The sports world is up in arms about this past Saturday nights championship fight between Bradley and Pacquiao. Many are screaming that the fight was fixed and that Bradley clearly did not win that fight. Even Bradley looked as if he didn’t feel he won the fight. But there are a few important lessons to be learned by Bradley’s unexpected and possibly undeserved win over Pacquiao that the public and especially business people should not miss.
Lesson One – Sometimes you lose when you think you should win and sometimes you win when you think you should have lost. Life is not fair.
Tim Bradley controlled the one thing that he could control about the outcome of the fight. He trained hard, came to the fight prepared and gave everything he had. People are screaming that the fight was fixed but anyone who watched that fight saw Bradley fight with his whole heart and do his very best. If the judges fixed the fight they clearly didn’t tell Bradley before hand.
In business everyone has major and minor setbacks but what most successful people won’t tell you is that a great deal of massive success is also about dumb luck. Ask Warren Buffet, Bob Johnson, or Mark Zuckerburg how much luck, timing, and undeserved good fortune helped them become champions in business. Like Tim Bradley they worked hard to prepare but they also showed up to the fight and won. Many with even more talent failed or never achieved success on such a massive scale.
Lesson Two – It’s going to be painful win or lose
People are so mad at the outcome that they totally missed that undefeated Tim Bradley fought almost the entire fight with a fractured foot. Could you go 12 rounds with a broken foot against one of the greatest boxers in the world? Business like boxing is a world where you sure to get your butt kicked each time you make a mistake and drop your guard or make a bad decision. Sometimes you keep making the same bad decisions and you keep getting punched in the face like Bradley did each time he didn’t block the left jab.
In the end no judge could have given Bradley the fight if he hadn’t stayed on his feet and made it all 12 rounds fighting his heart out. You can’t win the game if you aren’t there at the end and if you watch that fight Bradley went through a lot of pain to be there at the end.
Successful business people all have a story about fighting against great odds. financial misfortunes, bad markets, lawsuits, and outright disaster but most who stay focused, come out the other side and win big.Unfortunately the majority quit too early and only have stories about the pain but not the reward. Bradley could have quit and I’m sure he wanted to.
Lesson Three – When you get an undeserved win be humble about it and gracious to the loser because chances come around
I gained total respect for Tim Bradley because of how he handled things after the decision was given. He complimented Pacquiao on a great fight and acknowledged that the crowd didn’t agree with the decision but he would keep his word and give Manny a rematch in November as promised. He showed so much class in that moment and didn’t fake it like he had really beaten the Pac Man. He got lucky because he was prepared well and finished the fight strong. He didn’t get a big head about winning because he knew he needed to do better and that he wasn’t the best fighter that day.
In business we all have some victories that are right place right time victories and we see others who are more talented fail. It is important to be humble and acknowledge our good fortune especially to ourselves. Being grateful and humble is a hard lesson to learn in America because we have a bragging culture but we also have a country full of people who were lucky to be born with opportunities they did nothing to earn. Bradley showed how to win with class.
A good friend of mine told me Bradley was clearly out classed in the fight and didn’t think Bradley ever has a chance of beating Pacquiao. I totally disagree. Go look at the Ali vs. Frasier where Frasier beat Ali like he stole something but Ali came back and took Frasier out in the next fight. Look at Ali vs Foreman”Rumble in the Jungle”, Ali was losing the entire fight and almost died in the ring but walked out a champion. Look at Moorer vs. Foreman, where a 50 year old George Foreman became Heavy Weight Champ of the World on one punch at the end of the fight.
In Boxing and in Business you always have a punchers chance even for an undeserved victory,
Wishing you Wealth Wellness and Wisdom
Manager of Wealth
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