In Search Of Excellence - Mike Tyson: From Robberies to Royalty - Redemption Story | E169

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

In this extraordinary episode of In Search of Excellence, I sit down with the legendary Mike Tyson — former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, cultural icon, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.Mike opens up like never before about confidence, redemption, pain, preparation, and success. From his rise as the youngest heavyweight champion in history to his darkest battles with drugs, prison, and public controversy, Mike shares the raw truths that shaped his life.We dive into his iconic fights, including Evander Holyfield and Buster Douglas, his struggles after boxing, and his transformation through family, philanthropy, and Tyson 2.0. He speaks candidly about the role of cannabis, psychedelics, and extreme preparation in finding peace and purpose.Mike also reflects on fatherhood, his marriage, and what true success and happiness mean — offering advice that will inspire anyone facing setbacks, doubts, or big dreams.Timestamps / Chapters00:00 - Mike Tyson's Journey to Success01:53 - The Role of Money and Success06:59 - Prison Experience and Personal Growth15:35 - Challenges and Redemption15:49 - Friendship and Mentorship22:47 - Life After Boxing23:05 - Philanthropy and Giving Back23:41 - Advice for Young People33:35 - Reflections on Life and Death38:48 - Final Thoughts and Future PlansHighlights from this Episode:Why confidence breeds success — and how Mike applied it inside and outside the ringThe mindset of extreme preparation and learning from Muhammad AliBehind the scenes of the infamous Holyfield “Bite Fight”What Mike learned from losing to Buster DouglasHow prison became the “three most valuable years” of his lifeThe role of cannabis and psychedelics in his transformationPowerful lessons on family, fatherhood, and loveThe mission of the Mike Tyson Cares FoundationWhat motivates Mike Tyson todayWhether you’re chasing greatness, rebuilding after failure, or seeking a deeper understanding of success, this conversation with Iron Mike is one you won’t forget.In Search of Excellence Podcast - with Randall KaplanListen to this episode on the go!Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-search-of-excellence/id1579184310Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/23q0XICUDIchVrkXBR0i6LOne-on One Coaching: I coach a select group of high achievers on how to elevate their careers, grow their businesses, and unlock their full potential. Apply Here = https://www.randallkaplan.com/coachingFollow Randall!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/randallkaplanTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@randall_kaplanTwitter / X: https://x.com/RandallKaplanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randallkaplan/Website: https://www.randallkaplan.com/Get More Excellence! In Search of Excellence Clips: https://www.youtube.com/@iseclipsCoaching and Staying Connected:1-on-1 Coaching | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn

Life is all about confidence. Confidence creates success. Success creates confidence. And when confidence is applied properly, it will supersede a genius. I had people at the bottom of the world, and I had people at the top of the world. And the pain is relevant.

It's the same. Do you think all your friends are not that happy for your success? No. Especially if they tell you to keep doing, keep up, don't give up. And you do what they tell you to do, and you succeed. So now they inspire you.

Now they want to tear you down. Right. Isn't that a deep question? Ridiculous. How important has extreme preparation been in your success? And this is extreme. It's guys like Muhammad Ali, they've got to beat him to death. You're not going to give up.

If the referee don't stop the fight, if the corner don't stop the fight, you got to kill him. He's not going to give up. He says, I'm going to give up and quit. And that's the mindset that I believe I have. ["Dreams of a New World"] My guest today is Mike Tyson. Mike is the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, one of the greatest boxers of all time, and one of the most recognized sports personalities in the world.

When he was 20 years old, four months and 22 days old, he became the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title and he was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles. He finished his professional career with a 50 and 6 record with a knockout to win percentage of 88% and is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In addition to his incredible boxing career, Mike has appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows and is the creator and actor of the one-man hit Broadway show, The Undisputed Truth and is the author of a bestselling book of the same name hit Broadway show, The Undisputed Truth, and is the author of a best-selling book of the same name. Mike is also a successful entrepreneur. He's the founder of two companies, including Tyson 2.0, and he is a dedicated philanthropist through his Mike Tyson

Cares Foundation and his support of other charities, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Special Olympics. Mike, it's an incredible pleasure to have you on my show. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. Pleasure to be here, my friend. So many people I know are motivated by different things in life. And I think when you don't have money and I know as a kid, I wanted money and I was motivated by money for me. I wasn't an athlete. I was a terrible athlete. Much better today than I was then. I think a lot of it's mental and there's a lot of confidence.

