What to Do When You Get ‘Punched in the Mouth’

Published on February 12, 2026

3 minute read

A fist emerges through a computer screen to punch a man in the mouth

Years ago I heard a quote from Mike Tyson that I’ve never forgotten.

“Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth.”

It’s true, right? We might think we have things figured out, but at some point we’re going to fall, and fall hard. And it’s the resilient ones who find a way to move forward when that happens.

I once spoke with Tim Grover, who worked for over a decade as NBA legend Michael Jordan’s personal trainer. Grover told me the following:

“There’s not a single individual I’ve ever met, outside of the field of professional bodybuilding, who doesn’t fall off the wagon on their diet…But how long are you staying off the wagon? Do you bounce right back on? Or does a cheat meal turn into a cheat day? Does a cheat day turn into a cheat week, or a cheat month?”

The more I thought about this, the more I realized how many areas of life this applies to.

Like, what if you’re:

Working on a project, and someone criticizes what you’ve done?
Teaching yourself how to do something new, and you run into a wall?
Quit an addiction, and you fall off the wagon?

When you get “punched in the mouth,” the temptation is to stay down.

But I’ve studied hundreds of top performers in business, sports, and life, and almost all of them share one thing in common: They get up quickly, and they get back to work.

So, if you get punched in the mouth, do this:

1. Get back up—as soon as possible.

Sometimes that’s the same day. Sometimes it’s the next day.

But it’s not getting swallowed up by negative feelings. It’s not throwing a pity party for yourself. And it’s not staying down for the count.

In his 2024 commencement speech to Dartmouth College, tennis great Roger Federer said that in the 1,526 singles matches he played in his career, he won almost 80 percent of those matches. But do you know how many points he won? Barely more than half. (54%, to be exact.)

“In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play,” Federer explained. “When you lose every second point on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot. You teach yourself to think, ‘It’s only a point.’”

“You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments,” he continued. “That is, to me, the sign of a champion, the best in the world. And, not the best because they win every point. It’s because they know they’ll lose again and again, and have learned how to deal with it.”

2. Take action.

This will look different depending on the situation.

Sometimes it means standing up for yourself. Other time, it means walking away. If you need help, go and get it. But do something.

When Barbara Corcoran got promised a spot on Shark Tank—and then “fired” before shooting a single episode—she wrote the producer and told him why he should keep her. Then, she boarded a plane and showed up to the set. She won her spot back and has been on the show ever since.

3. Reflect and learn.

Once you’ve been knocked down, you have a choice.

You can leave yourself open for another hit…
Or, you can analyze what happened, and try to figure out how to protect yourself and keep going.

Use the following questions to help you learn from the situation:

What led up to the punch?
Was I caught off guard? Did I walk into a bad situation? Or was something building up to this for some time?
What would I do differently if I could change something?
Most importantly, what can I do now to help me move forward?

Write down what you learn in a journal. The more times you go through it, the better prepared you’ll be.

Because everyone gets punched in the mouth.

The difference between winning and losing: The losers stay down. The winners get back up.