with, and your skills are nothing. You’ve just got to come out and swing and fight.” Always stick to your convictions. Your convictions are what matter to you the most and signify to the world what kind of person you are. When Foreman became a boxer the first time, he did it for glory and fame. Declaring his convictions changed his motivations and his life. After losing the fight against Jimmy Young, Foreman found himself in the fight of his life. In the dressing room, bleeding from his forehead, hands, and feet, Foreman began having a conversation with himself, justifying that he didn’t need to worry about the match. During his internal conversation, he reviewed all he had — a big television contract, a home, horses, a Rolls- Royce, and all the money he needed. Telling himself he could retire, he heard an unexplained voice that said, “and die.” “After a while, death multiplied in my conversation,” Foreman recalled. “I realized I was about to die, and I didn’t know what to do … I was in this dark space. Over my head, under my feet, and around me, was absolutely nothing. If you multiply every sad thought you ever had in your life, that’s where I was in this dump yard of nothing. I got mad … I said, I don’t care if this is death, I still believe in God … that’s when someone grabbed me, a hand pulled me out of nothing. I was alive in that dressing room … and I wasn’t afraid anymore. I saw blood on my hand and my fore- head, and I was screaming, ‘Jesus Christ is coming alive in me.’” Foreman quit boxing, became an ordained minister, and began sharing his experience. “The lesson I learned was conviction,” Foreman said. “You’ve got to believe in something. It doesn’t matter how powerful and wealthy you are if there’s no guide.” Be humble. Foreman recalled being overconfident when heading into his fight with Muhammad Ali. He’d expected to knock Ali out in one or two rounds and didn’t study Ali’s fighting strategies. He never looked at a newspaper or watched an interview that Ali did. If he had, he would have heard Ali explain exactly how he planned to beat Foreman and could have adjusted his own boxing strategy. #5 Give people something they want. Don’t be discouraged if people don’t buy from you. Figure out what they want and give it to them. When George became an ordained minister, he began preach- ing on street corners at a friend’s suggestion. But nobody would stop to listen to him. “This broke my heart,” Foreman said. “After a while, I realized I’m going to make these people stop and pay attention to me.” He began telling his boxing story about beating Joe Frazier, which brought people in droves. “I learned how to sell myself on that street corner,” Fore- man said. “You can’t be shy. You can’t let it break your heart, you just got to say the next one will stop. I found out it’s not easy to make someone stop on the street and listen to you unless you’ve got something for them, and I had something — that story.” #6 #4
made a deal that solidified him as a household name outside of boxing. After Salton Inc. approached Foreman to sell their grill, he made a deal to put his name on it and become their spokes- person. The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine earned him 40% of sales and later, a staggering $138 million to buy the rights to use his name on the grill in perpetu- ity. Selling over 120 million units, 1 out of every 10 people in the U.S. owns his grill. Between royalties and the buyout, Foreman pocketed a minimum of $250 million from the grill, making it one of the most successful endorsement deals in sports history. In a private Technology Marketing Toolkit Producer’s Club Meeting, George Foreman shared his biggest lessons learned and how you can become more resilient in the face of adversity.
Look for the positive. Even in the lowest moments, there are advantages. Foreman looked at being at the bottom as an opportunity. “I think you have a major advan- tage when you start from the bottom because you have nowhere else to go but up,” Foreman said. “And I started from the bottom.” Create guiding
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principles. Principles are the foun- dation of our beliefs and values and guide our actions. Foreman’s life changed positively when he found his principles one night after robbing someone. Being chased by the police and dogs, he climbed under a house where he covered himself from head to toe with sewage water from busted pipes under the house so the dogs couldn’t smell his scent. While hiding, he thought about a speech his mom had made about not having a thief in the family. “I was so scared,” Foreman recalled. “I realized for the first time I was a thief. I thought to myself if I can get from underneath this house and the police don’t grab me, I’m never going to steal anything from anyone again. After a while, the sirens passed, and I crawled from under that house and said, ‘That’s it.’ … I had been on the journey of my life, and I never stole anything again because I had something I’d never had before: principles. I had a badge of principles, and I knew if I could come from that bottom, I can make it all the way to the top.” Fight through the tough times. Real champions fight hardest when faced with adversity, and they never give up. Foreman learned this lesson after returning to the gym following his first loss. This time, Foreman learned how to box extremely well, so his trainer entered him in the Golden Glove fight. When the bell rang in the second fight, his opponent, #3 Winters, hit Foreman so hard that he went down and became dizzy enough that one woman appeared to look like eight women wearing the same outfit. As he heard the referee count down, one or two of the women would disappear with each count. “I remember there were only two left, so I thought I should get up before they all left,” Foreman said. “I jumped up, and I thought I’m going to put this boxing and bobbing and weaving down for a moment and just fight this guy … I turned into a windmill and the next thing you know, I won the boxing match. I learned that sometimes you just gotta fight. All the rules you’ve got to play #2
Be proud of yourself. Don’t let ego get in your way. Foreman learned not to shy away from his beliefs. If someone rejected him, he said a kind word. “I didn’t want anyone to know that George Foreman
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