While im still in high spirits over Manny Pacquiao's win over Mexican Margarito, i cant help but to share with you about me and my son's recent live chat over at YM.
Manny Pacquiao does more than make Filipino and Asian hearts swell with pride and lower the crime rate to almost zero during a fight.
On a micro-scale—the family unit, the level that matters the most—he opens the opportunity for kids to learn what winning is all about, especially in this time and age when victory means crushing the enemy and gloating.
Sensing the frenzy online and my furious following of tweets on the fight, my eldest son asked me: “Why does Pacquiao always win?” “Because he practices with dedication in his heart.” I answer instantly.
According to Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, successful individuals—The Beatles, Bill Gates, for example—have spent at least 10,000 hours of their lives doing what they have become famous for.
Make this fact relatable to your children by pointing out what they like to do, or what skill or talent they have. For example my son, Paulo, is heavily into basketball—not just the typical street and clubhouse basketball stuff, but the hardcore junior basketball leagues in his school. He even had “lessons” at Milo Best Center in Alabang Town Center during summer. He began 6years ago,and was hooked.
Lesson no. 1: Practice, train, and rehearse your skills every chance you get.
But Pacquiao didn’t ALWAYS win. In 2005, he lost to Erik Morales. After, Freddie Roach came into his life and has since been unbeatable. I point this out to Paulo. “to also win, you got to have a good coach or mentor.”
A good friend of mine and sports journalist Allen Barra writes in The Daily Beast: “(Roach) has worked with dozens of champions over the years and learned his training skills from the great Eddie Futch. He said Pacquiao is, ‘Maybe the greatest two-handed fighter I’ve ever seen. You see a lot of great fighters who have one great punch and a good second punch. Joe Louis had the greatest jab I’ve ever seen. Joe Frazier had a great left hook, Mike Tyson had a killer right. But Manny has the best punch of anyone in boxing with either his right or his left.’”
Lesson no. 2: Choose a teacher that will help you excel.
While many get caught up in what people think of them, putting image before purpose, Pacquiao remains focused on his goal: winning the fight. Training with a single-mindedness chronicled in other reports, he also remains unfazed by criticism and trash-talk.
Paulo sums it up: “You mean he believes in himself?”
Exactly. Stand your ground.
Lesson no. 3: Be strong within so you can be strong on the outside.
Pacquiao is also known for “lifting up” his fights to God and country. I point this out to Paulo also.
i told him; "we are not a religious family, but—I like to believe—a faithful one. Paulo considers his good night prayers a powerful call to a Divine Force to protect him. This is the same God that allows (because He could very well NOT) Pacman to win.
Lesson no. 4: When you call to God to help you in a fight, you’ll know you’ll win; and if you don’t, there’s a really good reason why.
In the last rounds, which i showned my son Paulo via a YouTube clip how Pacquiao is just prancing around, when he could have easily battered Margarito into a human burrito.
Post-fight, the 8-time Welterweight Champion tells the commentator: “Boxing is not for killing each other.”
Paulo, struggling for the words in his 11-year old vocabulary, remarks when I ask him what he thinks about Pacman letting Margarito go. “It’s only a game…it’s about compassion.”
Lesson no. 5: The gracious and merciful victor is the best kind of all.
In ending, i told my son; "Victor Paulo, i hope you can share this too with your little brother Juan Miguel when he grows up..of being humble and kind in words and in your deeds."
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