Knockout Entrepreneur

George Foreman

• Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781418577414
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Emprendimiento

Two-time heavyweight champion of the world and record-busting businessman George Foreman has spent his career challenging prevailing conceptions of success and achievement. In this book, he's stepping into the ring as a coach to teach entrepreneurs the knockout business secrets that lead to extraordinary levels of success. You'll learn how to focus on smart growth, fearlessly seize opportunities, and build an organization of significance. Knockout Entrepreneur does this by showing what it means to truly live out a new way of doing business--to be an idea wrangler and visionary who uses God-given imagination; someone who never gives up, gives in, or backs down from the hard work necessary to make it; an encourager, risk-taker, mentor, and giver in a world that often reflects the opposite; someone with integrity and generosity who doesn't strive for titles and possessions; an amasser of wisdom over wealth. By equipping you with these principles and with strategies to help you embody them every day, Foreman provides the tools needed to come out swinging in the business world while also instilling the intrinsic knowledge that the greatest ROI is found in faith, family, and community. Backed with plenty of the author's engaging personal stories, contemporary accounts of success, timeless wisdom, and leading questions, Knockout Entrepreneur is packed full of everything you need to put your knockout career--and life--plan into action.

CHAPTER ONE
SEE WHAT CAN BE

Can you imagine turning down more than $100 million? I almost did. Not directly, of course. Nobody came up and offered me that kind of cash on the spot. But I nearly missed one of the greatest entrepreneurial opportunities of the twentieth century when I told my friend I wasn’t interested in his portable electric grill. You’ve probably seen George Foreman’s Lean, Mean, Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, a handsomely packaged product (with my picture on the box, of course), with sleek, efficient qualities that make grilling on your kitchen counter a snap and cleanup even easier. Best of all, the food tastes fantastic because the grill seals in the food’s natural juices as it cooks.

But when I first saw the grill, it didn’t look at all like it does today. It looked more like a clunky steel box. I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting one of those things in his home. Consequently, I could not see the grill’s potential. Success doesn’t always come to you wrapped in a pretty package. More often you have to look past what is to recognize what an opportunity can be. But I hadn’t learned that yet.

I had already won a gold medal for boxing in the 1968 Olympics held in Mexico City; then I turned professional and won the title of heavyweight champion of the world just a few years later. Now I was working on a comeback career, hoping to do what no boxer had ever done before—to win the heavyweight championship in my forties!

Because of my boxing success, I had appeared in a couple of television commercials, and I had promoted a few products of my own on the market, but nothing that had become a household name. Nevertheless, I was always glad when somebody wanted to pay me to attach my name to an excellent product. For instance, I was relaxing at home one day when the telephone rang. The caller said, “We’re trying to find George Foreman.”

Since I wasn’t sure of his intentions, I asked, “May I ask why you need to talk to George Foreman?”

“We’re trying to put a commercial together and want to talk to him about it.”

“Oh! This is George!”

“Are you really George Foreman, the boxer?” the caller asked.

“Yes, this is George Foreman, the boxer.”

“Great, I’m glad I found you! Nike is making a shoe commercial and wants you to be in it.”

“A shoe commercial? Really?” I had never been in a Nike commercial before.

“It’s not much money,” he continued, “but it won’t take a lot of your time either.”

A few years earlier I was flat broke and barely making any money at all before my boxing comeback. When this fellow mentioned the low compensation they were offering, I thought, You don’t know what “not much money” means. There was a time when five dollars sounded like a lot of money to me! Of course, I didn’t say that to the man on the phone.

Instead I said, “Sure, I’ll be glad to work with you.”

I did the commercial with pro football running back Bo Jackson, who was already a household name because of his “Bo knows” commercials. Nike was looking for a fresh way to use Bo Jackson, so in the spot a group of reporters asked Bo several questions about running. Since Bo knows everything about anything, they expected him to answer all their questions. Pretending to be irritated, he said, “Look, I don’t have time for all this stuff !”

Just then I jumped out of nowhere and shouted, “But I do!” And then I started dancing across the floor. The point was that the young athlete was too tired to play, but George Foreman, the forty-year-old “retired” athlete, was full of energy and still wanted to make things happen (with the help of Nike products). We had a lot of fun shooting the commercial, and the public really connected with it. People loved it, and they started calling out my name everywhere I went: “Hey, George! I saw you on the commercial with Bo.”

The Nike commercial led to a McDonald’s commercial. Everyone knew I liked to eat cheeseburgers, so when I was making my return to boxing, the reporters often teased me about eating so much. Some people even called me “the cheeseburger guy.”

“George isn’t the prodigal son of boxing,” one wag said. “He’s the fatted calf!” Another commented, “George Foreman has his training camp right next to Burger King.” Someone else said, “George can’t be the heavyweight champ of the world again as long as his training camp is at Baskin-Robbins.”

