“I'm an entrepreneur,” says McMahon. “I take chances in life…I got balls the size of grapefruits!”
McMahon Sr. always wanted his son to be a lawyer or a doctor – something safe, something stable. “I always wanted to be in the promotion business,” says McMahon. “You have certain genes, I guess. My dad wanted the opposite for me. He knew how feast or famine it was. He wanted the pension for me, something secure.” But, McMahon wouldn’t have it. He envisioned a more different life for himself – one that was both exciting and filled with the rewards of taking on new and riskier challenges. It was with that mentality that McMahon found his way into the wrestling business.
“I'm not afraid of failing,” says McMahon. “I don't like to fail. I hate to fail. But I'm not afraid of it.” From day one, McMahon has made his career out of taking risks. When he was first starting out, he readily admits that wrestling promoters didn’t do much. “Some were still doing studio wrestling, where you'd bring a crowd of 60 people into a studio,” recalls McMahon. “Magazines were on a cheap paper, all filled with blood and guts. I had this instinct wrestling could be better, bigger.”
McMahon wanted to make this vision of his a reality. After taking over the business from his ailing father in 1982, he set out to not only create a new brand of sports entertainment through involved storylines and dramatic characters, but also to move from being a small-scale operation to a global extravaganza. “It scared me to death," he recalls, “but I wanted it, too.”
Someone once asked McMahon if he could meet anybody in the world, who would it be? His response was Martin Luther King Jr. Why? It wasn’t necessarily for his great oratory skills, or because of his principled fight for equality. Instead, it was because of the simple fact that King was a risk-taker, like himself. “He took such risks – unfortunately, the ultimate risk – for what he believed in,” says McMahon.
From launching Wrestlemania to creating the XFL, McMahon never let fear of failure stand in his way. And, while not all of his ventures were met with similar success, McMahon learned from his mistakes and continued to pursue his vision. “From a personal standpoint, the old expression of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger is somewhat true,” he says. “Sometimes you have to take a half step back to take two forward…What I learned from the XFL experience is to be smarter the next time I take on the NFL.”
In his early years, McMahon dabbled in songwriting and composed the following lyrics: “I'm a man running wild, heading for the top. Along the way, you're going to see a lot of men drop.” It was in running wild towards his dreams and not letting fear or anyone else stand in his way that McMahon was able to become the legend he is today.
Lesson #1: The Reward is Worth the Risk
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