And I didn't have a lot of confidence being bullied and not being the cool kid. See, and I was the difference. Once I, I never had come, but once I got it, it took me to another place I wasn't prepared to be. You know, it took you to that stratosphere where it appeared to be like, you might even be better than some people. And then, like I said, you get to look at yourself

from a different perspective. You appear to be surpassing people, but you don't like yourself. The more success you receive, the more conflict you have within. And I never understood that. And I was always a glutton for more and more. I was always taught, crush the world to your feet more and more and more. And as I got older, I realized when I didn't have it, I wanted, but now that I have it, I don't want it anymore. You know, so I had to understand this. Someone has to manage your life because you're not quite qualified to manage your life.

I ran into some beautiful people that came from the experience of meeting my wife and life has changed for me so drastically. We would never have done that if I wasn't married to this woman. All right. We're going to talk about your awesome wife, Kiki of 14 years, a little bit. But let's talk about money. And I do want to talk about the motivation of money to our future. So

many people I know are motivated by money and they hate what they do. A lot of my lawyer friends for example. I'm very unable to do that. If I don't like what I'm doing I'm unable to get any work out of me. So how what's your advice to people in general where money is their greatest motivator of success. Really? Whoever believe a lot of fame and money is gonna make them happy, the people who believe that, they never had any fame or money. Really never had any fame or money

because it becomes a job now. It becomes a job to watch people, to watch characteristics, be prepared for a particular characteristic that you're looking for, for good people or bad people, people that have prepared new skiduggery on you. You become your own alarm system. You understand, you become your own system of protection.

And that's just a middle way to live. But we have to have some perspective on living in that way. I have a lot of friends who live month to month, and I have a lot of very wealthy friends. And some of the most unhappy, miserable people I know are sent to millionaires who are depressed. They're terrible parents. They travel the world.

Kids commit suicide. Kids are, they're really fucked up and they have a lot of problems, a lot of drugs. Suicide is an issue. It's sad. Listen, I'm near too. Listen, I have people at the bottom of the world I'm friends with, and I have people at the top of the world

that's friends with me. And the pain is relevant, it's the same. Right. Both people losing someone they love, they grieve the same. I don't care how much money you got, how much power you got, we both grieve the same, we both grieve the same.

And we're the same. There's some people decided money was a big part of their life. And there was nothing that was gonna stop them from getting that money. That's what it's all about. I'm the kind of guy, I learn from my mentor. You have to want to be up more than anybody in the world

wants you to be down. And that's the end. Once you feel that way, you have no major problems. Because you don't care what somebody that you don't care about say. You're listening to part two of my incredible interview with Mike Tyson, the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. If you haven't yet, listen to part one,

be sure to check that one out first. Now without further ado, here's part two of my incredible interview with Mike. A lot of people when you're successful, who you think are your friends, are not that happy for your success. No, especially if they tell you to keep doing, keep it up, don't give up,

and you do what they tell you to do and you succeed yourself. Now they inspire you, now they wanna tear you down. Isn't that ridiculous? Ridiculous. I found out that there's a friend who'd rather fight you than pay back a debt. That's what I learned. All people that you help and stuff.

Yeah. And they believe they have to pay you back, they'll find some way to fight you, have some altercation with you where your guys wouldn't talk to you and you would not want to talk to them and see them get your money back. Right. But I look at that from a different perspective. If I was capable of helping somebody and they want to help be residual and help me back, I gave them that money and I can never talk to them again. They can never

talk to me, come around me again. And so I paid for really a bad juncture in my life and I don't have to deal with it anymore. You already mentioned you had gone to prison from... Yeah. You were sentenced to six years. You did three years. You called it the three best, most valuable years. How is prison the three- Well, listen to this. It started at 63 and then went down to three. I got 60 years, wiped out the books.

But the really situation was that everything in life is psychological. Being able to be adaptable and being able to just have the confidence to believe that you know you're going to survive this. Life is all about confidence. Confidence breeds success. Success breeds confidence. And when confidence isn't applied properly, it will supersede the genius. There's nothing more powerful in this world than confidence in a person whose time has come. When that happens, you're almost in God's status.

But how was prison the three best years of your life? What did it do to make you a better person? It gave me a perspective. It gave me more than that peace. I had no trouble, I didn't have the altercation, no fight. Everything went well for me in prison. Everything was almost perfect. I lived great there, I ate great there.

