Resiliency: The Trait that Defines Champions

You know, sometimes we get ourselves in a situation and we do not know what to do, and then we push ourselves a little bit harder. But the little voice inside of our head says, listen, man, you just going way beyond the call of duty. It's time to hang it up. It's time to quit. What do you do then? Today we're going to be talking about the whole idea of one word. It's a word that's not used a lot anymore, but it's the word that will make a major difference in your life. The word is resiliency.

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rohm, author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rohm.

So years ago, when I was growing up, there was a fighter by the name of Joe Frazier. He had a nickname, Smokin Joe Frazier. Joe Frazier was the first boxer to ever defeat and knock to the canvas Muhammad Ali and became the heavyweight champion of the world in March of 1971. I know that was a long time ago. I was listening to the fight. No one could believe it. Well, shortly after the fight, there was a big article that I still have in my file to this day about smoking Joe Frazier. And one of the things that caught my attention was the fact that he was so resilient. He had an incredible left hook. It was like the most powerful left hook that anyone had ever seen in the boxing ring. Someone asked him about it one day, how did you develop such a strong left hook? And Joe said, when I was growing up, I was on a cotton farm in Buford, South Carolina. My father picked cotton. He said one day his left arm got caught in a machine and got cut off. He said, I had to drop out of school as just a young kid and stand beside my father and with my left arm, do everything that he would have done with his left arm, except it had been severed. His father had lost his left arm. And so Job became his father's left army. Literally. He said, I stood by his side, and anything that a left arm would do, my. I developed with my left arm. And then he made this comment. He said, I developed a grown man's left arm while I was still a young boy. He said, little did I know that that left arm would one day help me become the heavyweight champion of the world. That's a tragic story in the sense that his father lost his left ar an accident and that Joe dropped out of school as a young boy to work with his dad. But it shows resiliency. And what I mean by that is, this is not easy. This isn't something that I'm going to share with you today. And you'll just develop by listening. It requires going the second and third and fourth mile. One other part of the Joe Frazier story that interested me was he developed in his training a five mile run. At five o' clock every morning, he said the alarm clock would go off. And all of us who've ever seen the Rocky movies see how hard it is for a fighter to wake up in the early morning hours of the wee hour, morning and the early morning hours to go outside and to run and to eat properly and to exercise and get in shape. It wasn't a movie for Joe Frazier. It was real life. Five o', clock, he'd get up and run five miles. And here's the part of the story that affected me the most, that I still remember to this day. He said after I had run four and a half miles, a little voice inside my head would say, hey, Joe, why don't you quit? You've run four and a half miles. Nobody's watching and nobody will know. He said, I would talk to that voice and I would say, brother, I'm the last person I'm trying to fool. You see, after four and a half miles, at five o' clock in the morning and only a half a mile to go, he had to develop something called resiliency. He had to push himself to go beyond what was acceptable, what was normal. And don't miss this, and even what was reasonable. I want you to hear me. Well, I'm talking not only to your head today, I'm talking to your heart. Hard work ain't easy. That was the quote by Yogi Berra, the catcher for the New York Yankees. Zig Ziglar. Put it another way. If you're hard on yourself, life will be easy on you. If you're easy on yourself, life will be hard on you. I, I, I, I believe we live in a world that teaches us be easy on yourself. Don't, don't go the second mile. I mean, it's, life's unfair and why don't you quit and nobody will know and just take it easy. Sit back. There's no sense in pushing yourself. I'm not talking about being abusive. What I am talking about is doing more than you thought you could do. You see, there are words like stamina. Stamina means just keep going even when you don't think you can. There are words like persistence. Hang in there, stay with it, stick with the stuff. There are words like tenacity, get after it, stay with it, and all those are great words. But the word resiliency means you just keep on coming back. If you'll recall in the Rocky movie, at the end of about the 14th round, Apollo Creed had beaten Rocky to a pulp. And Rocky was still standing there. And he looked at him and he said, I'm still standing here. And he motioned and you can see Apollo Creed just shaking his head. He couldn't believe the punishment he had dished out. And yet Rocky was still coming back for more. Let me share one other person who I believe created resiliency and a bunch of young men.

Paul Bear Bryant had the nickname of Coach, Coach Bear Bryant. That's how we remember him. Paul Bryant was the head coach at Texas A and M and then he went back to his alma mater at the University of Alabama. But when he coached at Texas A and m, he took 127 boys to Junction, Texas. They had to move the rocks in the cow pasture so no one would get hurt. And he put them through hell on Earth. For two weeks they had a two week camp. Over 100 of those boys, as a matter of fact, 102 quit. They snuck off, they left in the night. Only 25 were left. After 10 days, Coach Bryant looked at the boys and said, camp is over. I found who I was looking for.

