How to Win Life – Mark Schultz
SUMMARY
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Getting into wrestling doesn’t mean winning competitions or tournaments but to learn how to win life. It’s learning to defend yourselfIn the book Foxcatcher, people can learn about what to do when they are facing adversity or facing some obstacle they have to overcome to learn how to win life or some person in their life is causing problems for them.
If you’re having any fun at all, it means you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. You need to push yourself hard to learn how to win life.
We learn the most from our losses. Everybody wants to win, gain, and be rich but when we make mistakes, lose, and get ripped off, we don’t forget those.
You may forget your wins but not your losses.
You’re always winning as long as you’re learning. Keep learning to know how to win life.
If you want to be great in something, associate with winners. Watch them and copy them and learn how to win life.
If you want to be successful, find the best people in that field, and do whatever it takes to associate with them and learn how to win life.
TRANSCRIPTION: HOW TO WIN LIFE – MARK SCHULTZ
Learning How To Win Life is an Art
Kamala Chambers
Have you ever heard the phrase that we are most like the top 5 people we spend time with? Well today, we’re going to talk about how aligning you with winners turns you into a winner and how to win life.
Luis Congdon
If you’ve ever seen the movie, it won several academy awards. It was a big hit, the movie Foxcatcher. We’re bringing on the real character from that movie, Mark Schultz. He was played by Channing Tatum. Mark Schultz wants to introduce us and welcome us into the mindset of a champion and to be the one who knows how to win life. He’s a two time Olympic gold wrestler. He’s been entered into the hall of fame, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. It’s really fantastic and not only that, he’s written a New York Times best-selling book. The man is truly accomplished and he’s not just here to set the record straight about Foxcatcher but also, help us with some mindsets so that we can be champions.
All right. Welcome to the show Thriving Launchers. Today, we have Mark Schultz. If you watched that movie Foxcatcher and you know anything about it, or you know some things about me, you know that I love wrestling. So I brought on one of the most inspirational wrestling guys that I can think of in the gamut of amazing wrestlers who teaches us how to win life. It’s really interesting because Mark was featured in that movie Foxcatcher.
So without further ado, welcome to the show Mark. Are you ready to launch?
Mark Schultz
I’m ready.
Luis Congdon
Awesome. Mark, you were featured in that movie Foxcatcher. What was that like? What was the experience of hanging out with some of the stars from the movie who focus on how to win life and to have that movie come out? Let’s just start with what is it like to be featured in a movie?
Mark Schultz
Well, for me, it was very different. I did a panel in Hollywood. It was called My Life Turned Into Film: A Surreal Experience and the other panelled guest were Aron Ralston from 127 Hours and Tony Mendez from Argo and he’s name was Ben something. He was the moderator.
He asked all of us, “Did you like the movie?” Those two guys said, “Yes,” almost immediately before they could get the question out. Me, I took about 10 seconds and I’m looking up in the air and wondering what I should say because it was not a slam dunk for me as to whether I liked it or not. Because of the way I was portrayed.
Bennett Miller, the director portrayed me in a way that I did not like but he did get the movie made and he got the funding to get the movie made and the actors did a great job and I don’t want to take anything away from the actors. It got 5 academy awards including best director, best actor, best supporting actor. Channing Tatum did not get a best supporting or best actor award or a nomination.
I don’t like the way I was portrayed because it portrays me as sort of this inarticulate, emotionally fragile dumb jock, which will not teach you how to win life. I was a student athlete of the year at Oklahoma University and you can’t be dumb to win the Olympics. You can’t be emotionally fragile. It’s an oxymoron. You can’t do it. Not in wrestling.
So, for them and for the director to portray me that way is a little bit insulting and I resented him for a long time. I’m still a little resentful of the way he did that because I kept telling him in the beginning, “If you just follow my book.” My book is called Foxcatcher also. It’s a New York Times best seller. “If you just follow the book, you’re going to have a great movie and how to win life. It’s going to be like Rocky or something like that.”
It ended up being this horror movie in a way. My book is not about the murder. My book is about my life and all the teachings about how to win life, my life with my brother, and the murder occupies a very small part of my life story. So, I was pretty unhappy with the way I was portrayed but I was happy that I got paid, I was happy that…
Luis Congdon
That the story was being told?
Mark Schultz
Yeah, and my brother was being immortalized.
Kamala Chambers
I’m wondering what you wished would have been included? What part of the story you feel should have been included?
Mark Schultz
It’s my college years, for one thing. I was just named the greatest college wrestler of the 1980’s in a book that just came out called The Golden Era of Amateur Wrestling: 1980s. None of that was included. My fight at the end of the movie in UFC 9 was not included.
