I Will Win - the Most Powerful Motivational Speeches for Success, Athletes & Working Out

I suit up every night. Banged up, hurt, whatever. 100%, 30%. Ain't no numbers. It's my heart and you can't measure that. The kids don't want it. They don't love to win. They don't hate to lose. I hate losing more than I even want to win. There's a difference. When I said I wanted to win 8 gold medals, basically half the people in the swimming world thought I was absolutely crazy and nobody could ever do something like that. I hate losing. It's not even a question. But I have to respect losing because losing is a part of winning. Before you can look at someone else, you've got to look at yourself in the mirror because that's how things get started and you've got to be willing to change. Power to endure. This is the winner's quality. A loss in the Super Bowl matters more than any loss. When you lose this game, this is on your resume forever. I'm going into my ninth year next year and I haven't won ----. The hunger, the ability to face defeat again and again without giving up. When you're hungry, you don't care about the facts. You don't care about the odds. Winners win and losers lose. You can control going to bed. You can control getting up. You can control being on time. You can control going to class. You can control showing up. You can control doing your homework. You can control your attitude. You can control being nice. You can control doing what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it. This is a winner's quality. You have that quality within you. You owe you an explanation. You need to look at yourself in the mirror and say, why are you only giving 50%? What's wrong with you? I expect to win. Who am I? I am a champion. Who am I? I am a champion. Everybody's great when they're not tired. When they're tired, that's when the real champions come out. That's when the real dog come out. That's where I think the real truth comes out. I think there are a lot of people who are very talented who can make it there. There are very few people who can deal with the pressure and the stress that happens when we're there. I feel I'm the best ever. It's not bragging or boasting. The proof is in the pudding. In my mind, I'm always the best. I am the greatest fighter of all time. And when I hit you with a hard right hand, you will fall. You're going to win tomorrow. You're going to win right now. If you're passionate about what you're doing, keep going, keep believing, reach for the stars. Everything is always impossible until someone does it. Maybe it has never been done before. That's perfectly fine with me. But I'm going to do it. Never say never. Because limits like fears are often just an illusion. If you look at the greats in any walk of life, the greats do things when they don't always want to. And that's the separation. It means you have to be more disciplined than not disciplined. I wanted to be the best I could be, period. I was waiting for you to smile at some of the compliments you didn't. Smiling doesn't win you gold medals. I'm too fast, I'm too skillful, and I'm going to show everybody out there watching the show and the whole world, and the world will bow and admit that I am the greatest of all times when you see what I do to George Foreman. I believe that whatever I put my mind to, and if I was willing to make sacrifices, and I was dedicated, that I could achieve absolutely anything. I'm the best ever. I'm the most brutal, and the most vicious, and the most ruthless champion there's ever been. There's no one who can stop me. I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody. Maybe someone don't like me because maybe I'm too good. You win some, you lose some. But you live. You live to fight another day. Your confidence level was through the roof. Where is it now? On top of the roof. I don't think my confidence has changed. A lot of guys who can run and jump can probably shoot, but if they don't have the killer instinct or the confidence in themselves to hone those skills. I'll never lose a fight. It's impossible. It's impossible. I'm too fast. That in order to become successful, you've got to make it your personal business to do it. People look at champions and try and find something that that champion has that they don't have, but it's not that at all. They lack something everyone else has, which is an off button. They just don't stop. I do not get up at 3 o'clock in the morning to lose. I expect to win. I expect it to be a great day. People talk about what you sacrifice to be great at things. Waking up at 5am, going through the day, weigh myself, weigh my food, do my check-ins in the mirror, go to the gym, workout, everything. Am I good enough? Am I being enough? What does winning look like in your life? Get crystal clear on that and then figure out what are the measurable analytics that will increase the chance that I will win in that domain and then just focus on those things. In basketball, it was different because I expected to win. It's a direct competition. I know how hard they're working. I know how hard we're working. I know what their strategy is. I know what ours is. Yeah, we expected to do that but now we're going to come back and we're going to do it again. I don't care how you get there. I don't care what you do to get there. The goal is to win. Period. If we're optimizing for outcomes, then the most broken person will win. The person who has the absolute biggest desire for achievement, the absolute biggest fear or pain that they're running away from, that person will win. Period. You have to be prepared to sacrifice all of those things or not have them in the first place. Do you want to win because that's the price? Right there. And that's what comes down to what are you willing to sacrifice at the end of the day. But winning will cost you something. It's about heart. The most important thing is this. To be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you will become. It's not over until I win. I'm the biggest fighter in all history. I'm the greatest fighter in all history. I don't have to convince nobody now that I am great. They all know it. I'll fight any man in the world. I'll beat any man in the world. As you know, I'm a confident man. I don't believe or can see anyone beat me. Nothing worries me. This is nothing but a small thing that will soon be out of the way. I put everything on the line because I'm a true fighting champion. When I'm in the ring, I'm handling it. And I don't worry about nobody being that good to really hurt me. If you don't believe it, come down here and try it. I'm unranked. It will be no match. