BE RUTHLESS - Mike Tyson's Best Motivational Speeches
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So when your plans change, Merrill is with you every step of the way. Go to ml.com slash bullish to learn more. Merrill, a Bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, registered broker dealer, registered investment advisor, member SIPC. 11, 12, 13, what happens next? So Jane gets arrested and I see Muhammad Ali coming to visit the institution that I'm in.

You said you were in jail and Ali shows up? I'm 12 years old and Ali comes in and they show the movie The Greatest first, so this is '77. And after the movie, the lights come on and Ali comes in. And I see him and I want to be just like him. I don't know how it happened, the spirit hit me, boom, I want to be like him. And then I get transferred to this other facility, you know, for real bad kids.

I met a gentleman there that was a boxer. He used to teach me how to box. So he took me to a great training named Customado, and that's why I'm here. I respected Ali and I worship Ali. Yeah, this is the moment I knew I wanted to be a fighter. I'm scared to death. I'm totally afraid. I'm afraid of everything. I'm afraid of losing. I'm afraid of being humiliated. But I'm just totally confident. The closer I get to the ring, the more confidence I get. The closer, the more confidence I get. The closer, the more confidence I get.

All during my training, I've been afraid of this man. I thought this man might be capable of beating me. I've dreamed of him beating me. But I always stayed afraid of him. But the closer I get to the ring, I'm more confident. Once I'm in the ring, I'm a god. No one can beat me. That's all I needed. That's all I needed for him to do that. And it became personal with me.

For me, anger was good. Anger was good because it was motivating. The more I could create an enemy, the more I wanted to go out and kill those guys.

During the fight, I'm supremely confident. I'm moving my head. He's throwing punches. I'm making a miss and I'm countering. I'm hitting him to the body. I'm punching real hard. And I'm punching and I'm punching and I know he's not able to take my punches. One, two, three punches. I'm throwing punches and punches. He goes down, he's out. I'm victorious. Mike Tyson, greatest fighter ever lived. Every time I go in that game and come out, I got a new scratch. It became personal with me.

I'm the best ever. There's no one that can match me. I'm the most brutal, the most vicious, the most ruthless champion there's ever been. They're gonna fear me. You have to be the champion before you become the champion, so that means lifestyle. You have to be him before you become him. You gotta be him before you become him. That's how it starts. You look at somebody, I wanna be like him.

You don't say, hey, I'm a bad motherfucker. I want to fight everybody out here. Nobody's going to kick my ass. You see somebody and say, hey, I might want to do that. Well, greatness is when you make your delusions your reality. Nothing's impossible for somebody who's going to try. If you're going to try, it's capable of being done. But you'd fight Tyson Fury. Yeah, I'd fight a lion if the price is right. My whole objective is your total surrender, your total domination. I'm going to destroy you.

That's why Rogan said, when he watched you, you were intimidating. Your rage is a very unique rage. So that's their fault to be intimidating. How you let my scare you for something you worked for.

I respect a person who's willing to die for what he truly wants. Ali has the will to win like nobody that ever lived in boxing. He believes he's rejected to his opponent. Really look at how does Ali beat George Foreman? How does Ali beat Sonny Lister? How did he beat these guys? How did he even beat Joe Frazier? Fighting the way he fights. He beats him because he refused to lose.

But we have to believe that we're divine and that we learn from our experience because confidence breeds success and success breeds confidence. They go hand in hand. You have to know who you are first. You know, I know who I am. People say, they're great all the time. You this, you that. Whatever they say, I know who I am. Without self-love, you're nothing. Because self-love is discipline. And discipline is doing what you hate to do, but do it like you love it. I never wanted to be obscure.

I was born in obscurity and I never wanted to deal with that again. I'm invincible, I'm a savage, I'm ferocious. I'm the smartest savage. I knew I wasn't going to die before I became champ. When this is over, everybody's going to know my name. I don't care how good you are at anything, you don't have discipline, you ain't nobody. Because you give up on the slightest struggle without discipline. Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but do it like you love it.

You might not know this now, but you're this close to igniting your inner champion and reclaiming your destiny. It's just that I want to be up more than anybody on the planet want me to be down. Be champion before you become champion. Wanting to get the best out of yourself. Not competing with anyone else but you.

