you know i didn't grow up with money we
we we weren't rich
by any means but uh we built we took
this business from
zero now the company's worth seven
billion dollars
what's the worst thing that can happen
if you try you just have to keep
grinding
every day every day you get up when
you're at home like you're dreading
monday
man stop stop and get another job
because you're in the wrong place
that that's not healthy for you
i knew i wasn't going to college i knew
that wasn't a reality i didn't really
want to go to college
one of the things that i was very lucky
in my life with
is i knew exactly what i wanted to do
from the time i was a young age i knew i
wanted to be in the fight business
and people thought it was crazy because
when you look at different
at the time when i grew up yeah don king
bob aaron these guys were the with the
big promoters
uh in the fight game and and you know
everybody was set in their ways
they they didn't think that uh you know
the fight business could change yeah and
i i i believed it could i had a lot of
ideas and i believed i could
i could change the business and i was i
worked in boston at a place called the
boston harbor hotel
i was a bellman in there i was 19 years
old i made good money
you know there's some guys to get those
jobs and those are the type of jobs they
they you know they want those jobs
forever it's a good job it's not a bad
job
it just wasn't for me
i was literally standing in the lobby
one day and i'm like what the hell am i
doing here
am i doing here this isn't me this isn't
what i want and i walked out the front
door and one of my good friends he's
still one of my good friends today
who's the doorman says uh what are you
doing i said i'm quitting
and he's like he's like what what are
you gonna do i said i want to be in the
fight business
he said that's the dumbest thing i've
ever heard in my life what's the worst
thing that can happen if you try
if the day that i walked out of that
hotel right
and i went to do this it doesn't work
out i can go back and be a bellman again
whenever i want to
i always knew what i wanted to do and
every day when i woke up
i would work toward that goal i listened
to both of those tips
everything that was in there is
absolutely true makes sense
and applies to everybody's life it
really does
so if you want to know what does it take
to take things the highest level
what's going to take to change my
business permanently not temporary
you can go home and you can install some
of these strategy skills
tactics tools insights and see a
significant change
but if that change is going to be a
lasting company of value that keeps
growing
then the things you've learned here have
to become the standard
for your organization not something you
did for a period of time
whenever you look at somebody and say
why are they more successful anybody
else
it's always because of step one they've
raised their standard
if you go back home and you want to
change your life in any way
personally professionally or your
company as boring as it sounds
as stupid as an innate it sounds you
might say i spent all this time this
energy this money and you're going to
tell me to raise my standards
yes because even though that's not sexy
it is the only thing that creates
lasting change
yeah so there was a kid in the fight
game yeah and uh
you know he took me under his wing and
you know nothing bad with having a guy
that works for you that you don't have
to pay either that doesn't suck
so you know i worked hard for this guy i
learned everything and
uh and then i you know i eventually
moved out to vegas
a buddy of mine lorenzo fertitta we went
to school together
and uh when i came back to vegas a
mutual friend had a wedding
and we both went to the wedding we
bumped into each other and he had just
got on
the nevada state athletic commission and
he heard that i was doing boxing out
here and
and uh he said i want to hook up and
start training so
we got together on that monday which was
in 1995
and we've been together ever since the
owner of the ufc at the time was a guy
named bob meyerowitz
out of new york one day on the phone it
just all erupted and he said you know
what there is no more money
it's all over this this this thing's in
trouble i don't even know if i have
enough money to put on one more show
and i said interesting uh okay so we
hung up i called frank lorenzo
they were and who would become my
partners and they were in florida at the
time
they owned station casinos here in las
vegas local casino
and uh i said the ufc is in trouble and
i think we should buy it
i think we could buy this thing we
started making some calls a month later
we bought the ufc for two million
dollars
two million dollars and sold it for
4.025 billion so we bought it for 2
million
you hear 4 billion that sounds great but
the burn of almost 40 million
was not fun and it was painful and it it
you know
what did lorenzo and frank say about
that was there a point when they were at
a breakup
lorenzo called me one uh one day and
said uh
i can't keep doing this man i can't keep
burning all this cash
and uh i need you to get out there and
find out what you could sell this thing
for
so that day i made a bunch of calls that
night i call him when he's on his way
home and i said you know what
maybe six seven million bucks we're in
almost 40.
