In Search Of Excellence - Mike Tyson: From Street Fights to World Champion | E168

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

In Search of Excellence Podcast - with Randall KaplanMy guest today is Mike Tyson, a former heavyweight boxing champion of the world and one of the greatest boxers of all time!  At the age of 20, he became the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title.  He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold WBA, WBC, and IDF titles and a member of the international boxing Hall of Fame.Mike has appeared in many movies and TV shows.  He is the actor and creator of a one-man Broadway show Undisputed Truth, and the author of the best-selling book of the same name.Mike is also a very successful entrepreneur and a founder of two cannabis companies, including Tyson 2.0.  He is an incredible person and a dedicated philanthropist through his Mike Tyson’s Care foundation, and the support of other charities including The Make a Wish Foundation and The Special Olympics.00:00 Mike’s childhoodHis dad was a pimp, his mom an alcoholic and a sex industry workerHe was bullied in his childhood ("you can’t run from them, you must confront them")Started robbing people to buy food for his pigeonsA traumatic event with the birds that changed himMike's first fight and from being bullied, to being the bullyWent pick-pocketing and stealing with his friendsStarted with crime at 11, by the age of 13, he was arrested more than 37 timesThe stealing mentality - nobody else mattersHis mom encouraged him to steal (his goal was to be a professional criminal)18:13 Juvenile facilities and Mike’s first steps in boxingWatched the movie “The Greatest”, the story of Mohammed AliTransferred to Elwood CottageMike was always handcuffed in a dangerous environment Met Bobby Stewart who inspired him to finish school and started training himAt 13, Bobby wanted to take him to the next level - introduced him to Cus D'Amato21:14 Mike’s first mentor - Cus D'AmatoRelationship with Cus D’Amato (Cus taught him to never give up)Cus became a father figure for himThe time Mike first experienced loveCus saw in him the future world championWorking out for 6 hours a day while going to schoolWanted to get kicked out of school, but Cus didn’t allow thatThere is no progress without struggle (study about rats)29:32 The beginning of his fighting careerAt 18, a fight with Hector Mercedes - beat him in one roundWasn't afraid of losing, but being a bad loserMike's desire to be the world champion consumed him completelyBecame the youngest boxing champion everHis mother’s reaction - never got affirmed by her34:47 From millions of dollars to bankruptcyStarted making millions of dollars (became highest paid athlete in the world)Went bankrupt being reckless, didn’t know how to manage money as a street kidBeing rich and going broke multiple timesFame and money won’t make you happyBecome your own alarm systemThe pain is the same at the top and the bottom of the worldListen to this episode on the go!🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-search-of-excellence/id1579184310 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/23q0XICUDIchVrkXBR0i6LFollow 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/1-on-1 Coaching: https://Coaching and Staying Connected:1-on-1 Coaching | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn

Whoever believes a lot of fame and money is going to make them happy, they never had any fame or money. Whenever you're prepared to be the best in the world at anything, you have to be prepared for disappointment. Because you're going to be disappointed. You're going to be discouraged. You have to prepare that's going to happen and not to give up. Never give up. Fight to your last breath. Never, never, never give up. Success comes in many forms. Success is not drinking with your wife, not cheating on your wife. Success has so many different perspectives. What's your advice to all the successful people out there who don't spend enough time with their kids?

Whatever you do with your kids, it's going to pay off. If you spend a lot of time in this difference, good stuff is going to happen to you. It's just about what you want to put that time in and what you want to get out of from that time. You don't have to win all your fights, but you got to fight them all. That's why I learned. You don't have to win them all, but you do have to fight them all. Listen, you know, this is why I learned from Brighton. Without no test, there's no testimony. You can't talk about your life. You never lived it. 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, 4 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. 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. I always start my podcast with family because our family helps shape our personality, our values and the preparation for our future.

You had a crazy life. Yeah, could be crazy, yeah. So you had a crazy childhood growing up. Your dad was a pimp. Yes. And your mother was a drug addict and helped with him in the sex industry. And when you were one year old,

your parents used alcohol and drugs sometimes to put you to sleep. Absolutely. Marijuana. Marijuana at one years old. So take us through the first five years of your life. I think a lot of us remember what we were like in kindergarten.

We're gonna get into your later childhood right after that. But through five years old, did you realize what kind of life you were living? I had a really middle-class life when I was five years old. My life comes across like I started in the pits of Brownsville, but maybe I let people on the believer, but that's really not what happened.

