I’ve just finished reading the biography of Mike Tyson, the
former undisputed heavy weight champion of the world. It was a surprisingly
good read. With the exception of the infamous night in an Indianapolis, Hotel, he
did not spare a single detail in dealing with every aspect of his tumultuous life.
The book is written in exactly the same fashion as he speaks. Everyone who is
close to him is called a “Nigga” and kicking the crap out of people seems like
a natural thing to do. He proudly admits to being a “horrible drunk” who enjoyed
cocaine and alcohol at the same time.
What makes Tyson’s story so compelling is that it is full of
ups and downs. His relationships, particularly with women are totally
dysfunctional. He makes the point that for him “base-line normal” is something
close to total destruction. The man climbed his way out of Brownsville in the
Bronx. Made an outrageous amount of money from his boxing career. Spent even
more of it and got himself bankrupted but is finally living an easy. In a nut
shell – Tyson is everything that most sensible parents spend their lives trying
to make sure their kids do not become.
Tyson is the man who proudly admits that he wanted to be the
“villain” from a very young age. His image as a “beast” was something that he
psyched himself into becoming. Eventually the image took over and became the
reality of who he was and we get the Tyson that we all know about.
I remember watching Tyson at his best. I was living in the
UK at the time and one of the great highlights was his fight with Frank Bruno.
Somehow Tyson managed to go through a divorce, a car accident and then he
returned to beat the crap out of Bruno. You got to love the guy.
Tyson is special. Here is a character who has done awful
things and been a total shit. Yet, somehow he brought us. People who would
never watch boxing, would somehow do it when it was him. I suppose we managed
to identify with the man because he did all the crappy things that most of us
would love to do but always held back on because we had responsibilities and so
on.
Say what you like about the man but he made boxing
interesting. Seriously, how many of us can name the heavy weight champion of
the world today? The only boxer who seems to elicit much interest these days is
Manny Paquiao. With all due respect to Mr. Paquiao, one has to ask if he’d get adoration
that he does had been born in one of boxings more traditional power houses like
the USA or Europe? Paquia has become a hero in a society where there are so few of them.
Tyson gave life to the boxing game. I think what made him so
special was the fact that boxing was probably the only thing he knew he was
good at and so he put everything into it. While Tyson made money – serious
amounts of it, his ultimate purpose in life was to kill anybody he met in the
ring. In short – he had the one ingredient for his job that too many of us lack
– passion.
I’m probably not one to talk but too many of us these days
become obsessed with being sensible. We avoid doing certain things because we
are afraid that they may not work out and that we will be thought of in bad
way. While there are merits in doing this (a fact my father often reminds me I
should have done earlier on in life), there are times when playing it safe is …..dull
and the antithesis to success.
I am not advocating that one should start drinking and doing
cocaine. However, I do believe that instead of trying to suppress characters,
we should be encouraging them. In a world where we focus so much on safety and
regulation and sticking to acceptable norms, we sometimes forget that life isn’t
exactly safe and sometimes we need to leap of faith and follow our passions
regardless of anything else.
I think of Clark Kent, the mild mannered reporter who
becomes Superman. Most of us are Clark Kent. We do our jobs and go about life
quietly. We try to stay safe and on the right track because we think we need
to.
However, in doing only what is expected of us, we lose the
opportunity to follow our passions and to unleash the Superman within us.
Perhaps that Bad Ass Nigga wasn’t such a bad ass when it came to giving his all
fighting in the ring and his life.