I was treated, yeah, I was treated with privilege there, but I came everybody to respect. The first year I was there, I was an F, you know? I think, hey, everybody here deserves to be down on me. I'm the man here. And then I had to get a couple of visits to isolation. And after I had that miserable year, I started getting the hang of it.

I started, became a trustee, everybody respect me, and everybody liked me. My first one day I was a jerk, nobody liked me. Next thing you know, I had, they had put another year on me for fighting with the guards and cursing everybody. I just being uncomfortable person in prison. Because I felt that I was wrong.

I don't deserve, all these people deserve to be here, but accept me. And then I realized that we're living life on life terms. I should be as grateful that I'm still living. I did only three years. There were guys in there that did my time 10 times. They did 30 years. They did 30 years.

And when I said I had to be, I was sad. They said, what's wrong with you? I did your time three times already. You know, what are you worried about? I had 30 years and when I said I had to leave, I was sad. They said, what's wrong with you? I did your time three times already. What are you worried about? I had 30 years, I'm not depressed. We have to live with life on life terms. And that's when I understood who the hell am I? I'm nobody.

And I realized that some people are so great from society's perspective, that they hold you up so high, only one that can take you down is you, because this is the feeling, right? You gotta tear yourself down, because what's more, just as powerful building yourself up is just as equally powerful

as tearing yourself down. So that's a rush, too. I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but before we jump back in, I wanna know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach a nice level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly a hundred, including

Google lift and Seagate, and I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than 15 billion dollars. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey and at this stage in my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. In my own journey, I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals. I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs

who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions, and if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video. When people go to prison, you're kind of the new guy

in there and you got to fight to establish respect with some of the other prisoners. Were you a target and said, all right, I want to beat up Mike Tyson, the heavyweight champion of the world? I don't know how to say it. everybody loved me. Any problem that happened in prison was because of my ignorance, because I felt I shouldn't be there, and I was better, these guys are criminals, and I'm not the real criminals. And we have to know that we're just here for a moment in time,

we're just passing through, no one's better than anyone else. Some people may have better opportunities, but we're just all gods, creatures, big and small. When you're there, you knew you were gonna fight again in your training every day. You're running nine miles a day in prison around the yard, including four miles a day in your prison cell, running around and around.

And you're doing so many jumps, you said that you dented the concrete floor. Listen, I never saw that. The prisoners and the administration saw that it wasn't even anymore. I would do it every day, run in place. Neck is in place, running. That's just what I wanted to do. I wanted to be the best in where I knew I was going to fight.

I wanted to look the best. Most of my career fighting was just based on my ego. I had to determine, they all stemmed from my ego. I was thinking nobody's ever gonna pick on me again. They got those cold weak moments when people abused me. See, it's never gonna happen again. You went in at 285 and you came out at 215. You're a lean, mean fighting machine.

Yes. I never went to the cafeteria. I always had great food. My girlfriend at the time always sent food over, sent money to certain people and they would go out, bring the food in for me. We always had great smorgasbord in prison. Let's talk about Evander Holyfield. Oh yeah, he works with us now.

Yeah, we're going to talk about, I know your partners. It's an incredible story. So you had a first fight with him back in November 9th, 1996. You had the rematch June 28th, 1997, and it was called the Sound and the Fury, and then it was known as the Bite Fight. So can you walk us through, I saw that fight on pay-per-view.

I'm a huge fan of yours and I've seen a bunch of your fights, but it was surprising to watch that. Can you just explain what you were thinking and what happened there? Listen, I was in the ring fighting him and I noticed the first time, something happened, he didn't hit me, but I was dizzy about something. I don't know, maybe I thought he hit me, but then when I watched the fight, it was because he was head butting me. I was running to his head most of the time. The second fight, it started happening again. My head was busted. And I was just I was in desperation. The referee and I just got frustrated.

And disqualified? Yeah. He was kicking my ass a little too. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about probably the greatest upset in sports history. Your fighting Buster Douglas is a 42 to 1 underdog and you lost that fight. How did you lose the fight? And talk about kind of the habits you were doing before the fight and what you learned from that fight. You know, regardless of that, I was just living ridiculously. He had fought a great fight and he deserved to be champion at that time. He deserved to be a champion. There was no excuses. You learned at some point when you lost the fight that

the pressure was now off and you are not disappointed. You were actually happy it happened because you learned lessons from those. What did you learn from that? That was the Buster Douglas fight. I learned that losing wasn't all as bad as it made out to be. That's what I realized about that. It's not, you know, losing's not as bad as people think it is.

