Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Tip Sheet #60

Who is your Bundini Brown?

 Who?  What?  Who or what is a Bundini Brown?  You will soon find the answer to that question. More importantly you will find out that we all need our own Budini Brown.

Drew “Bundini” Brown (1928-1987) was a man with a variety of skills and experiences.  He was a man of the world.  However, he was probably best known as an assistant trainer and cornerman for Muhammad Ali, the former heavyweight champion ad perhaps the greatest boxer of all time.  He was there with Ali for most of the good times and bad.

He was a bundle of positive energy behind Ali.  And Ali was not only a great fighter, he was a tremendous personal marketer.  He was a well-known poet (maybe the first rapper) and near the end of his life was considered by many as a statesman.  And some of the poems and “raps” credited to Ali, were really words and messages from Brown.

Bundini Brown was the person that could be heard reminding Ali that he was the champion.   He was the greatest.  He could beat them all.  He actually trademarked the phrase in describing Ali’s style that he “Floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.”

Bundini Brown remained the ultimate promoter of Ali.  He was continually promoting Ali to believe it or not, Ali.  He was the ultimate “hype man.”  It was Brown’s job to continually assure Ali that he was in fact, the champion and yes, he could beat all challengers. He had to keep him personally relaxed and confident.  He was very likely the first psychological coach before anyone ever thought of combining sports with psychology.  He was ahead of his time.

And yes, we all need our own Budini Brown.  We need someone near us to help boost our confidence.  To be there with us in all times.  To be there supporting us when we are knocking our competitors out.  To be there supporting us when we have to be picked up off of the mat. Bundini’s goal was to smother Ali in a blanket of positive vibes and to keep all negativity away from him.

As leaders, we need to surround ourselves with positive people and throw those that are negative out of our circle of influence.  Their negativity will bring us down and very likely derail our mission.  It is hard not to let the negative consume you.

And yes, we all need someone near us to tell us that we are on the right track.  Someone to tell us that we are the champion.

I will close this article the way I opened it.  Who is your Bundini Brown?