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Lesson #2: It Takes Passion to Win the Fight

Article Overview: White might not have been a stellar student, but thanks to his achievements with the UFC, his high school was nevertheless proud of him. So much so, that they even invited him back to deliver the commencement address twenty years after his own graduation. “It was pretty cool,” said White. “If you would have asked me ten years ago if this is where I would have been in ten years, I would have laughed in your face.”

Lesson #2: It Takes Passion to Win the Fight

White might not have been a stellar student, but thanks to his achievements with the UFC, his high school was nevertheless proud of him. So much so, that they even invited him back to deliver the commencement address twenty years after his own graduation. “It was pretty cool,” said White. “If you would have asked me ten years ago if this is where I would have been in ten years, I would have laughed in your face.”

In speaking to the new graduates, White harped on the importance of finding a job that they are passionate about. “A lot of times, kids go to college and take a major because they do what they think they’re supposed to do,” said White. “I told them I believe 90 percent of America gets up in the morning and drives to a job they hate. That could have happened to me in the hotel industry.”

But, White was not about to settle for being one of those unsatisfied workers. He wanted to wake up in the morning and be excited to go to work. He wanted to do something he loved so much that he could not think of anything else he would rather be doing. He wanted to look forward to going to work in the morning more than coming home in the evening. That was what he found in the UFC, and that, White says, is one of the main reasons behind its impressive success.

“I told them to find what they are passionate about and to go for that regardless of what anyone tells them,” says White. “They can go to school and major in political science and say they want to be a doctor or a lawyer, but unless they’re passionate about what they do, they’re never really going to be happy or truly successful.”

White began boxing when he was just 17 years old, and he quickly discovered that is was his passion. He could stay in the ring, or talk about the ring for hours on end and never get tired of it. It was for that reason that when the UFC first came up for sale, White jumped at the opportunity. He barely even gave it a second thought. For him, the chance to run this kind of business was as natural and exciting for White as stepping into the ring itself.

White’s passion for his business is part of the reason he consistently ignores pleas to take the company public. “Never. Never, ever, ever,” says White, “at least not while I’m here. Because I don't want to deal with [the hassles].” After all, how would investors with little of that same shared passion, be able to contribute the same energy as does White? “I don't need a bunch of idiots out in Wall Street – who have no idea what they're talking about and don't know anything about this business – telling me how to run it,” he says.

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Article Tags: 17 years, coming home, commencement address, finding a job, graduates, graduation, hotel industry, impressive success, lawyer, passion, political science, second thought, stellar student, twenty years, ufc



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