Mike Tyson on Discipline, Power, and the Cost of Greatness

22:38So it's okay then, Mike, if I ask you, what happens from there when that mentorship is gone, the vacuum is created, other people come in? What does that do to your trajectory, your life, your career from there? It throws you off for a while. I got blinded. I was just fortunate. God blessed me to last long enough. I didn't give in. During those periods of time, think about killing yourself.

23:17I didn't do it. A couple of times I thought about it. When I got married, I thought about it. When I got divorced, I thought about it. I just went through emotion. I never thought I could survive. And I did it. I made it. His training helped. Thank you.

23:37So, choices people make. You have all these influencers online. I love there's a quote that you said recently. It was something like, I'm not going to get exact, you put it out, something like, oh, people can hide behind their keyboards now and be disrespectful and not get punched in the face. Tell me about that. Tell me about we think about the world today think about people posing pretending To be something they're not you know, please It's just that we live in a world now that um and listen I'm not picking on no particular group anything. I'm just saying what it is, you know The computer the what's the what's the thing we're on again?

24:13Chat GPT or whatever it is. That's the that's the pedophile or child rapist that's his dream to have that. That's his dream. Those guys get in touch with more kids than anybody does now. You know, and that's been, and it's been, I just didn't like, I don't like that. It gives all the bad guys all the power. You know, it does. Well, if you can go back and give yourself some advice after Cuss Pass and talk to your younger self about it, Don King, becoming a part of your life, you know, what would you tell your younger self? because some of this was really valuable. You made a lot of money. Oh, listen.

24:53I made a lot of money. That wasn't valuable. What was more valuable than making all the money was losing it. You know, that was more valuable than having any of it, you know, because you realize that that doesn't define you. You know, I realize even more than myself, I realize people looked at me, your mic with a billion dollars and your mic with 40 cents, you're still mic, you know. I never treated anybody bad when I was on top of my game. I never treated anybody bad when I wasn't doing what I used to. I was always Mike. And that's just what I lived on. You know, broke Mike, rich Mike, whatever, my Mike.

25:34And if you gave advice to somebody, though, right, so you had an incredible mentor that you believe cared about you in the way you wanted to be cared about. then later you had people come into your life that maybe I'm not sure but seeing my from things I've heard and read that you said right that didn't care about you well there are mentors too they're bad mentors but they're meant to you learn from them as well I look at everything I experience them and life is just a learning point a learning moment in my life you know something that I can even make it a crutch so I can make it a good experience and learn from it.

26:12And what did some of those people do? You know, it seems like Cus gave you discipline. He gave you tools, you know, and it seems like from what I've read and heard, I'm not sure, right, you can tell me if I'm right or wrong, it seems like the bad mentors gave you vices, gave you, you know, parties and a surface level. It seems like Custom Auto gave you this deep level that you had purpose and other people tried to give you surface level things, jewelry and cars and women and things. Am I hearing that correctly? This is what some people, this is, a guy like me, Powers having a lot of money to cuss Powers giving money away.

26:57That's the difference between him and some people. because he believes the more you give away, the more powerful you are. That's awesome. Well, that's just how he thinks. I don't think I think like him, but that's just how he thinks. That's how he thinks. The more you get, the more you give. Awesome. And what do you think? What do you think from here? What's life about for you from here? You have a beautiful family. That's what it's all about. You can't let the people you care about and the people that care about you and you guys just love each other. That's what life is all about. You can't love the people that don't love you even if you love them you can't make them love you because it's not meant to be It's just the people with which even if they're not blood family I saw some people and I've done it too.

27:40Well sometimes your blood family is not doing right So you have to make your own family in the street sometimes so and that happens whoever you consider your family Your lifelong friend, you gotta stick together and it's your guys against the world Thank you and let's go back then in time for that Let's talk about some bigger problems in the world. You've seen it up close and personal. You said coming from Brownsville and all the pain and insanity of that. What are gangs, why are gangs so attracted to kids? And is there any solution to that? And were there positive things that came out of, for you being a gang?

