Dana White: This Generation Thinks You Can Build A Business From Home, It's Impossible!

1. 0:00 – 2:10

   Intro

   1. DWDana White0:00

      I've already built the biggest fight brand to ever exist. The UFC was purchased for $2 million. And if the Lakers sold for 12 and a half billion, then the UFC is worth 50 billion. And every day that I show up here, I'm here to [beep] win. When I'm dead, it's gonna be impossible to beat what I've built, and I am addicted to chaos, and if there isn't any, I create it.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett0:19

      From UFC fighters to CEOs of multi-gazillion-pound companies to world leaders, I see in you a man that is truly obsessed.

   3. DWDana White0:25

      Early on, I knew exactly who I was, and I knew that I wanted to be involved in fighting. That's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Dana White.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett0:36

      Was there any athlete that you would sort of put in the class of their own?

   5. DWDana White0:39

      Conor McGregor, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Ronda Rousey, but I didn't want women in the UFC. But Ronda Rousey grabbed me, said, "Can I get 15 minutes with you?" And she came in with the whole fucking bravado, and I'm like, "Holy shit, I think I'm gonna do this, and she's the one to do it with."

   6. SBSteven Bartlett0:53

      If there were principles that you would most attribute to the success of the UFC, what would it be?

   7. DWDana White0:58

      When you decide who you are, what you wanna do, what you're gonna accomplish, and you work toward it, it is impossible for you to fail. Do not be afraid to take the risk. But some of these kids that think they wanna be entrepreneurs, they don't know what it really takes. And there is a formula, and guess who has it? And we can talk about this.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett1:14

      And then this is a book your mother published about you, Unauthorized, as a biography. She's critical of you at certain points.

   9. DWDana White1:20

      I, I don't go on shows to speak negatively about my mother, but I mean, that's one of the grossest, most disgusting things you couldn't even imagine possible until it happens to you. And sometimes family is the worst, and that was the beginning of the end with me and her.

   10. SBSteven Bartlett1:36

       Have you forgiven her?

   11. DWDana White1:39

       Um...

   12. SBSteven Bartlett1:42

       Here is a strange fact. Most of the people watching this right now, about fifty-eight percent of you, aren't yet subscribed to this channel. Statistically, that is probably you. So could I ask you a small favor? If this channel has ever given you any value at all, please could you do me a favor and hit the subscribe button? It costs nothing, it helps us more than you could know, and the bigger the channel gets, as you've seen, the more we can invest in the guests and the production. So thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy this episode. [upbeat music]

2. 2:10 – 4:30

   What Made Dana White a Fighter

   1. SBSteven Bartlett2:11

      Dana, you know more than anybody that to become a great fighter, oftentimes you have an anomalous upbringing. And I have some of these fighters in front of me like Khabib and Islam and Mike Tyson, and when you look at their backgrounds and where they came from, they have atypical origins. And when I look at you, I consider you to be a great fighter in your own regard. So that's my question, is what is that early context that's made you the fighter that you are?

   2. DWDana White2:36

      I don't know. Uh, you know, I, I, I always have trouble when we start talking about me and my upbringing and psychoanalyzing me. I d- I, I don't know how to really answer those questions. Um, I don't know. It's not like I grew up like these guys grew up.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett2:52

      Mm-hmm.

   4. DWDana White2:52

      But early on, I knew exactly who I was, and I knew that I wanted to be involved in fighting. That's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

   5. SBSteven Bartlett3:02

      In terms of your m- mom and dad, I, I listened to you talk about your dad and his absence and his difficulty with alcohol. Divorced at eight years old.

   6. DWDana White3:12

      Mm-hmm.

   7. SBSteven Bartlett3:12

      Left you with your mother, and that was also a turbulent relationship as you, as you grew up. Is there anything from that early context that you look back on? I know you don't like being psychoanalyzed. I've heard you try and... I've heard you respond to, like, Piers Morgan and others who, who have talked about your childhood before. But is there anything from that early context that you think did shape you into this sort of like-

   8. DWDana White3:29

      Oh

   9. SBSteven Bartlett3:29

      ... relentless-

   10. DWDana White3:29

       Hundred percent. You know, I, I always say that, you know, you see these people that play the victim, you know, the victim mentality. It's like, "Oh, I didn't have any role models when I was growing up." Yes, you did. You just didn't look at it the right way. When you grow up, everybody who's involved in your life, they're all role models in good and bad ways, right? I, I used to look at, you know, some of my uncles and, and, and, and my dad and some of these. I was like, "Oof, yeah, we don't, we don't wanna go in that direction. Let's, let's go in this direction." And in America, you, you can start drinking when you're twenty-one.