I remember us living in the Brownstone and we had, his name was Arthur, he was our landlord. He lived there, Jewish, older man. And I had a really decent life until I guess my mother, she made a bad business decision with a man and lost all of her money and stuff. And then I think that's when we moved to Brownsville and then life became so much challenging then.

It was a high crime neighborhood? Big time, high crime, high drugs, high everything. It's everything, just the city and Brooklyn, even now, but you just don't wanna be there if you don't know anyone. When you were younger, you were bullied. Big time, yes, big time. You had a lisp. Yes.

You had bad acne. Yes, yes, overweight. You have a high pitched voice. Overweight. And you were chubby. Yeah. So tell us. And I wore glasses.

And you wore glasses. Yeah. So an unattractive kid, and that's the kind of kid that people bully. So how did being bullied influence your future? What were you thinking at the time? A lot of bullies, and this happened to me when I was bullied, I said, I don't want to be bullied anymore,

and I'm going to make it in life. It helped motivate me to be successful in life. I never thought that. I used to think that I'm going to try to avoid these guys on my life. I never knew that they don't go anywhere. You can't escape these guys unless you confront them. That's what I learned at a young age.

You can't run from them, you gotta confront them. How old were you when you were bullied for the first time? As early as I could meet, as conscious as I'm in, as far as intermingling with people, like going and seeing people at schools, yeah. Probably eight years old when I started getting involved with school, going to school. They always picked on me in school,

kicked the shit out of me. It's hard to believe that someone kicked the shit out of you. No, listen, when I see these mean, bad, savage guys in the streets, I understand, I get it. I get something to happen. And returning to those people. And at that point, would you come home crying to your mom?

All the time. What would your mom tell you? Oh, don't worry, it's gonna stop. You don't have to fight them back now. You can do it. My mother, yes, was nonviolent. She didn't believe in fighting and stuff. She believed in taking care,

make sure the kids avoid reality life. But it wasn't like that. You had to confront your demons. Right. 20% of kids in high school between the ages of 13 and 18 are bullied, it's a national pandemic. By the time I'm 13, I'm never bullied again.

Everybody's, all the tough guys are my buddies, they were my friends. And by the time I was 13, I knew all the gangs guys, everybody knew me, we all cropped together. That's just how the life was. It was like a bizarro world. Like all the bad was really good, and all the good was really bad.

The respectable people were bad, and the criminal guys were good, and that's how it was in that world. If you weren't involved with crime, you weren't our friend, you're the enemy. That's how it was. You're listening to part one of my incredible interview with Mike Tyson, the greatest heavyweight

boxer of all time. Be sure to check out part two next week. Now, without further ado, here's part one of my incredible interview with Mike. At some point, you're 10 years old. Yeah. And you love pigeons. You were an unhappy kid. Pigeon was the first thing that you loved in life.

100%. Listen, I've gotten involved with pigeons from being bullied. I'm walking, in my school you have lunch and you have breakfast. So I go and I eat breakfast and then I lead the school, walk around the school, kill time, until lunchtime comes, which is probably 11 to 12 o'clock. So I go there, I eat lunch,

and then I wait to school until then I can go back home. One time I had eaten lunch and after that process of eating lunch, I was walking around the school as I normally do, and I saw three guys. And then they started to sell me and say, hey, you have any money? I said, no. And they said, if I find any money, I'm going to kick your, you know what? And I let them check me.

And he said, yo, you want to fly with us? And I had no idea what flying meant. And so he said, I said, yeah. I was scared. And so I climbed this fence and he said, give me those milk crates. I'm throwing them milk crates. I don't know why he wants these milk crates, this tough kind of street guy. We're taking these milk crates in this abandoned building. I'm getting really nervous. I don't know these guys and they're trying to get me in this abandoned building. And he said, get up there. And I was scared. I went up this stairs, second, third floor

and I climbed to the roof. And they went up first and then I started passing in the crate. Then I went up there and I saw this little couple box with a little fence, net fence. I saw birds. I was like, wow, these guys like birds? I thought these guys were, well, they were horrible.

But I thought these guys like birds. These kind of guys like birds? And I was impressed with wow, these guys like birds? I thought these guys were, well, they were horrible. But I thought these guys like birds, these kind of guys like birds? And I was impressed with those kinds of guys because nobody messed with those guys. Their brothers were tough and they always got respect in the street. And so I was there, I don't know, they go for, go to store for me. Give me some tea, give me some food, give me some cake, milk, this. The birds were, I didn't know at the time, but the birds they had was really out of condition, so they fly for like 10 minutes, then they land on somebody. Look over there, shoot, and you scare the birds. I'm going to fly the birds. They come in the roof, you scare them off.

