The School of Greatness - 829 Mike Tyson: The Mind and Journey of a Champion Fighter

Episode Date: July 29, 2019

TREAT OTHERS HOW YOU WANT TO BE TREATED. Kindness seems like a basic idea, but when you’re a champion it’s not high on your list. The Golden Rule isn’t always easy. Especially when you’re focused on yourself. But you can be the best and be good to others. It takes discipline. It takes mentorship. And it takes a commitment to what’s important in life. No matter what you’ve done in your past, you can always reinvent yourself. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I dive deep into never giving up from a champion who went through dark times: Mike Tyson. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the World and won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. He holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, four months, and 22 days old. Mike Tyson is learning to forgive himself and be grateful. He also shares his feelings about discipline and how visualization helped him believe he could be a champion. So get ready to learn how to be a champion and why it’s never too late for a comeback on Episode 829. Some Questions I Ask: Did you know who you were at 25? (6:00) What was your biggest fear in your early 20s? (10:00) If your 25 year-old self was sitting here, what would you tell him? (14:00) What are you most proud of? (36:30) In This Episode You Will Learn: About Mike Tyson’s spiritual journey (4:30) The power of visualization (19:00) When Mike started to feel more peace in his heart (32:00) Why you should think outside the box (42:30) If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/829 and follow at insagram.com/lewishowes.

This is episode number 829 with Mike Tyson. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Muhammad Ali said, impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men

who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It is an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing. Again, the great Muhammad Ali said that. And today we've got a powerful episode with Mike Tyson. If you don't know who Mike Tyson is, he is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world who won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. He holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA, and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years old.

He is also an actor and author, having appeared in multiple films and panels, as well as written two books, Undisputed Truth and Iron Ambition. Mike also started the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation to give kids a fighting chance by working with innovative centers that provide for the comprehensive needs of kids from broken homes. And in this interview, we talk about how he overcame his biggest internal struggles, and he has many of them. The power of discipline and how to keep going even when you hate what you're doing. The truth about toxic masculinity, the best advice Mike has ever gotten about becoming the champion, and when he has felt the most at peace with his life.

Now, I've been promoting this over the last week before the release of this episode, and so many of you said that you're excited about this interview. There were a few people that said that they weren't excited about it because of his past. And I can tell you this, we all have different things that we've gone through that we're not excited about, that we're not proud of. And Mike talks about these things in the interview. And when I was on his show, on his podcast, he talked about them as well. And the thing I love about Mike is his ability to have humility and understand where he made mistakes in his life and tries to move forward and improve those mistakes by giving back and improving his

life. And I think you're going to see some of that in this, which was really inspiring for me. So get ready, make sure to take notes, share this with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 829, because it's going to be an inspiring, powerful one to share with your friends. Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got the legendary Mike Tyson in the house. My man, good to see you. Thank you, brother. You have these cameras mounted. I don't know where they're located. Yeah, you're here. I look here. Okay, I'm here. You're here. You're me. Yeah. I'm excited that you're here. I came on your show a little while back. I'm excited for that to come out.

I want to make sure everyone watches that. Hot box. Thank you. It's a great show. You've got so many big names on there. Thank you. You've been inspiring people with your message. Really?

I think so. Of course, man. Your message is really crazy. I think it's having fun and being a slapstick of life. You're doing good, man. You're doing good. And I'm really inspired by you, Mike, because you've gone through a lot of darkness. You've gone through a lot of darkness in your past.

And we talked about this on your show, which is why I was so excited to have you here. You went to prison for a few years. You did a lot of things that you said you weren't proud of. But now you've gone through this spiritual journey that you're really looking to inspire as many people as you can and heal yourself. And I think it's really cool what you've been able to do by overcoming all that. So I just wanted to acknowledge you to start by everything. And you were talking on the show that we did about some of the lessons you've learned from your past. And I wanted to see if we could start with that.

Go for it. And here, what do you think are some of the biggest lessons you learned about who you were 20 years ago compared to who you are now? Sometimes, I don't know, sometimes it's hard to accept who you are. You know, sometimes I see young kids out here, they commit suicide and they don't like who they are, they're in prison, and it's really difficult

to accept who you are in this world because really we don't know. But then in order to have friends, you have to be put in this particular kind of, I don't know, you have to be labeled, so to speak.

So we don't know who we are until we get, I guess, to a certain degree of evolution. Do you feel like you knew who you were when you were 20, 25? Had no idea. Yeah, I mean mean you were the world champ at 20 had no idea what was going on outside of that Know what the world was really about and we had to really um Be a can pull yourself accountable. Yeah, I know I had no idea what that was

The world did you feel like you held yourself accountable to anything except for your training and dominating in the sport? Yeah. Yeah. That's what I held myself accountable for when I was younger, yeah. When did you feel like you started to realize who you were? When I got married for a third time with my wife, Kiki, we really had to, what can I kind of establish by saying,

we had to really make a choice what we wanted to do in our lives. A really bad no-win situation, and we had to establish some kind of foundation for our life. So that's really when I had to see what I was made out of. How old were you then? Well, probably in my 40s. 40s? 42. And so during the marriage, was it not working at some point?