i think i could get six or seven million
and uh
he said okay i'll call you tomorrow
[Music]
the first thing you think is man i just
blew 40 million dollars of my friend's
money
that's the first thing you do right yeah
and uh
that's not fun you've put all this time
and energy into it
and uh and it and it just doesn't work
it you know it didn't work the way that
you thought it would yeah
then he called me back the next day and
said [ __ ] it
let's keep going
first of all when you have a business
idea um
there's always going to be detractors
and people that think you know
it won't work you're always going to
have those people around you and in your
life
even when you're successful believe me
it gets worse when you're successful
then you know
you have to get to a point where you
don't doubt yourself
you're so into this thing and you know
that it's going to work
timing is everything in life timing is
everything
we built we took this business from zero
to where it was we create zillions of
dollars in taxes
all these different you know all these
people that all the people that we
employ
all over the world that when we go into
the economic impact we have on cities
when we go into their cities
all this stuff we're a monopoly now
we're being looked at as monopoly so
we're spending
we're spending you know seven eight
million dollars a year trying to defend
ourselves from the government
as a monopoly that these type of things
happen and i could go on forever
you just you go in you do the right
thing and you just
you pay your money and you just take
your lumps when you own a business
you don't try to fight these guys you
just you just roll with the punches and
you do what you're supposed to do
so we went in and we met with california
nevada
new york um new jersey and the list goes
on and on
everywhere that had a real strong
everybody that had strong regulation
um we went in and met with we educated
them on the sport
and we started to open up and and
getting this regulated and all the
different cities
and and then we started to go to other
parts of the world and get it regulated
and the
list goes on and on
then i had to fly from state to state
and meet with all the reporters you
start meeting with
the uh you know from the new york times
to the
this that local sports reporters who
cover sports every night
in your hometown i literally flew around
the whole country doing this
for years yeah and nothing happens
overnight
you just have to keep grinding every day
every day you get up and it's
you know for us to to make this happen
with the ufc
it was really all about education yeah
and i always knew
two things if i brought these athletes
in and you met them
you would realize the type of people
that they are not what you expected them
to be
right and if i ever got you to a live
event
nobody walks out of a live event goes
yeah i don't ever want to see one of
these again that's true
energy's unbelievable i knew i knew if i
could get you at least to get
whether you were a sponsor or a tv
network executive or whatever it was
if i could get you to the live event i
got you
you know when you think about when you
talk about
manifesting your own destiny and talking
about you know
that is ronda rousey that is conor
mcgregor that is
any of these successful people that you
meet that's who they are and that's
exactly what they do
it's a fact she
she sat there and laid out and told me
exactly how her career was going to go
conor mcgregor laid out and told me
exactly how his career was going to go
these type of people it's it's it's real
it's absolutely real and and i've seen
it
many many times in my life
i love when people doubt us i love when
people say no
you know even even when we just sold the
company we sold the company
it's been two years now right we sold
the company
and uh then everybody all it's always
surrounded by
anything you do positive in your life
and anything that's huge
it will immediately be surrounded by
negativity yeah right
immediately get ready for it because no
matter how successful you become
one thing never goes away negativity
haters whatever you want to call about
it's always there and you have to read
it every day
i separate myself from it and back in
the old days when we started
i used to read it to the point where i
was just nauseous you know yeah
i do not read any of that stuff because
one of the things that i have learned
over over my many years of doing this
their opinion doesn't matter
their opinion means nothing it is
literally an opinion
it's negative [ __ ] and it means
nothing to you
it doesn't mean anything it doesn't
affect unless you're the
sick twisted type of person like me that
likes to let it fuel you you let it it's
like you're
you know it's like your fuel and and
other than that
it's useless it means nothing everything
that the reporters write
everything that these people say just
don't eat
do your thing stay on your course stay
focused
and and and keep your eye on the prize
and and everything comes together
[Music]
i love that stuff i i i so now i just
tune it out
i do my thing when we first bought the
company when ari bought the company yes
and and uh he overpaid for it
overpaid for it these guys are in big
trouble now
now they have so much debt hanging over
their head they're this to that
their tv deal is up with fox you know
all this stuff's going back and forth
so and and a lot of these things are
true our tv deal is up with fox
we do have a lot of debt but these are
all things we knew going into it
