Where his Lil Yachty collaboration debuted on the Hot 100, after he left rugby to rap.
Ian O'Neill Smith had a lane already. He played rugby at Clemson, the kind of committed athlete path most people do not walk away from. He walked away from it anyway, deciding he wanted to make music more than he wanted the sport, and bet on himself with no guarantee it would work.
It worked fast. Ian started releasing singles in 2023 and broke through with Figure It Out in May 2024, whose Lyrical Lemonade video even featured a cameo from former NFL star Marshawn Lynch. His debut mixtape Valedictorian followed, and a collaboration with Lil Yachty called Hate Me debuted at number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100.
He kept the momentum. Ian released a second mixtape, Goodbye Horses, cementing a rise from college athlete to charting artist in a span most musicians spend years chasing, all because he was willing to leave a sure thing for the thing he actually wanted.
"He left a committed athlete's path to rap, and was charting within months."
The hard part was not the music, it was the decision to quit something he was already good at. Ian treated a secure identity as something he was allowed to trade for a truer one, which is the same nerve every founder needs when they leave the safe job to build. He bet on the version of himself nobody was asking for yet.
This is the builder nerve ANF keeps spotlighting. Be willing to walk away from the lane you are already in to build the one you actually want.
He gave up the jersey. The charts were waiting.
