Doug Merlino is the author of Beast: Blood, Struggle and Dreams at the Heart of Mixed Martial Arts, and spent two years researching it at American Top Team headquarters at Coconut Creek, FL. He lived, ate, and trained alongside the world class fighters, and traveled with them to events around the world.
The consistent winners followed routines that clearly stood out from the pack. With effort and discipline, those lessons can apply to nearly any pursuit. Merlino recently did an article for Fast Company on five unexpected leadership lessons learned from the world’s top mixed martial artists.
1. KNOW WHAT YOU’RE FIGHTING FOR
Mirsad Bektic was born in 1991 in Bosnia, his mother fled the country with him and his brothers when he was a baby… He was inspired to become an example of strength and courage for his family and other Bosnians… Believing that your effort serves a purpose that matters to you has been shown to be one of the key drivers of motivation. Other fighters had less defined reasons for fighting than Bektic did—they enjoyed the lifestyle, liked the limelight, or simply didn’t see any better job options. While they may have been physically talented, these fighters often gave up when their fights got too hard…. Other things being equal, the person with the most-defined reason for competing will always go home the winner.2. UNDERSTAND YOUR SKILLS AND HOW THEY FIT TOGETHER
MMA fighters have to know not just a dizzying array of techniques, but how to combine them effectively. For many leaders, the temptation (and plenty of the management advice) is to hone what you’re good at and surround yourself with people who can fill in for your deficiencies… The best fighters relentlessly review their performances and see where their skills are lacking. After a fight, they spend several weeks working on areas that need improvement, gradually incorporating these new skills into their repertoires.3. STAYING ON TOP IS AS HARD AS GETTING THERE
Daniel Straus worked his way up from small-time fights in Cincinnati to the Viacom-owned Bellator promotion. After winning its featherweight belt in November 2013, he lost it just a few months later, when a mistake led to his getting caught in a submission hold. Afterward, he told me it was a relief. He had geared his whole life around winning the championship. When he finally had the belt around his waist, he was no longer the underdog. The pressure of being on top was overwhelming—being a champion didn’t fit with his self-image. The loss had put him back in the more comfortable position of being a challenger… While it’s important to envision yourself as a champion from the beginning, you need to think about what you’ll do when you actually are.4. RESPECT YOUR COMPETITORS
Nearly all fighters embrace at the end of their fights. When your competitors succeeds, often your company stumbles. But it’s those high stakes that drive innovation and push every contender to do their best… Top performance is only possible when both competitors bring everything with them into the cage. Your competitors do you the favor of pushing you to your limits.5. NO ONE IS A NATURAL
The best left nothing to chance, preparing themselves for anything that might happen once the bell rang. Natural talent plays a role, but it takes an enormous amount of hard work and effort to develop it. Ask any successful business leader or hard-driving startup, and they’ll likely tell you the same.
Doug Merlino received master’s degrees in journalism and international affairs from the University of California at Berkeley. His first book, The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White, was a Seattle Times bestseller and winner of the 2011 Washington State Book Prize for Biography/Memoir.
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