Joe Frazier passed away recently. In our opinion, and we’re not alone, he was one of the greatest boxers of all time.
But not because of his talent. Although, he was talented, it wasn’t the secret to his BIGG success.
Not because of his physical strength. Although, he was definitely strong.
He became the heavyweight champion of the world because of his heart.
And the fight inside him.
Muhammad Ali talked about this in his wonderful book, The Greatest. He shares what was going through his mind when we fought Frazier.
Frazier didn’t stop. He just kept coming.
Ali hit him. Hard. Again and again.
Frazier didn’t slow down. He stayed right there. As if nothing had happened.
Ali had a longer reach. Frazier didn’t care; he stayed close to Ali so reach didn’t matter.
Ali was arguably a better boxer. Frazier was a fighter. But he fought like no one else.
Ali kept slugging him. A right. A left. A jab. A hook.
He landed punch after punch. But Frazier stood strong.
Ali finally realized that this guy was not going down. Sure, he may fall.
In fact, Howard Cosell made one of his falls famous: “Down goes Frazier.”
But it wasn’t the falls that made him a BIGG winner.
Sure, he fell down. But he rose up.
He fell down. He rose again.
Joe Frazier would not let go down on the canvas. He would struggle to get up. He would fight to keep fighting to the finish.
Because he had the heart of a champion.
Because he had the fight inside of him to fight to the finish.
He didn’t know he would win. Nobody does.
He only that he wouldn’t quit. Nothing and nobody could ever take that away from him.
Joe Frazier demonstrated an essential component of BIGG success. As a fighter in a different ring once said:
“Half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
~ Steve Jobs
You will get knocked down. Everybody does.
The singe biggest difference between winners and losers is how many times they get up.
Because one time makes all the difference.
Winners get up one more time than losers.
Just one.
It is “the size of the fight in the dog” that really matters after all.
Do you have the fight to be a BIGG success?
Image from mediaoutrage
Today on The Bigg Success Show, we wrapped up our discussion with Jim Bouchard. Along with being a speaker, coach, author and Martial Arts Hall of Famer, Jim is one of the best people you could ever hope to meet. He helps people 
Jim, I saw an interview with the author of 
Right. That word plateau is interesting. Exactly the same thing happens to people on the way to black belt in martial arts. Sometimes you feel plateaus. There are places where you feel that you’re not getting anywhere. Of course, that happens in business all the time as well. The irony is that, very often when we’re experiencing that feeling, a lot of the work is getting done. But there’s no burst of recognition. All of a sudden you get a rank or you attain a certain financial goal with your business and you feel it. There’s a tangible reward there. The plateaus though, that’s where you have to keep going. That’s where the discipline part kicks in. And the perseverance part – knocked down seven times, get up eight. I’ve divided the Black Belt Mindset into three major sections – perfection, confidence and leadership. We’ve talked about perfection – excellence, discipline and focus – that are the action steps. Confidence really comes from doing that over and over again. That’s where the perseverance aspect kicks in. That’s where we’re developing the courage and the power to keep going because we’re facing those challenges. It’s cyclical. It always kicks back to discipline because when the roads get rough and you feel you can’t keep going – you get knocked down that seventh time – that’s what gets you back up again. Confidence means you have some reasonable expectation that the outcome is going to be positive. The only way to get there is through experience. You can’t gift somebody confidence. I don’t know if that helps people look forward because you’ve got to get punched in the nose a few times in order to really be successful. Read books like the one you mentioned that talk about business leaders or political leaders. These aren’t people who, by and large, had a golden spoon in their mouth. These are people who got knocked around a lot and they kept going.
We say you’re the entrepreneur of your own life, whether you’re an entrepreneur in the traditional sense or working your way up in the corporate world. Either way, once you make a decision on your direction, you have to understand that it’s not just going to be easy.