I don't back down from anyone. And that's what got me in trouble. I don't play games. I don't kiss anyone's ass. And I'm a real man. And that's why, regardless of being a fighter or anything, I'm a man. And that's why I want to be a man. And if I die, I want to die a man. When you're really focused, you hear everything. When I come to the ring, I notice everybody can hear you breathing. I can hear you talking. I hear everything.

When I come out, I have supreme confidence. I'm scared to death. I'm totally afraid. I'm afraid of everything. I'm afraid of losing. I'm afraid of being humiliated. But I'm totally confident. The closer I get to the ring, the more confidence I get. The closer, the more confidence I get. The closer, the more confidence I get. But the closer I get to the ring, the more confidence. Once I'm in the ring, I'm a god. No one can beat me. The world will know my name until the end of time. They call me the greatest.

Because I'm a savage. That's who I was. I didn't want nothing until I got something. And when I said something, I mean the crown. You knew from the beginning the world was going to know who Mike Tyson was? 100%, yeah. At what age did you know that? 14. Why is that? Because I was beating everybody at 14. More than my skills, I had the mindset.

To kill, destroy, break them down. It's just, I'm the greatest. You know, success is all about a lifestyle. I lived a lifestyle as a champion at 14. In order to be the champion, you have to live a lifestyle as a champ. It's all about discipline, doing what you hate to do, but doing it like you love it. That's what it's all about. If you don't have discipline, I don't care how skillful you are, you're nothing. If you don't wanna be the best ever, why are you here? Confidence breeds success and success breeds confidence.

It's all about the belief that you can do it. Belief is more powerful than anything. The only thing we can do is just have that focus and believe in ourselves and believe that I want to be up then anybody in the world wants me to be down. And it's all about, like I said before, self-belief. My whole success is from belief. I just believe in me and I'm going to overcome all my adversities.

The truth sets you free, but it's going to make you miserable first. And that's how we improve as a person, improving ourselves. You have to first have the aptitude to do what you claim you want to do. And if you have that, and the determination, and the will to win, there's nothing that you can't do. Impossible is nothing compared to anybody that tries. Nothing's impossible then.

Confidence breeds success, success breeds confidence, and confidence applied properly will supersede the genius. Life is just a circle. They're going to hate me again one day, and then God willing, they're going to respect me again one day. Because in order to be a master, you have to first be a fool, I guess. You have to believe in yourself before you believe in anything else. God, we live in you. You have to believe in you.

Once you believe in you and have a relationship with you, there's nothing that you can't do. You have to be the champion in this to be the champion in this. When I win the morning, I win the day. So that's why exercise is important to relieve your stress. Win the morning, you win the day. And so I realized life is all about in here. It's all about your belief system. Face fear. Never lose when you face it. Trust me, never lose when you face fear.

No, our mistakes don't define us. Our high points don't define us. Life defines us. As long as you can have happy moments, take as many of them as you can because life is just a flick of the eye.

Well, that's what life is about. You got to sit in your room some time, give your subconscious some time, and spend time, and just envision yourself being with the most exciting people in the world, doing the most exciting things in the world, and just living that fantasy, and that fantasy will become reality one day. Discipline could be taking your illusions and turning them into a reality. You dream for yourself something bigger than what you can ever imagine, and you become it.

Now that's discipline. In order to be able to change anything, you have to change yourself. You don't have to look in the mirror and say, "What do I want to do to make me a better person?" Or, "What is it that I can do that could define myself as being a better person than I am now?" You know? Who can I help? Who can I worship?

Who can I do something to or with that would make me feel like a better person, that would help me reach my highest potential? You have to find that first. What is it that I can do to help people? You know, that's all I think about. How can we help somebody? Visualizing, looking into the mirror, that's what it's all about. Touching your inner core of your consciousness.

I don't believe in talent. Well, some people, they have talent. That's good. It helps when you have talent. As long as you have a lot of determination and willpower, that's all you need. And you have to have the will to win.

How do you think anybody with the will to win and the desire not to lose will succeed? I would think of myself as a roaring gladiator like Alexander the Great. I feel like I'm a ruler when I'm in my mind thinking about accomplishing something. I think possible, nothing's impossible to somebody who tries.

So I never think about failure in that perspective. I think about feeling, but not in that perspective. I need the pressure. Without the pressure, there's no me. Without the pressure, I don't have the guts to say, hey, I'm going to fight this guy. I have to have the pressure. Anything that I'm afraid to do, I do it. And that's just how I live my life. The more you're comfortable with you, the more you'll be comfortable with death. And the more comfortable you are with death, the more at peace you are with yourself.

