Harrison Barnes has made a name for himself on the basketball court: After being drafted in 2012 by the Golden State Warriors, he helped lead the team to the 2015 NBA title. In 2016, he played for Team USA in the Summer Olympics. That same year, he agreed to a four-year, $95 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks.

But the 26-year-old knows that his basketball career won't last forever, so he is already planning for life off the court. That's part of the reason he sits down with notable leaders in politics, tech, sports and more. For an interview series with The Players' Tribune, Barnes has talked to influencers like Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, Instagram co-founder and CTO Mike Krieger and, most recently, musician John Legend.

And they all have at least one thing in common, he tells CNBC Make It: "From writers to teachers to athletes to entrepreneurs, I think the biggest similarity that they all have is vision. They all had a vision of what they wanted to achieve, what they wanted to be."

"When I do these interviews and talk to all these people, they've already accomplished so much," he continues. "But at the very early stages in their careers or their lives, they had goals and dreams."