And so that's the stuff I did for them. And so after they kept me captured, and it was school, they let me go home. And I definitely, that whole day, I was just thinking about these birds and these guys. And so the next day come. I go eat breakfast, and I go to the about these birds and these guys. And so the next day come, I go eat breakfast and I go to the coop that they had me at. And soon as I come to the coop, they see me from the roof and they start throwing bricks at me.

Trump still our birds mother effing this and that. I said, no, I just came by to know if any of your guys need me to do anything, go to the store for you or something. And from that day on, I was stuck with birds. I think you had a neighbor and a bully and he did something really bad to the bird. No, no. Once I started getting involved, this is a year now,

a year has passed. Now I am robbing people for the money to buy birds and bird feed. And I had my birds hidden in an abandoned building that happened, my family happened to live in. And I showed somebody the birds I bought with the money that I had stolen. And he went back and told those guys I had a bunch of birds and they came. He set me up to get robbed by the birds. And so those guys came in the room and tried to snatch my birds. And my mother came up, hey Austin, what you're doing? And they ran.

But one guy ran. Before he ran, he took a bird and put it under his shirt and took off, ran between my mother. And I was chasing him. I don't know why I was chasing him. I knew, I don't know why. He starts, hey, please give me my bird. And he stopped and said, all the words he said, I can't even tell you,

he said to me, but he said, you want this bird, you're fat. And my mama, mama, mama, and took the bird, he hit me with the bird's body, then hit me with the head. And one of the guys who used to bully me too, he always bullies me too, but he said, you better fight him. He was mad, even though that was his friend that did that. He felt a little bit of being assaulted by me, ripping the bird. They love birds too. He took the bird, hit me with the body, hit me with the head, called me fat and stupid

and all that stuff, and I fought him. There's blood on your shirt. On my face. Yeah, your face. Just splattered all over the place. Yeah, when he took the head, the blood is shooting and hit me with the bird. It's traumatic even to see it,

and how it pisses you off. That's the first time I ever saw that. I never saw nobody snatch the bird head off because it was my first time. And so my friend told me to fight him and it was sloppy but I started fighting him and I kind of dropped him and he fell on the floor. Not necessarily in the face but it slipped but it looked like I hit him and the guy that came there to rob my bird, they all started applauding and clapping and laughing. The guy was bigger than you?

Yeah, he was like 14, 13. And you were 10? Probably 10, 11, yeah. And what was the feeling when you hit a guy for the first time? I couldn't wait to go home and tell people that I had a fight, but they knew they'd seen the fight. People started coming around and everybody started talking,

wow, man, you did this, you did that, man. You kicked such and such. And then I used to start watching my friend's box playing around and that's when I wanted to be like that kind of tough guy and know how to fight the kind of guy in the streets, nobody mess with me. I could wear my jewelry, my fancy clothes and no one would take them from me. Did the bullying stop after that first fight because everyone knew you could? Absolutely but then the bullying started with me. I started bullying people.

That was the norm. You became, you were bullied and then you became a bully. That's what happened to bullied people. Hurt people hurt people. And so at that point you started getting in more fights and beating people up? Tons of fights, man. I must have had three fights a day.

You would start them? Huh? You would start the fight. Well, if I'm on the bus and I'm trying to pickpocket you and you see, and I don't know you have a friend with you on the bus or a family member and the family member sees me but you don't and the family member just comes up and hits you. Boom!

He's in your pocket and he explains to his partner, he's in your pocket. And so I'm fighting on the bus. I'm getting my butt kicked on the bus because they jumped me and they kicked my, I'm only like 12, 13 but I'm a big kid. I probably, I look like this at 13. And if I'm fighting both of them. And so I get off the bus, but I snatch his chain before I get off the bus,

stuff like that. And we were just very notorious. So we would get on a bus or something, a train, and the conductor would say to the bus driver, hey everyone, some young people got on the bus and they're jostled, they're pickpockets, watch your pockets. When we get on the bus, we're so, wow, he said that, so we get on the bus and they jostled, they pickpocketed, watch your pocket. When we got on the bus, we're so,

oh wow, he said that so we get off the bus. And it was just a struggle every day. Sometimes I go out with three friends, four friends, early in the morning start robbing and stealing. Some of them might get killed. We all don't come home together. That's just our life as really poor kids in New York City. What was the first time you committed a crime?

