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Dana White’s Top 10 Rules For Success (@danawhite)


anybody want to jump in with me hell no
you know it sounds like the stupidest
idea ever you know people always ask me
how do you do this not if you have to do
it we believed in the sport and the
athletes and we believe that this could
be a global franchise you know what
happens when you get 37 million dollars
in your fighter I don’t want to get
punched in the face imagine if they did
this and imagine if they did that this
thing could be big fighting is the first
one ever and it will be the last board
ever we’ll be around till the day we die
if you don’t think the UFC is exciting
you got to be a lunatic okay I don’t
know what you are you want to see people
get beat with baseball bats anything
that you do in life um you know when you
become successful it has to do with
timing I already know and have my mind
set and you know I know that this is
what my life’s gonna be like for the
next two years any of you guys ever
watched my video blogs to people great
ah he’s an American businessman and
entrepreneur he’s the president of the
mixed martial arts organization Ultimate
Fighting Championship or UFC in 2014
heads estimated net worth was 315
million dollars
he’s Dana White and hear his top 10
goals for success if you look back six
years ago money was growing on trees
anybody could get alone you can pick up
the phone and anybody could get a loan
for anything business house cars it was
easy to raise money so you know we go
out there we make this thing work the
first season of The Ultimate Fighter
happens this thing’s skyrockets starts
to take off so of course the fight
business is a fun business to be in so
everybody starts diving to this thing
well it’s easy right just throw three
letters together and buy a cage and put
on fights anybody could do that so these
guys go out and the biggest mistake that
everybody makes when they try to compete
with us is they try to compete with us
first of all we didn’t come out
yesterday and put together an
organization and now we’re on Fox and
now are on pay-per-view anything you do
nothing nothing is nothing happens
overnight man it’s it seems that way but
it’s all hard work I have been on planes
trains and automobiles for the last 13
years outselling the sport getting deals
done getting door slammed on my face you
name it it’s all
and these guys come out and they just
start throwing money around and start
trying to be the UFC don’t try to be the
UFC the first thing you have to do when
you start a business is know exactly who
you are and what is your game plan
you know what are we going to do first
first year is your is where you’re
looking what are we going to do first
year you make it through that first year
and you’re still alive all right what’s
our three year plan you get into your
three year plan and that’s how you start
to build your company the last thing on
this is how stupid it is okay be like
we’re all sitting around smile living
room we’re all here we’re hanging out in
my living room and we’re watching NASCAR
okay holy look at all the people at
NASCAR these guys must be making tons of
money you know what we should do we
should go get a couple of their drivers
and let’s start our own race league and
we’ll compete with NASCAR anybody want
to jump in with me hell no you know it
sounds like the stupidest idea ever but
people think they can do it with the UFC
UFC has been around for 20 years 20
years and this November will be 13 years
for us and you think you’re going to
just dive right in and start throwing
money around you will go out of business
so fast you know people always ask me
how do you do this and if you have to do
it I mean it’s when when you’re building
a business like the UFC or any other
business you know you have to you have
to work and it never gets easier it’s
funny because 13 years now and we’re 175
countries in 23 different languages and
over a billion homes worldwide on
television and and you think you know
when you’re early on building it’s like
when we get to this point you know I
could probably see that you’re right
exactly and it just gets harder and
harder it doesn’t get easier it gets
worse take money out of the equation
Emma’s brother of billionaires two of
the hardest-working guys that I’ve ever
met in middle class billion we got into
this thing because we’re very passionate
about the sport we didn’t get into
believing when we got into the sport
these guys were people owe their peers
we’re laughing at them you know said
this was a stupidest investment they’d
ever made they’re losing tons of money
the hug the UFC was a joke and believe
me we went through a lot of ridicule and
ever
thing else we first bought this thing
and now that it’s turned around
everybody thinks it’s the greatest thing
in the world they wish they were part of
it we didn’t buy this because we thought
that it was going to be you know oh you
were going to make billions of dollars
that we believed in the sport and the
athletes and we believed that this could
be a global franchise that this thing
could be built into what we’re building
it into now and you know every day when
we get up we know what the prize is we
know what the goal is we want the UFC we
want to put on an event everywhere in
every city in every country all over
this planet and make this the biggest
sport it won’t be bigger than the NFL
that’s a to be hard the thing that we do
different than any other sport
especially boxing when you think about
boxing right they do the same thing and
how many guys in here who’s boxing fans
I am I’ll raise my hand ooh okay like
five year and make but here’s the thing
the boxing did and the question was
