Punks Teaching Leadership/Character

I’m a fan of MMA (mixed martial arts). I’m aware that this puts me in a bad light with many folks, but the competition, the merging of all the different disciplines and just generally the amazing commitment it takes to succeed in that arena impress me. But the thing I like best is the sportsmanship. You fight, you trash talk, you even get mad but at the end you shake hands and tell each other good job. It’s about character, integrity and a little thing called honor. This weekend I witnessed the complete opposite of that. After losing a match by split decision (for non MMA folks thing really close game) Tito Ortiz punked out and whined about an injury he had and blamed the loss on that. While the guy who beat him was standing there! It was the worst showing of sportsmanship and character I’ve seen. I will at some point watch these with my son and I told Karen, it would have been then that I looked at my son and said, “Don’t ever, ever ever be that guy!” Character counts and I was reminded of that all over again this weekend by a punk. See you can learn leadership from almost anywhere if you’re willing to look.