The Missing Ingredient: Passion
Published by on February 6th, 2008 in Operation Cleanup

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Charles Jay

Maybe I’m just funny this way – if someone was straddling the fence and asked my advice on whether he should make an investment in mixed martial arts, I would advise against it. Not just because I think the mid-level area of this business was a little saturated, but because I figure if someone really wanted to be in it, they’d be in it already. Know what I mean?

What a lot of people don’t seem to grasp is that this is not something you necessarily just put some money into and wait for the money to come rolling in. So in that sense, it is not an investment, per se. It is something where one literally have to roll up his sleeves and make something happen. Of course, that doesn’t sound sexy. That doesn’t sound glamorous. And most will stumble upon that painful truth the hard way.

When I was working in the boxing business, I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many guys held press conferences with all the pomp and circumstance they could produce, proclaiming that they were going to do shows every month; that they were going to sign this fighter or that fighter, get this TV deal or that TV deal, then after the first show, which may not have been as successful as they liked, they simply folded the tent. End of story. End of “career.”

They just didn’t understand the true level of commitment that went into it.

I’ve recently talked to someone who’s made plans to enter the MMA arena, and who, by the way, didn’t bother to ask my advice about it. Naturally, it’s because he has seen the success of the UFC, and because this gentleman was successful in other fields, he saw this as a good business opportunity, to get his own piece of the phenomenon that is MMA. In listening to his tone, his motivation was easy to decipher. It was all about the money. It wasn’t about building an organization and making plans for the long haul or developing talent. It was about making a score and then thinking about the next move. He’s not alone. The lion’s share of the people who come into the business are doing so as pure opportunists. They’re in it because they perceive there is a quick buck to be made, and that’s fine, I guess. But if the gateway to an easy profit didn’t look like it was wide open, they wouldn’t even be thinking about it.

And that typifies what is wrong with the newbies and why many of them will not succeed, despite what they’ve read and heard about mixed martial arts being the “fastest growing sport in America.”

They lack something very important.

It’s called PASSION.

Passion is what a guy like Dana White has that a lot of the others don’t. Passion is the force that makes you stop talking and start doing. Passion makes you get up in the morning and devote your energies to making something a success. Passion dictates that you’re not here today and gone tomorrow. Passion demands that you are not ready to bail out at the first sign of trouble. Passion is the quality that keeps you from thinking about everything in terms of making one dollar today and directs you toward building a strong foundation for the long haul, so you can make a hundred bucks tomorrow. Passion helps you defeat the odds.

Passion gives you the courage and fortitude to believe in something when few others do, and drives you to see it all the way to the end.

And all other things being equal, passion is what is going to give one guy the edge over another.

The guys who have made the UFC happen, going all the way back to the beginning, have had that kind of passion.

Does anyone else?

Maybe. That’s next.