It was in 2003 when a relatively unknown boxer from the Philippines who can’t even speak in English shocked the world by totally dominating a very fierce fighter in the person of Marco Antonio Barrera. That was the beginning of the illustrious career of the Filipino Boxing icon Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. For more than 10 years his name had echoed total domination in the world of boxing. For the lack of a better word, he is the king of the ring.
Despite of everything, everybody knows that nothing last forever. There is time for everything and in his latest fight against Jeremy Horn it looks like the Era which we call Manny Pacquiao in boxing is coming to an end. Whether this is true or this is just one of the learning opportunity for our champion, his life has been an epitome of success and a continuous learning. A great and vivid example we can use to inspire ourselves and other people.
Everybody knows Manny’s story of rags to riches. Well, we can learn a lot from that too, but what I want to focus on is his journey while savoring his success in the boxing world. Many Knows that the money his success brought won’t last forever so he intelligently made his money work for him. Whether he has advisers to tell him to do so or he did this on his own, it is still a brilliant move on his side. There are a lot of Filipino fighters who are successful but after their career ended their financial status were also in shambles. If he stops boxing now he would still do fine he would still be a billionaire. The thing this shows to us is preparedness. It’s an everyday thing no matter what is your status in life. Preparedness will always put you in the safe place as what the life of Manny Pacquiao shows us.
The next lesson we can learn from him is, using his newfound success to go to another venture. People are maybe laughing at him for trying his hands at basketball, movies, and politics but he sure is not stopping as he knows his experiences on this field would bring more wisdom to him. The money, that’s just another bonus. Even if he has different reason for trying these different fields, everybody will agree that doing other things aside from boxing made him better and a more intelligent person. We should not be known for only one thing. After reaching the summit of the mountain were climbing, we must try to climb a new one. We must not be destructed with the criticisms along the way. Just remember this, If Manny can, We can too.
The most important lesson we can learn from Manny is his willingness to learn. When he was just starting up as a boxer he can’t speak in English but as time goes by he is already starting to use broken English in his interviews. A feat every Filipinos are making fun of, but they haven’t realized that the man they’re making fun of is a man who exemplifies the real essence of a man. This man doesn’t want to stop growing and he doesn’t care what others might think about him. What is important to him is to learn and to use his what he learned in real life. This willingness to learn attitude is one of the biggest factor why he is so successful in his boxing career and in his other ventures. A characteristic that we can adapt to improve ourselves.
This recent loss that he had in his boxing career may not good to him. Perhaps age is already catching up with him or perhaps there is a new thing that opportunity wants to teach to our Champion. No matter what, times like these remind us to be thankful for his contributions in making the Filipino race great and we must be thankful for the lessons we are learning as we look into his life.