Here are the principles that Floyd Mayweather followed to make his first billion!
Understand Your Edge If you’ve ever watched Mayweather box, then
you’ve seen the art of Mayweather boxing.
You’ve seen the ridiculous hand speed and quickness that he was born with.
In fact, he’s so good at boxing, it was almost boring to watch him fight since you
knew what the outcome was.
There’s no denying how much talent he was born with. and his family could see the potential
in him from when he was a little kid.
He had a knack for ducking all the punches his opponents threw at him from an early age.
His quickness in his lateral movements contributed to him not catching much punishment throughout
his career.
Mayweather knew exactly where his edge was in boxing.
DNA Mayweather was lucky to be born with the DNA
he had and knowing where to concentrate his time.
Most of us aren’t lucky enough to understand our talents, and know exactly what we were
born to do in life.
Mayweather was born into a family of boxers.
His dad, Floyd Sr., was a former welterweight contender who fought Hall of Famer Sugar Ray
Leonard.
His uncles Jeff and Roger Mayweather were both professional boxers.
Roger, Floyd's former trainer, won two world championships.
Boxing has been around the Mayweather family for a long time.
Boxing has been a part of Mayweather's life since his childhood and he never seriously
considered any other profession.
He credits his grandmother as seeing his talent first.
Mayweather has said that she discouraged him from getting a job and encouraged him to stick
with boxing.
He took his grandmother’s word to heart and dropped out of high school to try and
develop the talent that he was born with to the fullest.
We really can’t argue with that logic.
When a certain trade has been running through your family, and you have a chance to make
billions of dollars through that craft, it’d be worth it to take a chance even if the odds
are stacked against you.
Floyd eventually took that chance.
Dedication Even though Mayweather became one of the greatest
boxers we’ve seen today, he wasn’t born one of the greatest.
He was known for his dedication to boxing.
He still had to take a long road to get where he is today.
His talent was spotted early on and developed as much as it could have.
Talent alone won’t cut it.
Mayweather fans and haters can at least all agree on one thing.
There's no denying his incessant, intense work ethic to becoming the best boxer.
It was an obsession to be the best, and he was willing to do whatever it took.
Mayweather was famous for his workouts that happened in the middle of the night.
Mayweather may sometimes portray a party bachelor lifestyle, but he really was a machine that
just got his workouts in whenever and wherever.
He set a very high standard for himself to live up to.
To him it was probably easy because it was just what he wanted to do and what he was
used to.
Lucky for him, it was ridiculously hard for other boxers to be as dedicated.
Even though it looked like he was partying hard, he actually wasn’t.
Mayweather doesn’t drink alcohol.
He watched what he ate.
He didn’t gain lots of weight in-between fights like most other boxers do.
There were times he would workout right after getting home from the club!
He was willing to dedicate his entire life to boxing and outworking his competition.
Lifelong Learning Mayweather didn’t just work hard.
He worked smart as well.
He’s a lifelong student of boxing.
He was constantly tweaking, improving, and analyzing his techniques and strategies.
His ability to continually adapt was a big reason why he was at the top of boxing for
so long.
Again, natural talent obviously was a big part of the equation in Mayweather’s excellence.
But to reduce his success to natural ability, is to do a massive disservice to his work
ethic.
Talent is no different than an opportunity, and in Mayweather’s case, it was an opportunity
that he was consistently cultivating.
Mayweather is a rational thinker.
He created a strategy that was simple yet unbeatable.
Don’t get hit by your opponents, and hit your opponents when you have a chance.
Simple as that.
He worked on his technique regularly to outthink, outmaneuver and outbox his competition.
Simply put, Floyd Mayweather has dedicated his life to the sport he chose.
Understand Your Opponent We all have to understand what we’re up
against.
Mayweather won fight after fight because he understood boxing better than anyone else.
He studied and understood his opponents.
There’s no secret recipe to that other than experience.
He put in countless hours in boxing.
Mayweather figured out and implemented the perfect formula for success.
He minimized his mistakes and maximized the opportunities his opponents had for mistakes.
He used tactics very specific to his opponent's fighting style by knowing their weaknesses
and exploiting them.
He brought out the worst in his competitors and took advantage of it.
All of this was simply taking the time to prepare.
As Aristotle said, excellence is a continual habit and not a one time event.
The only way someone was going to beat Mayweather was to out-train him, outthink him and out-endure
him.
It was gonna take someone who was born with greater talent, AND the willingness to have
an abnormal life like Mayweather to be able to beat him.
Blessings in Disguise Taking punches was nothing new for Mayweather.
He had been dealing with tough conditions his entire life.
Floyd’s dad wasn’t there for him all the time.
His mom had problems with different substances.
The neighborhood he was around wasn’t the greatest.
Sometimes, it’s a hidden blessing to have gone through struggle because you find out
what you’re made of and you know what you can handle in the future.
People who are born with everything haven’t been put to the test and it can be detrimental
in the long run.
They just don’t know what it actually takes for success.
Floyd Jr. talks of experiences of when he was about eight or nine when he was living
in New Jersey with his mother.
He said that at times they were living with up to seven people living in one bedroom and
that there was often no electricity.
Security and comfort were a couple things that Floyd Mayweather had to literally fight
for to get in life.
