Just as in boxing, you're going to get hurt every once in a while. Friends will disappoint you. Your career will suffer some setbacks. Lovers will leave. And even the best thought-out plans will go awry. No matter how rich, successful, famous, or beautiful you are, there are going to be some tough times, disappointments, and failures every time you step into the ring. And that's okay. Perfect fights are few and far between. You certainly won't be thrilled by every setback and disappointment, but you shouldn't let them keep you down, either. Even in the boxing world, the fighter who has been knocked out with a single punch eventually gets up, brushes himself off, and goes back into training for the next fight.

In the ring, a fighter who is on the receiving end of a low blow has a choice. He can either shrug off the punch and wait for the referee to see the violation in the rules or he can start fighting dirty as well. The right thing to do is wait for the ref to call a foul and continue to fight cleanly. Realistically, that's not always as easy as it sounds. After receiving a low blow, you're often hurt and angry. Every instinct tells you to retaliate in kind. After all, the other person started it. Who could blame you if you fought dirty? You may even have people in your own corner or the audience urging you to fight dirty, just to teach the other person a lesson.

In boxing, this hardly ever works. In fact, it very often fails, and actually reduces a fighter's chance to win. It also demeans him, even if he does win the match. Responding to a dirty fighter by retaliating in kind forces a boxer to deviate from his fight plan. The second he starts fighting dirty, he begins fighting in the other person's fighting style, which could be unfamiliar, or leave him open to a clean punch. Even if the ref didn't see the illegal punch his opponent delivered, he might see the one the fighter returned, and he could lose points. There's no glory in winning a dirty fight. It marks a fighter not only as less professional, but future opponents, if they have the least bit of dirty fighter in them, won't hesitate to punch low when facing him. The minute a fighter throws a low blow, he loses credibility in the eyes of the boxing world. Suddenly he has become a dirty fighter who can't win a fair match. This may not seem to mean much, but ultimately it could prove devastating to a fighter's career. Opponents won't want to face him in the ring, the press will minimize even his clean victories, and the fans will turn against him.

The dirty fighter ultimately does himself more harm than good. He may win in the short term by hurting his opponent in a single round, but those low-blow tactics will come back to haunt him in the long run. Once a boxer earns a reputation for fighting dirty, not only do other opponents feel free to use the same tactics, but the judges who sit ringside will watch him closely for the slightest infraction of the rules. Then there are the fans who will lose respect for the fighter because he has not shown the proper respect for the sport. In short, the dirty fighter loses inside and outside the ring. His illegal tactics not only make future fights that much more difficult, but can do unanticipated damage to his career.

Every true winner, every champion I know has the ability to get up after the worst defeat, no matter how unfair, and keep going. It isn't easy. He may feel hurt, angry, humiliated, but he keeps going. The people that I really admire are those who have found a way around life's obstacles. They are the ones who met life on its own terms and through perseverance, ingenuity, and talent, found a way to succeed. The sports superstar, born with natural talent, was recognized early and was given the attention and training to nurture his talent. He is certainly thrilling to admire in action. However, so, too, is the handicapped student, who has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to finish his or her academic degree with honors.

I entered a business that had seen few woman managers before. I was able to turn that significant liability of being a woman in a male-dominated world into an asset. I used my training in public relations to get press for my fighters and myself. I used the curiosity of promoters about a woman manager to get my foot in the door and then dealt with them as a professional. I acknowledged the shortcomings of the boxing world going into it--and never looked back. Boxing was the arena in which I had chosen to make my career, and I knew that I would have to accept it on its own terms. I was determined to succeed despite whatever narrow-mindedness I encountered along the way. From the beginning, I entered the sport to become the best manager in the business and represent my fighters to the best of my ability. I wasn't in the sport to change attitudes, though I suspect I did a little of that as well.

Granted, in all the years I've been in the business, I haven't changed the world of boxing dramatically, but I have managed to carve out my own little place in it. I succeeded in it at a level that many men never reach. There were times when the blatant unfairness of it all seemed nearly overwhelming, but I didn't give up. Boxing is a tough sport, inhabited by tough people, and I had to become just as tough if I wanted to do the job well. It is a business in which weakness of any kind can be interpreted as a fatal flaw, and I was tested again and again. If the business negotiations were brutal, then I determined that I could be just as brutal. If the atmosphere was inhospitably sexist and macho, then I wouldn't shrink from it or show weakness. Perhaps the women who follow me will have an easier time of it, perhaps not. I took on the challenge using my brains and ingenuity.

What is true in the insular world of boxing is true in the outside world as well. Very few businesses are as ruthless as boxing. Yet as women continue to make progress in the workplace, they are encountering much of the same narrow-
mindedness that I came up against when I entered the sport. The best advice I can give them is to change what they can and use their ingenuity to figure out a way around those obstacles that can't be changed. Meet the world on its own terms.