28:18I was really never a gang guy. We had cruel friends. We never said we're this or that. We just had food with friends and we just hung together, we stole together, we just did a bunch of stuff together. But what you do get from gangs are power. Normally the guy, normally the big tough guy on the grocery corner, you go to the store, he's there to pick you up, but now he knows you got 20 guys that you hang out. You hang out with those 20 guys in the corner all the time, he's not going to say nothing to you but hi. That's just how it goes. He knows you're hanging out with all those guys that caused all that trouble, they're shooting people, they're shooting at people.

28:55Hey man, how you doing? He's not going to bother that guy anymore. And that's a little guy. He's not going to bother him never again. And maybe if he did, then what happened to him? If he lived through it, he'll never bother those guys again. That's just what a gang does. You only have one time to violate them. Can you imagine what kind of power that gives somebody that's been picked on most of his life? Yeah, incredible. It's like powerlessness to power fall. So is there a solution? If you were there and you could do anything, tell the politicians or governors or business people, anybody who cares, is there a fix?

29:32Let's get these guys some jobs. Prepare them for some jobs or something.

29:41That's why, listen, I'm just saying this because I know really there's some people in America because it's just so good they don't want to work. And they don't have to be poor. They can be middle. Sometimes they don't want to work. And that's why we have problems with ICE, because the people that are coming in here, they want to work. And I know people don't like that, but what are you going to do with people that want to work against people that don't want to work? I never even understood that, but I understand this too. Illegal criminals coming in here, killing people, and murdering people too.

30:15That has to stop. That's the only thing Trump, they're not letting Trump really go loose on. They're letting him, he's holding back from the ICE people now. He's not allowing them really to do what he really feels they should do. I'm just a strong believer that we should protect this country and keep the people that want to be in this country and make this country stronger should be in this country. Well, thank you. You're certainly one of those profound leaders. And so from here, Mike Tyson, what's the rest of this journey? I hope you're here for another 100 years on this earth. What's it? Well, I wouldn't want to be here another 100 years.

30:56God, no. But what is it about from here? I mean, it's family, but it's still things that on a mission level or professional level, you're here today. A lot with family. Family has to understand this, that regardless of politician, religion, whatever it is, we're still family. We don't have to be enemies because we have different beliefs than what religion or politician. We're still blood families. That's not fight. That's what's going on now. Listen, I think this has probably been the biggest family dispute since the history of politics since Trump's been involved. Friends and family, they're having disputes now.

31:38Amen. And so what we're hearing from Mike Tyson, who'll get in the ring and knock somebody out and through the ropes, is we're hearing let's come together, let's have peace. If he got, listen, what's the guy, Mandoni, the communist guy? If he got along with that guy, God, what enemies do we have? He does not matter. He's not mad at anybody. I never in a million years thought him and this guy would get along. Not in a million years. I was there at the White House and I saw the meet and it was beautiful. I didn't have the slightest idea that it would go that way. That's beautiful. So, with that heart and that love, at one point you have a fight with an Olympic gold medalist, Michael Spinks, and me and my friends save up all of our money and it costs like $40 to go see it in a movie theater about 20 minutes from here in Hackensack, New Jersey.

32:31we get our popcorn we get our soda we're ready to see Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks go at it and would you give me my 40 bucks back? I was told that for a long time so let's go let's go see what that looks like oh god

32:49oh god

33:01up to four and five and six and seven and eight. That was a body shot that took him down. Here comes Mike Spinks in. He leaves it right there. There he goes. I don't think you can get up from this. Mike Spinks is laying flat on his back. He counted up to five and six and seven and eight. He won't be able to do it. It's all over. Mike Jason has won it.

