I sat down to talk with Drew Brown, the first black jet fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy, a decorated war veteran, who was raised on the streets of Harlem. He went to school at Southern University, played basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters, and wrote a book called "You Gotta Believe!"

The subject of our discussion? Boxing.

More specifically, Muhammad Ali.

"When I was a kid, my father made me sit in the corner," Brown told me with an all-knowing smile. "Oh, not the corner you’re thinking about. I’m talking about the corner that Muhammad Ali sat in while he was winning or defending the heavyweight championship of the world."

Drew Brown’s dad was Bundini Brown, who was Ali’s trainer and in Ali’s corner with Angelo Dundee for every major fight of the former heavyweight champion’s career. So was the young Drew Brown. Drew was there at the fights and at the gym where Ali got ready and trained to become a world champion.

Can you imagine being ringside for the career of the greatest boxer of all time? I wanted to hear every story. Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Ken Norton. I wanted to hear about the fights.

Like all boxing fans in the 1960s and ‘70s, I loved Ali. His style, his speed, his swagger, and his confidence. Yes, he was controversial, but he had the skills. He fought like no other. And still today, his is the most recognized name in the world.

After about half a dozen stories, I challenged Brown to take the stories and convert them into lessons. "What did you learn from sitting in the corner? What did Ali’s career teach you?"

"I never thought about it," he said smiling.

"Think about it. I want to know the lessons," I challenged.

Drew began to talk, and I began to write. Here are the lessons Brown learned sitting at the feet of Muhammad Ali and observing his actions. Think about how you might be able to model Ali’s habits in your sales career:

1. Ali got ready to win. He trained to be a champion, not just win the fight.

2. Ali simulated the fight environment for months before the actual fight. He had sparring partners that pushed him to the limit.

3. Ali had a victory strategy he prepared and practiced every day.

4. Ali was healthy. He ate right and exercised right. Never a weight lifter, he just got in fight shape.

5. Ali psyched himself up every day. Winning starts with your mental attitude.

6. Ali was the master self-promoter for himself – "the greatest of all time" – and his sport.

7. Ali always believed he would win. Self-belief was his secret weapon (His jab and powerful right hand came in handy as well.)

8. Ali psyched his opponent. His pre-fight stare-down was without peer.

9. Ali was a student of his opponents, looking for their weaknesses and exploiting them.

10. Ali’s mantra was: punch hard, punch fast, and dance. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" was not just a slogan.

11. Ali was prepared to go the distance, even though he would predict an early knockout. You don’t have to knock someone out, but you do have to win every round.

12. Ali had passionate, loyal fans. "I was privileged to watch the greatest fighter who ever lived," Drew Brown told me. "But I didn’t just watch, I learned. Some lessons I saw, and some I looked back to discover. But every lesson has value, and every lesson helped me in my career, whether it was in the military or in the office."

Brown has become a speaker, taking his life lessons into corporate America, and into high schools to the youth of America. He calls his talk "the facts of life."

The real facts of life occur when you get your business card printed and you realize your mommy or your daddy are not always able to come to your rescue, and that you must rely on yourself. That’s a hard fact.

How have you learned your facts of life, and how are you taking advantage of those lessons?

Contact Jeffrey Gitomer at salesman@gitomer.com or (704) 333-1112. Gitomer is president of Buy Gitomer in Charlotte, N.C., and the author of "The Little Red Book of Selling." He gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. Sales Moves appears weekly.