You know what I mean? So what I cleaned myself up. I fought four more times, you made a fight again for the title and I got myself in trouble. I never once said this after the fight, it's over, I'm not gonna do this no more. Only after he had said that

and I won my title back in six months. Never in a million years I said that it's over, I'm never going to win the title again, my life is over, my career is over. I knew from my experience and from watching fighters and talking to old fighters before in the 20s, like when I was fighting in the 80s. And they would just tell me, Mike, man,

I know a great fighter like you, and I go, listen, this moral discourages you. And I just never got discouraged in my life. After certain things, as a being a kid, I just realized I'm not being discouraged anymore. I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but before we jump back in, discouraged anymore. and I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than 15 billion dollars. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey and at this stage in my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster

than I did. In my own journey, I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals. I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others and I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions and if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video. Lots of people when they have a lot of success, they have

Lots of people, when they have a lot of success, they have some knockdowns. They get fired from jobs once, twice, three times. They give up. What's your message to all those people who experience great disappointment if they should keep going? Well, I'll explain that with a story. Okay. You know, Don King was my promoter. Of course, there's some understood some society that he stole money

and did some stuff that, you know, it's in the past, he did some real. And so he expect me to be undoped, cause I was undoped for a while, expect me to stay in jail, I was arrested for a while after I lost everything, I got in trouble. And then things have changed.

My wife, I married my wife, we wrote this one man show and went insane. We went all over the world, performed all over the world. We performed in countries that couldn't speak our language and they had an interpreter. And plus I had other success. Plus I got this boxing success. Then I have this, a pair, my clothes and everything.

And then I have this boxing, Tyson Sports pretty much, and have the best boxing equipment in the world. And I go from all this, right, from being such a despot drug user, alcoholic, and I go through all this transformation, forms of redemption, so to speak. And know what happened? Don King is my neighbor now. But he never in a million years thought I'd be this close to him again. You know, now he's my neighbor. So what's that mean? I can walk to his house.

He has to see me till the day he dies. I don't look at life like, hey, I'm envious, I'm mad that people have grudges. No, because life is, it's all been written. Soon as eternity started, everything's been written, it happened already. That's when he said, let there be light, because he wrote our life in the dark.

And so whatever happens is meant to happen. It was written. You ever watch Lawrence of Arabia? I've never seen it. My kids are horrified right now. But since you're saying it to me, I promise you I'm gonna watch it. What a movie.

Because one of the movies of this guy, this one gentleman wanted to help. And the other guy said, you're wasting your time, it was written that this guy is gonna die and he's not gonna live long. And the guy was right, it was written. You could tell by somebody's character if they don't redeem themselves,

then the future's already destined, it was written. You could tell by somebody's character, if they don't redeem themselves, then the future's already destined, if they're written already. Like once our old boxing friend of mine met me the other day and said, we never had a million years believe that you'd still be alive. Because I lived that kind of life. I didn't have any hope in life,

even though I had a lot of materialism, I never had hope for a better life. And now that I have hope for a better life, you know, adversities don't stop but we just handle them differently and from a positive perspective as well. You're a famous athlete. People come up and take pictures with you. Some athletes like it to a point, some don't. You're with your family. Hey, don't take my photo. At some point, this 12-year-old kid comes up to you and later in life, you wanna learn something about the music business.

So you call this amazing guy named Rodney Jerkins and he said, I know who you are. For those people who don't know Rodney is, who goes by The Dark Child, is one of the most successful music producers of all time. Yes, yes. Has worked with everybody you can ever imagine. Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Rihanna, everybody.

And everyone just dying to work with him. So you call him up. I think you were living in Maryland at the time. And you said, I wanna come see you the next day. And Rodney says, hey, Mike Tyson, call me up. Come on over. He drove over in a black Rolls Royce. And Rodney is known to be this incredibly nice,

thoughtful, logical guy who is a great friend. Very logical, that's a good word, very logical. And he's counseled a lot of people throughout hard times, Justin Bieber and a whole bunch of people. So you go over there, you spend time with him, you guys become great friends. At some point, you wanna fight Lennox Lewis, but you don't really wanna fight him. So Rodney's kinda coaching you.