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm gonna make all of them shut their mouths. All of my critics, I told you all that I was the greatest of all time. I'm still the greatest of all time. I'm gonna float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Nothing can stop me. As you know, I've been in the old-type controversy. All kind of pressures. Look at my face. I'm the original champion. A veteran of 186 fights, not a scratch. Two-time United States Golden Glove champion. Two-time United States National AAU champion. World Olympic champion. 13 rounds I've predicted for my men to fall. He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. I'm a risk-taker. Tell all of the people out there who bet on Sonny that all of them are gonna lose their money and get to the fight early because I might get him in war. All of you chumps are gonna bow when I whip him. All of you. I know you got him. I know you got him picked. But the man's in trouble. I'm gonna show you how great I am. I'm at such a high level until I don't think like you. I'm not like you. They just don't want to admit I'm as good as I am. Don't tell me you want it. Show me you want it. Are you willing to put in that time? Are you willing to study film? Are you willing to run those sprints all the way through? Not halfway. You see, the game of football was created in the realm of gladiators. It was an arena of barbaric people chanting for the warrior who kills the most. You see, football comes from the same bloodline of gladiators. And when you step into that arena, oh, it takes a special man to step into that arena. Because when you step into that arena, you don't know if you're gonna walk out. You don't know if you will live after these 60 minutes. But that's what makes you special. That's what separates you from the normal. From the mediocre. Young king, you gotta display something that you already know you have in you. And that's the will to win. That's the will to be unselfish. Because football takes a certain mentality to play it. There's no better feeling in the world than smelling those hot dogs and hearing that band on Friday night. There's no feeling better in the world than walking out on Saturday with all your friends and family watching. See, what you do all off-season is what your season will be. And once you understand that king, this game is not for nice people. Some play the game to just see the crowd. And others play it to make their bloodline proud. To take mama out to projects and put sister in college. To dress their mother up and give her the world. To one day stand outside of a beautiful home and say this belongs to you, mama. I ran those sprints. I ran those hills. I broke my arm for you, mama. I kept running when I was bleeding. For you, mama. See, mama, this game, yes, is dangerous. But it teaches us how to be a man. It teaches us responsibility. It teaches us to go to class because without it, we can't do what we love. And that's play the game of football. Believe that you have enough. Take all that pain that you felt your entire life. And right now, I'm talking to one of you seniors. Before you step on that field, take yourself back to that dark place. That place where you had no hope. And I want you to remember how far you came. And when you step on that field Saturday or Friday night, you look your teammates in the eyes and you tell them, we didn't come this far to only come this far. Tired don't mean nothing. Tired is only in the mind. You tell yourself you're tired, you're going to be tired. I don't get tired. I'm going to beat you. I'm going to let you know I beat you. I'm going to want you to reconsider your professional life choice. My father who raised me, his thing was, son, you may not be the best, but leave everything on the floor. You put a hundred and twenty percent. I'm just asking you to do a hundred and twenty. Every day when you come in, a hundred and twenty. You got to want it so bad. You got to give all of yourself to get it. You got to be obsessive. I didn't grow up with things being handed to me. I had to work hard. I had to dedicate myself and I had to be determined, and I was. The bottom line is that if you're talking about beating everybody else on the planet to a thing, what you're actually talking about is what are you prepared to sacrifice psychologically, physically, existentially, relationally, socially, in terms of your self-esteem, your confidence, everything, right? All of that. That pain you feel, that's a payment of success. You must be willing to shoulder that pain to get success. Success is something that's a very lonely path in this world. There's fewer willing to make that down payment of pain, that futurement of success, a better life. Very few are. So if you want to be the top, you got to move different. There wasn't a lot of smiley faces with me out there. There wasn't a lot of smiley faces with Michael Jordan. There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Kobe Bryant. There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Tiger Woods. Even when I watch sports today and see these guys on the range, like they're all buddies, and I'm like, that's not the killer instinct. That's just not. I don't think Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson were trying to be friends with anybody. I think they were