What sealed the deal to make Rickson unstoppable (part 2)

We previously covered the drastic way a young Rickson Gracie taught himself not to freak out when being headlocked. 

But that didn't stop him from begging his dad to throw in the towel between rounds in his vale-tudo debut some eight years later. There was still one crucial lesson to be learned, which Rickson told us in a recent interview. You can check out the first half of his answer here.

Here's part 2:

"My worst enemy is inside myself, telling me to quit, telling me to stop. And from that perspective, I felt, again, another negative pressure on me, which comes not from my feeling of panicking, but from my fear of not being able to accomplish what I want. And then, again, I was proved wrong. 

"So, at this point, I decided to just obey my heart, follow my focus, my goals, my objectives, and not allow myself to be disturbed by my own mindset, saying 'Hey, pay attention!' So the fear... That's not the time to have fears, to have doubts. It's time for you to either die trying or, you know, win. 

"And once I embraced that information, it was like I closed the deal: I was always moving forward, not only breathing effectively to not get tired, but also with the mindset proper to not feeling I could be defeated. I have to prove: either I'm gonna die, or I'm gonna keep trying forever. So, that gave me a clear mind of my position as a fighter, as a man, and how to use my emotional, spiritual and physical resources to accomplish that."