33:36I didn't even get a sip of my soda. That was really wild. I don't even know that guy. Look at that guy. Who the hell? How do you feel about that guy that did that to Michael Spinks? He was just a child. I was in love for really the first time. I never had really a girlfriend before. and I'm 21 years old and I have a wife. Really, I probably have one or two girlfriends. The next thing you know, I have a wife. I didn't even, I wasn't even experienced with women or nothing. I just wanted to be a fighter. I was really a knobhead back then. And how afraid of you? When you came out there, could you feel the fear of your opponent when you were getting the instructions or you didn't feel that, you didn't think about that?

34:21What was present, what were you thinking was in your mind as you're standing there against Michael Spinks, could you feel hit? It looked like he was afraid. I'm just waiting for the bell to ring. That's not going to do anything. It's looking at each other. You want to hit the guy to make something happen. It's going to go, ding. That's awesome. Could you feel the fear of your opponents at that time, that they would be standing there? Could you feel their fear or you weren't feeling that? I could feel, you could listen, you know. I'll try to explain this. It depends on the, it's all about energy.

34:56Sometimes I go into the ring, center of the ring, move my attitude and the guy puts his head down and he doesn't look at me. And I go right through the corner and I say this guy's coming to fight. I'm going to keep my hands up and just try and move my hand because I can see he's coming. I can tell when a guy doesn't look at me, normally nine times out of ten, probably eight out of ten, he's coming to charge right at me, he's coming at me. It never fails. It never fails. Because I see the energy tells me I'm giving it all. I don't give a damn. It's going to go all up and give it my best. And that's pretty scary because somebody comes out and he doesn't care.

35:32Anything can happen. He has nothing to lose. He's a little nervous. He comes back a little nervous to the ring. He's going to give it all out in the first round. Well, thank you for that. So how many minutes do we have left? Ten. Ten. Ten, okay. We have 30 minutes already? We're having fun We kicking it So now I'm going to ask you some questions that Again, I promise I'm not sure I put you on the spot I love Muhammad Ali I love Mike Tyson Muhammad Ali in his prime With Angela Dundee Mike Tyson, his prime Customato What happens? What does that look like? What is that all about? So Muhammad Ali never loses those years in his career.

36:25Cus would have loved that fight. Cus loved Muhammad Ali so much. He would have loved that stuff. I love Ali. Ali is the greatest ever in my mind. I just think he's the greatest. He inspired me. When I first saw him I was in an institution called Sparfin in New York City and we came there and they showed the movie. It was about 1977. They showed the movie The Greatest. Then the lights went on and Muhammad Ali walked in. I go to visit those kids at home, he came to visit us. I said, wow. And I wanted to be like that guy. And then the next time I go to the next reformatory, there's some guy in there and teach people how to box.

37:05It was just ordained by God for it to happen. For me to see him and say, wow. So what do you think that fight, before you get into who would have won a loss, what do you think the fight would have looked like? Like what would it have been like putting your styles together? Tell us about that fight. You know, this is what's different about Muhammad Ali that other people don't see. Ali is, he's just different, it's hard to explain to him. It's just hard to explain this guy, you know, because he's the kind of guy, like we say They got like Liston and George, those guys are ferocious animals, monsters, they kill anybody.

37:52But Ali handles him, those two guys like they're nothing. Anybody else, those guys would kill him, wipe the floor with him. But Ali beats them like they're nothing. They fight Ali, Ali's like two for now, he fights Frazier, two for now, anybody could win, he fight Norton. Then two for now, Norton and Frazier fight these guys, Fulman kills them like they're nothing. They fight Ali, they almost kill each other, him and Ali. Ali fight these monsters, he kills them, he knocks them out. So styles have a lot to do with fighting. The bigger and tougher you are, the more Ali kicks your ass. These guys that are not as tough as those other guys, they give them tough fights for some reason.

38:29Styles make fights. So how about putting your styles together? What would that have looked like? What do you think would have happened? What do you think Customata would have said would have happened? Wow.