Early exposure to violence and hardship are definitely not things that you NEED in order
to be successful or even want.
There are plenty of successful people who came from comfortable, conventional backgrounds.
But more often than not, the most successful people who are self-made wouldn’t trade
the struggle they were put through.
His difficult childhood almost definitely had a hand to play in making him one of the
most determined, toughest boxers the world has ever seen.
One Day at a time Floyd often talks about a one day at a time
type of philosophy.
Floyd believed in taking everything a day at a time, and just having relentless focus.
Every day is a new day.
Yesterday’s work is irrelevant.
All that mattered to him was that that day was another day of excellence.
Efficiency is Everything When it comes to punches connected, Floyd
holds the record for being the most accurate puncher since the existence of compubox.
He landed 42% of his punches thrown.
The moral of the story is that efficiency wins.
Floyd calculates every move, both in and out of the ring.
A fighter might get a lucky break, throw a lucky punch, or use gimmicks or fancy tactics
to win occasionally.
But Floyd didn’t want to count on luck.
He counted on repeatable things.
Greatness can only be achieved by mastering the fundamentals.
In boxing, it’s about two things - hitting and getting hit.
Floyd exceled on both accounts and the numbers didn’t lie.
Adapt to the times Floyd developed his own style of training
when it came to hitting the mitts.
He found and developed what worked for him instead of blindly following conventions.
His style of hitting the mitts was a complex practice of ducking and bobbing and endless
punches and combinations.
So Floyd did lots of fancy training combinations and made his mitt training into a sort of
rhythmic dance.
And so what?
It was that exact point, understanding and adapting to what he needed.
He didn’t simply just repeat the same thing.
Our competition is consistently changing.
Mayweather understood that and he was dynamic.
He’s always adapted to change in the environments he’s operating in.
Floyd has aspirations greater than boxing.
He wants to make another billion dollars.
This is obviously one big reason he’s boxing Logan Paul!
The Right Team So who’s on The Money Team?
There are the MBAs, the photographers, and the businessmen.
There are the massive bodyguards.
There are Mayweather's family members.
What they AREN’T are a bunch of people doing nothing for Mayweather.
They all have a role on the team.
His team isn’t just for show.
These are the people that help Mayweather run his businesses.
And right now they’re allowing him to focus on his fight with Logan Paul.
The vast majority of us will never need a big entourage such as Mayweather.
But Mayweather keeps a tight team around him in order to help him efficiently run his life.
He knows how important it is to allow the right people into his life.
Take the Opportunity Mayweather has made his undefeated record
an integral part of his personal brand.
But the “undefeated” label is just the top layer of him being able to make large
amounts of money.
Floyd understands how to maximize his opportunities.
He understands how the spotlight works.
Mayweather is polarizing, people mostly either love him or hate him, but he planned it that
way.
He didn’t care whether people love him or hate him.
He just cares whether people will show up.
Correct Branding When he was Pretty Boy Floyd, he was humble
and likeable, but not many people had a reason to watch his fights.
He wasn’t making anywhere close to what he was making later in his career.
He knew he had to change his branding to make more money.
As soon as he became the villain Money Mayweather, all of a sudden everyone wanted to watch him
lose.
And he was absolutely fine with that.
Mayweather fully understands that fans can be extremely passionate about wanting to see
someone they don’t like to fail and struggle.
He was one of the most hated boxers, and that was his own doing.
He created the Money Mayweather persona exactly to rub people the wrong way.
He knows that people will pay for the chance to watch him lose.
His branding was done so well that it allowed him to put together a huge fight between him
and someone who wasn’t even in boxing.
Conor McGregor was someone else who knew how important branding is.
Bet on Yourself From a financial standpoint, there has never
been a more successful boxer than Floyd Mayweather Jr.
That has just as much to do with his negotiation tactics as it does with his skills and training.
He broke all sorts of money records and generated tremendous attention for boxing.
His business acumen and knowledge of how business works led him to the creation of Mayweather
Promotions, allowing him full control of how he makes money.
By promoting and putting together his own fight, he’s able to make a lot more money
than the typical boxer.
For the first 10 years of his professional career, Mayweather was a part of Bob Arum's
stable of fighters at Top Rank Promotions.
During that time he became the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Back in April of 2006 Mayweather turned down the highest purse for him at that time.
He was offered $8 million dollars to fight Antonio Margarito.
But instead, he decided to pay 750 grand to get out of his contract.
He exercised an option in his contract that allowed him to become a free agent instead.
That was a lot of money to pay for him at that time, but he bet on himself and it paid
off massively.
Ownership First After buying himself out of his contract,
Mayweather took unprecedented control over his career.
Rather than getting paid a large guaranteed fee up front by a promoter, Mayweather puts
it all together himself and bets on himself to be able to make more money than what a
promoter would pay him.
He earns a percentage of every ticket purchased, and everything sold at the fight.
He earns money from countries that pay for broadcasting rights.
Basically he’s exchanging upfront risk for back-end profit while retaining total control.
This is exactly what an entrepreneur does in the hopes of getting a massive payday.
And this is the reason why Mayweather’s a billionaire today.
He took control of the total revenue on the back end.
Boxing and all other professional sports only exist because there’s money to be made,
and no one has made more money as a boxer than Mayweather.
Here’s what’s next!