That was a very significant event for me because du Pont had basically ruined or destroyed my motivation and didn’t contribute to teach me how to win life. He ruined my wrestling career. I wasn’t getting paid very much and I was just killing myself. I just thought, “Why am I doing this?” and I just walked away from the sport. I made sure that my last experience in wrestling was a bitter one because I didn’t want to come back. I intentionally lost in 1988 Olympics but I was depressed because I couldn’t win for a du Pont’s team. It was immoral.
Then, I made a comeback in 1991. I had a match with the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter in the world. He got me in couple of submission holds and I became a student of his student, Pedro Sauer. I got my black belt and then, I fought in UFC 9. This was before they had all the rules. At every stage you learn how to win life.
Luis Congdon
That’s right. This is when there weren’t weight classes. There was a lot less rules about when and where you could hit. It was just a completely different world.
When you were in the UFC, fighters like Royce Gracie and really, the originators were there and the UFC was a very different ball field. It was a lot like Bloodsport with Shaun-Claude Van Damme.
It was a completely different place and the amount of power and strength that you must have had to find within yourself to go, try to recreate yourself and to learn how to win life is pretty amazing Mark.
Mark Schultz
Thank you. It was a very risky proposition walking into that octagon because the only rules were no eye gouging and no biting. There was no gloves, no weight classes. You could kick in the groin. You could head butt, elbow in the ground, grab the fence, and tears ears off. The stuff that you could do is incredible that teaches you how to win life.
It’s weird because when in it, it’s like a life and death. Not a lot of people have died. I mean, one person almost died in the UFC. I had a friend of mine that had his eye socket smashed and crushed. He started wearing glasses because he almost went blind in there and he lost to the guy that I fought in UFC. He got caught in a fix, got elbow in the head like 20 times before the ref’s stopped it.
It was the most significant event of my life because it was the last athletic event and the last competition I ever competed in and it ended my career in the way I wanted which is going out a winner in the most ultimate man against man combat sport. That’s why I got into wrestling the first place. It wasn’t to win competitions or tournaments. It was to defend myself and to learn how to win life.
I thought wrestling was the ultimate martial art and then I found Jui Jitsu and I switched over immediately.
Luis Congdon
This is my big question for you here, Mark. You have this upsets in life that could really knock a person down like losing your brother, being part of this amazing team and then, not really feeling like you want to be a part of it or, really wrestle all out and be fully who you are. How to win life in such a case?
As wrestlers, I know for myself, personally, being out on that mat is one of the most beautiful, spectacular moments I can look back on my life and I know that it was so special to me.
Now, to have an upset and a destruction of your life the way that you had it and then, you write this fantastic book which becomes a New York Times best seller, you go on wrestle and fight inside the UFC and win some matches there, you trained, you recreate yourself. Then, this movie comes out and it portrays you in a way that you don’t really like and that’s another upset. Teaching yourself how to win life is challenging sometimes.
What are some of the ways that you’ve found that maybe all of us here at Thriving Launch, we can apply some of your mindset that will help us recreate ourselves and teach how to win life? Because I know that all of us have upsets in life. What are some of the ways that you’ve just taken these upsets and these difficult moments and recreated yourself and found that strength again?
Mark Schultz
When Bennett Miller came out in an article and the writer wrote that it was Bennett Millers intention to disrespect and demean me in my character, I went public and I attacked him in public media like Twitter and Facebook. You need to take massive steps to learn how to win life. I basically stood up for myself and I apologize for the harshness of my language but I did not apologize for standing up for myself.
Because of that which I did not intend for this to happen, my book took off in sales. It made people interested in the story wanting to get the true story and there are a lot of lessons in the book. The book is called Foxcatcher. I didn’t name it. The publishers named it because they want to take advantage of the publicity around the movie. I don’t like the name but it’s my autobiography and there are a lot of lessons in there that people can glean about what to do when they are facing adversity or facing some obstacle they have to overcome or some person in their life is causing problems for them.
I have had a very tumultuous, intense, difficult life in that way and I’ve suffered a lot of physical pain pushing myself and to teach myself how to win life. You talk about wrestling being as beautiful, spectacular event. To me, it wasn’t that at all. If I’m having any fun at all, I’m not pushing myself hard enough. That was my philosophy and I lived that philosophy up until I wrestled and fought my last fight. I just figured I was having any fun. I could still push myself harder and harder.
I doubled down a lot of times. People questioned what I’m doing or saying. I take my lessons hard to learn how to win life. One thing I think people can learn from wrestling and from me is we learn the most from our losses. Everybody wants to win, gain, and be rich but when we make mistakes, lose, and get ripped off, we don’t forget those.
Mark Schultz
To me, losing was the worst possible thing. It was like crime. It’s like a sin I could not commit. That’s where we learn our almost valuable lessons, is from our losses. I don’t forget my losses. I forget my wins but not my losses.