You said you were pickpocketing people, and what made you do it? Because that was the norm for everyone I was hanging around. These kids, they live in these low income houses, but they dress, you'd think these guys are from prep school. They got the glasses, they got the collagens, they got the diamond watches,

and they was up on all the fashion designs of the day. They wore clothes, Jordache and all that stuff. They just, that soon they were just into the dressing scene. And I wanted to be like that because one day I went hanging out with them because I'm flying the birds. I'm on the roof of them birds and you get bird shit on you because you cleaning the bird coop, you get tar on you because you're trying to tar the coop for you know, rain and snow get involved.

And you look like a mess. You look, you know, shit on your face. And they say, come on, we're going to the center, the jam. And I never, I was too young. I didn't understand you had to wash first, go home and wash and do all that stuff then come out. I used to, we stayed dirty and funky all day because everybody liked them when we were on the roof and we were looking dirty and people would come by

all hugging, hey, we're going out tonight. I didn't know you had to go home, change, get fly. And I went to the center where they were jamming and they saw me and they all saw me laughing and I saw them crying. I didn't know about, I had to take showers and dress and get the feathers out my hair You know, I had no idea about that kind of lifestyle hygiene and after that that never happened again

I always went shopping bought the best clothes and I was just so I'm over that I'm so self-conscious about my parents Hope you're enjoying this video so far But before we jump back in, I want to 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 100, including Google lift and Seagate, and I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than $15 billion.

I've been incredibly blessed in my journey. And at this stage in my life, I wanna give back. I wanna 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 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. So, how old were you the first time you robbed somebody and then did the crimes keep? Probably 11.

11? Yeah, but I got away, I got arrested a lot, but I got away a lot too. A lot of people say, hey, the kid let him go. Right. So by the time you're 13 years old, you were arrested 37 times. Probably more. I just put 37 out there and then robbed a lot of people, probably more. So I would get arrested a lot, but they would let me go, the cops too.

Why? Why would they let you go? Well, I was a kid, you know I mean first they throw the tough guy big and then they saw my agent thing 12 Well, and then they let me go it's not like it is now then you can get tenure cops will lock you up might kill you And it's just a whole different story But and they and once sometimes they bring me to my my mother would just assault me right in front of them. And they would just laugh, the cops would just laugh, watch my mother kick my butt.

I mean, I was wondering about your mom. What would she say when you came home with the jewelry that she knows you didn't earn or pay for? She wanted some too. And I would come with their money, I would give money, because I would steal money from my friends too in the house. I used to be the really, I don't know, encourageable young kid.

I had no respect for anybody, I was stealing anybody's money. Nobody's pain meant anything to me, because that's what I've learned in the streets. Everybody else means nothing if it doesn't have anything to do with your survival. So most parents, when they come home, they know their kid's a crime, they're... I say we cut off welfare.

We have no way of getting any kind of money. Right. You know what I mean? If you sell your body, but maybe you get too old to do that too. So you have no money, you're not on welfare because you got men in your house and everybody's watching these men coming in

and out of your house. And your son, he's 12 years old, but he comes home with $5,000 or 1,500 bucks, something like that. And you're not gonna take any money when he said, hey, man, look at this or something like this. And when my mother took some of the money, and I would come back later and say,

hey, man, you owe me what, 500 bucks, 200 bucks, whatever like that. She said, you owe me your life. You're not gonna get nothing back. And I understood that back then, you know, then that's just the way it is. I never understood family. I never understood anybody was just criminals.

That's the way I come from, everybody is trying to hustle. No one had a nice family that you said one day, I want to be like that or emulate, I wish I had what they had. Yeah, but they have received everything they had from crime. So how was I gonna get that? By the only means I'm known by watching the people that have what I want receive that.

Does that make sense? Yes. And so that's what I wanted to do. How they get in, because people, they knew they were criminals, but people just always loved them, hugged them. The bigger criminal you were, the more respected you were, and that's what we wanted to tune in the neighborhood respect.

And if you weren't wearing these fancy clothes and fancy shoes and driving your moped or your motorbike or your car even, you're not gonna get any respect. So what were your goals at that point? Was it to become a professional criminal and just be a- Yes, that's all I wanted to do was rob and steal. That was it.

And did you ever think that at some point it's gonna come to an end and you may spend your life in prison or you didn't care? Well, that's what my friends were doing Robin still. That was it. And did you ever think that at some point it's going to come to an end and you may spend your life in prison, or you didn't care? Well, that's what my friends were doing. We were all doing it. That's what we were doing, spending our lives. I had friends just recently come out of jail 40 years, 38 years. They'd been locked up when they were locked up with me.

When I was 12, 13 years old, they were locked up with me. But they stayed on the path of crime and I went on the path of sports and redeeming myself in that perspective. So you were sent to a juvie home when you're 13. No, no, this is where it gets interesting. I'm in the holding facility in the Bronx called Spoffett Juvenile Facility.