I knew never to get discouraged. I knew I would get my day if I continued to try hard and believe in myself. I am who I am, and I'm going to die being who I am, and I'm going to live being who I am. This is just who I am. It's all about what you believe. I got belief in myself, and belief is more powerful than anything. Un-freaking-believable story. So your inspiration happened at 12 years old. Then you meet Cuss. How was Cuss treating you? What was his way of leading you? His degree of just peeling off

all that dirt and stuff, that insecurity and developing into character. And that's why I had a wonderful time with him, because everything about his life was about me. This world is one big school, and we're the students of this world. The mind is always hungry. The mind wants to do good, but we get so many negative thoughts, and our mind is almost overwhelmed to be positive.

Listen, I've been down and up, down and up, broken up, and why am I still here? Because life is going to give everybody a bad hand. No one's going to leave here without being tried in life. So inspiration. So is that what got you to be willing to be disciplined, to get what you want, like to become a champion? At 14 years old, I'm willing to do everything it takes to be a champion? Absolutely. And then I had Cuss over there telling me, why should he have it?

That's one thing I never had in my life, because I always got picked on and I never had jealousy or envy-ness about anything. And Cuss possessed that, you know, and he was telling me, "Why should he have all that money and you don't? Why do you believe that he's better than you? Why do you think he should have all that money and you don't?" And he was really serious about it. And that was the competition sh--. That's the right thing, breathing that stuff right in you. Why should he have it and he's not better than you?

How did you handle that when he told you that at 14? Would it piss you off? Were you like, I'm going to go train to whoop his ass and get there one day? What was your response to it? He said one day, this guy knew how to really get in my head. He said, man, you're fighting good, but I wish you were bigger. I wish you were like Kenny Norton or Mike Weaver because they had big bodies and they could intimidate somebody. And that hurt my feelings. I said, I'll make sure the whole world will be afraid of me. He trained me to be totally ferocious in the ring and out.

Yeah, and that's what I was. That's what I was. Push yourself more. Push yourself when sometimes you have to submit to yourself. I'm doing everything. First thing in the morning, three in the morning, do your four miles, come back in. Three in the morning? Yeah. Do your four miles, come back in, do your body exercise and all that stuff. After that, I go out to eat breakfast, go to the school, come back from school.

Eat mine, then I go back to the gym at 6 o'clock, train, come back at 8 o'clock, watch fights, start all over again. Everybody here is going to fight for what they love for. Even if they never had a fit fight in their life, they're going to fight. Listen, once I'm involved in something, I want to know the beginning. I want to know where it came from, how it was started, who's the first guy that invented it. That's just how my mind works. How could these guys even dare fight me? How dare you even think that you could beat me?

And you sound like a mathematician when you're talking about the art of boxing. I was born for it. There's nothing I would do unless I have a possibility of being humiliated. Because when I succeed, I truly succeed. I was bred to climb high and high into the sky and tumble down. I am truly grateful that I found my wings before I hit the ground.

I hate the whole aspect of the warrior mentality and the duration of it. That's probably the main part, the length of how long you have to go through that psychological warfare. It takes tolls on people, that kind of stuff. It's just really rigid. If you become the best, you have to almost become fanatical. You know, this is my life, this is all I live for, this is my air, this is everything.

Yeah, I guess most athletes feel that way. They have one of those old-time trainers in there. Have that particular type of method of training. It just becomes your life. So you could do this in your sleep, could just regimen it. Sometimes it's hard to accept who you are. Sometimes I see young kids out here

and they commit suicide and they don't like who they are and they're in prison. And it's really difficult, you know, to accept who you are in this world because really we don't know. But then in order to have friends, you have to be put in this particular kind of, I don't know, you have to be labeled, so to speak, you know. So we don't know who we are until we get, I guess, to a certain degree of...

