in doing so, he became what he is today. And guess what? You can do the same.

About the Author

Emmanuel Acho is a former NFL linebacker who was drafted to the Cleveland Browns and later played for the Philadelphia Eagles. He retired from the sport in 2015 to pursue a career in media. He currently works as an analyst for Fox Sports 1 and hosts the YouTube series Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. His books Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man and Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy were both New York Times best sellers.