Can you tell us how you popped him in the chin? And can you also tell us what his friendship means to you? Hey, listen, what time is it? I always pop Rodney's chin every now and then. But listen, Rodney is just the sweetest guy in the world. You know, people, you know, of course you have to have that tough exterior in the music business, but he's one of the most beautiful person in the world.

I'm so grateful to be friends with his family. He's friends with my family. And it's hard to pretty much, how do you define his friendship is just, total love. What does he mean to you? How big of an influence has Rodney had on your life? Rodney is one of my best friends. He's one of my best friends, most famous person.

When I say famous, I don't mean from a star perspective. Of yes, famous as far as a friend's perspective, one of my famous people. When I say famous, I mean that as one of my famous people. Not no celebrity. Yeah, well shout out to Rodney for bringing us together. Dark Child. Listen, listen, I'm in Dubai

and I'm talking about Rodney Juergens. Rodney Juergens, this guy doesn't know who the hell is Rodney Juergens, this guy in Dubai. I said, come on, Rodney Juergens, he dealt with this guy. And then my friend that's there, he said, hey, Dark Child. He said, oh yeah, I know Dark Child, but they didn't know his name. They only know him by Dark Child.

You gotta have a branding in the music business, so they branded him Dark Child. But I'm saying his name, I'm thinking these people know who he is. Wow, Rodney's not known out here, but once my friend said Dark Child, yeah, Dark Child. He's a legend. And once again, shout out to Rodney for setting us up.

I really appreciate it. He's become a good friend in a short amount of time. Oh, he's beautiful. You see again, shout out to Rodney for setting us up. I really appreciate it. He's become a good friend in a short amount of time. Oh, he's beautiful. You see nothing in him but Godly soul. If it's not God's work, he's not doing it. One of the things that's one of my favorite topics that's made me successful among a lot of hard work is something called what I call extreme preparation.

So I'm talking about the kind of preparation that's not normal preparation. I'm talking about the kind of preparation that's not normal preparation. I'm talking about when someone spends one hour on something, I may spend five or 10, or someone were making a presentation to a company, they may spend 10 and I may spend 40. How important has extreme preparation been in your success? It's not for everyone.

That's why it's called extreme, not everyone's extreme. Some people are balanced. My extreme preparation comes from fear. Every part of success comes from fear. Return the fear into happiness, but it comes from the fear of failing. It's not something everybody has everything riding on you. It's the fear of letting everyone down, letting yourself down. That's how it comes.

Some people would rather die than let people down, let yourself down. That's how come some people would rather die than, you know what I mean, let people now let themselves down. It's just a feeling that, I don't know why from that desperation, it's just feeling if I don't succeed, I don't want to exist. You know, people we have been, that's the extreme.

It's guys like Muhammad Ali, they rather, you gotta beat them to death, they're not gonna give up. If the referee don't stop the fight, if the corner don't stop the fight, beat them to death, they're not gonna give up. If the referee don't stop the fight, if the corner don't stop the fight, you gotta kill them, he's not gonna give up. He says, he's not gonna give up, quit. And that's the mindset that I believe I have. One of the greatest quotes of many that you have

is everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Listen, I hear that sportscasters, commentators, politicians, everybody. And I was saying, somebody said that became one of the most important quotes in the 21st century. And I'm saying to myself, hey, that's not even my quote. That's because the motto quote. I said, if he was hearing that, he would laugh to death if somebody took him that serious. But- Is it true?

Yeah. He was here now, he would laugh to death if somebody took him that serious. But um... Is it true? Yeah, everyone has a plan until they get hit or they find some kind of um, adversity in their presence. Let's talk about life after boxing. You were addicted to drugs. No, listen, let's start. You're not starting.

As life after boxing, I was totally broke after I finished boxing. Totally what? Five million or six million dollars? But that's totally broke to me at that particular time. I didn't know what I was gonna do. Didn't care so I really indulged myself in what? In my discouragement, my fears, my, I don't know, I just felt like my life was a waste and all that crap. And I did a lot of drugs, I did a lot of liquor, I did a lot of, I became a glut and I ate food, I was like 330, you know, 380, 360, something to that sec. And then I decided to call my wife,

who wasn't my wife at the time, and see what I could suck out of her or something. And she came, she saw my condition. She never saw me like that before, but before she came to see me, friends of ours were saying, have you seen Mike lately? He's a mess.