And so one day we come to the auditorium, auditorium is bigger than this, but we come here and they turn the lights on, they play the movie, The Greatest, the story of Muhammad Ali. Movie was over, they turned off the light and Muhammad Ali comes in. Everybody goes berserk.

I say, right off the bat, I say, I wanna be like him. In my mind, subconsciously. So a month or so go by, I get transferred to Triumph School for Boys. And so I get transferred there and I get in trouble. And I don't know, probably a month or two months while I'm there, I get in trouble, fights. I don't know, I don't want to stay with Stabbing,

but just fights. And so I went from that dorm, which was a nice dorm, and then I go to Blairwood, I guess. Elmwood, I go to Elmwood College. Elmwood College is for the guys that have to be escorted all the time, they're really violent, they may be there for murder, you know, juveniles. And so they call it the lockup college, college, college,

because when you leave the college, you always have to have your handcuffs on. It wasn't like the other ones, you can go free, go walk around. We always had to have supervision and handcuffs, you know? And so I went there and I met this gentleman named Bobby Stewart. So I was saying, wow, I hear Bobby Stewart, the boxer,

everybody talks about him. And then he came to my door, knocked on the door. You heard you wanna see me, what do you want? How do you know who I am? And he was just, he was a tough, rough guy, you know? I'm like, wow, I thought he was gonna be nice because I wanted the kids and I wanted, but he wasn't nice, he wasn't nice.

I said, I wanna be a fighter. He said, everybody wants to be a fighter. Show me you wanna be a fighter and show some respect to people, because I wasn't that kind of guy. I was disrespectful to everyone. I went to school and I took my reading level for like a fourth grade reading level to like a seventh grade reading level within a couple of months or so.

And so he thought that was great. And I got off. I went on this stage from school, graduation or whatever it was. And I received this diploma and certificates and all that stuff. And he was impressed with that. And it wasn't like he was a big jumper to come from fourth to seventh in a couple months.

He thought that was great. And so he started training me. And he taught me how to fight. He kicked the crap out of me most of the times. And then you broke his nose. Yes, I did that. How long was it before he kicked the shit out of you before you broke his nose? Well, it was quick though.

Yeah, it was quick. I learned quick. He taught me well. And then he said, my wife don't want me to box you no more because I have to know. But I'm going to take you somewhere with these guys and take you to the next level. And that's when I met my mentor, Custom Otto.

I was 13. Right, and he became your mentor and like a father figure to you. He adopted me when I met my mentor, Custom Otto. Right. I was 13. Right, and he became your mentor. Yes. Like a father figure to you. He adopted me when I was 16. Right, when your mom passed away. Yes. So tell us about your relationship

with him and his wife, Camille. And how. Common law wife, yes. They weren't married. And what lessons they imparted on you back then that you still carry forward today? Well, that's really interesting. When I go through my life and there's certain conduct

that I'm involved with and it always reminds me of Cust, always when it comes to standing up for myself. Well, I'm the kind of guy, listen, just for me and Cust, I'm the kind of guy that fights better with my back against the wall, but I don't like to be my back against the wall. With my back against the wall, I'm just insane. And that's what it's about with custom-on,

it's about never giving up. We just don't give up. That was the main lesson he taught you? No, absolutely. So you had an unusual relationship with him. He was your father, became your father. It was probably the first time. I understood the concept of love.

I was just gonna say, was that the first thing that love did for the first time? How good did that feel coming from the kind of home you came from to living and having a dad? That's very interesting too, because once I felt that feeling, I wanted to do anything I could for him. He wanted me to be a heavyweight champ.

I wanted to do that for him. Not for yourself? No, that too, but for me getting the courage and the confidence from this guy, to be able to do what I did, yeah, I wanted to do it for him. How old were you when he said, hey Mike, you've got some special skills?

First day he met me. Just like that? Yeah. But Bobby told him already, hey, this guy's got some skills. Yeah, but the first thing he saw me box, Bobby kicked the shit out of me. Yeah, but then you broke his nose.

No, that's before, that's way before. Okay. But he kicked the shit out of me, because he saw something. And he said, this is gonna be the next heavyweight champ in the world. First day he saw me box. Just like that.

He saw I was very aggressive, very, I came across very malevolent, mean. You know, I was just, you know, he enjoyed that. He liked aggressive, violent, hungry guys that won't give up, real mean. Had you ever aspired to be the champion before Cuss said you could be the champion? Never, I wanted to be a criminal all my life.