38:45I don't know. He never was. He told me nobody in the world could beat Muhammad Ali when I was a kid. Well, here's something I'm going to tell you. I'm not a boxer. I was a baseball player, a football player, a wrestler. And I'm not customato. And here's something I have never wanted to admit because Muhammad Ali was my favorite of all time. right is i truly believe and i don't want to say this but i truly believe you would have beat muhammad ali and at that spanks fight my friends and i sat there and they were they were even bigger mike tyson fans than i was i i really appreciated you i was like you're you're great amazing but i loved ali so anything that was even getting near ali's legend i was like no no no no right like like so i was like larry holmes no way he beat muhammad ali when muhammad ali was already old no way no way so when you were coming up i was afraid that you were going to become the greatest of all time and replace muhammad ali i truly believe this i do believe you would be in muhammad ali thank you i do you know i know that's pretty awesome i really appreciate that you know but me when i look at ali you know i think of the guys he beat and the kind of men that he beat the personality they are like listen as soon as they come out they come off from the airport a bus They see a cop, a cop, this is their racist time, late 50s, early 60s.

40:08He see a cop, he goes right after what? They killed blacks for so much less than that back then. And you know Ali beats these guys like they're nothing, talk about their mother, talk about screwing their sisters and mother-wife. No listen, you think I'm playing. I don't know. You know you're not playing. Ali was fighting Foreman, and the announcer was the one that talked to the referee what was going on in the clinches with him and Foreman. And the referee, oh my God, I can't say what he was saying. Oh, you can't believe what he was saying about the guy's sister and his mother. The referee was saying, I can't say what he was saying.

40:48I just can't believe he said that. And he said I can't believe he had time to say that while he's fighting. Ali would talk about your mother, your sisters, having sex with, while he's fighting. While he's fighting he's talking about all this crazy stuff. Ali wasn't a normal guy man. Something was wrong with him. How are you in a fight in your life? This guy's a killer. You talking about his mother and his sister and doing things? Oh God. Because Joe Frazier did you hear this man? This man is crazy. How do you talk about a guy's mother? Joe Frazier thinks he's totally out of his mind. How does he have a chance to talk about these guys, fighting these guys, talking about their mothers and sisters?

41:27God. So what I'm hearing Mike Tyson say is that the reason Muhammad Ali was the greatest or may have been the greatest, who knows what would have happened with Mike Tyson without the loss of Customato, who is, I mean, inarguably, people say that Yu Ali are the two greatest heavyweets of all time, which is interesting because Rocky Marciano was undefeated. It was a different time, different place. but what I'm hearing you say is that the reason one of the reasons Muhammad Ali was so great and so successful is because his influencing skills his ability to control people's minds when they fought like the Ropa Dope and Zaire absolutely he gave people hope tell us about that no he just gave people hope he beat the greatest odds that's what was big about Ali when everybody thinks he was going to lose the Liston the monster then after that then Liston Protégé another ferocious vicious scary monster Then he beats them like they're nothing.

42:20People are worried. People are writing letters. Please don't fight them. Don't fight them. Then he beats these guys. Because Joe Frazier had beaten Ali after he came out of the Supreme Court thing. Exactly. And then Foreman destroys Frazier. And Norton as well. And Norton as well. And those both guys, they both beat the shit out of Ali. Frazier and Norton. They're the only two guys that beat Ali. This guy is obliviated though. Incredible. Well, I mean, how amazing is it an honor to talk to Mike Tyson about Muhammad Ali in these fights? Like, this is a dream of mine. So thank you for that as well.

42:54And our final couple of minutes, you know, Mike, what do you do for fun? I mean, you're a family. I know you love pigeons. I knew somebody who knew you at one point. I think you had a hawk. Is that right? At one point you had a hawk that you played with in the desert, right? I was on the phone one time with someone who was on the phone with you when you were out with your hawk in the desert. That was a fun special moment. I was listening as you were doing that. But what's fun for you now? I know you love animals, I know you love kids, you have a charity. Believe it or not, I can't believe I'm this way.