Oh, it was never working. It was never working. Why was it never working? Because marriage in itself is an interesting dynamic. Because there's nothing you can prepare for. It's something you have to grow into. You can't prepare yourself for this. I don't care how many girlfriends you have, I don't care how many Romeo relationships you had.

You cannot prepare yourself for this if you've never been involved in this kind of matrimony. Is that the word? Matrimony before. And so it didn't work for a while, and then we realized we didn't kill each other. Since we didn't kill each other, let's see if we can make this work. We still love each other.

We're not dead, all the stuff we went through, we're not dead, so let's just see if we can make this work. And some bizarre reason it worked. It just works and stuff. And sometimes, every now and then we get up um i guess our buttons push pushed everything and um something um has a reminiscence of the past and which wasn't good in our memories you may respond in a certain way but it's just triggers. I had f***ing with us.

Yeah. How do you learn to overcome the triggers today still from the triggers of your past? I think I read that you were in, you know, got arrested 30-something times before you were a teenager. Yeah. So it seemed like everything triggered you then, right? But from that perspective, everything changes

when my classes change. You know, I never understood my struggle. I had everything I wanted, but still I was fighting the light. My dark spirit was still fighting the light. That was my struggle. I couldn't get anything done. You were winning everything. You were at the top of the world.

But what was the big struggle internally for you during those highest moments where everyone wanted to it didn't appear real because at that time i lost my mentor everybody was dying because when i met them when they were pretty old and i was very young yeah everybody started dying and i didn't understand that instead of thinking that duh they were old when they met you at 57 close 57, close to 60 when they met you, Mike. So of course they were gonna die eventually. You become a man, these guys are gonna die. I don't know, I couldn't deal with that for a minute. And then the world just came in on me

and it just was overwhelming. I just had to learn from life experiences. Yeah. To conduct myself. Yeah. What was your biggest fear in your early 20s? No one loving me. Not being accepted, being a nobody.

Yeah. Wow. Did you not feel like anyone loved you or accepted you even though you were the champ? Well, that was a funny dynamics in itself because I come from an eat dog, eat dog kind of world and stuff. And I met somebody and he showed me the basics of life. Be kind to people the way you want people to be kind to you and all that. It's the basics of life. But our main objective was to be the best in the world in this particular discipline.

Yeah. It's hard to be kind when you're trying to be the best at the same time too, huh? Yeah, but that's the part of discipline. Discipline is separating the two. You know, you have to do what you hate to do, but do it like you absolutely love it with vigor and do the end. What did you hate doing and practicing in your early 20s or late teens? I hate the whole aspect of the warrior mentality and the duration of it. That's probably the main part, the length of how long you have to go through that psychological warfare.

It takes tolls on people, that kind of stuff. It's just really rigid. If you become the best, you have to almost become fanatical. This is my life, this is all I live for. This is my air, this is everything. Wow. Yeah, I guess most athletes feel that way. They have one of those old time trainers

and they have that particular type of method of training. Yeah. It just becomes your life. So you could do this in your sleep sleep because it's so regimented. Right. Almost like we're zombies. I know. Like robots.

It's like militant. Yeah, very, like army. When do you feel the most loved today? When I'm harassing my kids. When you're harassing your kids? Even though they don't like it, I harass my kids. And sometimes they might be tortured to know because sometimes they have to grow up. They live in this make-believe world. And I say,

hey, listen, you can't, sometimes, you know, you have, we bought this house for you. You can't have a slumber party over here. This is not the real world. These people didn't pay any rent. Are they paying you rent to live in your apartment? Anything that we pay for? Uh-huh. We need to learn responsible. We have to be responsible and we have to also be reliable and know whatever it is that we do we have to be accounted for.

Yeah. I want to take a moment from this Mike Tyson interview to thank our sponsor, Quartz. Now, Quartz was founded in 2012 for a new kind of business leader. Quartz is creative, intelligent, journalism rich with culture and broad world views. With more than 230 people around the world collaborating to bring a global perspective, With more than 230 people around the world collaborating to bring a global perspective, Quartz has a presence in New York, London, Nairobi, New Delhi, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. And it contains coverage of the global economy with topics and questions of importance to

business professionals. So listen up. A Quartz membership provides a community for the new generation of global business leaders. Access to all Quartz award-winning journalism with in-depth field guides to the most disruptive forces in business, video tutorials on the essential skills of modern executives, and other member-exclusive journalism. Thought-provoking discussions with some of the most respected people in business. And what I've loved diving into is the complete guide to the CBD boom.