That's all I knew was crying. But now you had a love for boxing. You were good at it. But at some point, did you say, hey, I'm gonna be a criminal all my life. That's all I knew was crying. But now you had a love for boxing. You were good at it. But at some point, did you say, hey, I'm gonna be a good boxer and make a little money? Or at some point you said, I wanna be the best guy. The greatest fighter since the beginning of eternity to now. Listen, Cus made me believe I was God.

When you were 16. Yeah, when I was 16, I was already what? World amateur champ, national champion. I was already an established fighter in the champion. I was already established fighter in the world. You're knocking everybody out. Yes, I had to live up to my age. Of course, the fight in the real good tone, the real good fighters. Because you had to be 18.

No, I had to be 16. 16 or 18, I think. 16. No, I think 16. We open fighters 16. At this point, you're not making any money. You're an amateur. And, I'm just an amateur. And how often are you in the gym every day at 16 years old? Every day.

Five hours a day? Listen, three hours probably, two hours. But then I'm working early in the morning, I'm getting up running, I'm doing my exercise, I'm shadow boxing. It's basically, you work out most of the day. Most of the day consists of you working out. Were you in school at all?

Yes, I was. This is really cool too that you brought that up. And I was never interested in what they had to teach me in school. I only thought about being a champ of the world all day in school. Day dreaming, how I'm going to defend my title and do this, and I'm going to have a beautiful house.

And that's what I normally thought about. I wasn't really interested in what they were teaching me in school. So I used to always try to get kicked out of school. So one day I had a teacher that I had a physical altercation with. A physical altercation? Yes. I was saying, hey, this is good. You beat up a teacher? Kind of. I don't understand what you're doing for that. So I was 16, but I said, well, good, I don't have to go to that school no more. So my mental class, the amount of his Italian. The school principals, Lee Burdak, Burdak,

I'm Burdak, he's Italian. Next thing you know, these guys get up there start talking this Italian stuff. This is where I know I was in trouble. When cussed said, where your family from? And the guy said something cussed, whoa, really? I'm from, and next thing you know, like I'm back in school again.

I didn't want wanna be in school, I wanted to get kicked out of school. And so these Italian guys are talking and I knew I wasn't gonna come back in school. I had to fight with the teacher. How could I do that? And they said, no, I'm back in class. I'm back in the home that I couldn't get kicked out.

But was Cuss telling you, hey Mike, you need an education. Big time. And you're not boxing if you're not studying. Big time. But you're saying to Gus, hey man, I just don't want any part of it. I say, I don't know how to do it.

How do you, how you put this number, you put a, it's just no way I'm gonna do this because it's not gonna work. Let's just go fight, please, please. But he was very disappointed I didn't finish school. He was disappointed or you're disappointed? He was disappointed. I was happy I didn't finish.

I'm really ecstatic. I think I went out with some friends and ate Big Macs and Dairy Queens after that. What about now? Do you regret not going and not graduating? Well, listen, the best thing that happened to me is that I stopped school and I had time to put 100% into my craft

for my kids to go to schools I never went to in my life and never would be able to go to. And that's pretty much what happened. My kids, listen, oh, you gotta hear this. My kids are so brilliant, but they bust my chops a lot. You know, like we might be around having a talk and I might talk like I'm a big shot. And my son might say,

say that again, Dad, he's probably though, Dad, I never knew you were illiterate. You can't even say this was spell this word. Then they start busting my chops. I say, hey, the reason why I'm not, I didn't go to school because I worked so hard for your guys in school for doing what they tease you. Like you guys tease me.

But they don't understand the concept because they always been, I don't wanna say spoiled, but they always been in a position of where they never would want anything pretty much. It's probably from being selfish, but other than it's really needing something to exist, no, they don't have to live like that. They can do whatever they want from a living perspective.

But they just have to know that life is about struggle. Without any struggle, there's no process. You know what I mean? You get no progress without no struggle. Without any struggle, there's no process. You know what I mean? You get no progress without any struggle. And that's what I believe. Because they did a research to study with some rats. And they took these rats and they put them in an environment probably bigger than this. But they have all the food they want, they have all the sex they want, they have everything they want. The next day, the first thing that happened, they start breaking up in groups. And then they have the groups of the ones

that just want to stay beautiful, clean themselves all day. Then they have these guys over here that are aggressive, they want to attack and beat them up, rape, these two bad things. And then they have these groups over here that don't associate with the others. And so eventually, you know what happened? They stopped having sex. They start fighting and it becomes chaotic. And then they all die young. And so that explained to me, without any struggle,

there's no progress because people, we have to be active. You know, they weren't active. They did nothing. They didn't when they died away. So we have to struggle. We have to be involved with the outcome, what happens in life and we have to struggle and that's just what life is about. Life is not about just having a good time all day.

