You Don’t Have to Be a Champion

To be successful do you have to be the best?

A few years ago my wife Alex and I were on vacation in New Brunswick, Canada. We love the back roads and grab about any excuse we can for a side trip away from the major thru-ways; not a problem on this ride as we drove through Baie-Sainte-Anne, a small, rugged working fishing village. There wasn't much to see; small houses with boats in various stages of repairs, lawns covered with fishing gear and lobster pots.

We were struck by the site of a billboard, almost bigger than the small ranch house next to it. The sign read: "Welcome to Baie-Sainte-Anne, home of Yvon Durelle; the Fighting Fisherman!" It turns out the big sign and the little house both belonged to Durelle. Being a rabid boxing fan and an amateur boxer of negligible distinction I had to have a picture standing next to that sign!

Yvon Durelle was once a Canadian middleweight and light-heavyweight champion, but when there's an ultimate championship at stake other titles seem more like prerequisites for greatness rather than greatness themselves. Durelle set his sights on the World title.

His shot came on December 10, 1958 in Montreal. Authentic fight fans and pugilistic pundits still consider Durelle's battle with light-heavyweight World Champ Archie Moore to be one of the best fights in history. The Fisherman pounded the heavily favored Moore to the canvas 3 times in the first round; that would have been enough to earn the belt today but that was a different era in boxing. He knocked the champion down again in the 5^th. Somehow Moore weathered the beating and eventually knocked out Durelle in the 11^th to save his title.

Durelle never became World Champion. He retired with a record of 90 wins, (51 by way of knockout), 24 loses and 2 draws. One of those draws would likely have given him an earlier chance at the World title. After what most witnesses scored a sound beating of the number one contender, the boxing powers decided that the popular Tony Anthony was going to fight for the title and Durelle would have to wait. There's no such thing as a "fair fight."

Yvon Durelle's toughness, tenacity and refusal to give up despite the politics of boxing that no doubt gave little favor to the Canadian fisherman earned him revered status as a boxing legend; yet he never earned the World Championship he worked so hard for.

Most of us have stories closer to Yvon Durelle's than that of your favorite World Champ. Most of us have faced our share of challenges. Some of us have gotten a shot at the big prize only to come up short. All of us have faced times when politics and favoritism have deprived us of opportunity we might consider rightfully ours.

What did you do in those times? Did you keep punching? When you got knocked down, did you get back up? After a loss, did you climb back in the ring?

Authentic success is not a gift; it's a prize hard won with blood, sweat and tears. It's as much a process of defeat as it is winning. It's a process of surviving defeat and training for the next opponent.

There are a lot of great athletes in the boxing world. At any given time there is only one Champion. It's the same way in life and business. Your company may have a lot of great executives; there's only one CEO. There's only one captain on a ship.

If you compare yourself to others be prepared for one of two outcomes: you'll be better, or you'll be worse. Just like the contender who takes the Championship bout; you may become the Champ, you might not.

Losing a Championship does not make you a loser. Fighting for the Championship makes you a winner; every time! I'm not saying that to make you feel good, it's a fact. There can only be one Champion, but every contender has faced and defeated the best of the best to earn the shot at the title.

You may never be the Champion; you can always be a contender. That's really what life and success is all about for most of us. The important thing is to be in the fight. If you don't take the title, at least you've faced the best. Compare yourself with those who never had the courage to step in the ring!

Success isn't always about becoming the best in the world. It's always about becoming the best you can be.
After their legendary fight Archie Moore said the fisherman from Baie-Sainte-Anne was the toughest opponent he had ever faced. What will your opponents say about you? Yvon Durelle is not a household word. Among his peers and those who count his name is part of a timeless legend.

Success is living a life you can be proud of. Keep punching; keep getting back in the ring and you'll always be in contention.

That's success!

Jim Bouchard is America's Black Belt Mindset Master…speaker, media personality and author of Think Like a Black Belt (available May 2010) and Dynamic Components of Personal Power.

Jim's official amateur boxing record will forever stand at 0 wins, 1 loss. His "unsanctioned" record will never be published!

Visit JimBouchard.org!