   11. SBSteven Bartlett4:01

       Mm-hmm.

   12. DWDana White4:01

       I quit drinking when I was twenty-one. I believed that, that I wouldn't be able to accomplish all the things that I wanted to accomplish if I was drinking. And I saw a lot of, you know, family members and other people where drinking had, had been detrimental to their life and, and, uh, you know, I th- I think I had some pretty talented, you know, family members that could've lived a different life had they not drank.

   13. SBSteven Bartlett4:27

       You and your sister?

   14. DWDana White4:28

       Yeah, that's me and my sister.

3. 4:30 – 6:00

   What His Childhood Really Looked Like

   1. SBSteven Bartlett4:30

      If I was a fly on the wall at, during that period of your life, what would I have seen?

   2. DWDana White4:33

      I don't know. I, I don't really remember. Me and my sister, you know, now that we're getting older, we talk about this stuff a lot. Me and my sister are super close. You know, both our parents are dead, and it was just us, so yeah. My mom was an animal. My mom worked her ass off and, you know, if she wasn't working, you know, and picking up extra shifts, she was a nurse, she was going to school.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett4:53

      And she effectively raised you on her own?

   4. DWDana White4:57

      Mm, definitely.

   5. SBSteven Bartlett4:59

      Because your dad was... He, he was absent. I, I remember you reciting a story of you, him taking you to the cinema drunk.

   6. DWDana White5:05

      Yeah. Yeah.

   7. SBSteven Bartlett5:06

      And just... I mean, what I got from that was, I guess, carelessness. The story of him taking you to the cinema, uh, telling you, asking you if you wanted something, throwing $20 your way, telling you to go get it for your sister.

   8. DWDana White5:17

      Yeah.

   9. SBSteven Bartlett5:17

      The, him, him embarrassing you.

   10. DWDana White5:18

       It was just one of those moments and, you know, you have these, these things that you remember from your young life, and I have a, I have a few with my dad, but, you know, the, the movie was Beverly Hills Cop. It had just come out, and it was like the biggest movie in the world. And we got there late. He showed up drunk to pick us up and take us to the movies, you know. So getting there was, was a whole, you know, scene on its own, and then we get there. The place is packed. There's no seats. He walks in and screams, "We're gonna have to start moving some people," you know, and throws money at me to go get g- to go get food and popcorn and whatever. In my opinion, my dad was a very selfish guy and, uh, you know, he lived the life that he wanted to live and everybody else didn't matter.

4. 6:00 – 7:58

   How His Relationship With His Dad Changed

   1. SBSteven Bartlett6:00

      Did you ever understand him? As you... People always say that when they get older, they understand their parents better.

   2. DWDana White6:05

      Well, what I understood was once I became a parent I was like, "Holy shit, this is the way you're supposed to feel about your kids, [laughs] and this is the way you're supposed to..." You know. So yeah, I, I think that my parents made me a better parent.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett6:20

      Mm-hmm. You've got a very atypical drive in you. There's a certain relentlessness that I've seen. I mean, I've, I've seen it all in one of the sort of defining traits when I think of Dana White is this sort of relentless, insatiable ambition. So my line of questioning isn't really to psychoanalyze, it's really just to understand, like, where- how that comes to be the case. One would guess that there's some kind of chip on your shoulder in so- to some degree.

   4. DWDana White6:41

      Yeah, it's true, but I, I try to, I try to focus on, I like to win. Winning is fun in everything in life, but, uh, you know, I also make sure that the obligations that I have, you know, I, I, I pay attention to those, too. Like, listen, w- nobody's perfect, but I've tried to do the best I could to be-

   5. SBSteven Bartlett7:01

      Mm-hmm

   6. DWDana White7:01

      ... the best at everything I could at work, at home with the kids, you know.

   7. SBSteven Bartlett7:06

      And if I'd asked you when you were a young boy, like some of these photos, what you're gonna be when you grow up, would you have ha- would you have had an answer for me?

   8. DWDana White7:12

      I didn't really know that until I was in my late teens, you know. Literally walked out of a job that at the time and in the place a lot of people would kill for, um, and had checked all the boxes and made cash every day, got a paycheck every week, 401k, full dental and medical and, you know, all the things that people are looking for. But I, I didn't like working for other people. I, I f- I always felt like working in the hotel industry was incredibly disrespectful, the way that they would treat you and talk to you and, and, uh, I never liked it. It was never for me. So I walked out one day and I said, "I'm gonna get into the fight business." At the time, I didn't know exactly what that meant or, you know, at what level, but that was my

5. 7:58 – 10:11

   Why Dana White Has Always Challenged Authority

   1. DWDana White7:58

      goal.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett7:58

      Have you always had a problem with [laughs] ... Well, an issue with, dare I say, authority?

