Follow what you love and the money will come

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was nothing more than an underground fighting league, and one which was scarcely accepted in the U.S. That was, until Dana White came along. White transformed the UFC into one of the most mainstream and popular sports on the scene today. By cleaning up its image and marketing it as a legitimate sport, White was able to create a successful organization, whose events can now be seen on television in more than 35 countries around the world.

“I’m pretty happy with the way everything has worked out with UFC,” says White. “We’ve come a long way in a couple of years.” From working as a hotel bellhop to managing a multi-million dollar company, White has most certainly come a long way from where he started off. How did this boy who could barely make it through high school, become a millionaire and the envy of men across America?

“It was around 1997 or 1998 that it all turned around for us. We were all boxing guys and I used to think UFC was a joke. I would say, ‘those guys would get their asses kicked by a boxer. It opened our eyes to a whole new world. It literally changed my life. We didn’t buy this to make billions of dollars. We saw something in this sport and in the fighters that we thought was incredible.

It was pretty cool. 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.

We’ve been at the tipping point for awhile now. We finally got to the point where we couldn’t be denied anymore. We’ve been kick boxing and wrestling’s asses for the last year and a half. We’re selling out venues; we’re breaking records everywhere we go.

It’s really the last nail in the coffin with the media not giving us the credibility and not looking at us as a real sport. The cover of Sports Illustrated, the talk shows – we’re there. We’ve finally arrived.

A lot of times, kids go to college and take a major because they do what they think they’re supposed to do. 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.

I told them to find what they are passionate about and to go for that regardless of what anyone tells them. 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. That’s what it’s really all about. I’m a guy who did exactly what he wanted to do. When you do that, the money follows.“

What are you following in your life?