Brian Johnson reflects on attending a UFC event and a lesson about seizing transient advantages—'magic moments'—drawn from mixed martial arts (notably Anderson Silva via manager Ed Soros) and linked to leadership lessons from Theodore Roosevelt, Jim Collins, and Phil Stutz. The piece urges readers to recognize and act on fleeting opportunities in performance and life.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last one, we talked about James Altucher and his mixed martial artist friends, mastery math. As you may recall, when Ken Shamrock wanted a master of martial art, he'd plus one equal and minus one. It by finding a teacher, his plus one, a sparring partner equal and a student to teach minus one. That's a brilliant way to approach mastery. And let's stay on the mixed martial arts theme for a moment longer. Not too long ago, I was blessed to receive an invitation to attend a UFC event in Austin. Quick backstory. One of our heroic members. Thanks. Ryan is super passionate about helping us catalyze the heroic movement. He connected me with one of his friends named Ed Soros. Ed. Ed Soros is a legend in the mixed martial arts world. He's managed some of the best fighters in the ufc, including Anderson Silva, who also runs the development league for the UFC called the Legacy Fighting Alliance. So Ryan connected me with Ed, and Ed generously hosted me for a night at the UFC event in Austin. Ed's a VIP in this world, so our tickets were literally in the front row, right behind the press section. The whole experience was incredible. Of course, I'm a big fan of seeing any elite performer in action, but there was something especially powerful about seeing these warriors literally put themselves into the arena. As we've discussed, Epictetus loved to use wrestlers and boxers as heroic exemplars in his stories. As he made his philosophical points, I felt like I had a front row seat to the modern expression of his pankration wisdom. So the fights are remarkable. I'm studying the body language during the walkout and chatting with Ed about each of the fights from a tactical and psychological perspective. Now, there were a number of highlights I want to discuss in a series of plus ones. Here's one for today. After a particular moment in a fight when one fighter clearly had a momentary advantage but failed to capitalize on it, Ed told me that when Anderson Silva was fighting, he'd say that there was almost always a magic moment in the fight when. Goosebumps. As I typed this, you get that slight advantage for a moment. Ed told me that Anderson Silva, who again is considered one of the all time best mixed martial artists, told him that great fighters sense that moment and then fiercely capitalize on it. It's one of the things that made them great. As Ed and I discussed the fact that one fighter missed that moment, I thought of Jim Collins and Theodore Roosevelt and Phil Stutz. Phil has often told me that great leadership is all about exactly the same thing. He uses the metaphor of a world class running back who sees a hole in the line of scrimmage and immediately hits it. No hesitation. Pure instinct. The great running back sees the hole, trusts himself and hammers through the hole in the line of scrimmage for a big game. Magic Moment Seized in her extraordinary book on leadership, Doris Kearns Goodwin tells us that Theodore Roosevelt once said that any man who has been successful in has leapt at opportunities chance provides. Same thing. Jim Collins echoes this in his great book Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0. He tells us, in short, that all companies experience good and bad luck, but that the best leaders know how to manage the bad luck and take advantage of the good luck. Do you? Here's to seeing and seizing the magic moments in our lives today.