It's something I've been interested in getting into myself, and this breaks down the entire boom that's been happening. And an overview of Silicon Valley's growing impact on politics. So many interesting insights that I've been diving into and learning about. And Quartz is offering my listeners 25% off your first year of membership. All you need to do is go to qz.com and enter my code greatness at checkout. That's qz.com with the promo code greatness for 25% off your first year of membership. Make sure to check it out right now for exclusive insights

to breaking world news and narratives. Perfect for tomorrow's top business leaders at qz.com promo code greatness and now let's get back to this interview with mike tyson what do you think is the biggest regret you have from everything that's you've been through many regrets many regrets what do i say many regrets, but they say these regrets are something we shouldn't worry about. We have many regrets. You know, we should spend more time with my kids and my youth. Spend more time with your kids and your youth. Yeah, we should do that.

Because now I'm trying to catch them now and it doesn't work. It really doesn't work. It doesn't work. They're getting older now, huh? Yeah, they got older. They got their own lives. They doesn't work. They're getting older now, huh? Yeah, they got older now. They got their own lives. They don't relate to my path.

It's just, Dad, you're a alien. You don't know what we're up to yet. What's the message you would say to yourself now that you've gone through? Because you've gone through a lot of transformation. You've gone through different experiences, transformation. You've done a lot of work on yourself. You're wiser now.

If your 20-year-old or 25-year-old self was sitting right here where I'm at, and you could sit down and have a conversation with him, what would you want to say to him? You know, that he should prepare on developing what makes him happy in life and strive on developing that and cultivating that, what makes you happy in life. And strive on developing that and cultivating that, what makes you happy. And have that strong alliance within yourself on what makes you happy and never break that.

Because that's all of our really true, we get a hundred million dollars a year, what is happening? I don't mean ha ha ha, hoo hoo, ha ha ha, he's funny. What is the essence of happiness? What does that mean? Everybody has a different definition. Well, we got seven million people, I'm sure,

seven million different definitions. Some people may have dark happiness. They like to do dark stuff and that makes them happy. But it's still happy. So what makes necessarily happy a good thing? What makes you happy? Simple stuff. And I don't know if that's happy.

I take it for granted sometimes, like everyone else is my kid and stuff. And I have to, you know, not worry about going to prison, not worry about paying my bills and having my lights on and my lights being cut off and my water being cut off. It's being stable in my life. Yeah. So you would tell him to start pursuing happiness more? You know, that's the word I would use, you know, but that's the only thing that's going to stimulate us.

Yeah. You know, I don't know if it's happiness. We call it happiness. Sure. Why is it the word happiness that makes us think this is something that we should, you know what I mean, fucking ascend to? Yeah. Why happiness? Because we look at the response of happiness, what it looks like.

Yeah. So we should always ascend to happiness. Yeah. I'm curious. You've been on both sides of the spectrum. I would say that some people might consider your behavior, you know, 20 years ago was very toxic, right? This image of toxic masculinity.

I feel like I've been there in a lot of ways. I know Evan's been there in a lot of people. I think a lot of men have gone through this phase. What would you say to the women listening who maybe want to support the men in their lives? Maybe it's their father, it's their brother, it's their boyfriend or husband who maybe are experiencing toxic tendencies, types of behaviors. What would you say to the women on how they can best connect with men in their life who might be hurting them?

men in their life who might be hurting them. I can't give a woman any perception of any aspect of a man because there's so many men. I don't know how every man in the world conducts themself. Yeah. Or act under pain or suffering. We're all so totally different. So my opinion on anything, it'll only be the men that I'm accustomed to, which is myself.

Right, right. You know, I could never just say how we're going to understand men. We want to think differently. What do you think women could have done to understand you better

back in the day when you were going through different challenges? How could women have shown up differently in your mind? Or is it nothing they could have done

to change the way you thought about yourself, or you thought about the world? No, women, I don't know, they may have, but I don't know, I don't have no particular aspect of how I think about them individually. Yeah. This and that, I don't know all the women in the world

have an opinion about how they think about me or anything. Sure. How do you think men should be raised in this time in the world right now? Because I think there's a lot of conversation about toxic masculinity. What advice would you give to men who are maybe hurting or angry or living in a toxic way? What would you say to just the men of the world? Hey, listen, there's truly nothing to say to anyone that's living in a toxic, unless

he comes for help. You know what I mean? Some people realize, hey I just can't stop this lifestyle, I can't stop this conduct in my life, I wanted to change but I can't stop so what do I do? Yeah. You know? But some people love, most of the people that have this conduct, this mess, this is their identity, this is their ego, I don't want to get a you, Mike.

