I am a huge fan of the Rocky movies. This comes as no surprise to those who know me. I have written about this before in my posts Lead Like Rocky Balboa and Five Leadership Lessons from Creed.
I am such a huge fan of all seven of these movies (yes I even like five!) that I have trouble seeing the great Sylvester Stallone as himself. To me he is Rocky Balboa. I believe Rocky is real. I was talking to my wife earlier this week and I said, “I really hope Rock wins Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars!” She responded how she usually does, “Rocky isn’t real!”
To me, Rocky is real. At least he should be. What Rocky stands for is what we as leaders should stand for. You can read more about this in my post Lead Like Rocky Balboa.
This post though is about what Rocky Balboa would say, if he were real which he is, about learning. I have written about the importance of lifelong learning before. I believe that learning is our responsibility as leaders. You cannot be the boss of your life unless to commit to lifelong learning.
Learning isn’t simply about gaining more knowledge. It is not just reading a bunch of books or taking classes or going through an online course. Learning is about always being open: To change, new ideas, to the differences people have from one another.
What would Rocky Balboa say about learning?
He would simply quote himself. In Rocky IV, after winning the fight against Ivan Drago in Russia, Rocky gives what I consider to be one of the greatest short speeches ever. Here is what he says:
I came here tonight… and I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve seen a lot of people hating me… and I didn’t know… what to feel about that, so… I guess I didn’t like you much either. During this fight… I seen a lot of changing: the way you felt about me… and the way I felt about you. In here… there were two guys… killing each other. But I guess that’s better than 20 million. What I’m trying to say is… if I can change… and you can change… everybody can change!
Rocky Balboa’s speech comes to my mind when I think about how divided we are as a country right now. His short speech focused on change. Learning and change go hand-in-hand. You cannot learn without changing. You cannot change without learning.
Think about Rocky’s words: “If I can change… and you can change… everybody can change!” This is such a true statement. It is so simple, yet so powerful. It’s so Rocky. We are ALL capable of change. We were created with the ability to adapt and change. If this is the case, why do we so often stay the same?
Why do we still have so much hate? Why is our divide so large? Why do we so often let our emotions cloud logic? Why must we argue on social media? Why can we not have rational discussions?
Rocky Balboa was a fighter. But he, like many other fighters, said that he fought so his son and others didn’t have to. He mentioned in his speech that having two guys in the ring killing each other is better than 20 million. He later (in the sixth movie) said that it’s not about how hard you hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
You cannot move forward without learning and being open to change. Learning is about how hard you can get hit. It’s also about understanding when the punch is coming and getting out of the way!
Learning is about changing the habit we have that leads us to fight. What if we all just stopped fighting and worked together to create positive change? What if we stopped focusing on our differences and all that divides us, and we focused on all that we have in common?
Over the 240 years our country has been in existence we have learned a lot and we have changed. We must not forget about the progress we have made, but we also must continue to learn, grow and move forward.
Rocky told us that we can all change. He as usual was exactly right. It is our responsibility to change, to learn from our past and to look for a new way forward.