asked earlier on the decline of boxing
well what would happen was the fight
would be coming it’s a week away and I’m
so excited I can’t wait I’m watching
everything I’m reading everything that
leads up to the fight right it’s neither
fight I got all my buddies over we
bought all the beats and the beer we’re
ready to roll and a fight never happens
these guys run around for 12 rounds and
the fight doesn’t happen do you know why
do you know why this has happened and
why boxing is dying because the sport
has become so greedy nobody was ever
thinking about the future of the sport
it’s about how much money can we all put
in our pocket right here right now
who cares about tomorrow so essentially
what you get at the end is you get to
multimillionaires right who step into
the ring and do everything they can to
avoid a fight so they can win just
barely win to get to the next
multi-million dollar fight that we pay
for it right and it just became
ridiculous and it’s exactly what goes
think about this think about every
person in this room right now if I
guaranteed you all 37 million dollars
guaranteed the guarantee is 37 million
dollars this year guess what you’re
going to do not much
not much are you gonna bust your ass
every day your alarms gonna go off in
the morning knowing I’m not gonna go to
class hell do I want to go to class
before I got 37 million dollars right
who’s going to class if they got 37
million dollars nobody’s going to class
you know what happens when you get 37
million dollars in your fighter I don’t
want to get punched in the face I got 37
million dollars man not getting punched
in the face is ridiculous we incentivize
guys to fight you get a you get you get
money to show and you get money to win
and then you get money for the best
fight of the night you get money for the
best knockout money for the best
submission you’re incentivized no
different than any other business in the
world show up at your job and have a
half-assed day see how that goes
now I’m not in the mood today see I see
how that goes you have to be
incentivized when somebody hires you
when you guys leave this school and go
to these other jobs you will cut out a
deal where you’re working for some big
company where you’ll have incentives and
bonuses it’s the way the real world
works
boxing does not live in the real world
anymore and that’s why it’s hurtin well
the first time that uh I really got
involved in UFC was everybody had seen
UFC one
you know I saw UFC one but when we got
involved knows because we started taking
jiu-jitsu and through jiu-jitsu we fell
in love with the sport and then we
started to meet some of the athletes
when I say we I mean me and the Fertitta
brothers and it was really you know
learning about the sport and meeting the
athletes that that completely got us
literally addicted to the sport then
when we went to our first ever UFC event
it was a it was down in New Orleans at
the Uni arena down there and literally
me Franklin runs we’re sitting in the
audience going holy imagine if they did
this and imagine if they did that this
thing could be big then once we bought
it our goal was and always has been to
make this a global sport the thing is
with the guys like mike is as human
beings we’re fast
nated by who the toughest guys in the
world are we are I you know I say this
all the time if you think of if you
think of all sports right and people in
here are probably football fans baseball
basketball whatever it is and take
Jordan who’s probably arguably the most
famous player of all times you know do
people really know Jordan all over the
world in every little country and every
you know um you know Wayne Gretzky the
list goes on and on it’s like right I’d
like somebody anybody and maybe maybe
this will be the first time it’ll ever
happen to somebody in here tell me who
the greatest cricket player on earth is
nobody yeah I didn’t think so
how great would it be if he was here
yeah I mean he just went and sold
himself a million times but not one
person has ever said I know the greatest
cricket player is but my point is you
walking anywhere in the world
everybody knows Mike Tyson everybody
knows Muhammad Ali Bruce Lee died in the
early 70s does anybody in this room not
know Bruce Lee is everybody knows who
personally is he died in the 70s not
late they promoted him that way anyway
promoted them as human beings were
fascinated by who the toughest guy in
the world is it just it’s always been
that way
from the days of the Roman gladiators
you know I always have this thing where
I sagging through all kinds of stats and
you about the UFC that’s true
and all these things but here’s
something that I don’t know if this is
true but it’s what I truly believe and
it’s what we built this company on I
believe that before a man threw a ball
through a circle before a man hit a ball
with a stick two men were put on this
earth somebody threw a punch and whoever
was standing around ran over and watched
fighting is the first wort ever and it
will be the last board ever it will be
around till the day we die till the till
the earth no longer exists fighting will
always be here if you don’t think the
UFC is exciting you got to be a lunatic
okay I don’t know what you are you want
to see people get beat with baseball
bats tonight I mean first of all that
that generation of people that think
that that you know oh I want the
no-holds-barred no rules it’s that big
this many people want to see a freak
show this many people want to see a real
sport huge difference
the market the market of people that are
like valet to toe and we want to hold
all the no rules and all that stuff and
I got to be honest with you the old hold
no rules it wasn’t very exciting you
know what I mean it really wasn’t um and