I want my toxic energy. you. The girls love it. That's what they think. But it never makes you feel fulfilled deeply inside when you live that way, right? Nobody feels fulfilled. You know what I mean? We're all fulfilled at different stages of our life. At 18, I'm fulfilled from this particularly difficult or fun fulfillment.

And at 28, I like this. I don't like that no more. I like doing this. People are fickle. Very few of us are really confident in what we continue to do and stay with it for a long period of time. Yeah. What does it take to be a true champion,

to be the best in the world at something? You lived it for a long time. What does the mindset have to be like if someone wants to be the best at what they do? It's just dedicating and sacrificing your life to be in a particular way you want to be. Like, you want to conduct yourself. Say you want to be like Tony Robbins. You, say you want to be like Tony Robbins, you get all the information you can about Tony Robbins,

and you conduct, this is how I want to live my life, this is almost like, this is your manuscript. Yeah, your blueprint, yeah. Yeah, this is what I'm gonna do. Yeah. I'm gonna live like Tony, I'm not gonna be Tony Robbins, but I'm gonna live it, I'm gonna conduct myself like Tony Robbins. Yeah, yeah, so you gotta live it, you, but I'm going to live it. I'm going to conduct myself like Tony Robbins.

So you've got to live it, you've got to breathe it. And you have to be that before you actually become the person. You're not going to become the person overnight. You think you're prepared to be Tony Robbins right now. Right through now. Tomorrow you're Tony Robbins. You didn't know. It's going to take time, so I'm going to become this guy.

I'm going to be this guy before, because you're not ready. But when the time comes, you're going to be ready. You're going to be Tony Robbins. This is my life. I'm accustomed to this. Of course because you're not ready, but when the time comes, you're gonna be ready. You're gonna be Tony Robbins. This is my life. I'm accustomed to this. Of course I got this role. Of course I got this job.

Of course I got this race. I prepared for it. You wouldn't even be surprised. Before you became the champ the first time, were you visualizing and imagining it? I was 14. This is who I am. This is who I'm gonna be.

I'm gonna talk to this guy. You have to be the champ before you be the champ. You understand? Does that make sense? Yeah. Does it really? Because it sounds ridiculous. You have to be him before you can be him.

You can't just pop this by training and doing push-ups and knocking people out. This is, I'm the champ. No, you have to be the actual champ. Your conduct, your lifestyle have to be the champ before you actually wear the belt. Maybe that's better. You have to be the champ before you actually wear the belt. Maybe that's better. You have to be the champ before you can even wear the belt. Wow. So you were saying, I'm going to be the champ.

You were living like the champ. I lived like the champ. That's what I did. I would read books about them. That's all I did. I would read books about them, watch them fight. That's my life. If I wasn't in school and I wasn't in training, I was watching them or reading about them.

Watching the greats. Yeah. Wow. What's the best advice you ever got from a champion before you? Most of them, the advice they used to give me about life and stuff, they said, you have to live your own life. Because you can't live your life like me. I can't live my life like you.

We're just all different. Some of them say, take care of your money. You know? They regret about that. Right. I used to learn from a farce. A lot of these guys, I used to watch the way they conduct themselves. They're always dignified, most of them.

The rest of them have some mental issues. They had damage from boxing. They're a little bit outrageous. But other than that, most of them are very dignified and classy men. Yeah. What was your biggest weakness when you were the champ for so long? As you were knocking guys out in the first round, first few seconds, what was the biggest weakness in your game and also in your life?

I don't know. I think I was a glutton. I just wanted everything. Material things to win, women, this, everything. Everything. I just wanted everything, yeah. You wanted the world. Oh, right now, everything. One of the world. Right now, no. That's the only one that I wanted. Now, I didn't want it yesterday. Tomorrow, I want it right now.

It's instant. Wow. And if you can't give it to me, I don't want it no more. If I can't get it right now... Yeah, I don't want it no more. Yeah, anything I couldn't have, anything I couldn't have, I despise and hate it.

Wow. Yeah, if I couldn't have that girl, I hate her guts. Wow. If I couldn't have that car, those cars. Anybody that drives that car. Why do you think that was? If you couldn't have it right now, you didn't like it anymore? Because I didn't need no distractions. Oh, wow.

They make me feel anything that I'm less than immortal. Wow. Yeah. So if you couldn't get it right now, it made you feel less than immortal. Yeah. So you were like, get it out of my life. Exactly. Wow.

What's the craziest thing you wanted that you got right now? That you were like demanding everything, and what did you, someone, I mean, what was, something flew in from Dubai overnight, and you got like a steak dinner from somewhere? I never thought about that. But I'm sure it was bizarre or something. Yeah.