Associate with Winners to Learn How To Win Life
Luis Congdon
It’s funny how that works. It’s really powerful what you’re saying and that’s a complete tweetable for me. We win the most from our losses or we get the most from our losses.
I remember when I started wrestling back in 9th grade. It was the first time that I actually wrestled. Wrestling is teaching ourselves how to win life. When I started, I was going up against guys that had been wrestling since grade school, middle school and I was brand new to it and, I got my butt kicked.
After a few of those butt-kickings, I had to start thinking if I want to win, if I want to be really great in the sport and I like this sport. I can tell that I’ll be great at it. However, if I want to be great, my whole perspective around losing will have to change. I have to be different. Otherwise, I’m just going to be a loser. So I started to think I’m always winning as long as I’m learning how to win life. Even every time I go out there and try, even if I lose, if I can take something and learn from it how to win life, then I’m winning. So, in that respect, I’m always winning.
I think you really hit the nail on the butt in there when we’re talking about life. So what kind of lessons did you get out of being portrayed in this movie Foxcatcher in way that you didn’t like? What kind of lessons have you taken from it about how to win life and utilizing your life or ways that you’ve empowered yourself?
Mark Schultz
One of the things I really dislike about the movie is that it has me looking up to du Pont as sort of this mentor, father figure, leader, or coach, whatever you want to call him.
In the movie, it shows Dave and I competing on the farm. Both of us were at the farm at the same time. That’s pure fiction. Dave and I were not on the farm at the same time. We were never on the farm at the same time.
Another thing is I did not go to Philadelphia to join Team Foxcatcher. I went there to take a job at Villanova University. That’s one thing that I really resented about the movie was they had me looking up to du Pont as this winner that I wanted to associate with but nothing can be further from the truth. It was the complete opposite actually.
He was a loser that I didn’t want to associate with and I tried everything I could to stay away from him and keep distance from him because I didn’t want his negative and loser association, vibes rubbing off on me.
That’s one thing you learn in life is that if you want to be great in anything, you have to associate with winners which is important to learn how to win life and, du Pont knew this concept. He knew if he’s hanging around with winners it would rub off on him and it did.
The problem was hanging around him rub off on me the wrong way and it negatively affected me. It’s not funny.
Mark Schultz
Pretty soon you’ll be great in that thing too.
Kamala Chambers
It’s really powerful message there and to be able to go through so much and then to have the whole world be able to get a very limited perspective of it and for you to be able to continue to hold onto your truth. I mean, it just really brings an inspiration for how to live as a winner.
It doesn’t meant that we can all be Olympic gold medallist and Olympic winners like you are but I love to know if there is anything else that you want to make sure that the world knows about your story or that you want to leave the audience with?
Mark Schultz
Well, the true story of Team Foxcatcher is actually in a documentary of The Prince of Pennsylvania. It was on Netflix. There’s another one on Team Foxcatcher that Nancy Schultz made. It was his will. Those are accurate. As a matter of fact, I’m not even in Nancy’s documentary because Dave and I were never on the farm at the same time.
The thing that I would want people to know about me is if you want to be successful, find the best people in that field, and do whatever it takes to associate with them. It teaches you how to win life.
For me, I try to make people laugh. My dad was a professional comedian so I can make people laugh. I used to memorize Steve Martin and Bill Cosby and then, I would make them laugh and they would like me to hang around. Because of that, I was allowed to hang out with college guys which is a huge advantage.
Like for example, when I was in high school, I hang around with Andre Metzger. He was the youngest world medallist ever to Oklahoma. It was huge advantage associating with him.
I just did whatever I had to do to get into the groups that I wanted to get into with the guys that were the most successful. If I hang around with them long enough, I did what they did and soon, I became as good as them. That’s how you make it in life.
Teaching Ourselves How To Win Life Is Necessary
Luis Congdon
That’s really powerful to hear that from you who has had so much success in their own life. Not only have you been an Olympic athlete, you’ve also been in New York Times best seller. You’re someone that I looked up to and really admire for what you’ve done. So I really appreciate the keys that you’ve given us today.
Also, just setting the records straight about your own history and some of the things that you didn’t like about the movie and also just sharing your success and what you’ve been up to and letting us know how we can also tap into those mind-sets. One of the things that we’ve done here at Thriving Launch, which is really special to me is we bring on the most successful possible people that we can find in all sorts of areas of life so that the listeners and the community at Thriving Launch, so that all of you can tap into this excellence and this wisdom and share some time with all of us so that it changes and somehow reprograms you for success.
Not only do I interview this so that the audience gets it. I do it so that I also get to sit down with Olympic athletes or New York Times best-selling authors or just the most successful we can find. Also, so I can spend time with it, with that person and then, give that gift back to the world.
Thank you so much for coming on the show today. It’s been a real pleasure to have you on the show and to learn how to win life Mark.
Mark Schultz
Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a good day.