And so she saw me, I was on medication then. Maybe now and then I might, now I don't think I'm gonna cook him, I mean, yes I was. And so she saw me, I was a mess. I don't know why she even got involved with my life. She had some adversity as well, but my stuff was just nasty, dirty.

I had nothing. I can't believe I still had a house with nice cars. They didn't come and get this stuff. I mean, I'm saying, wow, what's happening here? I'm ready to go to my friend's house or do some creepy stuff. And my wife, she had came in single-handedly and said, hey, I'm gonna clean this mess up.

She was really diligent on really allowing me to be respected with human being in society. And so I'm really grateful and appreciative about that because it was just before we were coming here, said we would get ready to go in a totally different direction till we got it together. And no one else helped as much. I had a young, we had a young daughter named Alon,

19, 2009, and that changed the whole game pretty much. We were working, succeeding, and giving her a great life. I wanna talk about a huge pivot in your life. You discovered cannabis at some point. It's changed your life. It's brought you a lot of peace. And I want you to talk about that, how you discovered it. And I want you to talk about your toad experience and what that was like.

So the cannabis, right? I've always smoked my whole life since a kid. I had no idea. I've been arrested for it before. I got in trouble before, illegally. Someone came to me to have open up a cannabis. I had no idea what to do, how to, I had no idea what was going on. So we got involved with these people. We partnered with them.

It didn't turn out well. They didn't manage to finance and all that stuff, right? So we ran into some, my brother-in-law got invited and introduced us to some other people. And these people were, we made more money in a year than I did four years with the other company. And so this seemed like to be the right ticket. And that's, my brother-in-law allowed these people

to explain what they were capable of doing. It seemed like a no brainer and it wasn't a no brainer. And when we're in over a hundred thousand stores, we're the biggest cannabis company in the country, it's not the world and it's not yet, it will be. And that's just, it took the whole world by surprise. It even got me a part show like you have, podcast. And so my podcast is hot boxing,

because you know, we're on the boxing, we're smoking and it's hot. So that's been in my podcast and it's been very successful. And people are allowed to drink and smoke on the show. Talk about what the actual CBD has done to you as a person and your mood and your calmness and made you- Hey, let me explain something to you. This is gonna be funny. I've all those fights. I had only smoked

Pop once I never smoked pop my whole fighting career boys once And I wish I did I wish I wasn't sober during my fighting career Why cuz I was sure smoking cannabis I was drinking like a fish liquor, but I was more cannabis I, I was drinking like a fish, liquor, but if I was smoking cannabis, I think I would have been a better fighter. Most people would think the opposite of that is true. It slows you down. People, you see these signs on the highway, smoking if you're high, you're drunk.

A little smoking is too high, it feels like that. A little high is too high, they say. But listen, we're not talking about being high, we're talking about elevating ourselves. The word high comes from, see people get language wrong. The word high doesn't mean, oh I'm high, it means your high is form of thinking. And that's what high means.

Doesn't mean, oh I'm high, I'm out of control. How were you making money at that point? Listen, at that point, England didn't have that ruling in Nicaragua, so I made my money in Europe, most of my money I had to make in Europe. You said that the high point in your life is that when you have a willingness to die, I think just the opposite.

I don't wanna die, but you've been quoted as saying that. Is that a high point of your life? This is what I found out since I've been involved with psychedelics. And I don't know if cannabis is in that same category. And I'm starting to realize, why did God create this stuff? How could God know that this stuff attacks a certain part of your brain to make you see certain images?

And as time goes on, I've been doing this for a few years. that this stuff attacks a certain part of your brain to make you see certain images. And as time goes, I've been doing this for a few years, and it's about preparing you for death. So all this is about, all the psychedelics, all that stuff, that's what it's all about. Even liquor, from a perspective, it's all about preparing you for death, for you to die with dignity.

And oh God, no, please don't do that, I don't want to die. No, that's not what it's about, it's about accepting death, for you could die with dignity. Oh God, no, please don't do that, I don't want to die. No, that's not what it's about, it's about accepting death because if death is not great, then how can life be great? If life is not great, how could death be great? They go hand in hand, they're related to each other. Without one, they won't be the other. How do you define success? Success, success comes in many forms.

It's not necessarily finance. Success is not drinking anymore. That's a form of success. Not cheating on your wife. Success has so many different perspectives. When I think of success, I think about money. I think about happiness. And I believe that's what success is. Happiness, your perspective on happiness. What are the ingredients of success? It's your perspective on ingredients. What are the ingredients of success? It's your perspective on ingredients. How does success work for you?

