Have you ever wanted to watch your favorite Realtor punch somebody in the face? Here’s your chance, because one of my fight tapes from 2004 has surfaced on the internet.
That's me in the blue corner. I was a 22 year old college student who picked up amateur boxing as a hobby while working at the front desk at a sports club while I was in college in New York City. I had been in this sport for only about a year by the time I fought in the Golden Gloves.
This fight tape from the finals of the New York Golden Gloves in 2004. The finals were in Madison Square Garden, where I won when the Ref stopped the contest in the third round. It gets exciting about halfway through. About a month later, I walked across the stage in the same building for my graduation from New York University. Back to boxing... later that year, I also won the USA Boxing National Championship in the 101 lb weight class.Â
Reflecting back on my amateur fighting, I see now that it prepared me for success in real estate. Here are a few life lessons I learned from boxing:
Be humble. Today, I punched someone in the face. Tomorrow, I’ll probably get punched in the face. Today, I sold a huge house. Tomorrow, a huge sale might blow up in my face.
Put your head down and do the work. No one else is going to do it for you. In boxing, if you get a good hit in, you don't stop fighting to admire your own work because that's the exact moment when you're going to be blindsided by the knockout punch. Instead of admiring your wins, pick apart your losses, double down and work harder.
Cheating on preparation is only cheating yourself. In boxing, it's road work and training which build your base and get you prepped for a long, hard fight ahead. You do your road work alone, in the dark, painfully, with nothing but your own fire, determination and willpower to keep you going... the ultimate goal, the light at the end of the tunnel. When it really matters in the fight, you’ll see who has been cheating on their roadwork. When it really matters in real estate, you'll see who has not been doing the correct preparation.
How much do you want to win? You will win only as much as you prepare to win, only as much as you sharpen your skills, only as much as you grind away with grit and determination at the things that nobody else sees (the things that really actually matter).
I'm that person. The one who does the hard work behind the scenes for no audience. I am prepared to win.