Eric Thomas Teaches Us A Lesson In Persistence

My search lead me to the study of the spiritual forces with which all of us are blessed, and it was in this field that I came upon a clue which has enabled me to help millions of people to find their earthly destinies. I want to describe my discovery in the simplest terms possible. Because it will reveal to you why it is true that whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve. This is regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past or how lofty your aims and hopes may be.

This leads me to share with you a story of how this all works.

A life changing boxing match.
You all know who Mike Tyson is. He was a boxer, but he was different. He great up in a bad neighbourhood. He was living in up-state New York in detention homes, all sorts of messed up experiences he got himself involved in from being raised in the tough streets.

His style was different, he would run out to the ring in black shoes and these black little shorts and within one or two rounds he would knock out any opponent.

Like everyone one, he would just steam-roll and man handle with his ferocious strength and power and knock you out.

The thing was as a spectator you knew if you didn’t catch mike Tyson’s fight in the first couple of rounds you knew you missed the whole thing. So when mike was fighting you made sure you got to the TV early and readied yourself for that fierce action.

But then came along this guy named Buster Douglas. And as a matter of fact Buster wasn’t even suppose to fight Mike. He was just a fill fight until he was going to fight his main even fighter and it was Hollyfield or whomever. Bottom line, Buster Douglas was a no-name compared to Mike.

But the crazy thing is when you study the story is that Busters mom would go all around town before the fight telling all her friends at the barber shop and convenient stores, and no matter where she went that her son was gonna knock mike Tyson out.

Buster of course was like, mom chill out…. I know you love and support me, but this is Mike Tyson and he is knocking folk out everywhere. Don’t do that when you are out and about, Mike is undefeated and Im just lucky to have a shot at this fight at all.

But then what happened was just a few days before the actual fight took place Busters mom died. So to honor his mother, he said to himself that my mom and was bragging, and I need to win this fight to pay my respect and stand my ground in praise to her.

In this history of boxing before this date, whenever Mike knocked you to the canvas, nobody would get it. They would knocked into oblivion and would lay puzzled struggling to come to their senses.

Then I think it was the 8th round Buster takes just one hell of an upper cut to the chin and gets knock to the floor. No one thought he would get up as the ref stood over top of him counting his was to ten, and then around the 8 second mark Buster made it to his feet, by the grace of God. The ref and his corner was acting him , are you sure you want to continue, because mike is about to knock you out. and he says. I’m good, I’m good, lets go!

Then in the 10th round some took place that no one had ever done in the history of mike Tyon’s career, and he knocks mike Tyson out.

The craziest thing happened after this. It’s the craziest thing. After Buster beat mike out, everyone started to beat mike Tyson.

Just think about that. This is a man who was the most feared and prized boxer in history who had never been beat before, and then once Buster beat him others did too. He was considered unbeatable until Buster Douglas stepped in and proved that is was possible.

See what people found out was that if you could last 7 or 8 rounds with Mike you had a chance. See mikes strength was this explosive power that always took people out in the first couple of rounds, but he never has the lasting power and stamina. If mike can’t get you in 5 rounds or so, he couldn’t get you and all these fighters had to do was outlast him.

See there are some things in life you just have to outlast.

All you need to do is figure out, how do you survive these next few rounds, months or maybe years.

SO at the end of the fight they asked Buster Douglas, how in the world did you beat Mike Tyson?

He said, “Because I promised my mom before she died that I was gonna beat him”.

So you see, the secret here is not giving up. Most people who have accomplished great things in this world didn’t have that deep meaning to their quest, but they had that resiliency. They had the ability to bounce back, whether that means you were counted out from making the high school basket ball team, fired from a job, lost a love one, or failed 9,999 times before finding that one time that it all came together.

No matter how impossible your mission may seem, you gotta stay on course, please stay the course.

You were born to win, period! – Eric Thomas