At EO’s 2024 Global Leadership Conference (GLC) in Singapore, the greater than 1,800 attendees from 65 nations sat in on an brisk fireplace chat with Chatri Sityodtong, founder and CEO of ONE Championship, the world’s largest martial arts group. Watch the full conversation with Chatri Sityodtong on EO’s Studying Administration System.
Chatri Sityodtong’s lifelong ardour for martial arts formed his management philosophy, driving him to go away a profitable Wall Road hedge fund supervisor profession to turn out to be a startup entrepreneur and wrestle to attain success.
Listed below are eight key takeaways highlights from Chatri’s journey with ONE Championship that present a roadmap for learn how to stand out for the best causes and obtain lasting success.
1. Don’t Make Cash Your King
After graduating from Harvard and discovering success on Wall Road, Chatri had a revelation that left him in a chilly sweat: “Is that this all there may be? Is that this the which means of life? Simply to make some huge cash, purchase extra materials issues, and have extra zeros in your checking account?”
Grateful for monetary success however craving for extra, Chatri recalled his mom’s recommendation: “If cash is your king, you’ll do something for cash. Some individuals take it to extremes, damaging society, mendacity, dishonest, and stealing,” she stated. “But when cash is your slave, then you’ll use cash for one thing a lot greater than your self.” That’s what Chatri wished.
Chatri made a daring transfer. He informed his family and friends, “I’m going to determine a approach that I may also help humanity via the factor I really like most, which is martial arts.” Everybody stated it was the dumbest thought they’d ever heard.
“I had no clue what I used to be going to do,” Chatri admitted. “However I wished to dwell with my biggest ardour day by day, and I wished to dwell with a deep sense of objective that I’m doing one thing worthwhile with my time on Earth.”
2. Success Have to be Intrinsic
Chatri believes strongly that success needs to be intrinsic.
“Intrinsic means you ignore the whole lot society has taught you, and go off by your self to suppose deeply about what you wish to do together with your life that will make you happiest and most fulfilled with out harming others,” he stated. “It’s really fairly straightforward to make a residing, however then you’re simply current. But it surely’s very laborious to dwell with ardour, to do one thing that you realize ignites your soul.”
3. Break Free from Business Norms
Chatri shared a profound lesson from martial arts coaching: “For those who prepare like everybody else, you’ll battle like everybody else.” Within the enterprise world, this precept underscores the significance of considering in another way.
“For those who do what everybody else does, you’re going to get what everybody else receives, whether or not it’s a return on capital or profitability,” he defined. “That’s the mindset of a typical firm.”
To attain distinctive outcomes, suppose in another way and keep away from the lure of complacency.
“The distinctive firm all the time tries to consider what’s the greatest, best, or most inventive option to shock its buyer. What’s a brand-new approach?” he shared.
For those who’re good sufficient and suppose in another way sufficient, you may disrupt your individual idea and business. That’s the important thing to attaining distinctive outcomes.
4. Embrace a Mission-Pushed Method
A transparent and significant mission can encourage your crew and assist you stand out to your viewers.
“For me, the top doesn’t justify the means,” Chatri acknowledged. “If you’re polluting and poisoning society, or destroying youngsters’s notion of what’s proper and improper, you aren’t constructing a company for humanity. You’re simply earning profits.”
ONE Championship’s mission is to “Unleash real-life superheroes who ignite the world with hope, power, goals, and inspiration.”
The group seeks to uplift humanity via the values and tales of its athletes.
“We wish to be a beacon of sunshine, hope, and inspiration — via our heroes, via our values, via our tales — to uplift humanity and all of our followers to dream extra, do extra, and be extra in life,” Chatri stated. “That’s the final objective of ONE.”
5. Foster Excellence and Integrity
Constructing a profitable group requires extra than simply an genuine mission; it calls for a values-based tradition.
The values Chatri hires for embody integrity, happiness, excellence, continued self-improvement, loyalty, and teamwork. He targeted deeply on three of these key traits:
- Integrity is doing the best factor when nobody is watching.
- Excellence is doing all of your job above and past the decision of obligation, pushed by intrinsic motivation.
- Happiness is spreading optimistic vitality, enthusiasm, and inspiration to everybody round you.
By prioritizing these values, your organization can entice and retain high expertise, drive excessive efficiency, and construct a fame for reliability and high quality.
6. Encompass Your self with Greatness
“To be a lion, it’s important to prepare with lions,” Chatri stated. It’s a lesson derived from martial arts that applies equally to enterprise: “To unleash your greatness, it’s important to encompass your self with greatness.”
Chatri solely hires individuals who possess what he calls that “PHD” issue: “Poor, hungry, and decided in spirit, in angle, and in life.”
PHD-factor people will push boundaries, overcome obstacles, and drive your group ahead.
7. By no means Give Up
Chatri Sityodtong, the ring title given by his martial arts grasp, means “extraordinary warrior.” The title matches Chatri nicely, as enterprise can certainly really feel like a battle.
Many entrepreneurs endure a six- to twelve-month “no man’s land” as they wrestle to seek out their foothold in an business, however Chatri struggled for a full three years to launch ONE Championship efficiently.
“I met with 150 buyers and obtained rejected by each single one. I went to manufacturers, sponsors, athletes. It was hopeless. I went from failure to failure for 3 years, and it beat me down so badly,” Chatri recalled.
“That’s why the whole lot needs to be intrinsic,” he continued. “If I had been beginning this firm solely to make a billion {dollars}, I might have stop, however I used to be doing this as a result of it’s what I genuinely really feel like I used to be placed on the planet to do.”
Chatri’s journey took a major flip with the rise of social media. ONE Championship discovered its world viewers via inspirational movies on Fb that resonated with Millennials and Gen Z. The ensuing surge in natural video views—from 200,000 to 10 billion in 5 years—was the proof of idea that satisfied broadcasters that Chatri’s thought had wings.
8. Construct Resilience and Adaptability
“The best factor that martial arts gave me, aside from unimaginable bedrock values, is a warrior spirit to beat adversity in life —any journey, any journey, particularly entrepreneurship,” Chatri stated. “Each entrepreneur will let you know, with out grit and resilience, you’ll not make it via.”
His private story of overcoming adversity—from a privileged childhood to monetary smash and chapter after which eventual attaining success—showcases his grit and dedication. Resilience, coupled with ardour, made the distinction between failure and success.
“I want that each human being on the planet would have the chance to seek out one thing that actually ignites their soul, as a result of then you are able to do one thing actually extraordinary together with your life,” he stated. “And day by day, you reside with ardour and objective.”
You possibly can view the full conversation with Chatri Sityodtong on EO’s Studying Administration System. Don’t miss different GLC highlights together with Mo Gawdat on AI Ethics: How to Ensure Artificial Intelligence Benefits Humanity and a lookback at How GLC Learn Arounds Unlock New Perspectives Via Full Immersion Learning.
For extra insights and inspiration from at present’s main entrepreneurs, try EO on Inc. and extra articles from the EO blog.