going out there on a mission, and if there was someone in their way, they had to crush them. There's never any doubts in my mind because I'm the best in the world, even though a lot of you don't like to hear it. It's fact. I'm the best. Sometimes I don't want to believe in myself, but it's the truth. I'm the best. You can love me. You can hate me. I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to win. At the end of the day, even Alexander, one of his famous quotes is, I have met the enemy. It is I. And although that is one element of an enemy, that's great. We need that. Michael had it. Brady had it. Kobe had it. But there's a crazy psychologically, you can call it psycho competitor that they're constantly in the search of recruiting their next enemy. It's like, you know, life is boring if I don't have my next target. You know, I'm almost, you know, bad for myself if I don't have the next target, the next enemy. And if I choose it the right way, then I'm able to bring out a side of me I've never seen before. Success is the only revenge. As you expand, they shrink into irrelevance. As you get louder, no one can hear them. You don't beat them. You cast a shadow so big, no one can see them to begin with. And that's what it comes down to, like, what are you willing to sacrifice at the end of the day? You know, people don't understand the level of sacrifice it's going to take. And there's been moments where I realize that I compete because I want to win. I love winning. I love being the best in the world. I've sat many times trying to find the balance of what I want within all this. If I was losing, I wouldn't be competing. I'm here to win. It is hard. It's hard when you're young to wake up in the off season at 6 a.m. to go train and work out knowing that all your friends are sleeping in and eating pancakes. It's hard when you're on your way to practice weighed down with all your gear and it's 90 degrees out and all the other kids are at the pool or at the beach. No matter who you are, there are bumps and hits and bruises along the way. And my advice is to prepare yourself because success and achievement come from overcoming adversity. When the rest of the world says no to you, you say yes to yourself. You say yes. I believe. You say yes. I can do it. You say yes. Nothing can stop me. If you want to be a great player, if you play every single day, 2-3 hours, every single day or a course of a year, how much better are you getting? Most kids will play maybe an hour and a half, two days a week. It's not going to get it done. You have to be obsessive. You have to be obsessive. You have to be addicted. You have to be disciplined. The key there is you. Everyone else is looking for other individuals to do stuff for you. Stop looking for help from everybody else. It starts and it ends with you. Your identity starts and it ends with you. Every day is an opportunity based on your choices, on how you look at things, the choices you make every day. That is what you are in the mirror today. From the captain to the cashier, there is more in you. Stay at home father, stay at home mother, lawyer, doctor, hygienist, author. I don't know who you are, where you're from, but there's more in you that becomes a part of who you are, that changes how you think, that changes how you move, that changes how you behave. If you could become an executor, if you could execute. I'm talking about learn it. I'm talking about put it deep within, not you hear it. You have to realize that there's always work to do and you want to be the hardest working person in whatever you do and you put yourself in position to be successful. Muhammad Ali said, suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion because he knew that the training wasn't killing him. The training was making him. It was forging him in fire. I got to trust that nothing out there can stop who I am inside. You got to stand on your faith. You got to stand on your strength. You got to stand on who you are. I will rise again and I will push. I will be the victorious one. I will conquer. Listen to me, if you work for it, if you're willing to put in that sweat, that blood and those tears, baby, I'm telling you, you can have what you want, be what you want, do what you want. Are you hearing me? Don't give up. Don't give in. You hang in there. You hang in there because if you quit right now, you ain't going to never see it. You ain't going to never get it, but if you hold on, baby, but if you hold on, if you hold on, everything you dreamed of, everything you envisioned, everything you worked for, it's coming. If you work hard, you can't have it. It ain't nothing you can't have. You deserve it. It ain't nothing you can't have if you're willing to work for it. Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, how much more can you take? What tried to kill you only made you stronger. So what are you waiting for? You have greatness within you. Everybody's great when they're not tired. When they're tired, that's when the real champions come out. That's when the real dog come out. That's where I think the real truth comes out because I think there are a lot of people who are very talented who can make it there. There are very few people who can deal with the pressure and the stress that happens when we're there. I feel I'm the best ever. It's not bragging or boasting. The proof is in the pudding. In my mind, I'm always the best. I am the greatest fighter of all time. And when I hit you with a hard right hand, you will fall. You've got to win tomorrow. You've got to win right now. If you're passionate about what you're doing, keep going, keep believing, reach for the stars. Everything is always impossible until someone does it. Maybe it has never been done before. That's perfectly fine with me. But I'm going to do it. Never say never because limits like fears are often just an illusion. Hungry dogs run faster. And let the big dogs eat. If you look at the greats in any walk of life, the