I want a tiger right now. Give me my tiger. That's just the mentality. That's just the way I was raised as a fighter, I think. Because if you couldn't get it, it would distract you. Why can't I possess that? If I'm so great, why can't I possess that? Wow. It would distract you from your goals in life.

What do you think is your greatest weakness right now, this time of your life? I don't know. My friends and my kids and stuff, family. It's a weakness? Yeah, because people, we're losing so many people. They think, you know, he's dead, she's sick. My friend's mother just died yesterday. Everybody started dying.

Everybody's so sad and they're, wow. Yeah. It's so instead of, you know, we should always look at death as something glorious. Because listen, life is very interesting. Listen, we got it for nothing. Look at what we received. We have kids, we have grandkids, all this stuff.

But it's not just your mother and father, and they saw each other, and they, hey, we love now that we're here. Look all we got. Look what you're doing. Look at your show. It's because people were in love. This is glorious.

Yeah. For free. For free. We didn't have to pay anything to be here. Nothing. You can't get mad when it's our time to go. It was free. What do you think about with death?

Death is beautiful. How could life be beautiful if death is not beautiful? Because there wouldn't be life if there wasn't death. Wow. So death isn't something you're afraid of? At one stage in my life, you know. And then you reach 52, and you say, well, I'm not going to get another 52.

Wow. And then you remember, wow, what happened to that time? My whole perspective on life is different. My whole perspective is what I needed, what I wanted. And it was all about what I needed, what I needed for someone else that I love. What am I leaving when I'm gone? It's really bizarre, right? When you have the actual confrontation aspect of immortality no longer existing. Huh. What do you think is your biggest superpower right now?

Like, your biggest strength? I think it's me, who I am. My essence, my existence. When I'm no longer here, it doesn't no longer exist. How do you want to be remembered now? Just remember. It doesn't matter how. You know how many thousands of years are going to go by once I die?

It's no longer going to matter. No one's going to remember. Yeah, a couple thousand years. Yeah. So what is the biggest fear for you right now? You don't have any big fears right now? Besides, you know, eventually, I want my kids to get sick. I want them to have a life like I had.

You know? And see the world like I've seen. Mm-hmm. Other than that, no, I'm prepared to meet God, yeah. Wow. What was the biggest mentor you had when you were in jail? Was there anyone in jail that taught you anything or no one? I was just radical in jail. And my mentor, I need to run it all.

It all needs to be done. Really? Yeah. You were like, I'm going to run this whole place? Yeah. I want to be in control. I want to do this. I want to have my food brought to this place.

Wow. Because it's a mindset you get once you get put in that situation. You know, I'm a megalomaniac then. Wow. What was the biggest thing you learned about yourself during that time? Like, I learned that I didn't want to be there.

I was afraid. To be there? No, I was afraid that I lost everything that I had at once. You lost all your money at one point, right? Yeah, but no, not that time. That time I still had money. When I was in prison, I still had money. There was no bank robber stuff.

I couldn't do nothing. I would just call my accountant and say, money to her. Somebody had money. It wasn't no bank robber stuff. I couldn't do nothing. So I would just call my accountant and send money to her. If somebody needs money, I would still take care of my friends and their bills and stuff. But you were afraid you lost everything else. Yeah.

Like the titles, like the respect. No, no, just things you could have done if you didn't have this what do you call this garbage on you. Once it is garbage, yeah. You didn't have this garbage, you? What is this garbage here? You had this garbage, but you could have come off. Oh,.

There's a lot of things, a lot of people just it up. Oh, man. What do you think you could have accomplished had you not gone to jail? Really good stuff. I've accomplished it when I came out. Right. And I still wasn't happy. It was just all in my mind. All the things I thought I could accomplish, only if I didn't want to jail,

was just an hallucination in my mind. I went to jail and I still accomplished everything. It's not more than I thought I would accomplish. Because you came out and you still won the title. Yeah, it was just a... You made a bunch of money. It was just an illusion. You know, I was chasing an illusion. It never existed, but it was in my head. It was in my head. I was getting revenge.

For who? No one got you in jail with you. Who am I getting revenge on? It's my head. It was fucked. What happened to your life when you started studying spirituality more? I don't know. It's pretty tricky.

It's pretty much just letting it wing it. So you just imagine if it was like this. And then you realize I can make it like this. You know, spirituality, I don't know. It wipes everything, this is what spirituality, it wipes everything that I ever believed, it makes it a lie. You know?

I mean, what did you use to believe that makes it a lie now? I believe just what everybody else, Adam and Eve, mother. I believe that, yeah, that's what I believe. I believe all that crap. Wow. And everything then, so that's the paradigm shift. I believed all that crap. Wow.

