Clay was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and began training when he was 12 years old. At 22, he won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in an upset in 1964. Shortly after that, Clay converted to Islam, changed his “slave” name to Ali, and gave a message of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white domination during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
In 1966, two years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali refused to be conscripted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.[12] He was eventually arrested, found guilty of draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing titles. He successfully appealed his conviction in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remains the only three-time lineal world heavyweight champion; he won the title in 1964, 1974, and 1978. Nicknamed “The Greatest”, he was involved in several historic boxing matches. Ali retired from boxing in 1981.
At a time when most fighters let their managers do the talking, Ali, inspired by professional wrestler “Gorgeous George” Wagner, thrived in—and indeed craved—the spotlight, where he was often provocative and outlandish.
His notable quotes on Entrepreneurship:
1. “If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”
2. “A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
3. “At home I am a nice guy: but I don’t want the world to know. Humble people, I’ve found, don’t get very far.”
4. “Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
5. “Don’t count the days. Make the days count.”
6. “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it–then I can achieve it.”
7. “I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was. I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”
8. “A man who has no imagination has no wings.”
9. “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
It’s always the little things that we fail to notice, the little things that trip us up. Keep an eye on the details as well as the big picture. Ali did–and look how amazing things the results ended up.
10. “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
11. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
12. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
13. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
14. “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses—behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” Preparation
15. “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
16. “Friendship … is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”
17. “I know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.” Entrepreneurs don’t do what others expect them to do.
18. “Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”
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