Over a decade ago, things did not look good for former NFL player Trent Shelton. He had grown up with a dream to play in the NFL but in 2007 he remained undrafted, despite being a promising wide receiver at Baylor University. He signed as a free agent with the Indianapolis Colts but a series of injuries and the competitive nature of the NFL led him from the Colts to the Seattle Seahawks and then the Washington Redskins until his NFL dream was over before it had even really begun. With his lifelong dream gone, Shelton found himself in a dark place. “I turned to things I probably shouldn’t have turned to,” he recalled in an interview with CBS.

Two things would begin to change his mindset about his situation- the birth of his son and the suicide of one of his best friends. “I was at a crossroads of my life, and I had to make a decision on who I wanted to become. The beauty and tragedy of those two moments ignited a fire in me that changed my life forever. It fueled me to be a better man in every sense of the word. I wanted to be a better father for my son and I wanted to honor the soul of my best friend,” he writes on his website. Things turned around for him in 2011 when a friend asked him to speak at a church service to 5000 children. Despite considering himself as an introvert and trying to back out of the event, he found God gave him a sense of peace about it and went ahead with something that seemed completely out of his comfort zone.  The moment would change the trajectory of his life. The event went so well that Trent felt he had finally found his calling. He began to make motivational YouTube videos about overcoming failure.

He soon became very popular with catchphrases like “Don’t die with your dreams.” His videos ended with the line “It’s rehab time” because, as he said in his interview, “Rehab is simply this: putting the strength back into a weakness.”  After his videos went viral, he was soon sharing encouragement with people all around the world. He started Rehab Time to help people build their weaknesses into strengths. His videos have led to him having over 15 million followers on social media and he has written two books: “Straight Up” and “The Greatest You.” Trent recalled his climb from the bottom in an interview on CBN News’s “The Prayer Link.” “I was so focused on what I wanted to do, I was blind to what God called me to do,” he reflected. He also spoke about the importance of looking at failure in another way, saying “Failure is feedback.” He went on saying, “Even if you don’t understand the path that [God] has you on, you gotta trust in His plan and His promises.”