   3. DWDana White8:02

      Mm.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett8:02

      You have?

   5. DWDana White8:03

      Yes, very. Very much so. [laughs] Yeah, it was never for me.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett8:07

      Where does that come from? Do you know?

   7. DWDana White8:08

      I don't know. I honestly don't know the answer to that, but I never liked it. I never liked working for other people. I never liked being told what to do, and, and I don't treat my employees like that.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett8:20

      Did you think you were gonna be successful in your life when you were y- I don't know, 14, 15?

   9. DWDana White8:23

      Yeah, I did when I was younger. I, I believed that I would be. Yeah.

   10. SBSteven Bartlett8:27

       Based on what evidence?

   11. DWDana White8:27

       I sort of had these, you know, these ideas in my head, which at the, you know, at that time you don't know exactly what it means or at what extent, but let me tell you what. So w- when we worked [laughs] when, when, when I lived with my mom, me and my sister were just talking about this the other day. So my mom worked all the time or was at school, and me and my sister were home alone all the time, but we had chores that we had to do. I mean, we were mow the lawn, you know, cleaning the pool and trimming the bushes and all that sh- And I was like, "Let me tell you what. The day I make a dollar, [laughs] I'm never doing this shit ever again." [laughs]

   12. SBSteven Bartlett9:03

       So that's, uh, probably an important lesson she taught you.

   13. DWDana White9:06

       Mm. No doubt about it. And I, I, you know, I try to do this with my kids, too. My kids have been great and done everything the right way, and I've told this story before, but my son Aiden, my youngest son, flies home from college one weekend, says, "I, I don't wanna stay in school. I have an idea for this business that I wanna do," and whatever. I said, he lays it all out for me and I'm like, "This is a pretty good idea. I get it. I like it, but you're not gonna quit school and just try to do this. This doesn't, this won't chew up eight to 10 hours of your day."

   14. SBSteven Bartlett9:38

       Mm.

   15. DWDana White9:38

       "You're gonna go out and you're gonna get a job, and you're gonna put out, you're gonna go put in applications, and you're gonna try to get a job. Because if I die tomorrow-"

   16. SBSteven Bartlett9:46

       Mm.

   17. DWDana White9:46

       "... that's what you're qualified to do." And he did it, and he went and he worked at U-Haul. And you know, you gotta have those kinda jobs. My son right now, my oldest, is getting his master's degree in Boston right now, and when I lived in Boston, I used to work for EJ Paving Company. They pave roads. I actually want my son to go do some days at, at this paving company.

   18. SBSteven Bartlett10:10

       What is it you're trying to teach

6. 10:11 – 11:04

   What He’s Trying to Teach His Son

   1. SBSteven Bartlett10:11

      him?

   2. DWDana White10:12

      Well, what hard work really is. So people like, I run around, I don't sleep much, and everybody's like, "Oh, you work so hard. You work so hard." No, no, no. I'll show you what hard work is. Hard work is construction. Hard work is concrete. Right up the street here, I don't know how many days this summer were 115 degrees out. 115 degrees out, these construction guys are out there working in 115 degree we- like, hard work, real work. And then in the winter, people don't realize this in Vegas, but it gets down into the 30s. These guys will be outside working when it's 30 degrees out. So, and hard physical labor every day, and then you go home, y- you, you eat and you go to bed and you start, get up the next day and you go do it again. In your life, to figure out what you wanna do, you have to figure out what it is you don't wanna do.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett11:01

      I have, um, a bunch of quotes here that you've said,

7. 11:04 – 13:18

   Why There’s No Such Thing as a Day Off

   1. SBSteven Bartlett11:04

      if you just wanna look at the first one.

   2. DWDana White11:06

      There's no such thing as a day off. When there's no such thing as a day off when you run your own business. You know, there's no birthdays, there's no Christmas, there's no Thanksgivings. Bad shit will happen every single day that you need to deal with. But when you like what you do, it's fun.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett11:26

      A lot of people, especially young people these days, wanna s- be entrepreneurs but [laughs] what?

