Cus D’Amato, the legendary boxing trainer who took Mike Tyson off the streets and turned him into a world champion, had a unique way of determining who was a contender and worthy of his time.
In Tyson’s book “Iron Ambition”, he shared a story about D’Amato’s gym – which was in a rough part of Lower Manhattan:
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“The gym was up three flights of rickety stairs. If you stood at the bottom of the stairs, you could see all the way up to the top … Once you got up to the top, there was a big hole in the door, patched up with mesh wiring, and there was a huge watchdog that would smash up against the mesh, barking like crazy.
Cus always said he could determine a lot about the character of a kid who made that trek up the stairs. He even called that walk ‘the trial’ …
If a kid came up alone and wasn’t deterred by the dog and pushed the door open and said he wanted to be a fighter, Cus knew he had something to work with.
But if someone brought a kid there, it was a different story. ‘Now, if they were brought up by somebody, I knew I had my work cut out for me,’ Cus said, ‘because that fellow didn’t have the discipline or a desire strong enough at the time to come up there by himself and open the door and say, ‘I want to be a fighter’”
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Over the years Tyson has shared a lot of lessons that he learned from his mentor, and all coaches can benefit from having someone in their corner as well.
Ann Carden understands this, and included in her luxury retreat in Arizona next month is private mentoring from her to execute your marketing plan.
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