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You've Gotta Have Heart
By Greg Arnold

I attended a big wrestling tournament recently that reaffirmed a few winning principles for me that I would like to share with you here.  The tournament is held annually at the start of the wrestling season in Pasco, Washington and it is a by invitation only event.  The organizers of “The Best In The West Tournament” invite the 24 most competitive high schools from Oregon, Washington and Idaho for a two-day dual meet competition.  Most of the schools are AAAA and AAA rated in size (1000-2000 students). 

Our local high school (350 students) had four wrestlers qualify for the Washington State Tournament last year so we were invited to “The Best In The West” this year.  While the team did well in an environment filled with giants (they took 12^th) this story is about one match that would turn anyone’s head who happened to be there. 

J.D. Goodrich is a sophomore who wrestles in the 112-pound weight class.  Fully clothed, wearing army boots, soaking wet and holding a small cat he can’t weigh more than 106 pounds.  Unless you weigh his heart too, which I happen to think carries a lot of weight.  Between the first and second matches of the day, I was sitting in the stands talking with J.D.’s father.  J.D. Came up into the stands with a huge excited smile on his face.  He told his dad that the team they were about to wrestle didn’t have a 112-pounder and that he was going to get to wrestle their 119 pound guy.  J.D. could have accepted a forfeit and an automatic win but instead he chose to step up in weight classes and wrestle. 

J.D. was excited because the guy he was about to wrestle was a senior who took 4^th in the State of Oregon the previous year at the AAAA level and he was undefeated and rated #1 this year.  J. D. was giving away 13 pounds to the best competitor he had ever wrestled and he was as excited as if he had just been crowned state champion.  Which brings me to success principle #1; expect to win.  Life generally deals out what you expect out of it.  J.D. not only was thankful for the opportunity, he was expecting to take full advantage of it. 

I went down on the mat to take some pictures for the local newspaper.  With no exaggeration, J.D.’s opponent was a monster.  He may have only been 119-pound monster but he made J.D. look tiny by comparison.  High school wrestling is contested in three, two-minute rounds.  The wrestlers will tell you that those six minutes feel like an eternity.   It challenges their conditioning and their mental toughness to its limits.  J.D. was about to be challenged by a guy who also had two years more high school experience and 10% more muscle mass. 

Before you start to think I am about to tell you about the Christmas Miracle of 2003, I want you to know that J.D. has been wrestling for years and is a junior All-American.  He attends his high school wrestling practices everyday and he also attends a wrestling club practice every Tuesday and Thursday evening after his high school practice.  Principle #2; prepare to win.  By preparing to win you will always have the opportunity to win even when unexpected fortune comes your way.  Your life’s successes will never be a matter of luck alone.  J.D was prepared to win, even against a bigger, stronger opponent.  If he won, it was going to be because of a miracle he had prepared hard for.   

The first round went pretty much how I expected.  The 119-pound kid had his way with J.D.  He was simply too strong and he muscled his smaller opponent around at will.  While J.D. displayed the skill he had worked very hard and long to obtain, his opponent was too big and too strong for him to mount much of an offense against.  The first round ended with J.D. down 4-1. 

The second round began with J.D. taking the down position.  This gave him the opportunity to use, what I feel was, his only advantage.  J.D. was quicker.  He escaped seconds after round two began to bring the match score to 4-2.  The monster, not fearing J.D.’s ability to counter, immediately did a single leg shot and came within moments of scoring another 2-point takedown.  J.D. somehow managed to wiggle out of it. 

Twice more during the 2nd round it appeared as if the monster was going to score takedown points and twice more J.D. used the limits of his skill to counter the advance and escape being scored on.  You rarely see this in an entire dual meet, let alone three times in one round.   In round two, J.D. simply wasn’t willing to concede even one point to the 119-pound monster.  Principle #3; never give up and never give in.  When things get tough and competition is keen, victories are very rarely routes.  It’s the small battles that count and you can’t concede any of them.  Round two ended with the monster up 4-2. 

In the third round the monster continued to use his superior strength to beat his smaller challenger.  With less than a minute left it appeared as if the monster was tiring.  However, with a 4-2 lead, he still had a major advantage.  Seeing the entire struggle I was absolutely beaming with pride in J.D.’s performance.  He had given the monster the match of his life.  Who could really expect someone, no matter how skilled, to give up 13 pounds to such a highly skilled opponent and actually beat him?  Principle #4; when you have given it everything you have, you win, even if the other guy scores more points. 

With time running out I had surreal thoughts of giving J.D. a hug and telling him he was still a huge winner in my book and how proud I was of him.  I knew he would be disappointed but what a learning experience this was for him.  Principle #5; you rarely learn from your victories, true experience comes from analyzing your defeats and over-coming your mistakes.   Then it was over.  Wait a minute, no it wasn’t.  J.D. scored a 2-point takedown in the closing seconds of the 3^rd round and the match ended in a 4-4 tie.  J.D. simply didn’t quit and the monster ran out of gas with seconds left and let his guard down for just a moment.  In that moment, J.D. used his superior quickness and speed and took the monster down. 

What happened in overtime was a classic.  Two competitors met in the middle of the mat as equals.  The monster for the first time in that six-minute eternity showed J.D. the respect he had earned.  No longer was this a match between a bigger, stronger man with nothing to fear against a smaller, quicker man with nothing but hope.  They simply shook hands and went to war.  The one-minute overtime period found both gladiators on the mat with an arm around the other’s leg.  First one to break free from the other’s grip would score the takedown and win the match.  Strength –vs- heart.  Principle #6; lead with your heart, it is the one muscle in the human body that never quits.  As I said in the start of this article, J.D. has a huge heart. 

About The Author
Greg Arnold is the author of “The Multi-Level Mangler In King Arthur’s Court.”  He built an organization of over 11,000 distributors and $30,000 per month income in less than a year.  In addition to his networking activities, Greg serves as a consultant with top network marketing companies and leading network marketers. He is also a world class speaker and trainer.  Through http://www.mlm-success-by-design.com Greg has also built web selling systems™ for some of the top network marketers in the industry who are now enjoying top spots on the world's top search engines.  Greg can be contacted at greg@greg-arnold.com

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