Muhammad Ali: Heavyweight identities & leadership
Humanity lost another star. “The Greatest” of all time, is no longer with us.
Along with 3 billion people, I watched Muhammad Ali light the 1996 Atlanta Olympics torch from my Jeddah home in Saudi Arabia. I was a child then when I learnt about the “Muslim” champion. With time I realised that Ali embodied more than his faith. Neither was he merely an outstanding champion of his sport. Ali shuffled a multitude of identities, and excelled at leadership on all facets of his existence.
His passion was fuel to succeed, a catalyst to change
A star with a purpose, it was clear to Ali for the very beginning that his success in the ring is only a catalyst to influence larger causes. His priorities have always been civil rights, equality, religious freedom at home in America. He knew Black Lives Mattered and lived it in a turbulent period in African American history.
He dared say NO to Vietnam
In the context of the 60’s, the cold war, the Vietnam war, the black struggle in white America, Ali faced a massive backlash and scarified a career of good years from the ring due to his refusal to serve in the US Army in Vietnam. His reasons:
“Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong”. Ali said in an interview. “My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, some poor, hungry people in the mud, for big powerful America, and shoot them for what? .. They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They didn't put no dogs on me."
He pushed himself harder by claiming he was the best
From the outside Ali amplified his “butterfly” and “bee” dexterity in the ring, but I feel the chest pumps were more than simple cheers. It was a call for respect, assertiveness, and acknowledgement. This was at a time when he literally fought and boxed for what he believed in. If not enough people were cheering him on, the sound of his own cheers and the echo of his punches were loud enough.
Hollywood walk wall of fame
Exceptional in everything he stood for, Ali was willing to let go of the Hollywood star of fame unless it is put anywhere but on the ground. The recognition was less important to him than his main concern – the Prophet Muhammad’s name being walked on on the ground. Today, Ali’s is the only star of fame that is not on the floor, but hanging on a wall.
Muhammad Ali’s passing, is a reminder to embody one’s multiple identities and excel at each of them. He did not isolate the sport champion from the American, nor the American from the African American, nor the African American from the Muslim, nor did he isolate his faith from the multitude of his being. His entire existence is a book from which we can draw leadership lessons for ourselves, our lives and careers.
May you rest in peace. Ameen.