Everything then, so that's the paradigm shift. When everything you've been taught your whole life and then it comes the time you realize it was a lie. Now how do we start from there? We live in a lie. We have to make up our own lie and live in this lie. It's going to take, if you checked and tried to figure out to the day you die, you would never figure it out. It's based thousands and thousands and maybe millions of lives and years of lives. Some people have

dedicated their whole lives to trying to figure out the lies and what this world is about, and they found out nothing. Right. They got that, you know, they have this big encyclopedia in mind about wonderful things in the history of the world and stuff, but we don't have the answer still. It's just a beautiful ride. Just enjoy the ride. Yeah. Don't try to figure everything out.

No way. It's a beautiful ride. We don't do that. As human beings, we don't do that. We don't enjoy the ride. This is not right. We got to figure everything out. No way. It's a beautiful ride. We don't do that. As human beings, we don't do that. We don't enjoy the ride. This is not right. We got to figure this out. This is not right. That's how we are.

Do you think if you had more peace in your heart, more love in your heart in your 20s, 30s, do you think you would have enjoyed the ride more? And do you think you would have been able to be successful in the boxing world if you had peace and love in your heart? I didn't know. All my life I read about the Conqueror, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Shalami, all these crazy guys, Clovis. I read about these guys.

They had declared themselves gods. You know, depend on, you think of great prophets, you think of Jesus, of Prophet Muhammad, that's in the time of Alexander the Great, he would eliminate them. They wouldn't exist anymore. Everything is proper timing. In certain worlds, in certain times,

they would never have existed. Wow. When do you think was the moment you started to feel more peace in your heart, inner peace? I don't know. When I had the responsibility of just taking care of my family. That's when it shifted more? Yeah, after I tried to destroy it, it didn't work. And I said, well, I have to take care of this stuff. I have to really confront what am I going to do here?

You know, and then I said, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to dedicate my life. And that was a mess, too. And then eventually, we have 10 years. You know, it worked out. You know, we have a great deal of respect for one another. Where do you think you'd be if you had no kids right now? I wouldn't exist.

Really? No way. Where would you be? I don't know. Probably dead with AIDS or something. Really? Yeah, I wouldn't exist. Or maybe somebody would kill me for f***ing with their wife or girlfriend.

You never know. I'd be a junkie. Wow. Without kids. That's the only thing that stable me. Wow, that's the only thing that stable me. Wow. That's the only thing that gave me any kind of meaning. When I have kids, the world, I don't give a.

Wow. You never had a talk. Do you wish you would've had kids younger then, or? No, I wouldn't accomplish my goals. No, no. Everything's proper timing. Proper timing, yeah. You think you're playing checkers, you think you're navigating your life, but you're

not. Yeah. I know you say, why don't I just go ahead and do some drugs and just my life up there and Mike don't think I'm navigating my life. You're just not. You're not programmed to do that then. And if you were programmed to do that, you're programmed to come back and rebound. Right. Your life is not meant to go there. It if you were programmed to do that you were programmed to come back and rebound. Right.

Your life is not meant to go there. It's just not meant to be. Wow. What do you think is the lesson you still want to learn for yourself?

Like the challenge you want to overcome still to make you a better person? I can't. I can't and I'll never find that. Yeah. You know,

because that lesson that thing I want to realize is why me? Why is this happening? I'm never going to figure that out. What's the question you wish you could have answered? Why is this school mine? Why is my purpose here?

Yeah. But I can make something. I can say my purpose is to be the best person I could possibly be before I die. You know what I mean? That could be my purpose in life. See how far we can go in life before we die. Yeah. But suppose people don't think in that perspective.

That's what LL Cool J told me, because I'm talking some, I think I'm talking some glamorous s***. I'm talking some fly s***. And he was telling me on mic, you know, there's some people that live in the outskirts of f***ing Ohio or somewhere, and they just live simple lives, and that's all they want to do, right? Enjoy life. This s*** we talking about don't mean nothing, Mike. Some people live in the outskirts of Ohio somewhere, and they just live simple lives,

and that's all they wanna do, Mike. Enjoy life. This shit we talking about don't mean nothing, Mike. Nothing. They just ready to die, ready to meet God, taking care of their kids, the people they love, or maybe go on a vacation. Maybe never go on a vacation.

Or leave the town, but this is just a simple life. This is what makes them happy. Yeah. And they're really, you know what I mean? I come into a place, if you're nothing, And they're really, you know, I come into a place, if you're nothing, if you're something, you're nothing. Mm-hmm. You know, isn't that so shower?

If you're not something, you're nothing. What's my definition of something? Mm-hmm. Somebody with a wad of money in their pocket, I have no concept of humanity. It's what life is. Does that mean I have a wad I should be able to violate that person that does it? Wow.