Success works for me is when I'm in a competitive mood and I don't think no one's gonna beat me. And that's just in life, not from a physical perspective, but just in a competitive perspective. I was born to compete, that's just all I do. I'm just a game for competition. If it's fighting, if it's cannabis, if it's entrepreneurship, whatever it is,

I wanna fight you. I wanna break, whatever system that is, fighting, I wanna crush you to my feet. What motivates Mike Tyson today? I'm just thinking of my children. It's making sure not necessarily that I'm gonna give them a great life. I wanna give them a great perspective on my life

or on life period. I don't know if people, I might be scared to die. I don't know, but I know I don't cling to life. I don't want to be here if certain people are not here. You've got young kids. Yeah. What's your advice to a young 18 year old boxer and more generally to an 18 year old in general,

male or female? Just to know, I learned this from Billie Jean King. I heard her say this. Just to know this, whenever you want to be the best in the world, and I'm talking about a bug collector, garbage can collector, a boxer, a watch collector, you know, anything, a lawyer, whenever you're prepared to be the best in the world

in anything, you have to be prepared for disappointment. Because you're gonna be disappointed. You're gonna be discouraged. And you have to prepare that's gonna happen and not to give up. Never give up. Fight to your last breath. Never, never, never give up.

You have a great family. We talk about your wife, Kiki. 14 years together. You have a great family. We talk about your wife, Kiki. 14 years together. You have two kids together. You have seven kids total. You moved to Florida because you have... My daughter plays tennis. She plays tennis.

My son plays golf. They told me this is the place to be for that stuff. They want to be professional. At least my daughter does. That's amazing that you did. That shows what kind of parent you are, what kind of family you are. Talk about what it is like to have Mike Tyson as your dad,

and then talk about the work-life balance. Well, it depends on what particular area you caught me in. As I'm younger, I'm not as good of a father. In my 20s and 30s, as I am in my late 40s and 50s, middle 50s. It just changed, the perspective changed. The selfishness evaporates a little and you're selfless. And that's when life becomes better because that's what true self-love is,

loving other people. I always thought self-love was me buying the big magic, buying the beautiful cars, fancy clothes, but self-love is me buying the big matches, buying the beautiful cars, fancy clothes, but self-love is helping other people. Give them what you want and give it to someone else. We talked a little bit before the show about our kids. We live for our kids. What's your advice to all the successful people out there

who don't spend enough time with their kids and look back and say- Well, listen, whatever you do with your kids is gonna pay off. If you spend time with them, that's dividends that you're not gonna have a good relationship with them. If you spend a lot of time with them,

that's dividends that, good stuff is gonna happen to you. You know, it's just about what you wanna put that time in and what you wanna get out of from that time. I want total respect for my kids because I give them total respect. You know, we can't, we can lie to the people outside of our house, but we can't lie to the people in our house. They

watch us every day. They watch us when we're not having our, I don't know, when we don't have our face up. It's hard to say. They see us at our best and they see us at our worst. So when people have, you know, tricky relationships with their children because their children see things they did that the people in the streets never did or their friends. So that's like, children have a different relationship with their parents than they do with certain other people. They don't look at, listen,

my kids don't look at me like they see everybody in the world. My sons like, everybody's kissing your ass. Nobody's kissing my ass. They're showing the respect that I'm giving them. Kids are interesting. Kids are interesting. I had a real, I had a challenge with my kids. They haven't trust me again and had, you know,

must have self-respect. Now we used to have, my family came over last night. One of my oldest son, my middle daughter, her girlfriend and their mother. And it was just, it was just like family. It's just, that's the best part of my life. When we're all together. Matter of fact, what makes me happy? Well, every one of my kids are together in one place. That's the best part of my life. When we're all together. Matter of fact, what makes me happy?

Every one of my kids are together in one place. That's my happiness. Everyone, they have to be together in one place and this vibe of each other. That's what I'm at my best. Tell us about the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation and how important is giving back in search of excellence? Mike Tyson, I'm found that there's just such a rare thing

that's done that I probably can't even express. But you know, what we do, we help the family in search of alcoholism. Mike Tyson, I'm found that there's just such a rare thing that's done that I probably can't even express, but what we do, we help the family that's dealing with domestic violence and they don't wanna go home because they have to go home to this over-poverizing person. So we have facilities for them. We're in a position where we can help the kids

with scholastic equipment, books, pencils, even teachers. And it's just, like I was saying, it's such a rare thing to have a charity perspective. I don't even know all of them, but it's just, man, it's just a rare beautiful stuff that my family and my team is doing. What's next in your future? Sky's the limit, man.