25 out of 127 they went back. Coach Bryant coached them. They did not have a winning season that year, but they had a winning season every year thereafter. And he had a winning season every year. He was a coach. What did he do? He created resiliency. Now I'm going to tell you a story that's going to be tough, so just buckle up. But these are the kinds of stories that I have heard in my life that have helped me go the second mile, the third mile. Stories about Joe Frazier, stories that I have seen in the Rocky movies, stories that I have heard stories and read about Bear Bryant. One day he had his players running wind sprints. And the reason he was running them so hard is because the newspaper reporters were there. The reporters heard the difficult practices he put the team through. They would run 100 yard wind sprints all the way to one end of the goal, back to the other, back and forth, back and forth. He ran them one day until every player dropped. The person I remember reading this story was John David Crow. John David Crow was from Texas and he had gone to Texas A and M on a football scholarship. It was the only way he could get off the farm. It was the only way he could get a college education. He was the defensive back for Texas A and M. He was a young man, not real big. And during that practice, Coach Bront ran them back and forth. Hundred yard wind sprints until every player dropped. He ran them. He'd probably go to jail or be in a lot of trouble today. But maybe this is why we don't have people who are resilient like we once did. But don't lose the story. Just stay with me, if you would. He ran them and ran them. The press could hardly believe the torture that he put those players through. Then he would run over to the. They'd be laying on the ground, he'd pick their helmets. They pick their heads up by their helmet and say, son, do you like this? And they would say, yes, sir, coach, I love it. Anyway, the press left. Coach Brian said, all right, boys, hit the showers. And they all went inside. John David Crow said, I crawled on my hands and knees, I could hardly move, I hurt so bad. He said, I finally made it into the showers. I reached up, I turned on the cold water and I laid there in my uniform with the cold water splashing in my face. Then it happened. Coach Bryant walked in and said, all right, boys, the press is gone. Let's go outside to practice.

Six first string players at Texas A and M quit. They said, coach Bryant, you're crazy. We're not going back outside. You've killed us. We could barely make it into the dressing room. Coach Bryant said, everybody back on the field. John David Crow said, I laid in the shower and cried. He said, I cried.

Said I faced a moment, if I quit, I can't go to college. I'm going to have to go back to the farm, give up my scholarship and work on the farm.

He said, I wanted to quit. I wanted to quit. All I could think about was, I hate football, I hate Coach Bryant. I'm not going back out there, but if I quit, I'm out of school, I've got to go back to the farm. So he said, I got up, I went back outside. He said six first stringers, first string players had quit. He said, I went back outside. Coach Bryant lined us up offense against defense. We ran one play and Coach Bryant said, okay, boys, that's it for the day. Y' all can go back in. One play, one play. John David Crow said, I stood there and thought I almost quit. The six first string players came to Coach Bryant and here's what they said. If we had known you were going to only run one play, we would have gone back out. Coach Bryant said, yeah, but now I know something about you. I can't count on you. And if you're going to quit on me, I want you to quit in practice. I don't want you to quit in the game. Six first stringers lost their scholarships and could no longer play for Texas A and M. John David Crow said these words, hear me well.

That was the day I became a man. That was the day I realized sometimes you have to push yourself.

To go beyond anything you have ever gone through before in order to. Here it is. Create resiliency. Now, I'm going to say this one more time, lest you think I'm trying to be ridiculous. I. I'm not talking about living your life this way. I'm not talking about every day of your life being something that is about two or three steps from death. I'm not talking about that. But I am talking about going the second mile. If you strike a thorn or rose, keep it going. If it hails or if it snows, keep it going. Ain't no use to sit and whine when the fish ain't on your line. Bait your hook and keep on trying. Keep it going. I memorized that when I was in the sixth grade. I wonder why. You see, there's something inside of all of us, you, me and everyone else that likes a champion, that likes a hero or a heroine, a male or a female, who goes the second or third mile, who is victorious in battle. Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or mightier man. But sooner or later, the one who wins is the one who thinks he can. You cannot develop this kind of mindset by sitting in a hammock, eating grapes, drinking Kool Aid in the shade, thinking, yes, I need to be a resilient person in life. I'm telling you, I was in graduate school. It was so far over my head. I went outside under a tree and I sat down and cried. I was studying Greek and Hebrew and all kinds of theology and seminary, and I was so lost, I cried.

It was hard. May I tell you something? I'm glad I did it. I am. I'm speaking to your heart, boy. I'm 74 years old. I do not have the strength, the stamina and. Or the resiliency that I once did physically. But I believe I still have it emotionally, spiritually and psychologically. You see, I don't know what. Quit, give up. Don't work, won't work. Stop. I don't know what that means. I just know what Try your best. Show up. If things go wrong, don't go with them. If you're going through hell, keep going. It will get better. You've just got to stay with the stuff. There have been men to go into battle and seen people beside them killed and they just continued on in the battle. We have seen movies like Saving Private Ryan and we look at those great men and women who gave their lives in order that we could experience freedom. I'm not talking about today. I'm not talking about you becoming abusive to yourself. But I am talking about learning. Develop resiliency. And the only way you can develop it is pushing yourself a little bit more than you once thought you did. I remember the first time I lost $300 in a building project. I thought it was the end of my life. Now I look back and I think that was nothing because I have developed some additional business acumen and skills over the last several decades. You can do this too. It is something we all can do. Don't be a quitter. Stay with the stuff. You'll be glad you did and resiliency will be your hallmark and trademark for a successful life. I hope this will make a difference in your life in the coming days. I look forward to our next time together. Thank you so much.

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