MANILA -- If ordinary mortals could become a fraction of the career achiever that Chot Reyes is, they could say they've lived a full life.

Gilas head coach. Television executive. Public speaker. Businessman. Reyes isn't just doing things; he's doing things and excelling at them all at the same time.

Many years back -- and this is paraphrasing him -- Tim Cone said if there's one thing that impressed him the most about Reyes, once his assistant coach at Alaska in the 1990s, it was Reyes's ability to multitask.

Whatever assortment of work Reyes was juggling then pales incredibly in comparison to what he's doing now. Which begs the question — is his superhuman ability to compartmentalize a byproduct of nature or nurture?

In the "Staying Major" podcast by retired PBA pro Erik Menk, Reyes reveals an interesting origin story.

"My girlfriend at the time, who is my wife now, Cherry, got pregnant and that kind of forced my hand in sophomore year of college (at the Ateneo de Manila University) to go and look for work," Reyes said in the podcast released on Saturday.

"I tried being an encyclopedia salesman, those things. They didn't work out until the athletic director for high school told me, 'Well, we're looking for a high school coach.' He asked me if I could do it and I said, 'Sure, let's give it a shot.' So I was coaching in high school, while I was getting my degree and playing on the college varsity team and doing a part-time job with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. So that was my life for three years in college.

"So if you asked how busy I am right now, I had some very early training (for that)."

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Given the plethora of career options at his disposal, the young Reyes chose the corporate path because as a family man he said it made more sense financially than coaching. But basketball seemed to find a way of luring him back.

Working for Purefoods management fresh out of college, Reyes found himself being in the company of basketball nuts like himself. He helped in some capacity to form the Purefoods team (an early precursor to the current Star squad in the PBA) that played in the Philippine Amateur Basketball League (an early but unrelated iteration of the current PBA D-League) in the late 1980s.

Presented with a choice between teaching how to put a bouncing ball in a hoop and pursuing his masters studies, which required a 4-year commitment, Reyes, then in his mid-20s, hung up the corporate suit for the coaching suit and tie (Cone's Alaska staff blazed the trail for NBA-style coaching fashion, minus the suit because, you know, tropical country).

"I wanted to go back to coaching but the Purefoods staff (elevated to the PBA by that time) was full," Reyes said. "So luckily Tim Cone was looking for an assistant."

And because Reyes, then as it is now, thrives on a full plate, he took the Cone offer, on top of the head coaching jobs at the Ateneo Blue Eagles (after being invited back by the school) and the Burger Machine team in the PABL. He did that for three years before he caught a break in 1993 taking over Purefoods as its head coach in the PBA.

"That's when I really cut my coaching teeth," Reyes said managing the Alaska, Ateneo and Burger Machine gigs in the period between 1990 and 1992.

"That's why my voice became like this."

Menk said "wow" a lot as Reyes narrates his early-life story, and it's safe to assume that he speaks for any ordinary mortal who is just as awed by Reyes' otherworldly multitasking skills.

There are a lot of gems by Reyes in Menk's podcast, arguably the best interview so far in this series. Check it out if time permits.

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