It's just that dedicating and sacrificing your life to be in a particular way you want to be able to, like you want to conduct yourself. Say you want to be like Tony Robbins. You get all the information you can about Tony Robbins. And you conduct yourself. This is how I want to live my life. This is almost like a

Um, this is your manuscript. This is what I'm gonna do. Yeah. And, um, I'm gonna live like Tony. I'm not gonna be Tony Robbins, but I'm gonna live it. I'm gonna conduct myself like Tony Robbins. Yeah, yeah. So you gotta live it, you gotta breathe it. And you have to be that before you actually become the person. Interesting. You're not gonna become the person over there. Like, you think you're prepared to be Tony Robbins right now? Right to that. Tomorrow you're Tony Robbins. You didn't know. It's gonna take time, so I'm gonna become this guy.

I'm going to be this guy before, because you're not ready. But when the time comes, you're going to be ready. You're going to be Tony Robbins. This is my life. I'm accustomed to this. Of course I got this role. Of course I got this job. Of course I got this rate. I prepared for it. You wouldn't even be surprised. Everything changes when my classes change. I never understood my struggle. I had everything I wanted, but still I was fighting the light.

My dark spirit was still fighting the light. That was my struggle. I couldn't get anything done. What's the question you wish you could have answered? Who am I? Why is my purpose here? I think my purpose is to be the best person I could possibly be before I die. You know what I mean? That could be my purpose in life. See how far we can go in life before we die. Yeah. You know? But suppose...

Enjoy your life. Nothing. You never go on a vacation.

I leave the town, but this is just a simple life. This is what makes them happy. Yeah. And I really can't, you know, I come into a place, if you're nothing, if you're something, you're nothing. Mm-hmm. You know, isn't that so fucking shallow? If you're not something, you're nothing. What's my definition of something? Mm-hmm. Somebody with a fucking wad of money in their pocket? I have no fucking concept of humanity. It's what life is. It's trying to figure shit out. You just go with the flow. Mm-hmm. I know my...

demons and I realize in life everybody's gonna really find them out eventually. You think you're gonna hide that shit, it doesn't work that way. - So you just started to forgive yourself on things or it's happening every day? - Pretty much, yeah. You know, it comes around, yeah. - Wow. - I'm not gonna, "Hey, Mike, fuck that. "All that shit you did is cool, man. "God loves you, that's bullshit." I don't function, I don't think that. I don't think God leaves you to figure it out. You're living on yourself.

Is it cool? It's cool. If it's not, it's not. You figure it out. It's hard to be kind when you're trying to be the best at the same time too, huh? Yeah, but that's the part of discipline. Discipline is separating the two. You know, you have to do what you hate to do, but do it like you absolutely love it with vigor and enthusiasm. If I had more time, I could be even better than what I am. Yeah, and if I had more time, I could probably right through all the wrongs that I did.

If I had more time, I could spend the time with my kids. Those are great. I'm just going to always try hard and see what's going to happen. Because listen, I've been worse than this. I've been in a worse situation than I've ever been. And I didn't give up then. Why am I going to give up now? I'm at the height of my life now. Why am I going to give up? What the hell am I doing? This is a dream right now.

I fight a lion if the price is right. My family was violent and I'm violent. - Is it still in you or it's left to you? - Hey, when I need it, it comes back. Life is gonna give everybody a bad hand. No one's gonna leave here without being tried in life. Adversity make the strong stronger or the weak weaker. My whole objective is your total surrender, your total domination. I'm gonna destroy you.

Confidence breeds success and success breeds confidence. It's all about the belief that you can do it. Belief is more powerful than anything.

The world was going to know who Mike Tyson was. 100%, yeah. This world is one big school, and we're the students of this world. I'm wealthy because I'm valuable. I'm not valuable because I'm wealthy. The mind is always hungry. The mind wants to do good, but we get so many negative thoughts, and our mind is almost overwhelming to be positive. There's so much power in humbleness. When I'm on the fire, I say I arrange these things. I know the power of humbleness now.

How did you learn that? I have to lose everything. It's like this. The truth sets you free, but it's going to make you miserable first. And that's how I live my life. At what point did you know that you could be the heavyweight champion? 14. You have to be the champion before you become the champion, so that means lifestyle. You have to be him before you become him. You got to be him before you become him. If you look at somebody, I want to be like him.

You don't say, hey, I'm a bad motherfucker. I want to fight everybody out here. Nobody's going to kick my ass. You see somebody and say, hey, I might want to do that. More than that skill, I had a mindset, you know, more. More than my skill, I had the mindset. Kill, destroy, break them down. It's just, I'm the greatest. I'm losing, too. I'm getting beat. I'm getting knocked out. I'm never getting discouraged, though. Listen, the ups and downs are not over, believe it or not.