I teased right back with the press. When someone asked me why I was still boxing in my forties, I said, “I’ve got to keep fighting because it’s the only thing that keeps me out of the hamburger joints!”

A reporter asked me to sample all the hamburgers in various fast-food restaurants, ranking the burgers on a scale from one to ten, with ten being the best-tasting hamburger. When I graded the burgers, I didn’t rank McDonald’s as high as some of the others. In fact, I placed Wendy’s burgers high above those of the Golden Arches.

Somebody at McDonald’s got word of my “scientific research.” Not to be outdone, McDonald’s called me for an endorsement and created a special George Foreman burger, which I promoted on television. In return, McDonald’s donated an electronic scoreboard for the youth center I had opened in the inner-city section of Houston.

Then I did a commercial for Doritos. After that I endorsed Oscar Mayer wieners. Then Kentucky Fried Chicken. I didn’t want to be known only for food commercials—although I enjoyed them quite a bit—so I branched out to other products as the opportunities came along. In a Motel 6 commercial, I popped out of a suitcase. I’ve also done ads for Meineke Car Care. I was the guy who growled loudly, “I am not going to pay a lot for this muffler!” Surprised at the quality and price of the Meineke muffler, I always went away happy. I have also done commercials for Casual Male Big & Tall clothes and others.

HOW THE GEORGE FOREMAN LEAN, MEAN,
FAT-REDUCING GRILLING MACHINE CAME TO BE

Then one day an attorney friend came to me with an offer. He said, “George, there are some guys who want to talk with you. You’ve helped other companies by advertising their products. Have you ever thought about having your own product?”

“Okay,” I replied. “How much are they willing to pay me?” I had been making a lot of money doing endorsements for various products, so that’s what first came to mind.

“No, no. They’re not going to pay you anything,” the attorney answered. “There’s no money up front. It will be a joint venture. You’ll get your own product, and we can help you promote it.”

“What? No money up front?”

I thought, With all the money I’m making with endorsements, I’m not going to do anything without getting paid. I’d be undermining the value of my own endorsement.

“Just look at it,” the attorney urged. Later he sent me a small slanted grill and asked me to try it out.

I looked at it and said, “Mmm, that’s nice.” I put it back in the box, got busy with other things, and forgot all about it.

A couple of months later my friend called back. “George, how do you like the grill?”

“Oh, the grill. To be honest, I haven’t tried it yet. Let me get back with you on that.”

“George, they need to know something.”

Right then I almost made one of the worst financial decisions I could have made. I thought, I really don’t have time for this.

Fortunately my wife, Joan, was listening and she changed my mind. “I’ve tried the grill, George,” Joan said, “and I like it a lot. It works great; the meat comes out nice and juicy. The grease drips right off, and the food tastes really good.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “I’ll fix you a burger.”

After taking a bite I realized Joan was right. I said, “Yeah, it is really good. And the grill is easy to clean up. I like this grill!”

When I talked to the attorney again, I said, “I’ll do it!” I wasn’t thinking about making any money on the deal. I just signed the contract so I could get sixteen free grills for my homes, my training camp, my friends, my mom, cousins, and other family members. That’s all I really expected to get out of the grill deal. I never dreamed this opportunity would turn into a grilling empire!

After I made the first commercials and infomercial to advertise the grill, sales skyrocketed. People would see me in an airport and call out, “Hey, George, we love you, man!”

“Oh, did you see me fight?” I’d ask.

“No, we bought one of your grills.”

Somebody else said, “My doctor told me to get your grill because it might help me lower my cholesterol.”

“Did it help?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure eatin’ better!”

Another person said that the grill helped him with diabetes and heart problems because the fat drained off the meat so well.

We were ecstatic when we sold 1 million grills. Then sales hit 5 million. Soon 10 million grills sold. It became so popular that Salton, the appliance maker, offered to pay me a fortune for my rights to the George Foreman grill.

Today, more than 100 million George Foreman grills have been sold worldwide. It won’t be long before sales surge past the 150 million mark. And it all started when a friend asked me to consider an interesting opportunity.

I give my wife, Joan, credit for the success of the George Foreman grill because she was the first one to use the product and she sold me on it. She saw the grill’s potential before I did, and I’m glad I listened to her. That one decision not only blessed my life but also improved the lives of millions of other people. My family has prospered, and as a result we’ve been able to help a lot of other families prosper. Not only that, but a lot of people who have purchased George Foreman grills are enjoying some fine eating! You never know how making one small decision can change so many lives.

Just because an opportunity doesn’t pique my imagination or look too exciting at first, I’ve learned not to discount it. Sometimes all sorts of blessings are right behind an unopened door, but you’ll never know until you open it. If you want to be successful, you must think in terms of potential. Don’t limit yourself to what the opportunity is, but allow yourself to dream a bit about what the opportunity can be.

