One of my all-time favorite movies is:
“Rocky Balboa”
I like it so much for two reasons:
1. It got rid of the nasty taste in my psyche left by Rocky V which, far as I am concerned, does not exist, never happened, and ain’t “canon” as the fanboys like to say
2. All the great success lessons embedded within
Take, for example, the part where the current champ, Mason “the Line” Dixon, who is hated by everyone, seeks counsel from his old trainer Martin — the guy who made him into the champ, but was dumped in favor of managers who took over Mason’s career once he got big. Mason is now publicly ridiculed and despised by boxing fans for having never fought a true contender, holding his own greatness back in the process and he knows it deep down.
Here is the conversation:
MARTIN: You got everything money can buy, except what it can’t. It’s Pride. Pride is what got your ass out of here, and losing is what brought ya back. But people like you, they need to be tested. They need a challenge.
MASON: But you know that ain’t never gunna happen, there ain’t anybody out there Martin.
MARTIN: There’s always somebody out there. Always. And when that time comes and you find something standing if front of you, something that ain’t running and ain’t backin up and is hittin on you and you’re too damn tired to breathe… you find that situation on you, that’s good, Cuz that’s baptism under fire! Oh, you get thru that and you find the only kind of respect that matters in this world. Self respect.
The gut shot in the above exchange:
“There’s always somebody out there”
A lot of online marketers — especially social media guys & ghouls who made it big due to the nature of algorithms and the power of charisma & status (a good power to have, btw, if you got it) without having to learn the basics of marketing — who have been coasting along since 2015 or so, are now finding this out. You can see it in their ever-more-desperate posts. Their whining about algorithms not being as generous as they used to be. Them having to resort to bottom feeding click bait for engagement and getting paid on views instead of actually producing anything that benefits lives.
There ain’t no way that’s going to last.
Whatever the case:
To use another Rocky analogy, once you win your title you have to defend it.
While you get successful and want to coast and lay back a little… that’s when Clubber is training, working harder, gaining ground, coming after you. I have seen this over and over and over in the past nearly 23-years since I’ve been up in this business. It is why I always, every day, and have been doing so this whole time, from the moment my eyes open in the morning… focus on something one of my high school coaches used to drill into our heads:
“You can always outwork the other guy”
I have found this to be true across the board.
You can’t control natural talent and aptitude.
But you dayem well CAN control how hard you work.
Anyway, something to think about in the coming weeks, months, years as the economy goes completely to pot. (The recent talk of lowering interest rates and flooding the economy with more debt notwithstanding — it will only delay the inevitable if it doesn’t totally crash everything, best to be ready…)
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Ben Settle