what we try to do is we keep trying to
push the sport to be more and more so
you have to understand what my job is
what my job is in this day and age how
old are you
you’re 27 I’m 43 okay when I grew up
there was channel 3 channel 5 channel 8
and channel 13 okay if you called me I
had to be home to answer the phone
because we didn’t have answering
machines any of that stuff right so this
day and age if you want to see some
crazy go on YouTube type in any crazy
you want and 50 other crazy will come up
on the other side that you can watch for
three days right you go to the movies
you can go here you can do this that you
can do there’s a tons of things you can
do I have to convince you to stay home
on Saturday now only stay home on
Saturday when you’ve been busting your
ass at school all week working all the
other things you got to do you probably
want to go out and you know meet some
girls or take your girl out to dinner or
go to a movie I compete with all these
things
basketballs on footballs on you know
what I mean all this other stuff that
goes on I have to convince you to stay
home on Saturday and pay fifty five
dollars to watch my event that’s what I
have to do that’s that’s my job in this
business and when you stay home get all
your buddies together and you sit around
and you buy my fight for fifty five
dollars
you better be entertained because if
you’re not or how hard it’s going to be
for me to get you the next time I have
an event it’s not going to be easy but
that is what I do for a living I put
together fights that are compelling
enough to make you stay home on a
Saturday night pay fifty five dollars
for anything that you do in life you
know when you become successful it has
to do with timing with a lot of
different things you know the timing of
me coming back to Las Vegas the timing
of
me and Lorenzo bumping into each other
when we did the timing of boxing on a
downslide you know everything in life
has to do with timing absolutely for
instance I will film it’s coming up I’m
going to film The Ultimate Fighter on
Friday I will jump on the plane as soon
as that flights over fly to sweden I
will land in Sweden at 6:30 at night the
fight starts at 6:30 I’ll go straight to
the arena right we’ll do the fights that
night I’ll jump back on the plane
fly back to the United States go to
Atlanta right we’ll do our fight in
Atlanta then from Atlanta I’ll fly
straight down to Brazil for a press
conference in Brazil and then back to
Las Vegas the Ultimate Fighter on Friday
how is it possible how is it on your
health how is it with family you know
you have a wife and kids how it’s a
doable you just got to do it I mean it’s
just it you have to do it there’s no
circle I mean who’s going to do it if I
don’t it has to be done
and you know I do a pretty good job of
balancing and uh you know I make it
happen to make it work people say it
can’t be done you watch it’s already uh
what month is it March yeah it’s March
all right going on April yeah
and I’ve already done what I’ve done
since since January you continue like
that for the rest of the year
next two years it’s gonna be like that
for the next two years for me I already
know and have my mind set and you know I
know that this is what my life’s gonna
be like for the next two years till I
get this thing dialed in any of you guys
ever watched my video blogs to people
great ah so I do these video blogs
leading up to a fight you know and these
things have had anywhere from two
hundred fifty thousand viewers to a
million and fuel TV you know we got on
FUEL TV with Fox Fuel TV when they and
all the extreme athletes hate me like I
just all the hate mail is getting from
these extreme athletes like I killed
them on FUEL TV but they were pulling
hashtags for ratings you know what a
hashtag means means so fuel people were
watching
they can’t even rate it and a good a
good night for them was
7,000 viewers when they had
skateboarding and surfing and things
like that on and we we broke every
record but my point was on YouTube my
videos pull better ratings than then
television shows do on networks you know
what I mean so that’s the power of the
future and that’s the power of content
at what when I told you that I only had
channel 3 channel 5 channel 8 channel 13
then cable came and there were there
were all these channels on cable and
then satellite came there’s all these
channels on satellite
well imagine what’s going to happen when
things really do go internet and there’s
2530 YouTube’s and there’s actual
programming and it’s it’s it’s it’s very
interesting but what you said is is the
truth
content is king and owning content and
having content it’s always been you know
the way to go
thank you so much for watching we made
this video because James Baker access to
if you have any famous entrepreneurs
that you want us to profile next please
leave it below I’d also love to know
which of Dana White’s top ten rules
meant the most to you leave in the
comments below we’ll join the discussion
thank you so much for watching we need
to believe and we’ll see you soon
if I was in the money I’d still be
standing in the lobby of the Boston
Harbor Hotel because there is no
guarantee in your future and getting
into the fight business you know I I had
a good job I was making tips like I said
you had you can get a 401k there you
have great benefits if it was about
money I’d still be standing in the lobby
it was about doing something you love to
do how many people are sitting in their
car right now or in their house or at
work or wherever they are and hate
literally hate what they do for a living
that’s why that’s what was that guy but
I had the balls to get up and walk out
and go for it
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