WHEN ONE DREAM ENDS, DREAM ANOTHER

When I realized what a great product the grill was, I promoted it passionately. I could tell that my boxing career was winding down, but my career as a pitchman for the grill was on its way up, so I talked about the grill everywhere I went—even at boxing matches! For instance, I fought my last boxing match against Shannon Briggs at Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in November 1997. Shannon was twenty-five years of age with orange dreadlocks, and I was forty-eight and bald. He weighed 227 pounds, and I weighed 260. Shannon Briggs had won thirty fights, with one loss and twenty-four knockouts; I had won seventy-six matches, with four losses and sixty-eight knockouts. Plus, by then I had won boxing’s most prestigious title—heavyweight champion of the world—twice, the second time at forty-five years of age.

When the fight began, Briggs came out quickly, snapping a sharp left jab. He caught me with that jab at least twice in the first round, and it really hurt. But when the bell rang, I went back to my corner and stood—just as I had for every fight since my return to boxing ten years earlier—while my opponent sat down and rested. My trainer, Angelo Dundee, gave me some water and I was ready to go back to work.

The bell rang for round two. Briggs came out fast again, but halfway through the round, I connected with three left jabs as I continued pressing toward Briggs, who was backpedaling. The younger, faster fighter kept trying to move away from me, but I advanced on him anytime I could. The match continued like that for the first five rounds with me constantly applying the pressure. Toward the end of the sixth, though, Briggs bounced several blows off my shaved head and a couple into my face, causing my eyes to swell a bit.

By the eighth round, Briggs must have thought I was getting tired—I wasn’t. I connected with numerous hard punches, one of which was a straight shot to Shannon’s jaw. Craackk! All over the arena the crowd heard the blow and gasped as the leather of my glove smashed into Shannon’s jawbone, and for a moment I thought he might go down. Briggs hung on and I kept after him, but he got me with a hard hook just before the bell rang, ending the round.

We continued exchanging hard blows for twelve rounds, and nearly everyone in the arena thought that I was winning, far ahead on points—everyone except two of the three judges. During the final round the entire audience was on its feet, the crowd yelling and cheering us on. Blood was dripping from Shannon’s nose as we exchanged strong punches in the center of the ring. Just before the final bell rang, Briggs let loose a flurry of punches and a lot of them landed. The fight ended with both of us standing and still swinging.

It seemed to take forever for the judges to tally their scores. When the decision was announced that Briggs had won, his cornermen jumped into the ring and lifted Shannon onto their shoulders as the crowd booed the verdict. Most fans, I later learned, had me winning eight or nine of the twelve rounds. Many thought that the fight had been rigged and that I had been robbed. I felt I had won the fight; the people believed I had won the fight. Even Shannon Briggs looked surprised that the judges declared him the winner. But the judges said that he had won, so I walked across the ring and congratulated the young boxer.

In the Good Book, I read about a time when King David, the second king of Israel, was discouraged, and even the people he had hoped to help were speaking evil of him. Distressed as he was, he decided that he would encourage himself and exercise his faith in God.¹ Sometimes that is exactly what you have to do. Don’t wait around for everyone else to pat you on the back or tell you how talented you are; pat yourself on the back, and remind yourself of all the good things you have going for you.

Anyone can be encouraged when things are going well, when you are winning at every point. That’s easy. But when you get knocked down on the canvas of life, that’s the time to encourage yourself. Get up and remind yourself, This is a new opportunity; my best days are ahead; this is going to be the best time of my life; my business and career are going to flourish. What happened yesterday is over and done. You really can’t do anything about what has happened in your past, but you can do a lot about your attitude regarding the past. Now is the time to seek the next opportunity.

Of course, I was discouraged and disappointed to hear the referee’s voice reverberating throughout the arena, “And the winner is . . .” and he didn’t call out my name. Nobody wants to lose, least of all me! For a few moments I had my own personal pity party. I wanted to dive under the canvas and escape the millions of eyes watching me. But that boxing match was history. Other people might want to talk about it for a long time, but that wasn’t going to do me any good.

While I was still in the ring after the fight, the crowd was booing because the people felt that I had received an unfair decision. Home Box Office (HBO) fight commentator Larry Merchant pulled me close to his microphone and said, “Well, George, what do you say?”

“Have you ever heard of the George Foreman Lean, Mean, Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine?” I asked him. “Look at me,” I gushed. “The grill works!” I shouted.

Larry looked shocked. “What does that have to do with the boxing match?” he asked.

“Nothin’,” I said, “but you gotta talk about how good I feel. The grill works!” I looked straight into the camera and said, “No home should be without this thing.” I smiled. “God bless you. Go get one!” The way I figured, I had a microphone in front of me, and this was my chance to make something good out of a bad situation.

The broadcaster continued to probe. “George, what are you going to do now?”

What an open door! I went on to tell him more about my new venture with the grill, and I turned that defeat into a new opportunity. To this day, people still come up to me and comment on my demeanor and sales pitch after that boxing ma...