you know and then everybody keeps asking
me why did you stay
you know when you make that kind of
money there's always this thing about
[ __ ] you money everybody knows that term
oh man
i'm gonna tell the boss to kiss my ass
if i ever get that lottery or i hit this
or hit that
if you're looking for [ __ ] you money
you're in the wrong place already you
already know you're not in the right
place
okay because there's no such thing
i just made more money than i ever
dreamed i would make
i don't want to leave what am i going to
do where am i going to go listen i've
been on trips and stuff
i can't stand three day weekends i hate
three day weekends man i'm like man
i want monday to come again that's how
much i love what i do
if that's not your mentality every
weekend when you're at home
like you're dreading monday man stop
stop and get another job because you're
in the wrong place
that that's not healthy for you first of
all when you're in that position
we didn't need any money and and
everybody's telling me oh my god you
made
you know 360 million you made this you
made that
i already had money i had money i had
bought a lot of stuff
that i'd always want you know really
about
that you love what you're doing and it's
about the journey the people you're
doing with it that you're having fun
you're getting up every day and you're
all working toward the same goal
whatever it might be it's a very
fulfilling feeling
it really is a very fulfilling feeling
because i've been where
most people have been i i've been in the
in the shitty job that you're just
trying to pay your bills and you're
trying to make ends meet
and you're miserable you're doing it
because you have to do it because you
have to pay your bills because you need
money once you break out of that and you
find what it is you truly love to do
it's really not work it's it's actually
fun and you enjoy every day of your life
every one of us is a fighter every day
you get out of bed you
when you get out of bed every morning
right you get up out of bed life is
standing
right there to kick you in the face
ready leg [ __ ] ready to go
to kick you in the face because every
day when you get up bad shit's coming at
you
right forget about work your personal
life
everything car don't start to this to
that life is ready to get you
you know and you got to get up and you
got to fight through that [ __ ]
every day you have to can't roll over
man you just get
you got to fight through all the [ __ ]
that life throws at you
then you get to a point where life's
throwing a bunch of [ __ ] at you now
works throwing a bunch of [ __ ] at you
you know
your business that you have to fight for
every day and you have to get up and you
have to have that
to get up and fight every day man and
once you get into it you start
and you start fighting it it becomes
addictive you actually like it i love
competition
i love uh i i love things that i love
adversity i love
when adversity comes at us i love
solving problems i i love you know
in personal and professional life i i
really do like when i
when we bought this company espn would
not cover us
would not cover us wouldn't talk to us
wouldn't meet with us
january 1st we're on espn with one of
the biggest deals they've ever cut in
combat
sports history so it took 18 years
you have to be a leader you have to be a
leader and you have to get people
to believe as you believe and to want
the dream as bad as you want the dream
and you have to you know it's great to
have a bunch of people in your place
working but you want
you want enthusiastic people that love
what they're doing as much as you know
those are the type of people you want
and that's that's you know
that's the type of shop we've run since
the day we opened what makes somebody a
great leader
well i think i think part of it is
setting by example i think that they
have to see
that you're out there willing you know
don't just come up here and tell us a
bunch of [ __ ] and
you know they have to believe that you
truly believe and that's truly you're
you're as in love and as passionate
about what you're talking about do
whatever it takes
exactly and you have to be able to talk
to people
you have to be able to motivate people
you have to
be able to get people to believe as you
believe in what they're doing
to love it as much as you do yeah you
know and and in my experience
that that's that's what it takes it's
worked for me
i want you to be you i don't ever want
you to act like somebody else because
it's not genuine it's not authentic from
what i've learned and as i look back on
my life
everything in life is about timing it
really is about timing the right time
the right place the right everything
and and i also believe that you create
your own timing
in life too you're really lucky when you
rip your ass off
yeah yeah exactly it's it's the thing is
everybody what's the worst thing that
can happen if you try
if the day that i walked out of that
hotel right
and i went to do this it doesn't work
out i can go back and be a bellman again
whenever i want to you can always go
back and do that the worst part
is not trying you have to try nobody's
ever going to do
anything without trying it's never the
right time
it's never the right time it's like i
can't now i i i got this truck i just
bought i got payments on this frigging
thing
you know i got this if you do that to
yourself you'll never do anything
forget the truck forget this forget that
go for it
just go for it believe me i'm living
proof
that it can happen