   4. DWDana White11:30

      You know, I'd really like to work for myself and own my own business 'cause I'd love to plan my schedule and have my... Oh, you're, you're, you're going the wrong way. What you need to do is find a 9:00 to 5:00 job where you have weekends and holidays off and, you know, that's, that's your move. If you're looking to start your own business because you want more time to yourself, you are picking the wrong thing to do, I promise you that. The key to becoming a good, uh, entrepreneur is you have to find solutions to problems every day. The universe was trying to fuck with me the other day. [laughs] I got out of bed. I had to be at a board meeting at nine o'clock, right? I go in, I gotta shave. Both my razors died. I use electric razors. They both died. Get through that. I get in the car, and I'm driving and, and the sensor says, "Your back right tire is low. Stop the vehicle immediately." I said, "Yeah, no, we're not fucking stopping. We're going." That's just life, right? When you get up, and it's life standing there to kick you in the face, and y- and you gotta get through all this shit. Then you get to work, and there's a laundry list of problems and things you gotta deal with. And this younger generation that think you can work from home and build a successful business, it's impossible. You can't do it. I'm in the office from 8:30 in the morning, and I don't leave the office till 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 sometimes, still, to this day. There are times when I go to work, and my schedule's planned out for the day, but s- people will pop in my office, and we start talking about things. And, you know, when, when you have people, a g- good group of people like I have at the UFC, and we get in a room, and you start talking, things pop up that you would never expect, and things happen, and a lot of good ideas come from everybody being at work.

   5. SBSteven Bartlett13:15

      Has being kicked in the face by business

8. 13:18 – 14:39

   How Getting Kicked in the Face by Business Changed Him

   1. SBSteven Bartlett13:18

      over the last couple of decades changed you?

   2. DWDana White13:20

      Definitely. I don't freak out the way that I used to. I've been through it all.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett13:26

      Mm-hmm.

   4. DWDana White13:26

      And I'm way more calm now. I see this with a lot of guys. You become, uh... I don't wanna say you get weaker, but you do get weaker as you get older. There's, there's a softer side to you than you had when you were in the early days of building your business. And I don't ever wanna be that guy. You know what I mean? I try not to be that guy. But you do relax and chill out, and you don't-- The things that you used to flip out about when you were younger, you don't when you're older. I mean, I went through a phase where I ripped through, like, 10 secretaries in two years. Like, I need people around me that can keep up. You gotta have people that can keep up and can handle, handle the load of work. You know, it's probably the busiest year for me this year, 'cause I have Zuffa Boxing, Power Slap, and the UFC that I'm, I'm running these three companies. And then there's a ton of other things that, that I do, too. So we'll be on the road, you know. I think we just got off the... The last two months, we were home for, like, four days, in the last two months. Then I get home, and I don't stop. I just, I go out at night, do things, and, you know, these guys that are with me, they have to, they're with me, and it's tough. Nobody owes you

9. 14:39 – 15:59

   Why Nobody Owes You Anything

   1. DWDana White14:39

      anything. So, you know, we talked a little bit about my parents and whatever. I had this kid that I grew up with. And, you know, this, we, we were 12, 13, 14 years old, and I remember his dad had done really well. And, you know, they had a beautiful house. They had cars. You know, he had all the shit that you, you would want growing up. And I remember him telling me one time, his dad ran into hard times, and his dad had put a million dollars away for him in an account. And then his father ran into hard times, and his father took the money, and he's like, "My father stole a million dollars from me."

   2. SBSteven Bartlett15:15

      Yeah.

   3. DWDana White15:15

      And I remember thinking, "Are you out of your fucking mind?" The fact that your dad even thought of you that way, that he would put that money away from, for you is incredible. But that was never your money. You didn't earn that money. That wasn't yours. I remember thinking that way when I was 12, 13, 14, right? I'm like, "That is definitely the wrong type of mentality."

   4. SBSteven Bartlett15:37

      Entitlement.

   5. DWDana White15:39

      Brutal. And that guy grew up exactly the way you would expect that guy to grow up. He's just, you know. Nobody owes you anything. Nobody. Listen, to, to, to, to have, to be set up in a position where somebody can make some phone calls for you and do some things, but then once they do that, you have to go in and deliver.

10. 15:59 – 17:38

    Why Most People Aren’t Cut Out to Be Entrepreneurs

    1. SBSteven Bartlett15:59

       There's gonna be l- a ton of people listening that want to be entrepreneurs. Do you, do you think most people are cut out for it?

    2. DWDana White16:05

       No. No. To be an entrepreneur is very, a, a very unique thing. I mean, you have... It's hard enough for a lot of people to get up every day and depend on themselves-

    3. SBSteven Bartlett16:19

       Hmm

    4. DWDana White16:19

       ... to take care of themselves.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett16:21

       Mm-hmm.