And the only thing we can do is just have that focus and belief in ourselves and believe that I want to be up, then anybody in the world wants me to be down. And it's all about, like I said before, self-belief. My whole success is from belief. Check it out. Something I can feel, but not actually see. You can inspire desire, but can you teach it? I don't know. I never had to try to teach anybody that.

Nobody had to teach you the fire because you had it. It was within you. Well, no, it wasn't definitely within me. Somebody had to bring it out and show that I deserved to have it. I had to learn self-love. I don't care how great you are and how much you succeed. Without self-love, you're nothing. Because self-love is discipline. And discipline is doing what you hate to do, but do it like you love it. If you don't have discipline, I don't care how skillful you are. You're nothing. Nothing.

This is what I'm going to do.

I'm not going to be Tony Robbins. I'm going to conduct myself like Tony Robbins. And you have to be that before you actually become the person. You're not going to become the person over there. You think you're prepared to be Tony Robbins right now. Right to the, tomorrow I'm going to be Tony Robbins. You didn't know. It's going to take time. So I'm going to become this guy. I'm going to be this guy before because you're not ready. But when the time comes, you're going to be ready. You're going to be Tony Robbins. This is my life. I'm accustomed to this. Of course I got this role. Of course I got this job. Of course I got this rate. I'm prepared for it.

You wouldn't even be surprised. The reason why they didn't have the discipline because they allowed their mind to take over and say you can never beat him. Everybody here is going to fight for what they love for. If they never had a fist fight in their life, they're going to fight. What are you thinking about? What are you going to bed with? What are you doing throughout the day? The world will know my name until the end of time. That's what I go to bed thinking.

Did you do a lot of visualizing, knocking people out? Oh, that's what it's all about. Visualizing, looking into the mirror, self-hypnotism. That's what it's all about. Touching your inner core of your consciousness. Your self-conscious, please. You have to first have the aptitude to do what you claim you want to do. And if you have that, and the determination, and the will to win, there's nothing that you can't do. You know...

Impossible is nothing compared to anybody that tries. Nothing's impossible then. You know, that's the total belief in yourself. Confidence breeds success. Success breeds confidence. And confidence applied properly will supersede a genius. Well, that's what life is about. You got to

You got to sit in your room some time, give your subconscious some time and spend time and just envision yourself being with the most exciting people in the world, doing the most exciting things in the world and just living that fantasy and that fantasy will become reality one day. What's your existence about? Who are you? Do you understand this world? Do you really believe that...

You know, who are we? We really believe we are who we are. Our age is the age that Julius Caesar said it was. Who are we? How do we exist with knowing nothing but what people told us? You have to believe in yourself before you believe in anything else. God, we live in, you have to believe in you. And once you believe in you and have a relationship with you, there's nothing that you can't do. And that's just, that's just what it is. That's just the way the universe made it. Why do you think so many people lack a belief

in themselves or in what's possible for them. Because they were never taught belief. They were never taught self-belief. They were only taught commercial religion. And it wasn't...

successful so to speak and so people people don't understand the concept of living so they want to live the way they want to live they don't want to do religion they don't matter of fact they want to live they want to be their own god you know they're going to run their own show and that's just um that's disastrous because maybe it's not maybe it's not because in order to be a master you have to first be a fool i guess right so yeah you're right on the right path

I won't take that as an insult. No, it's not an insult. Thank you. I'm a strong believer that anybody you fight is not your enemy and everybody that helps you is your friend. With everything you've been taught your whole life and then it comes the time you realize what's a lie. Now, how do we start from there?

- We live in a lie. - Yeah. - We have to make up our own lie and live in this lie. It's gonna take until you find, if you checked and try to figure out 'til the day you die, you will never figure it out. - Your guys say reinvent myself. It's just that I wanna be up more than anybody on the planet want me to be down. And that's just what it's all about. Wanting to get the best out of yourself. Not competing with anyone else but you.

And that's how we improve as a person, improving ourselves to an emotional level where sometimes you can feel superior, but it's superior in a good way because we share a lot of love and everybody's going to be superior in that same level because that's what it's all about, everybody being equal. Some people have more flamboyant jobs, more money, but the psychology of just brotherly love, sisterly love, and we just have to get along. That's just what it is.

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