I don't know. Yeah. I'm lost again. Wow. I should just try to figure it out and go with the flow. Wow. How did you learn to finally start forgiving yourself?

Oh, that's that, man. That happened, excuse me, that must have happened yesterday or something. You just don't do that stuff overnight. It doesn't work like that. At least for me, it doesn't work like that. Took a long time to forgive yourself? Yeah, because I only, I know my demons,

and I realize in life everybody's gonna really find them out eventually. You think you're gonna hide that shit, it doesn't work that way. So you just started to forgive yourself on things? Pretty much. Or is it happening every day? You know, it comes around, yeah. Wow. I'm not gonna hate my.

All the shit you did is cool, man. God love you. That's bullshit. I don't function. I don't think that. I don't think God leaves you to figure it out. You live it on yourself. If it's cool, it's cool.

If it's not, it's not. You figure it out. Yeah. And what are you most proud of in your life that you've done? Wow. I don't know. I'm proud that I'm existing. Yeah.

I love to be alive. I know that makes sense. I'm proud to I'm existing. Yeah. I love to be alive. I know that makes sound bizarre, but I'm proud to be alive and existing, yeah. Do you feel like you should have been dead many times? That could have happened, yeah. That could have happened. I don't know. I used to look at it and say, wow, what am I proud of? You know, I say I'm proud of my children and stuff, but they have their own life to live.

Yeah. I'm only proud of them because they're kind and make me happy. Some of them do things I don't like. But it's just that my kids are my kids, and that's my personal life. And when I think of something that I'm proud of, I don't know. I don't think about my fighting. I don't know. It's just weird that we say that, you know?

I'm doing things now that I'm proud of. I'm building a company. We're making people aware of health and cannabis. So I'm really proud of my company. I'm doing ice and reds, yeah. And what are you most grateful for about your wife? Yeah, I'm just, well, that's interesting you say that because we have fought a long fight together. You've fought a long fight together?

Yeah. Yeah. How many years has it been now? Ten years. But we've been with each other longer than that. Yeah. It was really great growing up. This is my third marriage.

This is her first. But it's really been this marriage and the struggle that we endured together was really going to tell us if we're going to make it in life or not. You know, our existence in life. We're going to do this stuff and we're going to feel it's going to be over and stuff. And so when we had our kid, we just dedicated our life to make sure our kid wouldn't have the life that we had. It's a really kind and pleasant life.

Yeah. What do you love about her the most? She's just an awesome kid, and she's very competitive in life. Is she your daughter? Yes, my daughter. And besides having two crazy parents, she really conducts herself like a champion.

She's the adult in the family. Oh, she's really awesome, yeah. She's only 10 years old. And what do you... She's our life. We have awesome, yeah. She's only 10 years old. And what do you... She's our license. We have another son named Morocco. He's eight years old.

Oh, that's great. Yeah, but we have some... She's our guru that keeps us together. That's cool. What do you admire and love about your wife the most? The most?

Oh, man, that she kept our family together. That was her main objective was keeping our family together and being one. That's great. For most. That's great. She didn't give up.

Most people can easily give up and just move on. It's just so easy. Just move on. Lots of options out there. Yeah, so much. It's so pervasive that this is what people do. If it doesn't go well, you just get away and we just gonna move on. We don't try to make this work.

Well, you did that in your previous marriages. You know, you guys ended them, yeah. Yeah, I just kept going. My previous, I could always throw money at my problems. I had my money then, but I didn't have money then, so I can't say, fuck you, I'll take that. Right. So I had to make this stuff work.

Wow, you had to learn, you had to grow. That's good. I've got a couple of fun questions for. You had to learn. You had to grow. That's good. I've got a couple of final questions for you. This one is called The Three Truths. Okay. So I want you to imagine that you are, it's your last day. Let me tell you. It's many years away.

Okay. Right? It's your last day. I'm always prepared, though. You're prepared any day. I'm done. Let's do it. But imagine it's 50 more years. You've got 52 to go, right?

No, it's not that many years. Let's say you've got as many as you want. And then there's the last day you've got to turn the lights off. Okay. You've got your family there. It's a good setting. Okay. You've accomplished what you want.

Your ranch has blown up. Your company. Everything you're doing is amazing. This is not a reality. This is not necessarily how I'm going to end. Let's imagine. Let's visualize. Yeah, doing is amazing. This is not a reality. This is not necessarily how I put it in. Let's imagine. Let's visualize. Yeah, this is beautiful.

And you have a moment where you get to share your final three truths with the world. You get to announce it on your podcast. You get to write this down. And these would be three lessons. The only three things people would be able to remember you by are these three final lessons that you would share with the world, what I like to call the three truths.

