All of the virtues in the world are not going to win this fight. Jesus isn’t going to make sure Manny wins just because he likes Manny better. The sad reality is success is not coupled with virtue.
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This Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather stands to make over $180 million to fight Manny Pacquiao. A lot of people are unhappy about it. There’s something about a violent man who beats his woman and appears to be without remorse that just doesn’t sit well with most people. He appears to have something of a conduct disorder. It’s hard to feel good about putting a crown on a clown’s head.
Perhaps it can all be summed up in Mayweather’s philosophy on women’s fashion:
“How a women dresses is her advertisement,” he tweets. “If a female shows half of her body, she’s asking to be disrespected.”
Here’s the problem: he keeps winning. And we keep making him rich.
Technically, a person who harms another without any empathy or remorse is considered a sociopath. We don’t like our sociopaths becoming successful. We don’t like them making a lot of money. We like to imagine that, because they are scoundrels, they will lose. Everything.
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So millions of people are betting on Pacquiao for this fight because we like to tell ourselves that there’s some correlation between basic “goodness” and “success”. People who’ve never even see these two men fight are rooting for Manny because, well, he’s a nice guy. He gets on TV and smiles and talks about Jesus and praying for Floyd. How can you not like a guy like that?
Floyd gets on TV, and when he’s asked about why he likes to beat women, looks into the camera and plugs his next fight. As if to say, I don’t give hoot about anything but my $$. The nickname is “Money,” not “Heart.”
But really, that’s not gonna happen. All Mayweather’s done is furnished proof that being virtuous has no correlation to being successful – not in any material way.
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For what it’s worth, I’m pulling for Manny too, mainly because I don’t like arrogant people who misuse their power to abuse less powerful people. I share in the universal desire to beat the shit out of all the bullies in the world. I’m partial to boxers who come to fight. So yeah, I want Manny to beat the stuffing out of Mayweather. And in my dreams Mayweather tastes this defeat in a way that he is suddenly converted into a humble, vulnerable, lovely human being. Maybe he’ll have a Jesus moment after Manny gives him a whooping.
But really, that’s not gonna happen. All Mayweather’s done is furnished proof that being virtuous has no correlation to being successful – not in any material way.
We like to believe that there is a payoff for being a good person. We like to think that all the self-control and restraint we’ve practiced, all the times we’ve bitten our tongues, will lead to a payoff. For most of us, this is the big myth we organize our lives around despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Look around you. What evidence do you see that being virtuous makes a person rich and famous? What proof can you furnish that virtue equals abundance of material success?
Look at Trump. Leona Helmsley. The Waltons. What do you think made them successful? Being nice? Paleeeease.
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About a century ago, a man named Napoleon Hill asked Andrew Carnegie, “What is the secret to success?” The great philanthropist challenged him to interview the Masters of the Universe at the time. Hill spoke with about 500 of the most successful Americans, including men like John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Charles Schwab, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Ford. He recorded their wisdom in a classic called “Think and Grow Rich.”
What he wrote has proven true in all cases since. Successful people become successful because of the following trait: they are obsessive and undeterred in their belief in themselves. These are people who do not think of much else other than their intended goal. They do not imagine losing. They do not hypnotize themselves into thinking they can fall short. They can fail a hundred times in a row and still believe they are destined to win.
Floyd Mayweather has this quality. He says it: “I don’t have confidence. I have BELIEF.”
And he wins.
For now.
Maybe he’s boring. Maybe he’s sneaky. Maybe he avoids a fight. But the guy has this going for him: he is uncommonly confident that he is destined to win EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. He has no doubt. It’s made him a Champion. He will slip and slide, bob and weave into a win.
Today, the guy who wins is the guy who BELIEVES more than the other. Both of them will train harder than ever in their lives. Both of them are ready. Both of them are the BEST.
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It’s got nothing to do with whether or not he’s a nice guy, or if he believes in Jesus. Doesn’t matter if he knows how to treat a woman. Sure, he’s troubled. Aside from his woman-beating thing, there’s the little compulsive gambling tendency. There’s the terminal disease of his selfish consumption of gold, diamonds, women and cars. There’s the hollowed out hole in his soul that’s so glaringly obvious. How do you think that’s going to play out when he’s 55 and no longer pulling down millions for every hour of work? The Karma Monster is coming for him. Just not today.
Today, the guy who wins is the guy who BELIEVES more than the other. Both of them will train harder than ever in their lives. Both of them are ready. Both of them are the BEST. All of the virtues in the world are not going to win this fight. Jesus isn’t going to make sure Manny wins just because he likes Manny better.
That’s our fantasy.
This fight will not be won by skill alone, or maybe at all. Who believes more, and who put more time and energy into practicing the art. That’s it. It’s got nothing to do with “virtue”.
Which illuminates perhaps the most important point: there’s a difference between being the best fighter in the world and being a “Champion”.
There will be a “winner” but it might not be the “Champion”.
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Muhammad Ali was the best fighter the world had ever seen by 1967, but didn’t become a KING until he chose to do what was unpopular because he was more married to his principles than a slave to public opinion. He stepped into his Crown when he accepted a ban from his trade and renounced his attachment to his title. The renunciate is free, the hoarder a slave.
There are “champions” no one knows the names of. They live sometimes in poverty, sometimes just getting by on what they have. They are single mothers and loving fathers and community activists and teachers and crossing guards. In Siddhartha, he was the ferryman.
There is a certain kind of poverty that even millions of $$ can’t fix. Its the poverty of not caring, not having compassion or a benevolent purpose in this world. There is the poverty of a missing sense of justice and obligation to be of service to one’s community. There is the poverty of excessive hoarding and consumption. These appear to be the only shackles Pretty Boy Floyd can’t slip and slide his way out of.
This battle he may win. But the war’s already lost for him.
You can’t fit a crown on a head that bloated with nothing.
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Photo: Flickr/Gtol Ar
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