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quite the same way. For a five-foot-five-and-a-half-inch 135-pounder, a future as a Division I football player was not impossible, yet not very likely either. But wrestling . . . wrestling was different. In this sport, I didn’t need to hear someone else’s thoughts on what was important, and a hundred pounds on a lesser athlete wasn’t going to negate my hard work and grit.
    Everyone has talents, but you can’t be creative without a degree of self-knowledge that sometimes comes with a dose of brutal honesty about your talents. We all know people who have delusions about themselves. I’m not talking about “clinical” delusions, just, well, socially acceptable ones. The guy who thinks all the women love him, the woman who thinks she can be Miss America (despite all empirical evidence to the contrary), the old man who thinks he can go into a bar and beat up anybody forty years younger.
    I had to understand the reality of my talents and how they matched up with my passion. The team nature of football was better suited to my personality, but wrestling was better suited to my mentality and physical talents, and so I threw myself into the sport with all-out zeal. I loved the individual nature of the sport, the one-on-one aspect of the competition.
    I read whatever books I could lay my hands on and watched every instructional video I could find until the tape was worn out. I was determined to work harder than anybody else every day at practice. I not only watched college and Olympic wrestlers but I studied their habits and demeanor. I felt there were secrets locked inside those people, and if I learned their best attributes I would have an advantage over those competitors who didn’t.
    And I adopted Dan Gable, the great University of Iowa and Olympic wrestler, as one of my heroes. (Little did I know I would later be fortunate enough to break bread with Gable and have some one-on-one conversations with him.) I saw the fierce but quiet confidence he exuded when he stepped onto the mat, and I knew that his demeanor had an effect on the wrestlers who were faced with the task of competing against him.
    Like Gable, I loved to compete, and I would contend that I needed to compete. Competition was like a drug for me. I loved looking into the eyes of my opponent and thinking about all the preparation that had gone into the moment. I loved the immediacy of the contest, and how it could turn one way or another in an instant.
    There is a difference between creativity and self-delusion. Football, for the reasons described above, wasn’t the best path for me to follow. Creativity comes after you have established your sense of purpose and are prepared to attack it with a positive attitude. You have to be realistic about your abilities. Shoot higher without being delusional. I don’t plan on winning a jump ball against Shaquille O’Neal, but could I maybe play in the NBA? Who knows—Spud Webb did and he was barely an inch taller than me. Could Spud Webb have taken his talent and hard work into the Octagon as professional fighter? I’m almost positive he would believe that he could.
    Shoot for the stars when you attack your passions, but give yourself every advantage to get there. Find your strengths and conquer your weaknesses.

The 6th Law of Power
    Work Harder and Smarter (Stumbling vs. Planning)
    T here was very little wrestling history at Lincoln High School, so I wanted to create it. I arrived early and stayed late. The fitness aspect of sports never scared me—I loved to work out—but moderation wasn’t one of my trademarks at this point.
    So during my sophomore year, I had what I thought was a great idea. I was going to run to school in the morning. This would allow me to get in an extra workout, help me stay ahead of the competition. Wrestling had become a serious pursuit for me by this time, and as I’ve said, I approached it the way I did everything else in my life: