The other night my husband and I rented a movie which, much to my surprise, turned out to hold a very powerful entrepreneurial lesson – and that without actually having anything to do with entrepreneurship.
 
Rather, it was a movie about – of all things – mixed martial arts. About fighting your way to a $5 million jack pot.
 
The movie, called “Warrior”, is a superbly written, acted and directed feature film, and I highly encourage you to watch it if you have not already. And, mind you, that’s a recommendation coming from someone who isn’t normally into fight movies.
 
But this film was different. This film was riveting.
 
A family drama set in the world of boxing and wrestling, two estranged brothers end up fighting one another in a mixed martial arts tournament. Though both are fighting for the money, the real stakes are obviously much higher.
 
Broken relationships, emotional pain, internal and external struggles, love, forgiveness – it’s all there.
 
But what I really wanted to get to here is the powerful entrepreneurial message I took away from it. (And I will try to do so without spoiling the movie for you!)
 
When Brendan, one of the two brothers, a school teacher by trade, is facing his opponent in the boxing ring and being given a horrible beating, it looks like all hope is lost. His opponent is forceful – much bigger and better trained than Brendan.
 
Brendan is being thrown around like a rag doll. He’s barely able to fight back. Until…after the 2nd round (which Brendan lost), Brendan’s coach, Frank, yells at him, trying to get his attention.
 
When Brendan’s hopeless eyes finally meet those of his coach, Coach Frank looks intently at him. “Why are we here?” he shouts.
 
No response.
 
“WHY are we here?” he shouts again, even more forcefully.
 
When Brendan lingers, the coach answers his own question. “Because if you don’t win, you won’t have a home in 90 days.”
 
Indeed. This was Brendan’s “why”…this was why he had to win the prize. This was why he had entered into the championship to begin with:
 
Unless a financial miracle happened, Brendan, his wife and two children, would no longer have a home. They were facing foreclosure and every odd was stacked against them.
 
And then something inexplicable happens: Once Brendan is reminded of his “why”, when he realizes that failure is NOT an option, that there is way too much at stake, it’s as if his power returns to him. He gets his strength back. He pulls himself together…he is suddenly able to focus.
 
And when he walks back into the ring, it is with newfound belief, knowing that he can still win. Because he HAS to win.
 
I won’t ruin it for you by revealing what happened next. But I hope you see the parallel here:
 
As a business owner and entrepreneur, you too are in the boxing ring, every single day. You’re fighting a forceful opponent – in fact, your opponents are many. One is called Laziness. Another is Discouragement. Then there’s Competition. Distractions. Procrastination. Not to forget the Dream Stealers…
 
(I bet you can think of several more.)
 
Every day you need to put your boxing gloves on and brace yourself to face the adversary. And you can only beat him if you know your why.
 
What I interpreted as an entrepreneurial lesson is perhaps more of a human one. Whether we’re business owners or mixed martial arts fighters or something entirely different, every one of us needs to be crystal clear on our “why”. Why we’re doing what we’re doing.
 
When we know what it’s really all about – what DRIVES us into action every day – we experience super human strength. And then, truly, we can do anything we set our minds to.
 
Just ask an underdog-physics-teacher-turned-celebrated-sports-hero named Brendan.
 
 
 
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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 2:50 am and is filed under Mindset. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.