What would you say are your three truths? If I had more time, I could be even better than what I am. Yeah, and if I had more time, I could probably right through all the wrongs that I did. And if I had more time, I could spend that time with my kids, my grandkids. Those are great. What lessons would you share with the world that you would want them to have for their lesson from you? That we all have to live our lives to the fullest and fulfill our lives. Our life fulfillment.

Whatever your life is, this is what most people's problems are in life. They didn't fulfill their life fulfillment. Who they're supposed to be? Yeah, who they wanted to be. What were they focused on? It just never happened. They don't believe it happened to them. I guess they believed it was supposed to be ordained for them.

I don't know, but. Yeah. And then there's some people that works hard and do all the secrets of life, and they still never get it. What do you say about that? How that works? And then there's people that works hard and do all the secrets of life and they still never get it. What do you say about that? How does that work? And then there's people that work but don't work as hard as these guys

and they get it. It's just a luck thing. Somebody liked them. They had the right look. They had the right person. That got them on. How do people look at that in life? Do they give up and they say,

I just keep working in a way that's been failing all my life until something happens. How do they look like? How does somebody think outside of the box and say, we're not going to do it that way no more. We're going to make our own life. We're going to make our own future. We're going to create our own jobs. That's how it happens. It happens from watching failures. Sure. Watching people just try and fail, and then somebody says, this is the way. That's how dynasties are made.

How can we support you? You've got your show. You've got your company. You've got the ranch. Tell us where we can connect with you, how we can support you. Hey, listen, Hot Boxing is just a podcast. It's amazing. Check in,

subscribe there, and just hang out with us. It's incredible. It's going to be really interesting. It's on YouTube, it's on iTunes. Yeah, it's all over the world. Hot Boxing with Mike Tyson. Yes. Yeah, Evan's amazing on there. I went on there.

And there's an old box. See, you guys, there's an old box named Jack... Look up Jack Burton. Okay. Is that a... New York fighter.

I'll look him up. I'll look him up later. You've had some incredible people on there. You had Snoop. You had LL Cool J recently. You had Lewis Howes on there. So make sure you check

that episode out as well. There's some really, um, interesting stories on there. That... I mean, you got... You share some crazy stuff but it's amazing you guys got to check this out because the stories you've been through are amazing so check that out where else they can follow you on instagram twitter mike tyson everywhere oh the freaking everywhere worldwide baby hey this guy's got the energy played i don't even feel comfortable cursing i said if you curse it i feel like i got stuck with a hot coat.

Oh, I should have said that. It's all good. I've got one final question for you, Mike. But before I do, I want to acknowledge you one more time for all the growth. Because you could have easily tapped out. You could have easily gone back to jail. I'm never going to tap. I'm never going to do that.

I'm just going to always try hard and see what's going to happen. Because, listen, I've been worse than this. I've been in a worse situation than I've ever been. And I didn't give up then. Well, I'm going to give up now. I'm at the height of my life now. How am I going to give up? I love it, man.

What the hell am I doing? I love it, man. This is a dream right now. Living the dream, baby. Yeah, no doubt about it. Final question, then, is what's your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness? My definition of greatness? Someone or something that can do the most difficult thing in the world

with the most simple of ease. That's greatness. Ooh. Mike Tyson, the man. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you, brother. Thank you, man. That's powerful. There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this interview with the one and only Mike Tyson. If you did, make sure to share this with your friends.

Post it on social media. Spread this far and wide. LewisHowes.com slash 829. Tag me on your Instagram story, Lewis Howeses and tag at Mike Tyson as well let him know that you're listening to this and what you thought about this episode text it to a friend spread the message of greatness

every time you have an opportunity to learn from one of the greatest fighters in the world one of the greatest athletes inventors whoever it may be someone who's been at the top it's important to learn from the lessons and also pay it forward

so make sure to share this message with your friends and other people that you might find it interesting as well. And Muhammad Ali had a great quote at the beginning of this interview. Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing. No matter what you've been through in your past, no matter how dark or scary it may be, or no matter how dark and scary your future dreams might be, impossible is nothing. It's not impossible to overcome the challenges of your past or

the judgments of your past or the pains you've caused other people. You can always create a new future right now. And your future dreams and goals, as big and scary and impossible as they may seem, you need to focus on one day at a time. One day at a time on how can you improve and how can you enjoy and appreciate the journey every single moment. Because this life is not guaranteed for another hour, another day, another month, a year, or 20, 30, 40 years. It's not guaranteed. What's guaranteed is right now until it's not anymore. I hope you enjoyed this interview.

Make sure to subscribe to this podcast if this is your first time here. Leave us a review on what you think about this show and listen to other episodes. We've got some incredible guests coming on every single week, some of the top minds in the world.

So make sure to click the subscribe button, tag me and follow me on Instagram at Lewis Howes. And I love you so very much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.