    6. DWDana White16:21

       When, when you're an entrepreneur, lots of people depend on you. Lots of people feed their families, and, and I take that, that role very serious. I mean, when I got into this business, not a lot of people believed in it. That's why we bought the UFC for $2 million, right? Let's be honest here. The UFC was purchased for $2 million. And if the Lakers sold for 12 and a half billion, then the UFC's worth 50 billion. Okay? So, the people who did believe in this and, and did, you know. When I was trying to hire production people, production people don't wanna live in Las Vegas, Nevada, especially 25 years ago. They want New York or LA, right? Um, I was trying to hire sponsorship people. New York and LA. They don't wanna live here. And then I had a group of people, Craig Borsari, who is my, uh, you know, my head of production, who is an absolute rock star, the best in the business. He was a rising star at Fox. He left Fox and came here because he believed in the vision and, and, and what was happening here.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett17:30

       When you think back fr- on that journey of buying it for $2 million, and then y- uh, let's say it's worth $50 billion now, if it was valued, you know,

11. 17:38 – 19:48

    The Principles That Made the UFC Successful

    1. SBSteven Bartlett17:38

       relevant to the Lakers. If there were principles, if there were, like, a couple of principles that you would most attribute to the success of the UFC wh- when at the time nobody wanted to put on the fights anywhere, everybody thought it was, like, too barbaric.

    2. DWDana White17:52

       Matchmaking.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett17:53

       Matchmaking. Yeah.

    4. DWDana White17:55

       Is number one. The live event production.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett17:58

       Okay.

    6. DWDana White17:59

       And the television production.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett18:01

       And then in, on the business side that you think, you know, "If we'd gotten that wrong, we definitely wouldn't be here."

    8. DWDana White18:08

       The big problem, if you look at how 25 years ago when we bought this, you're never gonna compete with boxing. Boxing's too established. It's been around too long. It's this and that. Boxing became a going-out-of-business sale every time these guys would put on a fight. They'd try to grab as much money as they can and run. I am now involved in boxing. I have the only global television deal Right? On Paramount. All these other guys are on a streaming service called, literally every promoter. What they've done is they've chased everybody out of the business. Television networks don't wanna deal with it anymore. Sponsors don't wanna be a part of it anymore. What we have done over the last 25 years is built a brand that not only the consumer trusts-

    9. SBSteven Bartlett18:54

       Mm-hmm

    10. DWDana White18:55

        ... but sponsors, television networks, list goes on and on. So I make sure that when people show up to my live event, which is super important, the people who pay to come to the live event spend way more money than the people on TV. And they gotta f- buy flights and rooms and pay for their dinners. Every time we put on a live event, I want the people walking out of there going, "Goddamn, that was a good time. I'm s- I'm glad we did this tonight, and I would love to do this again."

    11. SBSteven Bartlett19:24

        And how do you make sure that's the case?

    12. DWDana White19:27

        I heard somebody say one time, "Dana acts like there's a formula to this." If you look, if you went back, I don't know the a- actual number, but it's a, it's a long list and a big number of guys with a lot of money who are really smart and have done good things in life that have tried to get into this business and couldn't do it, couldn't make it work. There is a formula.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett19:46

        Yeah.

    14. DWDana White19:46

        And guess who has it?

    15. SBSteven Bartlett19:47

        [chuckles]

12. 19:48 – 21:44

    Why Who You Hire Can Make or Break a Business

    1. SBSteven Bartlett19:50

       Uh, one of the things I've learned as I've gone through my business career that I didn't know at the start of my business career was how much of success is actually determined by the, the people you're able to assemble. I think at the start of my career, you think, "If I work weekends and I work really hard and have good ideas myself, then I'll be successful." And somewhere along the way, I realized that it's really about, like, assembling people and binding them with the right, like, philosophy or culture, whatever they call it. And the question I have for you is, have you noticed the same? Have you, have you noticed that one of the, like, obvious but seemingly unobvious things about business building is the quality of people you hire?

    2. DWDana White20:22

       There's no doubt about it. No one guy does everything. When we first bought the company, I was the everything guy. There was, like, two employees, me and somebody else. And, you know, y- you wear all the hats when, when you start. Then you start going out and you start building a team. And there are people who fit and people who work and people who don't. And you have to be really good at figuring out who fits and who works and who doesn't. And over the last 25 years, if there's a superpower that I have, it has been picking the right people to surround myself with. And I knew when there wasn't. We had a-- we made a big decision when we sold on people that we brought in, and I knew right away the people that didn't fit, and I fired them.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett21:09

       What are you looking for in great people?

