The Key to Mike Tyson’s Comeback (It’s not his uppercut)

What you can learn from one of the greatest boxers to ever live has nothing to do with boxing.

The “Baddest Man on the Planet” has lived a life that is truly remarkable.

Massive highs and plunging lows.

Growing up in New York with a single mom, Mike Tyson, like many fighters had a brutal childhood.

He was bullied when he was younger and was in and out of jail.

Legendary trainer Cus D’Amato discovered him at 12 and immediately began training him to be a trained killer.

It worked.

Fast forward and he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 20-year-old.

He found his dominance fizzling out by the mid-’90s while simultaneously going through ugly personal episodes.

His first marriage was rough, only lasting a year, and his ride as champ came to a strange end when he bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a fight in 1996, disqualifying him.

At the rate he was going, you thought he’d be world champ till he was 45.

Re-Emergence

Having re-emerged to most people on the Joe Rogan podcast a year ago, you were introduced to a different man who seemed alien to anger and rage let alone biting someone’s appendage off.

He is Brutally Honest With Himself

Mike has fully come to understand the power and danger of his ego. It is his greatest strength and his greatest liability.

Mike loosely and willingly talked about his past in front of an audience of millions.

Mike understands that he is a different person now than he was back then.

“I look at that guy (his younger self) as someone who’s given me a platform to help me forget about that guy… in order to arrive at that next chapter in life, you have to forget the chapter that came before you and focus on the chapter ahead of you.” — Mike Tyson

But don’t get it wrong, he’s fully aware of what is lurking, it’s just that the Mike of his youth is no longer welcome in his life.

Mike lives in Orange County now with his wife and kids. He’s a peaceful man, someone who understands his past, his present, and what his future holds.

All too often we make mistakes, blinded by our ego and passion as a young man or young woman, we act foolishly and we never come back around and re-address what and how it happened.

Then we end up repeating the same mistakes or justifying our original ones.

This takes out a lot of people. They effectively stop living in their 20s or 30s.

This makes for a long, difficult, stressful, and obtuse life.

How You Can Check Your Ego

Start by taking stock of your life. What is your story? Write it down.

What have you been through?

What has happened to you that you can point to as something that still affects you today?

What choices have you made that still weigh on you today?

Once you have taken a thoughtful look at your past, think deeper about why it happened. Be honest with yourself. You don’t have to like what you used to do, or who you used to be.

This is both difficult and freeing at the same time.

Once you can be honest with yourself, you can evaluate your decisions and choices objectively so that you can do better moving forward.

Be like Mike.