Nobody warned me that running a business and getting punched in the face would teach me the same things.
I’ve had quite the journey in both:
I’ve been training martial arts for over a decade now. BJJ. Muay Thai. Wrestling. MMA. Hundreds of hours on the mats, in the ring, in the gym. I’ve had more broken bones than I can remember — broken wrists, fractured ankles, even had some guy almost crack my windpipe from a choke.
I’ve travelled across the world – trained at some of the most renowned gyms in the world. Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Thailand almost every other year. Tristar Gym in Montreal – home to George St. Pierre, the UFC GOAT and legendary coach Firas Zahabi. Gyms in Morocco, NY, Bali, Malaysia.
Before that, I was a rowdy kid getting into all types of physical altercations. Too much energy I guess, It happens lol.
I’ve also built businesses that generated many millions in revenue – both as my own and as a CMO for clients – then I’ve lost it all. Rebuilt, multiple times. I’ve launched brands across multiple countries, ran masterminds for some of the top entrepreneurs in the world.
I’ve been in the business TRENCHES, seen some dark days in business. I’m lucky enough to have been at the cutting edge of performance marketing for over 13 years.
And here’s what I know for certain:
The mat and the boardroom are the same classroom.
Every real lesson I’ve learned in business — I learned it first with my body on the line.
Here’s how.
1. Pressure Is the Product.
In a fight, someone is coming at you.
You cannot run. You cannot hide. You can’t hit pause, open your laptop, and Google the answer. Someone is trying to take your head off — and you have to think, move, adapt, and perform. All at the same time. All under immense pressure.
When someone is on top of you in BJJ, trying to choke the life out of you — the worst thing you can do is panic. Panic is a death sentence. The guys who panic get finished in seconds. The guys who stay calm? They survive. They create openings. They escape.
Business is the same equation.
Launch day and the funnel’s broken. Key employee quits. Bills are due and payments delayed. Your biggest client pulls the contract last minute. Debts piling and someone runs away with what you’re owed. Hard-earned money gone.
You’re out of runway.
The pressure is real. The pressure is always real.
And the only question that matters is: Can you stay calm when it hits?
The ones who can — they see what’s available. They make the next correct move. They survive and they find a way. The ones who can’t? They fold.
Pressure isn’t something that happens to great fighters or great founders. It’s the filter. It’s the whole point.
Pressure is a Privilege because Pressure Creates Diamonds.
You don’t avoid it. You train for it. You embrace it.
2. The Opportunity Lives in the Transition.
Here’s something nobody tells you about BJJ until you’ve been on the mats long enough:
When your opponent has a solid position — when they’re fully locked in, controlling you, heavy on top — you have almost nothing. Don’t force it. Don’t spaz. That’s a fast track to getting submitted.
You wait.
Because no position lasts forever. The moment they try to move — to transition to something better, to go for a submission, to shift their weight — that’s your window. That fraction of a second is everything. You feel the change, you trap a hand, you find inside position, you push off, you reverse. One slow step at a time.
The opportunity is always in the transition.
I see this in business constantly. When a market is completely locked up — a dominant player, a saturated channel, a status quo nobody’s questioning — don’t throw yourself at the wall. Watch it.
Because markets shift. Algorithms change. Customer pain points evolve. A dominant competitor gets complacent. And when that transition happens — that is the exact moment to move fast and take position.
Patience isn’t passive. It’s strategic.
The smartest competitors — in the ring and in business — are always watching for the transition. And when it comes, they’re already moving.
3. The Real Opponent Is Attrition.
I had a Muay Thai fight in Thailand.
Big venue. Bright lights. Thousands of people watching live and streaming. All my friends and family up early across the world, watching. Everything I’d trained for, right in front of me.
I remember the walk out. The noise. The nerves sitting heavy in my chest. The “ready-to-go”-ness.
And then the fight started — and about halfway through, something clicked.
It’s not about skill.
It’s not. Not at that level. Both fighters know how to fight. Both have trained. Both want to win. The question isn’t who’s more skilled.
The question is: who can maintain their skill level longer? Who can dig deeper?
Fatigue is the real opponent. Nerves are the real opponent. The fighter who looks dominant in round one isn’t always the one standing strong in round three. Your cardio, your composure, your mental fortitude — that’s what separates winners from losers when both of you are exhausted.