    4. DWDana White21:11

       First of all, you have to have talented people. You have to, to have talented people that are not only really good at what they do, but are hard workers too, and have the drive. But everybody has to be on board with the vision and, and has to be, you know, on the same page. I am at a place right now with my production team, when we do spots and we do vignettes and we do... They'll bring them in to me, and there are very few changes.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett21:37

       What is your talent there? Like, if, if I ask the people that work closest with you, and I know this is a little bit of a weird question to answer,

13. 21:44 – 27:34

    The Rare Skills Behind Dana White’s Success

    1. SBSteven Bartlett21:44

       what is Dana's three skills that are rare relative to other people?

    2. DWDana White21:49

       Hmm. I am a fight fan to the core. 25 years later of doing this, I am still a hardcore fight fan. And when we put something together and we nail it, I, I know we got it. And now what I do is I push my team, whether it's production, matchmaking, sponsorship side, whatever it is, I push all these guys every day to get us to where I know I wanna be.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett22:17

       You are the customer.

    4. DWDana White22:18

       Yeah. I am the customer.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett22:20

       Yeah. And you have been since I saw in your, your sort of early, um, sort of mid-20s, you, you were captivated with boxing at the time, I believe.

    6. DWDana White22:27

       Yep. Every time when we go to an event, there's a red phone on the, on the table where I sit, and it goes directly to the, to the truck. And there's the-- our producer's name is Zach.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett22:38

       The truck where the producers are?

    8. DWDana White22:40

       Yeah. Zach runs all the shows. He has the freedom to do what he wants, and he tries. So I'll pick up the phone and go, "Oh, what was that?" And he's like, "Ah, I thought we'd try that." I say, "Yeah, let's never fucking do that again."

    9. SBSteven Bartlett22:53

       [chuckles]

    10. DWDana White22:53

        "Okay, bye." And there's no hurt feelings. There's no whatever. Or we'll do something and I'm like, "That was incredible. Yeah."

    11. SBSteven Bartlett23:01

        Mm-hmm.

    12. DWDana White23:01

        "Congrats. That's incredible." And, you know, once you get to that level with your team, there's a woman sitting out here, her name is Lynae. She's the head of PR. I don't really make a move without talking to her anymore. I trust her so much, and she's so smart, and she's so talented that she's involved in a lot of different aspects of my life. Craig Borsari, who I talked about, who is the head of production, my head of sponsorship. Once you build this, like, rock star team, it's all just like, it becomes a well-oiled machine where everything just starts to work the right way. Like, when we were going through COVID, these people that I'm talking about, you know, when you go through something like this, who the hell knows how long this is gonna last, and as crazy as the world was during that time, here, here's one thing that wasn't gonna happen. I didn't give a shit. We were not gonna lay off our employees. These people that have been here with me and, and that I'm super close to saw this quote from, I, I don't know who the CEO was, but says, "Anybody that's trying to sell you that we're a family and is, is full of shit. This is transactional, and it's," uh, the, "I don't know who wants to run through a fucking wall for that guy, but he's full of shit." Okay? My team, that is the way I feel about my team, and I do care, and I will never pick money over people, ever. Scariest time in our lifetime was COVID. You're looking at the numbers and going, "Oh, shit," you know We, uh, we gotta let go of some people. We gotta... What? During the scariest time in, in human history? No, your job as the CEO is to figure out how to keep your business running and to take care of all your people, right? Here's what you don't do. Oh, we're looking at hard times. Let's just start fucking putting bullets in people who have missed their kid's first step, didn't go to a fucking game, missed this and missed that to help build this company. It is your job as the CEO to take care of these people and figure out how to make money. That's the way that I look at it, and that's what we did.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett25:17

        The, the reason why people have a problem with this whole like, uh, you know, my team are my family thing is 'cause they always say, "Well, you don't fire your family." And, and what you're saying is actually those that have been loyal to you are the ones that you treat like family, I'm hearing.

    14. DWDana White25:30

        Yeah. If you don't have loyalty-

    15. SBSteven Bartlett25:33

        Mm

    16. DWDana White25:34

        ... what do you have? Right? If, if you work in a place where you feel like the rug could be pulled out from under you at any minute for no reason other than, ooh, the numbers don't look good. You think you wanna be an entrepreneur, and you think you wanna be the CEO of a company. Every day when your foot hits the floor out of bed, you're going to war. There's people trying to take what you have. There's people trying to screw you over. You know, people are coming after you every day. And the more successful you become, the more people that are coming after you. And I look at the UFC and other businesses that I run as a battleship, and me and my team are going to war, and we either all go down together or we don't go down at all.

    17. SBSteven Bartlett26:20

        Mm-hmm. I guess in that context, if you are at war, then you need, you know, your brothers in arms. You need-

    18. DWDana White26:25

        You need soldiers.

