From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
You can have athletes that are at their physical peak but without the right mental resilience and approach, their performance will not be where it needs to. I've focused on that a lot through my career- learning through experiences and trying to keep a perspective on what I'd achieved previously, what I was going to achieve, and how to get the most out of communication with the people around me.
You're not going to be a warrior in battle unless you are a warrior in preparation. You have to be single-minded, you can't just show-up on the night.
A practitioner is the person who goes out and breaks the limits of the mind, the soul, the body. A practitioner listens, and understands that the voices who say things cannot be done are theorists.
For many years, motorsport resembled a pyramid—a well-established, widely recognized structure with Formula 1 at its pinnacle. When Formula E emerged, it occupied a completely different position. It remains somewhat set apart, and only in recent years has it begun to be recognized as established motorsport by the broader community.
My mother passed away 10 years ago; and she was always someone who pushed me to get educated, and to work on my academic side. She always made me remember that football could be temporary; what if I broke a leg? What if I lose my ability to play? She never wanted me to give-up my dreams, but to be smart and hedge my bets.
Some of the most valuable lessons are not from seeing how they've dealt with success, but how they've dealt with failure and come back stronger and more determined to succeed.
As the great baseball star Earl Weaver once said, 'Nobody likes to hear it, because it's dull, but the reason you win or lose is darn near always the same – pitching.'
The reality is – you can't accomplish anything unless you're all in emotionally, physically… you have to put it all on the table. You can't just put a little part of you out there in case you get hurt… guess what… everything about competition will hurt. The losses hurt… a huge wipe out hurts…. Breaking a board and getting hit on the head, that hurts. The more you do it – the more you build a mental scar tissue that you can lean on – That's the 'stuff' that lets you pick up the pieces and go again.
I wasn't just fighting for myself. I was fighting for an entire country and millions of fans around the world who believe in me. That is why I will always give 100% in and out of the ring.
Anyone can have a good trainer; you can learn the moves and get fit. Any boxer or athlete can get super fit – the edge is mental ability – It's having the self-belief. If you're not right in the head? You'll never do it. I've seen guys getting beaten mentally. Mike Tyson beat a lot of fighters mentally before they even got in the ring, Tyson Fury does the same thing – they get in people's minds.
I do what I do because I am good at it, I enjoy it and I have been successful doing it. God gave me a talent and I have worked extremely hard to fulfil this talent.
Until James DeGale won a World Title, no-one who'd won a gold medal for Britain in the Olympic Games had ever won a professional World Title, which is quite amazing when you think about that. Think of the guys that didn't even get to the Olympic Games like Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn, Eubank, Joe Calzaghe, Tyson Fury, Ricky Hatton. Sometimes the greatest boxers get overlooked- or maybe it's because of whoever is picking the amateur team… or maybe there are politics involved…. Sometimes you may just come across guys who are hungrier!