And here’s what I held onto mid-fight: he’s just as tired as I am.
Never show it. Keep moving. Keep pressing.
Business is a war of attrition. Every entrepreneur starts hot. Excited. Full of energy. The ideas are flowing, the vision is clear.
Three years in? The market’s harder than you thought. The team problems are real. The cashflow is tight. Everyone around you has ‘easier’ paths.
And 90% of people drop off.
The ones still standing? They didn’t necessarily have the best idea or the most talent. They had the deepest gas tank. They kept showing up when it stopped being fun.
Outlasting is a strategy. And it works.
Remember: They can copy your idea, they can’t copy your discipline.
4. Strategy Wins. But You Have to Pivot it in Real Time.
You walk into every fight with a game plan.
Let’s say your opponent stands tall and upright. Long legs, not much movement. So your theory is: leg kicks. Chop the tree at the base. Break his foundation, make him uncomfortable, open up the body and head.
Three rounds in — it’s not working. He’s excellent at checking those kicks. He keeps catching them clean and you’re eating counters.
Now what?
You don’t cry about it. You don’t keep throwing the same kick hoping for a different result. You pivot.
He’s defending the legs — that means he’s loading up on that side. Let’s shoot a double leg. Let’s take this to the ground.
Fighting is about having a hypothesis, testing it under fire, and pivoting in real time when the data says to. No room for ego. No time to dwell.
I’ve run campaigns that I was certain would work. I’ve launched products I believed in completely. I’ve hired people I thought were A-players.
Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t.
The mistake isn’t the wrong strategy. The mistake is staying committed to the wrong strategy after the evidence is telling you to change.
In the ring, stubbornness gets you knocked out.
In business, it just takes a little longer. But the result is the same. You get hurt.
Test fast. Learn fast. Pivot without ego. Move on.
5. Know Your Style. Double Down on It.
After years on the mat, you figure something out: you are not every fighter.
I’m never going to land a Street Fighter-style capoeira kick for a highlight-reel KO. That’s not my game. I’m not going to be a pure Tyson peekaboo boxer either — duck low, get inside and explode, all aggression.
I know my style. I know what I’m good at. I’ve learned my strengths, identified my weaknesses, and built a game that works for me. I stop a threat. I get to my positions. I use my IQ. That’s my edge.
Same thing in business.
I’m never going to be the guy locked in accounting spreadsheets for 10 hours a day, buried in pivot tables, running financial models in the dark.
That’s not my edge. My edge is marketing and product. Understanding what a customer wants. Creating the message that moves them and the product that brings value. Building the brand, the funnel, the story that converts.
So that’s where I put my energy. I double down on it. And I find people who are world-class at the things I’m not — they fill the gaps, I fill mine.
Self-awareness is a superpower. In the ring and in the room.
The fighters who lose themselves trying to be someone else get exposed. The founders who try to be everything to their company plateau fast.
Know your game. Play it.
6. The Real Reward Isn’t the Win. It’s Who You Become.
Fighting teaches you something about yourself that nothing else will.
Not a book. Not a podcast. Not a mastermind.
When you’ve been tested under real pressure — when someone’s trying to submit you, to hurt you, to dominate you — and you find a way through it, something shifts. Permanently.
You carry that with you.
Not the trophy. Not the result. The knowing.
The knowing that when pressure comes — and it will come — you don’t fold. You’ve been there before. You’ve felt worse. You survived. You adapted.
Business is the same feedback loop. The real return isn’t the revenue figure or the exit multiple. It’s the character forged in the building of it. The obstacles you cleared. The version of yourself that came out the other side.
Tim Grover said it: Fighting changes you. Muscles hide it.
But it’s true of every real challenge. The external result is just the visible part. What’s happening underneath — the growth, the grit, the recalibration of who you are — that’s the actual compound interest.
The money will come and go. The skills, the character, the confidence — that you take with you everywhere.
To anyone reading this — especially the men:
Get on the mats. Walk into a gym. Sign up for a class.
Not because you want to ‘mess people up.’ Not because you need to be tough. Because the journey will sharpen your character in ways that nothing else can. You’ll learn to be calm under pressure. Patient. Strategic. Self-aware. Resilient.
Every lesson from the mats shows up in your life. Every single one.
Until next time,
-B