greats do things when they don't always want to. And that's the separation. It means you have to be more disciplined than not disciplined. I wanted to be the best I could be. Period. I was waiting for you to smile at some of the compliments. You didn't. Smiling doesn't win you gold medals. I'm too fast. I'm too skillful. And I'm going to show everybody out there watching the show and the whole world will bow and admit that I am the greatest of all time when you see what I do to George Foreman. I believe that whatever I put my mind to and if I was willing to make sacrifices and I was dedicated, that I could achieve absolutely anything. I'm the best ever. I'm the most brutal and vicious and most ruthless champion there's ever been. There's no one who can stop me. I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody. Maybe someone's don't like me because maybe I'm too good. You win some, you lose some. But you live. You live to fight another day. And I've always believed like I'm the Michael Jordan of this industry. When I'm on the air, I'm the one that will make you want to hear from me. I don't care who I'm on the air with. I don't care who it is. It does not matter to me. By the time I finish speaking, I am the one that you're going to want to listen to. That's my attitude. If this requires 100%, and you give me 99%, I might want to fire you. Because I'm about getting the job done. It's about the results. And I think that unfortunately when we look at our generation today, not enough people preach about that. Because I think that we live in a society where people have become masters at pointing the finger at other people as to reasons why things don't get done. I think there's too much explanation that goes on. But the bottom line is you ain't getting it done. And if you're not getting it done, I need somebody that can get it done. I am of the belief that if you truly, truly adopt that belief in your soul, that you walk to work every day not looking for excuses. You're looking for a way for the job to get done. And in most instances, you are going to be successful than not. You want to go with status quo. You're perfectly fine with flowing along, safe, secure, whatever. But when you're trying to win, you're constantly looking to get better. My philosophy is very, very simple when it comes to my family, particularly me being a dad. If they're hungry, it's because I'm starving. I don't eat until they eat. I'm not comfortable until they're comfortable. I don't have unless they have. That's the mentality. And that's the mentality that I strictly get from my mother. And so for me, you know, having that kind of mentality but what comes with that? What comes with that is a certain work ethic that you have to put forth. And it's a willingness to sacrifice. Am I the most disciplined person in the world? No. Am I the most meticulous person in the world like some people would believe? No. I'm meticulous enough and I'm disciplined enough. But I think the key thing is, is that the bottom line is everything to me. And whatever the bottom line requires is what I'm going to do. If the bottom line requires an excessive level of discipline, I'm going to do it. But to me, it's whatever the moment or the situation demands. And it's, I'm a bottom lines oriented kind of person. You don't assume that opportunities are waiting for you. You know obstacles are standing at every door. So that challenge that you have to embrace and you have to deal with, that's hard to deal with when you have achieved. You don't work hard to play hard. You work hard to have the ability to play when you want to. There's a difference. You handle your responsibilities first. And when you work hard and you have that sense of pride, it goes right out the window if you utilize your efforts in the wrong fashion. But when you do what's right, and it's based off of that effort that you put in, then you feel good about it because you took care of your responsibilities. Then you can go play. And I was not always confident. There's no doubt about that. I've always had my insecurities. What I firmly believed in as it pertained to me, was that I always worked hard. I was never lazy. I was always somebody that believed in hard work. Betting on yourself is believing in you. Knowing who you are, what you're worth, having an idea about it anyway, and willing to work towards that to validate that reality. That's betting on yourself. It's your job. And if you can't do it, you scratch, claw, and even die trying. We make excuses every day. All of us as human beings. On far more occasions than not, I have to speak on the issue of accountability as it pertains to the entire sports world. And when it comes to the issue of accountability, I get all of that from mom. It happened with ESPN when my contract wasn't renewed back in 2008. I was sitting empty. I felt betrayed. I felt ticked off. My mother let me lick my wounds for a couple of days. And then she said, what could you have done better? You sure you didn't do anything? And I thought about all of a sudden, what is she talking about? This is just not true. This is not right. I work hard. I do this. I do that. And then I started thinking about it. Yeah, I was a pain in the ass. I did kind of complain a little bit too much. But the biggest thing that I remember doing is that I always came to the bosses with problems. I never came to them with solutions. It was always about the problem, never the solution. And I learned when I sat back and reflected on the mistakes that I had made in my career at the time, I learned that no boss wants to talk to anybody that doesn't have solutions. Instead of working around the clock trying to figure out what somebody else wants from you, good or bad, there are moments that crystallizes it for you in your mind. Pay attention and you'll see what they are. And you'll know what to do accordingly. That is what I believe makes me the best. It's my commitment to excellence for the collective whole.