It's not about sunny days. It's about enjoying those sunny moments and deal with the world as it is on life on life terms. 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 100, including Google lift and Seagate. And I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than $15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey. And at this stage in my life, I wanna give back. I wanna 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 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. Let's go back to your first professional fight. Yeah, Hector Mercedes. Who was it with? Hector Mercedes. Hector Mercedes. And how old was Hector? I don't know, he wasn't much older than me. I was 18, but he couldn't be much older. Probably 20, 21. So take us to the exact moment

where you're in the locker room, you got your shorts on, Custis there. Are you afraid you're gonna lose? Or do you say, I'm gonna fucking destroy this guy? I'm never afraid I'm gonna lose. What's worse than losing to me is looking bad. You can look good losing, which it's looking bad losing is not good.

I don't wanna look bad losing. So that's what I thought about the story. I might look sloppy, I might look bad. Even though I looked at him, he looked a short, fatty guy, in my mind he was a monster. So I beat him in one round, and I had a bunch of one round knockouts. My first fight I went the distance with,

I think was James, what was his name? James Tillis, Cowboy Tillis. I went 10 rounds. Cowboy. Yeah, black guy. Cowboy. Cowboy Tillis. Did he come out in cowboy boots

and he walked in the hat? He had the hat too? Yeah, he had the hat. That was my first 10 rounds. And after I went 10 rounds, I knew I could go 10 rounds. And so I went on another streak of knockout. I won the title at 20 years old, me and the City of We Champ ever.

I made around 10 defenses. I lost my title in 1990. And I started to come back. I had four fights in 1991. I got in trouble legally. And then after I got in my trouble legally in my sex case, I went to prison for three years.

Right, before we go there, I wanna go back to your dream. Your dream was to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Oh, absolutely, that's what I thought of. Did the dream consume you on a daily basis? Consume me. 24 hours a day. Turned me totally out.

Oh, I'm talking about turnstile. That's what I thought about with fighters. That's what I thought about with fighters. That's what I thought about with fighting matches. Go in the room, start putting fights, old fighters together, watching fights. Couldn't wait for the next one till you got your shot. I had 15 fights in one year. Of course I couldn't wait.

And you had never been hurt before? Well, no. Not in the boxing ring. And so take us to the actual locker room. You know, I've talked to friends who play in the Super Bowl and, you know, they got the nerves are out there on the field. You're not out there on the field warming up. You're in a room and you're warming up in the back. You're warming up in the back. But what what were you feeling the second you stepped into that ring and said, if I win this fight, this moment, whether it's 10 seconds later or going the full distance,

what were you thinking? And then what was your exact reaction when you raised your hands afterward and you had won? Well, the first thing I'm thinking is that, of course, I'm really nervous. Yeah. And I say, you know, this is my moment. This is my time. They're going to have to carry me out. I'm going to get that belt. That was my main idea. I'm going to get this belt and I'm going to get it at any cost. I'm going to visit it it, I'm gonna tear its soul apart. That's what goes on in my mind. I have to think really, I have to think really violent stuff when I fight. I'm relaxed, I

think violently. Thinking back to your childhood. Yeah. Thinking back to those crazy moments. Yeah, that's what that would pick on me again. That had a lot to do with my childhood, my fighting career. Right. So, you became the youngest champ ever. Yeah.

And then you were the first person to hold all three titles at the same time. Your mom never knew you as a successful person. I had won the Junior Olympics twice, right? And so it was in a local paper in Cascio, the town that I am from at the moment. I take the newspaper I showed to my mother. She's cooking me food and I'm telling my mother, I'm gonna be champ of the world, watch me. No man could beat me. We try to get older, this and that and all this and that. I'll make millions of dollars, I'm gonna buy you houses all over the country. And she's looking at me and I

know she's saying, what are these white people do with my son? Why is she talking so crazy and so grand? And she said this, well, don't forget what happened to Joe Lewis because she was born in 1927. So Joe Lewis was the hero. And I'm from Detroit, so we love Joe Lewis. Yeah, absolutely. So she said, remember Joe Lewis and Max Smollin? There's always somebody better.

