Excerpt from Vertiv Must-Read Research blog
The dictionary definition of resilience is: ‘the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness’.
When it comes to current real-life examples of resilience, we should probably look no further than front-line health workers, teachers, or anyone else who has stoically provided vital services amidst the pandemic.
Pre-pandemic however, we might have turned to a more obvious example of toughness: a boxer perhaps. And if you’re looking for a pugilist to illustrate a point, then there is no better example than Muhammad Ali.
One of Ali’s most famous fights was the so-called ‘Rumble in the Jungle’, in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1974. Sometimes referred to as ‘arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20thCentury’, a 32-year-old Ali found himself up against a younger and stronger world champion – 25-year-old George Foreman. Despite his fame and experience, Ali was the 4-1 underdog going into the match.
Float Like a Butterfly
As the story goes, in the run-up to the fight, Ali reinforced the preconception that he would use his famous agility – “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” – to ‘dance’ around the slower, but stronger, Foreman. But the reality on the day was quite different. Rather than avoid Foreman, Ali seemingly allowed himself to get cornered. Not only that, but he often leant back into the ropes and let his body, but also crucially the ropes, soak-up the punishment. The result? Foreman eventually tired himself out and Ali won the fight. The ‘rope-a-dope’, as it has become known, proved decisive.
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EARTHED-TECH 