Watching Mike Tyson prepare for a fight is understanding the love of the universe

If Mike Tyson punched me in the face, after I woke up, I might not be upset. Watching the Champ do amazing things in the ring, invoking a physical dominance never before seen in the sport, changes you as a person. A fan of the personality; the Horatio Alger Brooklyn fighter winning massive amounts of money, and living the life of a King. In my teens I understood only the man in the ring, the titan, the demolisher. I felt the parallel of winning and riches, glory and fame. To be globally the best at a sport that since the beginning of recorded history, had a razor thin margin of error. CRUSHER. WINNER. Poor kid from Brooklyn. At that age and depth of experience, mind and soul, I understood the character in the ring and could not see further. From what I understand now, neither could he.

Everyone loves a winner. Everyone wants to be a winner - until you understand the cost.

Watching Mike’s interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast recently, I saw the near completed work of a man who had experienced such a range of being, of spiritual complexity that he now actively worked to never be dominated by his ego again. He spoke about getting into fighting shape - the physical and mental difficulties. The strain and lurking danger of never wanting to return to the man he was. The tyrant that haunted him - Ego - that lust for strength and power, the undefeatable god of war. Seductive and empty, Tyson knows now growth and power is not in taking, but in unconditional love.

Pre-internet you just watched fights when they came on. The world wasn’t Wikipedia - more like 8 channels and a little box with an A/B button. Color TV was revolutionary, and Cable was like being plugged into the universe (yes I’m that old!). My point is you couldn’t look up Mike Tyson interviews where he told you the hours of fight tapes he watched. YouTube gave you a formula to this mythical gladiator. You didn’t know that he was a student of history, knew the lives of boxers, and could recite punch combinations and deciding rounds in obscure fights. He read Nietzsche and Jung, historical accounts of Alexander the Great and Hannibal, Genghis Khan, all the Caesars, and a host of poets and conquerors.  His training was ultra-human. The miles ran, and the sparring and training that caused his body to act faster than he could process thought. The razor-sharp margins were in his favor because he made it so. His single mindedness is legendary. As a man now, I understood this intimately.  

The body and the mind are truly malleable in a host of ways. Cus D’amato made Mike truly in his soul feel that he was born to win and conquer. And that he did, unerringly and with fury. It cost him more in his personal life than most could bear, even now. What you see now in so many interviews and his podcast - if you listen at a level beyond the war stories - is a man who has reflected not only on his life, but LIFE in general; and pulled from it not the championship, but the true win of Love. Love for family, giving, experiencing the beauty in the stories of others, and a true appreciation of friends and human encounters. At my age I feel a calm grace wash over me as he chokes up describing a slave who boxed and won his freedom; and the confidence and safety (which were the real gifts) Cus gave him. His level of empathy moved me to examine my own. Just listening to him (because his interviews are just as revealing of himself as his guests) you understand the version of himself he had to become to dominate his field. The reckless abandonment of spending, sex, and drugs (ironically, drugs [read: psychedelics + pot] kind of brought him back…) were a waste product of the colossus he became to physically defeat any rivals. You hear him relay these stories, then from 30,000 feet up, really tie these behaviors to painful trauma and thinking patterns. Watching any part of this real time redemption story pulled me into the question of “Who was I really?” during painful or disastrous moments in my own life. Understanding you f- up is progress, understanding the roots of your f-up changes your path.  You can tell for all the miles he’s run, his soul had run so much more.  

And the question is, “Gardner, what the hell does this have to do with real estate”?!?! To be great requires such a tremendous focus and dedication. Many times you have to step outside yourself and become the “God of War”, “The Artist”, “Mega Finance Mogul”, or whomever. Oftentimes that is at a cost - and many more times not only to you. To have lived that intensity of life at the laser edge of physical potential, and have the opportunity, inclination, or God given chance to turn around and really know in your soul what peace and love is, and its importance in our world is Grace, plain and simple. Find Victory in your pursuits, find Grace in your soul and pray you find them at the same time.

Thank you, Mike, for still winning….

Photo Credit: @miketyson Mike Tyson’s Instagram Account