Friday, September 17, 1954. Yankee Stadium. 10:25 PM.
It’s the end of the sixth round and heavyweight boxing champion of the world Rocky Marciano is in danger of losing his title. Challenger Ezzard “The Cincinnati Cobra” Charles, whom Marciano defeated in a 15-round decision just three months ago, ripped open a gash in Marciano’s nose. Rocky’s nostril is flayed open and a torrent of blood rushes out. As he sits on his stool between rounds, Rocky’s cut man attempted to close the wound with a big wad of Vaseline, but it still bleeds profusely. Worried the fight might be stopped because of the cut, Marciano turns into a bleeding, raging attacker. By the eighth round Marciano delivers so much punishment that Charles is counted out on one knee. Marciano would fight two more times before retiring as the only undefeated heavyweight champion with a record of 49-0.
While you may think of Rocky Marciano as a skilled fighter, he was anything but. He was too short (5’10”) and too light (185 lbs.) with stumpy arms and legs. His style (or lack thereof) was to simply out-hit and outlast opponents. Marciano didn’t attempt to jab and move. Those skills wouldn’t help him. He won fights because of his superb conditioning and frightening tolerance for pain. Rocky maximized his strengths.
In the quest to move from BLAMEr to OWNER, we need to focus on WORKING to our strengths. All of us have strengths. It might be the way we think, talk, act, or perform. It could be our personality, our study habits, our way of relaxing. They are all unique to us and when used, allow us to perform to our highest potential.
Common wisdom suggests we should work to build up our weaknesses, while taking our strengths for granted.
But working to build up weaknesses has two possible negative outcomes:
We never reach the level of achievement we think we can. By working on building weakness, we expect to reach perfection in that weakness. That’s simply not possible.
We begin neglecting our strengths. The gifts and talents we have are squandered in pursuit of a strength somebody else thinks is important for us. That’s not going to help anyone.
If Rocky Marciano attempted to fight as a slick boxer, he would bring his weakness to the forefront and would be easily defeated. By sticking to his (brutal) strengths, he remains the only undefeated heavyweight champion.
This week, make a commitment to identify and build on your strengths. There is power within all of us. We just need to find it and grow it.