LEADERSHIP BY CHANGING THE RULES

George Foreman. Remember him? He was the snarling, glowering, menacing heavyweight champion of the early 1970’s who pulverized a fearsome Joe Frazier.

 Or do you remember him as the smiling, cuddly, self deprecating, hamburger chomping Heavyweight Champion of the 1990’s who scored a late round knockout of Michael Moorer to become the Heavyweight Champion?

 Guess what? It was the same guy (in body). But a much different man in spirit.

George Foreman is an amazing story.  

 He had the misfortune to dovetail his career with that of Muhammad Ali. Or did he? His loss to the heavy underdog Ali in 1974 set his world spinning. But it set the stage for perhaps the most miraculous sports story of all-time.

 Foreman grew up in the poor streets of Houston. He was, in own words, a street thug. Going nowhere, beating up those smaller than him, pilfering, stealing and making a general nuisance of himself.

 He got sent into the job corps, and found a mentor who believed in him, and fitted him with his first pair of boxing gloves. He could hit like a mule. He was big and clumsy, but he had a punch. He was already in his late teens, but his coaches put him in a tournament against much more experienced fighters. His punch was his equalizer.

 Although he was at a disadvantage because of his lack of experience, he won several tournaments, and got a birth into the Olympic trials in 1968. Surprisingly, he kept winning, and represented the US in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.  

 The fights were tough, and Foreman, with in some cases 10% of the total fights of his opponents, prevailed and took home the Gold Medal.

 His early pro days were an apprenticeship for him. He worked on his footwork, and he had his monster punch. And he had a sparring partner he would never forget. Sonny Liston.

 Liston was perhaps the ultimate bad boy of boxing, and had a punch perhaps as hard as Foreman. And…he had a persona of a glowering, unapproachable, scary knee breaker. The rumors about Liston were everything from a mob enforcer to a drug runner. But he was serious about his training, and Foreman learned from him every day.

 And Foreman had an identity crisis. Barely an adult, was he an Olympic hero? An inspiration to the youth and masses? Or was he a bad boy of the Houston streets. Though blessed with native intelligence, he hadn’t figured out who he was yet.

 But he kept winning as an early pro. He fought forty fights before getting a shot at Joe Frazier, who had won the fight of the century against an undefeated, comebacking Muhammad Ali. His left hook was a vaunted punch, and Foreman later professed to be terrified to step in with him.

 But on fight night, Foreman gave Frazier a horrible beatdown, and wore the Championship crown, one of the most prized sports mantles in the World.

 He made two title defenses, including a devastating knockout of Ken Norton, but the public never got behind him. His persona did not connect with the sporting fan base. The menacing, glowering, scary person that Foreman let himself show the World could not get behind him.  

 He signed to fight Ali in Zaire, Africa. It was a bizarre drama, with tens of thousands of the Zaire sporting public showing up for the fight and rooting for the more popular Ali. Foreman tired in the middle rounds, and Ali knocked him out.

 This began the Odyssey of George Foreman. He was now contender instead of champion, and he went in tough, wading through the really tough fighters of the Golden Age of Heavyweight boxing in the 1970’s.

The Ron Lyle fight was perhaps the most brutal heavyweight fight of the century.  

 He won a rematch against Joe Frazier, and then signed to fight Jimmy Young, a light hitting, but clever fighter who may have been one of great heavyweight counter punchers of all-time.

 Foreman hurt Young early, and looked to be on his way to another knockout of a ranked contender. But Young hung in there, and under sweltering heat, Foreman began to tire. Young was a light hitter, but late in the fight, Foreman was getting hit. In the last round, Foreman went down. He got to his feet to finish the fight, but Young was awarded the decision win.

 And then George Foreman disappeared from boxing.

 He went back to Houston and began preaching on the streets. He had had a religious conversion after the Young fight. Through heat prostration, he nearly died.  

He wanted to build a congregation, and used his boxing winnings to fund a Church. And he ate.  

 But he became a man of the people during this time. He spoke to people. He connected with them. He learned, and felt their pain, and their problems. Like Ali before him, he became the peoples champion.

 He ballooned up to 300 pounds, clearly seventy five (75) pounds over his fighting weight, and at thirty eight years old (38), announced his comeback to boxing.

 Critics laughed at him, and he joined them. All his old opponents, and those who aspired to fight him were long retired.  

 He went to small venues and took any fight he could get. Promoters were skeptical, and the sporting public regarded him as a sideshow. But he began winning. And got dates to fight on USA channel and ESPN. The public began to tune in. and embrace him.

 He was knocking out his opponents and a wide smile replaced his glare from his earlier career.  

 And he laughed at himself. One interviewer suggested he was beating a bunch of stiffs. No, Foreman insisted, “some of them were still on respirators.”

 The country laughed along with him. Foreman negotiated contracts with Fatburger as their spokesman, and The George Foreman grill.  

 And he kept winning.

 Evander Holyfield accepted his challenge for the Heavyweight Championship. Though Foreman was almost a decade and a half older, it was a close, competitive and entertaining fight. The crowd swung behind Foreman as he became even more popular.

 Foreman had a simple message he repeated over and over. “Don’t let anyone define your dreams.” He was a near middle aged guy fighting in a young man’s sport. His dream was to recapture the Heavyweight Championship.  

 After another decision loss to Tommy Morrison, he signed to fight Michael Moorer. Moorer was the undisputed heavyweight champion, having defeated Evander Holyfeld, and was undefeated. Foreman was a heavy underdog. And at age 45, was looking to do something no one had come close to ever doing, winning a Heavyweight championship.

 He had hired Angelo Dundee, who had trained Muhammad Ali throughout his career, to work his corner. And he expunged his demons from the Ali loss. Cried, as the shame poured out during training.

 Moorer was winning the fight as the early and middle rounds unfolded, but Foreman was doing damage. As opponents would say, wherever George hit you, it hurt.  

 In the tenth round, Foreman landed a short right hand to the face of Moorer. Moorer took a couple of steps back, and looked to reengage. Foreman landed another right hand to the forehead of Moorer, and the champ went down. The referee counted ten, and Foreman raised his hands, went to the corner and said a quick prayer, and walked to center ring as the new king of boxing.

 He had won a title twenty years (20!) after doing it the first time.

 So…what are the lessons of leadership to learn from George Foreman’s amazing journey?

1.   Authenticity.  

 George Foreman suffered through an identity crisis during his first iteration as Heavyweight Champion. During the second iteration, he knew who he was. He had grown into his own skin. He was a man of the people. He was one of us.

2.  Consistency of Message.  

Foreman espoused that “every time someone is in public, it is a commercial. He smiled at every opportunity. He always had an upbeat, positive message. He made us laugh.  

3.   Vision.

 Like many who had early doubters, Walt Disney, Jim Valvano, Henry Ford, and Muhammad Ali, Foreman would not be dissuaded his ultimate goal, no matter what others said or thought. He set his North Star, and found a way to get there.

4.   Playing by His Own Rules

     Foreman’s mantra was “middle age is not a death sentence.” And he proved it in arena no one had ever challenged that supposition before. Sports. And perhaps the most difficult sport of all. Boxing.

He graced the sport with intelligence and wisdom. And amazing sportsmanship.

 There are visionaries in all walks of life. We all have our own visions of what our lives, our businesses, and our futures can look like. George Foreman is an inspiration.