And when she said that, I went to a cuss because he gave me this big ego. Ego, and I said, listen, mom, the guy that you talking about right now who's always better than somebody, that's me. I'm always better than that guy. That's me. I'm the guy that there's always somebody better, mom. And after that, she just looked at me and gave me the paper as walk away. And I know she, she, my mother, she was just really never been one of the guy that just brag and talk. I'm going to be the greatest ever because

you had to give yourself affirmation. And you never got it from her. No, like CUS taught me affirmations. And you never got it from her. No, Cus taught me affirmations. And, but when you made it. My mother used to tell me how to be a kind, respectable kid. Don't go out there and fight people. You would never believe my mother. No, I couldn't believe it.

You knew my mother, she was a really nice lady. She was just surviving out there. But you regret that she didn't see you as the champ and all the tremendous success you had? Oh, 100%, 100%. You talked about making millions of dollars. Absolutely. You were gonna buy all this stuff.

Yes. At one point, you were the highest paid athlete in the world. Yes. And you started making a million dollars and you're getting purses of 10, 20, 30 million dollars. You're setting pay-per-view records all over the world for all your fights.

At some point, you made $400 million reportedly in the ring, which inflation adjusted, is $400 million reportedly in the ring, which inflation adjusted is $700 million today. And in my world, in the corporate world, a lot of my friends talk about making, having a goal, right? First, you want to make a million dollars and as you get a little older, it's now $5 million. And if you live in expensive place like LA or New York, the $5 million isn't really,

I mean, a nice house costs more than five million in New York or whatever. And then there's a concept, it keeps going up. People talk about fuck you money. And fuck you money is I don't have to worry about money, I can do whatever I want. But you had made fuck you money, a lot of it, and then you lost it.

So you went bankrupt. How did you go, and so many people I know, by the way, who are many millionaires, centimillionaires, have gone bankrupt as well. How did that happen? And what's the lessons that you took from that? I got in that condition by being really careless and reckless.

Not that I thought the money was never gonna end. I thought I was never gonna live that long. And so I used to live the life a rallying, I guess, right? I did whatever I want when I wanted, with whoever I wanted, wherever I wanted to do it at. And that was just my life of access. But that's a lot of access. It's hard to spend that much money.

No, people still love from you here. You give a little away here. You do a little investments with really small amount of it. And people, you can learn how to be successful, right? You can learn hard work, diligence, and all that stuff, and you can become successful. But that's a blueprint for success. There's no blueprint for managing money. You know what I mean? No one tells you, hey, you're going to manage your money. Especially when you never did it before. Right. You know, you're just a street kid. And then listen, I used to read about all these old guys, especially the old Jewish guys at the turn of the century

and stuff, the majority of them, like, Floor and Zeke, those guys. And when they were trying to explain to him about investing your money and doing your money in this and close with you, he said, I'm not giving the banks my money. I'm not putting my money in the bank. And for some reason I said, hey, I don't blame him. Anybody can take your money. You have all your money in this bank and all. Next thing you know, hey, the bank crashed. And so I always think, hey, that's ridiculous.

I'm gonna spend my money underneath my bed pretty much. And that's just how I live my life. And that has a lot to do with my personality. I'm really an extreme person. You didn't have, there wasn't someone near you who said, who you trusted and said, hey Mike, I'm gonna manage your money and kind of rein you in and say, hey.

But once he said that, he wasn't hanging around me no more. I was just a guy. You just said, too bad, I'm doing what I wanna do. I'm just a kid. Plains, trains, jewelry. I have all that money and I'm just, I gave a lot of that stuff away. You're known to be be very generous guy. Were people taking advantage of you at the point?

Absolutely. But at that moment, you become Stockholm syndrome. You have to be less. Listen, you always have this money. You have no self love for yourself. You feel like you and I didn't believe I deserved everything I had. And so I never had it before. I never knew all these people. Now everybody's my friend, everybody's kissing. I die for you, I love you, this and that.

That's pretty distracting. You know, and then you say to yourself, I don't love me, how do they love me? And then you start questioning yourself. You start questioning your existence. You start questioning, if anybody loves start questioning if anybody loves me then who hates me? You know, I must be an enemy to myself if anybody's my friend. And I have no enemy, the only enemy has to be me. So I started looking at myself in a different perspective.

And it wasn't good. I didn't have a good self-esteem. so I didn't feel the money meant nothing. Money meant nothing to me. But this is what I found out in life. If I did it once before, I can do it again. And I did that. And then I lost my money again. But I did it again. And I lost my money again.

I've been rich and broke more than anybody I know. And so I mean, it's great grateful that I have a great support system now and I'm living my life different high-yield accounts. And I'm just very fortunate. I'm very fortunate and very grateful for the way my life turned out. Thanks for watching!