43:24It's my wife and my kids. You know, it's a trip. And I mean all the kids, all eight of them, not just the younger ones. Because all of them, they all became, even though we have our different beliefs and stuff because they're adults, but we always support each other. We're always family together. And some of them don't get along but I know they fight together for each other. They're just family. And sometimes I wonder myself, I wonder what it's like being my siblings, being my daughter at Summer. Is that a pain in the neck or something? Is that pressure? I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is. How about this, movies.

44:01So I know you said you love cartoons. I know you love the Rocky movie. I know you love Bruce Lee. Any other things? So I know you're with Rocky, Bruce Lee, any other cartoons, things like what are movies, heroes, stories that you like to watch? Rob Markman, Jr.: Wow. I love the Jet Li movies and all that stuff. The Sunday movies on Kung Fu Theater and all that stuff when I was a kid. That's pretty much inspirational stuff. Mostly they're fighting, they're not fighting another clan, they're fighting the Japanese and it's all about sacrifice. You're stronger than me. me, the people will follow you so let me sacrifice my life and you come back and avenge me.

44:42You know in America you say I'm going to sacrifice myself and you avenge me. You say yes go sacrifice. As soon as you die, boom, the hell with you. We take all the money for ourselves. But those guys, they gave you dignity and pride and all the black kids, that was the cause of the gang theory too. We all stick together as one. The Chinese movies, that's what that was all about. We stick with our clan and we avenge each other. Thank you, Mike. I'm hearing respect, honor, leadership. And so if maybe we begin to draw to close with this, do you think about being remembered? Some people, I don't care about that.

45:23Some people do. Do you care about being remembered? And if so, what do you want to be remembered for? Not that much. but if I have to be remembered for something, I never fuck nobody over that didn't have it coming to them. Me too. That's what I want to be known as well. Amen.

45:46I want to thank you for the honor of coming here today, the trust. I thought this was going to be amazing and masterful. It blew my mind. It was 100x, but I swear to God do I say what I don't mean? No. I do not. Did you talk to my wife? I will. Did you never talk to her? I will. If you can talk to Bella I'll talk to your wife. You never talked to her. She had all the night and she knew everything about you and you never talked to her, huh? I didn't yet. Wow, I thought you talked to her before we got this going on. I would be honored to. No, she knew everything about you that's why. No, thank you.

46:27That's why I thought you would talk. that's interesting thank you and what I'd love you to know as we close is I think that people chase the wrong things what Custom Idol taught you is what I was taught by incredible high school coaches and leaders people told me I could never be a division one athlete and baseball player I was captain of my team I was going to go on and play professionally if it wasn't for going blind and I channeled it into the business and the things we do and what I What I would love you to know about me as we close is that there's, in the world, Mr. Tyson, is that there's people out there who really do care like Customato did, and I'm one of those people.

47:10And my life, my stand is for people to unlock their greatness. And what you have done for me today is priceless because here's what it is. I back off sometimes the way Customato didn't. and I give space to people in ways I shouldn't because I don't want them to feel bad, I'm being mad at me, and that's not what Custom Auto did for you. It's not what my coaches did for me because, Mr. Mike Tyson, you blessed me on a Saturday morning with coming to this space. You've made me a better leader. You reminded me of the truth, and I am going to be a 100x more powerful, more effective leader than I was walking that door.

47:49I was doing pretty good before, but you've made me better, and so has Custom Auto, And it's been an honor and privilege, Mr. Mike Tyson. I can't believe my wife hasn't talked to me. She told me that she was talking about you like she knew you and talked to you and everything. Thank you. Thank you. And any final things that you'd like to share today? I'm just happy that I came here. I'm just really happy that I came here. Thank you. God bless you, sir. Thank you so much, brother. Thank you. No, no. Thank you. Mr. Mike Tyson, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.