We Must All Be Fighters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Vg4uyYwEk

The point of this posting is not to convince people to step into the square ring, but to highlight the importance of adopting a fighter’s mentality towards life. Many people know I box and people often ask me why I still fight. I’ve had some success as an entrepreneur, and boxing is a fairly risky sport, so why keep fighting? One of the reasons I love boxing and getting back into the ring is because I believe the mental toughness, the grit it takes to grind out a good fight is translatable to entrepreneurship and life. I believe we all need more grit in our lives, we as a society lack toughness and perseverance in the midst of pain and that is a quality truly necessary to achieve greatness.

I know that statement seems rather dark and super serious but let’s be very honest here, life is not easy, and if you’re an entrepreneur, or striving to achieve something great, life can be very very hard. Even last week I was thinking to myself, “it can’t be this hard”, and “does it ever just work smoothly?” and the answer to that is no, it never does. If it was easy to be successful, everybody would do it, and if life worked out as we all planned, we’d all be astronauts and billionaire playboys. But life doesn’t work that way, it’s full of obstacles and hardship and the higher we reach, often the more pain there is waiting for us. We plan for this imaginary straight line toward success but anybody who has ever achieved greatness knows success never happens in a straight line, and it never goes as planned.

A fighter knows to have a plan but a fighter also knows that obstacles will be there as well. Mike Tyson used to always say, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. Boy isn’t that true, we strive for goals, have aspirations and all of sudden, life punches us in the mouth and how we react is the critical moment that separates the successful people in life that achieve their dreams and those that don’t. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Roberto Duran, “Getting hit motivates me. It makes me punish the guy more. A fighter takes a punch, and hits back with three punches.”

What I’ve found in life is that as long as I maintain a positive attitude, be smart and think strategically, and most of all, fight like hell, I always come out on top. Here’s the thing about life that is identical to boxing. When you’re tired, when you’re hurt, life doesn’t stop punching you, in fact, it often goes in for the kill. The only way to slow down that barrage of punches is to hit back, to show life that you have the power to keep it honest and that you won’t go quietly in the night. If you’re getting beat down, remember that life works in very mysterious ways and that its often in your darkness moments that you find the openings and opportunities to be great. I use boxing to remind myself that life is a fight, it’s a lot of fun and that there is plenty of give and take but a fighter never gives up, a fighter always gets back up, and a fighter refuses to stop until he is crowned champion.

Now go find that thing that makes you into a fighter. Grit is like a muscle, and if you don’t practice it, you get soft. A lot of people know what a fighter’s mentality is, but very people can take the physical and mental pain required to be successful. That is why I still box, I train my grit to be stronger so that no matter what obstacles life throws at me, I just smile and say, “Is that all you got, because that was fun” and pull my punches back ready for more.