Personal Development | Muhammad Ali | Motivation
The Day I Met Muhammad Ali
And the brief conversation that changed my life
This meeting was totally unplanned.
At least as far as I knew.
I had no idea one of my heroes was going to be at a fundraising banquet I was attending. As a young 24 year old group counselor at a teenage drug rehab, I was going simply to support our program.
I had no idea a life changing moment was on the schedule.
With that said, here’s my meeting Muhammad Ali story:
Got my Master’s in Counseling Psych in ’82 from FSU and took a job in south Florida.
Absolutely hated it and decided to move back to Tallahassee where I wanted to live, no job, no nothing…
Got 2 jobs:
Job 1: Part time Baptist Campus Minister for Tallahassee Community College — Salary: $6,000.00 — a YEAR
Job 2: Group Counselor at Turn About, a local teen drug rehab. Salary: Minimum Wage with a Master’s Degree
Glad to be back in Tallahassee, but kinda feeling sorry for myself…
That Fall the rehab program was about to close due to lack of funding, so one of the parents wrote a letter to a famous and flamboyant “Sheikh” currently living in Miami
He’s touched by her letter and decides to donate thousands of dollars to the program — a banquet is scheduled in Tallahassee.
I attend the banquet with Shuf Davis, a good friend, who’s also my boss for the campus minister job and knew the guy who hired me at the drug rehab.
The entourage for the Sheikh enters the place with lots of folks and security, walks by our table and take their place at the tables on stage.
Next thing I know I’m grabbing my friend Shuf, practically shaking him:
Me: “Do you see who is up there with them?!?”
Shuf: “Who?”
Me: “Look right there, 3rd from the left! That’s Muhammad Ali!”
Shuf: “Wow, you’re right!”
I have no idea what was said at the banquet that day. My attention was elsewhere.
During the banquet it occurs to me they just might walk out the way they came in…
They did, I stick out my hand to Ali, and say “Hi Champ.”
In the only time he stops while walking out, Ali shakes my hand and I watch my hand disappear into his, because you see folks like this on TV and then you’re standing next to them…
Ali: “What’s your name and what are you doing here?”
Me: “I’m Jeff and I’m a group counselor at the teen drug rehab.”
Ali: [squeezing my hand] “Then go be the best one you can be.”
So I did.
Almost 40 years later now, I’m still friends with many of those “kids” from the program.
Although I’m a little unclear on how in the world some of them are in their 40’s and 50’s.
When I told a version of this story on Facebook, one of those “kids” had this to say:
I’ll close with my favorite Ali quote:
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given, than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
Thanks, Champ…