    19. SBSteven Bartlett26:26

        Yeah, you need soldiers.

    20. DWDana White26:27

        Yep. And I'll tell you this, so I know lots of different stories coming out of COVID. The day that everything started to shut down, I literally got all my employees in a room together downstairs at our dining room, and I said, "Listen, I don't understand this. I don't know what's going on. But if any of you feel unsafe or feel that, you know, you have loved ones at home that could be unsafe from this whole thing, you can go home." Nobody walked out. Nobody walked out. I said, "We're gonna figure this out. We're gonna get through this together." And, uh, you know, every week I had weekly FaceTime calls with all my employees, and it sounds weird now, but I was like, "If you need anything, if you need groceries, toilet paper, [chuckles] uh, you know, a loved one of yours gets sick, make me the first call. We'll get through this together, and da, da." And then, you know, it was only a couple weeks, and I said, "We're going. We're gonna work." And everybody, men, women, they all said, "We're with you. Let's roll."

14. 27:34 – 32:02

    Why He Built a Family Through Business

    1. SBSteven Bartlett27:34

       Do you know what's interesting is the last time I heard a founder or CEO of a company say this to me, um, they also had a very turbulent childhood where they didn't have a family.

    2. DWDana White27:43

       Huh.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett27:44

       And, and, and he ended up admitting to me, he goes, "You know, I guess to some degree as an adult, I've been able to build my own, my own community family that I really never had." And so I, I was just wondering as you were speaking there, if there's, if there is a link there at all-

    4. DWDana White27:59

       Well-

    5. SBSteven Bartlett27:59

       ... between how you treat people-

    6. DWDana White28:00

       No, here's the link for me. If, if I, [chuckles] again, psychoanalyzing me.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett28:03

       [chuckles]

    8. DWDana White28:04

       I've worked for companies-

    9. SBSteven Bartlett28:05

       Mm-hmm

    10. DWDana White28:06

        ... that you go in and you give your time and your energy to, and they treat you like you don't even fucking matter, right? It's like, "Well, if you don't like it, there's 10 other people right behind you that would love to have this job." Wow. That's how much you value me and what I do here?

    11. SBSteven Bartlett28:20

        Yeah. It goes both ways, right?

    12. DWDana White28:22

        Yeah. I, I, I've been in those positions before, and I've... Yeah.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett28:26

        That, that red phone, um, reminds me of another quote that I read from you, which is that you are always in the weeds. And one would think, you know, Dana, you're 57.

    14. DWDana White28:34

        Yeah, 57.

    15. SBSteven Bartlett28:34

        57 years old, very, very successful, made a lot of money in your life, peak of your powers. One would assume that by this time you'd be a little bit out of the weeds, and dare I say even, I don't know, delegating and enjoying yourself a little bit more. I mean, that's presumptive, the word enjoying yourself. But would be out of the weeds by now.

    16. DWDana White28:52

        You ever hear the saying, "It's easier to get to the top than it is to stay on top"? [chuckles] Truer words were never spoken. When you're, when you're at the top, everybody's gunning for you, and everybody's looking at your blueprint and saying, "How do I, how do I use what he's done and how he's built this to beat him?"

    17. SBSteven Bartlett29:09

        How do I steal his people?

    18. DWDana White29:09

        It's like being a world champion. So you become a world champion, and then everybody starts studying you and how you fight or how you play or how you do, trying to figure out how to beat you. And, uh, I love that shit.

    19. SBSteven Bartlett29:23

        How do you respond to that? Because it-

    20. DWDana White29:24

        I love it

    21. SBSteven Bartlett29:25

        ... because it's easy to get distracted when there's that many people gunning for one guy.

    22. DWDana White29:28

        And don't get distracted. You know what you get distracted on? You get into a business like this, right? And, and lots of goofy shit starts coming at you, like, "Hey, we wanna do a movie about this. Hey, we wanna do a thing on your life. Hey, we wanna..." Uh-uh. If, there's three things that I focus on every day, and I'm not gonna say it, but-

    23. SBSteven Bartlett29:48

        You're not gonna say it?

    24. DWDana White29:48

        No.

    25. SBSteven Bartlett29:49

        Why?

    26. DWDana White29:49

        There's three things that I focus on every day, and if I don't fuck this up, you can't, you can't mess it up.

    27. SBSteven Bartlett29:56

        Why wouldn't you tell me?

    28. DWDana White29:57

        It's part of the formula.

