Perseverance – The Ultimate Challenge

So over the weekend there was a boxing match between Victor Ortiz and Josesito Lopez. Many of you know who Victor Ortiz is; he just had a very unglamorous fight against Floyd Mayweather where he head butted Mayweather out of frustration, who then responded by knocking Ortiz out when he had his hands down. Josesito Lopez is a journeyman, and Ortiz was expected to roll through him and go onto his already signed fight with Saul Alverez. Big change of plans, Lopez the much smaller man stood his ground and ended up breaking Ortiz’ jaw and causing him to quit (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8090268). Now to most people outside of the boxing world, a broken jaw is a perfectly good reason to quit, but not in boxing, you have an expectation to be a warrior, and many greats have fought hard and won with broken jaws. Muhammad Ali is one of them; Arthur Abraham recently fought an entire fight with a broken jaw! Ortiz on the other hand, in the past is known to be a quitter, there are stories of him quitting as an amateur, and more recently when he fought a hard puncher but underdog by the name of Marco Madiana. Victor Ortiz did redeem himself by fighting an incredibly heroic fight when he was the underdog against Andre Berto.

So, needless to say, the boxing community went down hard on Ortiz this past weekend. Eventually new reports came out that he broke it in two places, once in the fifth round and again in the nine where he then quit and even suffered internal bleeding from the mouth. Many boxing fans have come back to apologized and recanted their harsh criticism of Ortiz but I have a different thought and that is my analysis of perseverance and why some people have it at all times and others only some of the time or none at all.

One of my favorite quotes on perseverance is from John Stockdale, one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the United States Navy. He was captured in Vietnam and when asked about who didn’t make it out of the POW camps, he replied “Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.” He then added, “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Stockdale had it, he understood that faced with anything situation, there will be challenges but he will prevail at the end. Victor Ortiz is a warrior, make no mistake, if you’ve ever prepared for a boxing match, you know that you have to be a warrior and you know the struggle ahead, but unfortunately where Victor Ortiz gets lost is when he lets others paint the picture in his mind that some fights will just be easy. So when he all of sudden he faces difficulty, he doesn’t know how to cope with the fact that it will not be as easy and he is mentally broken long before he is physically broken. That is reason why Ortiz showed such perseverance against Andre Berto when he was supposed to lose, and failed to show the heart of a champion against Madiana and Lopez.

So how do we develop mental toughness like Stockdale? How do we preserver through life’s most difficult challenges?

1.Know that life is tough.

In business, in sports, and in life, it is tough road and you will never accomplish anything great or stay there without that understanding. Just like John Stockdale said, he knew the challenges ahead and was mentally prepared to face it.

2. Remember that perseverance is measured in the face of adversity.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” The greatest thrived on their ability to be stronger than any challenge bestowed upon them, and they lived for the experience to overcome adversity. Choose to be great.

3. Always have an underdog mentality

Why are underdogs so dangerous? Because they have nothing to lose, they will leave it all on the line for the touch of glory. If you operate as the underdog you will stay humble, be alert, and always ready to take on the new challenge.

4. Confidence, not cocky.

You have to believe you can do it before you can even do. The difference between confidence and cockiness is that cockiness is fake; it’s an illusion people paint in their heads to make things out to be easier than they really are. Victor Ortiz was cocky and it showed when he needed to dig deep.

5. Be prepared and manage your risk

If it’s financial risk, does your business have a surplus fund, do you have an adequate emergency fund, insurance? If it’s personal, do you have people around you that you can lean on, do you have the right people to go to?  Unexpected circumstances always occur, be prepared personally, professionally, and mentally or spiritually to be able to deal with such circumstances.

Lastly, remember that your successes and failures affect others as well. You may never know who might be looking up to you or following you as an example. Understand that every time you face adversity, the actions you take may be influencing others. Realize that as a responsibility to be greater than you believe you can be, never accept failure and never quit!