Jim Hinshaw
Contributing Writer
Improvement Professional, President & Sales
I preach this a lot, don’t ever give up. Most of us throw in the towel just moments before we achieve a break-thru, before landing the new account that can move us up the ladder financially and emotionally.
There is a story about Mohammad Ali that illustrates this point in an ironic way. February, 1964 Ali meets Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship fight in Miami. Ali is fast and in the lead for the first couple of rounds. Round three he is tired, by four he is exhausted, Liston is still pounding him. Sixth round he heads back to his corner, tells Angelo Dundee “I quit, throw in that white towel” Angelo tells him he doesn’t have a white towel, to go back in. Ali refuses. When the 7th bell rings, Angelo pushes Ali back into the ring, tells him not to come back until he is the heavyweight champ of the world! Ali staggers across the ring, Liston doesn’t answer the bell. There were rumors of Liston taking a dive, he claimed a torn shoulder tendon, and further added he did not want to go into a ring when a mad man was running toward him. Ali did not know he was going to be pushed; he was stumbling across the ring, trying to keep his balance.
So many have looked at that fight, and said to themselves, that is a great lesson: keep on keeping on, give it one more try, never quit. Ali says it best, the lesson here is to have someone in your corner pushing you to do what needs to be done, especially when you think you can’t do it, or just don’t want to! Just to put closure on this story, the refs threw out that fight, they met again in 1965. This time Ali knew what he had to do, he had to finish the fight early, since Liston was a rock. So that fight ended when Ali knocked out Liston in the first round, in 56 seconds, with a crushing right hook. That is the photo that went around the world, Ali in his red gloves, Liston sleeping at his feet.
Most of what we do in life, and in work, is grunt work. The boring, tedious day-to-day stuff that prepares us for the moments of glory. Glenda Ama and Brian Ama are friends of ours that now live in Florida. Go with me on a journey with Glenda as she describes how she lost 60 lbs, and got down to 10{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} body fat in about 8 months. She is 47 (gave me permission to say that!), and has the body and metabolism of a 27 year old. After giving a commitment to her family in November 2014, she competed in a bikini competition a year later, brought home trophies, ate about 470 lb of chicken, AND no French fries!
Glenda first contacted Nick Mathew, a family friend who is a body builder and personal trainer to help her on this journey. He laid out a course of diet and exercise, but she made the commitment to working out twice a day, 6 days a week, starting at 4 am most mornings. So trying anything new is always fun, as we all know from our New Years resolutions. But somewhere around the second or third week, we begin to negotiate with ourselves (tired, too busy, got to spend more time at work, my family needs me at home), we have all been there. Glenda is married, has grown children, grandkids, and a son in high school, a great career, and all the regular type of excuses. She just would not let those stand in the way of achieving her dream. So she checked in regularly with her coach and trainer, he kept her on track. I started to say he kept her motivated, but the motivation came from her drive to be on stage at 10{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} body fat.
“I found more strength when I was depleted and at the end of my comfort zone. Nick would say 5 more, many times I did not have one more in me. When you believe, you can do anything”.
Once Glenda makes up her mind, gets a focus, she will do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal. I first met her when she sat in a training session I conducted a decade ago in Kentucky. Shortly after that meeting she moved back to Minneapolis and married her best friend of 10 years, Brian Ama. Her career and passion for the industry continued to grow as she began working as an account manager of service sales to Fortune 500 companies.
Last year, after her competition was tapering off, she and Brian moved to Florida, following her dream of business ownership. Glenda is now President and majority owner of a manufacturer rep firm for commercial and industrial HVAC systems in the Tampa, Florida area. Brian is now a manager at a residential service and replacement company, Don’t ever tell them they can’t do something, in fact “can’t” is not in their vocabulary.
My question to you is this: what have you been wanting to do, but have not achieved yet? Is it a business move you have wanted to do, maybe starting your own company, or a new division in your existing organization? Perhaps you have a physical goal on the horizon, maybe a family goal you are still pursuing. Get an accountability partner, share that goal, move forward today on a plan to make it happen. Today. Now.
This is Glenda and her trainer, Nick.