Anything's capable of happening but keep giving affirmations to God. I want to ask you some fill in the blank questions as we end today. Okay. Ten years from now I want to be doing whatever I want. I want to be my family. We'll all be together. I don't want to live far from one another. I just want to celebrate and in my life doing that. That'll be my family trying to prevent any altercations from us and hopefully that when we're all said and done we loved each other before we died and there was no kind of interventions or fights or anything and everybody loved each other.

You know there's some parents there's some families that die not loving each other. You know don't even want them at their deathbed. The biggest accomplishment in my life is? I think marrying my wife and having my kids. My biggest regret in life is? Sex partners. The one thing I've always wanted to do in my life that I haven't done is? Nothing. With dying, that's all.

I don't look at life from that perspective. I look at life as just enjoying every great moment with everybody you love, because life is just a blink of the eye and it's over. We can't even anticipate our next breath. You know, I look at life from that perspective too. Life is beautiful, death is beautiful. I was looking at the story of Buddha.

I was young, it's going through, and I had no idea that his purpose, his purpose was to stop self-suffering. I had no idea somebody would wanna do that. But he realized that suffering doesn't exist. Only self-suffering exists. And I started thinking about that, and he's right, because I don't suffer most of the time.

I don't suffer when I'm doing it to myself. When your low self-esteem comes in, when you're doing so good, you say, wow, I gotta be doing so good when I don't think so good about myself. I'm one of those guys with the greatest ego with the lowest self-worth. And I don't know how that works,

but it works really good for me. The one person in the world that I'd like to meet, and I've not met yet, is? God. You know, being in the presence of what it is. I don't know, woman, man, child, baby, energy. Imagine dealing with God. My friend said I deal with God every moment of the day.

Every second of the day you're dealing with God because God is you. And we know who we are. We know without even being involved with us being like mongoloids, cavemen, we know the distance between right and wrong. We know how we feel when we do wrong. Even though we're laughing at it,

we know, even though we're evil, we know this is just not right. You just don't do that to people or the Catholic. You just don't do that. We know you just don't do that. I don't care if you're invalid, we know the difference from right and wrong. The number one person I want on my podcast

and haven't had is? I don't know. I have no idea. It's like, it's talking to people and to acting with people. I listen, I would take a guy on the street and we would have just as much fun. I'm talking about homeless guys. We would have just as much fun

than I would have had the best comedian in the world on the podcast. My podcast is all about love, dealing with reality, and not taking the world too serious. You know, I've been saying this to people that I've learned from somebody. He said that human beings take things too serious when God meant to be fun.

I always kept that idea when I get in my extreme mode. Hey, this is not meant to be complicated, this is meant to be fun. I always kept that idea when I get in my extreme mode. Hey, this is not meant to be complicated. This is meant to be fun and happy. So that keeps me in perspective. The one piece of advice I have for a 25 or 30 year old is? It's not as bad as you think. Your mind make things in life worse than it really is. Just believe in yourself

and don't let nobody knock you off your mountain. You have to believe and you have to stand firm in life. You don't have to win all your fights but you gotta fight them all. That's what I learned. You don't have to win them all but you do have to fight them all. The one question you wish I had asked but didn't is?

I wish I asked my mother, what was your life like? What did you do when you were 10, 15, 20? What did you do? I said, what did you do with your life? We never talked about my mom. I never talked to her about her family. I never knew anything about her. I learned more after she died,

but I wish I asked more questions about herself. I got to become acquainted with my father father as time went on and he told me most of the stories about him and my mother from his perspective as far as he knew her. And so that's how I knew her. If your mom were sitting here today, what would you tell her? I was saying I turned out better than we thought we were. She'd be proud. Yeah, very proud. My family had a lot of pride.. My family have a lot of pride. The Price family have a lot of pride. I'm a Price too, so we have a lot of pride.

Mike, it's an honor to have you here today. I'm super grateful for your time. I'm a huge fan of yours. You have a great story of success and redemption. One of the great stories of all time. Listen, this is what I learned from Rodney. Without no test, there's no testimony. You can't talk about your life, you never lived it.