2003

" When I retire from boxing, I really don't know.  I'm gonna say something here that might make you all think.  Life is not really long.  Let's say the average person is 30 years old.  If you're 30 years old, you're not but about 7 years old."

How can I prove it?  Add up all the 7, 8, 9 hours you slept each night for 30 years.  Last night when you went to bed and woke up this morning, you don't remember a thing.  You've been unconscious for about 8 years if you're 30 years old.

How much traveling have you done in 30 years? You've probably spent two years of your life just traveling to get back and forth from where you're going.  So there's 8 years of sleeping, two years of traveling, out of your 30 years of life before you accomplish anything. 

How long do you sit in school?  In America we sit in school from the 1st grade to the 12th grade, 6 hours per day.  Break it down.  You sit in a class room for about 3 years of your life without leaving. 

So two years of traveling, 8 years of sleeping, 3 years of school, and how many movies have you gone to?  How much entertainment?  Probably two years of entertainment.  And by the time you have children, by the time you've made a way for your children and you have a home, you're pushing 60 years old.  So, life is real short.  Add up all your sleeping, all your traveling, all your entertainment, all your school, and you've probably spent half your life doing nothing.

I'm 35 right now.  In 30 years I'll be 65.  We don't have much influence and can't do much of nothing at 65.  Your wife will tell you that.  And out of my next 30 years, I might have 16 years to be productive.   So what am I going to do over the next 16 years?  What's the most productive thing for me to do?  Get ready to meet God.

Owning real estate.  Getting rich in business.  Teaching boxers.  That won't get me to heaven.  How many here believe there is a God that made the sun, the moon and the stars? So, what I'm gonna do when I get out of boxing, is to get myself ready to meet God."

Muhammad Ali