    29. SBSteven Bartlett29:58

        [laughs]

    30. DWDana White30:00

        It's part of the formula.
15. 32:02 – 33:15

    Why Great Leaders Stay in the Weeds

    1. SBSteven Bartlett32:02

       point of being in the weeds-

    2. DWDana White32:04

       Hmm

    3. SBSteven Bartlett32:04

       ... is that important for, you know, people out there that are-

    4. DWDana White32:07

       So here's what can happen. You know, and people say this to me all the time. We did the $7.7 billion deal with Paramount, and they're like, "Wow, that's incredible." That, you know, you didn't fucking make it. You never make it. You don't make... You, do you know why Paramount did a 7.7? Because they believe that we can impact their business. Now, my job over the next five years is to make sure we do that, 'cause guess what I want? I want 10 billion after we get out of this deal, right?

    5. SBSteven Bartlett32:37

       Mm-hmm.

    6. DWDana White32:38

       And the way that you do that is you added value to their company and y- and, and, you know.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett32:43

       Is it not tiring, though, constantly having to be in the weeds for 25 years, and now you're rich, and you've, you've made all this money? Like, is it not-

    8. DWDana White32:51

       I could understand for some people maybe, but not me. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm 57, and I'm sure to a lot of young people that seems old, but 57 isn't that old, and, and, and what the hell would I be doing? I am addicted to chaos and, and, you know, and if there isn't any, I create it. It's, it's a weird thing, but I'm definitely an addict, yeah.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett33:14

       There's a particular

16. 33:15 – 35:10

    I Love the Haters

    1. SBSteven Bartlett33:15

       quote in this pile of quotes which I think is really relevant.

    2. DWDana White33:17

       [laughs] Yeah. I love the haters. The haters are the best, man. There's nothing better than haters. Haters will lay out what they think is wrong with your business and how you're not, you know, doing this or doing that, and, you know, what this used to be called was, you know, the critics or the whatever. Now these days they're called the haters, and, and I, I love the haters.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett33:42

       Do you listen to the haters?

    4. DWDana White33:43

       Yeah. Yeah. It's not like you don't listen to the haters. You know, it's not like you don't... You know, you know what, you know what is real, and you know what's just bullshit. They're just, you know.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett33:54

       Mm-hmm.

    6. DWDana White33:54

       But you have to have these guys. They, they, they, they sort of keep you on your game. Now, most people would say I drown that. What I drown out is, like, the media that covers our sport. I don't look at them as haters. I, I look at the, every fucking thing they say is wrong. And when I look at what they say, it's like, it's amazing that you could be involved in this business for 25 years and know nothing about it, you know? But I guess that's why, you know, we've never had any real competitors, 'cause when you think about what we're doing, it's never been done before. So what I'm thinking and what's coming next, these guys could never know. So all, literally all the guys that cover our sport, I block them out of my feed. I don't want to hear. They're all wrong, and everything they say is wrong, and it's a, it's a waste of my time to even listen to anything they say. But the hardcore fans, you know, uh, and the people who hate and the people who say we're great and all this, I like that information. I like hearing what they have to say.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett35:00

       It, the two points you just made, this one and the point before, um, brought to mind this point of focus. You talked about these three things. You talked about blocking out the haters. When you're at the top, there are so many things

17. 35:10 – 37:22

    How Extreme Focus Fueled His Success

    1. SBSteven Bartlett35:10

       screaming for your energy.

    2. DWDana White35:11

       So true.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett35:12

       There's a, everybody's going, "Look over here, Dana, give me five minutes of your thoughts and energy." Then you've got a journalist over here. Then you've got this fighter saying, coming out, making a comment over here. And so I wanted to understand what your relationship with, like, focus and how important this idea of focus has been to your success.

    4. DWDana White35:27

       Yeah. That's why you have to, uh, like, like I was saying, you have to figure out what you pay attention to and what you don't pay attention to.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett35:37

       Kevin O'Leary called this signal and noise.

    6. DWDana White35:39

       Yeah.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett35:39

       He told me about great phone of, yeah.

    8. DWDana White35:40

       That's it, the noise.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett35:41

       Yeah.

    10. DWDana White35:41

        You, you gotta, you gotta block out a lot of the noise. The problem is, these days, anybody with a fucking phone, all right, can, can consider themselves an expert, and, and I'm criticizing what they do, but it's, it's just, it's always wrong, and it's always just such a waste of time. I wanna hear what the fans think. I don't wanna hear what these guys who are trying to start a podcast or a website or a fucking Instagram account, you know, on the business think. I wanna hear what the real fans think. And when, when you have been doing this long enough, you can sort of go through and tell what's what and who's who, right?

    11. SBSteven Bartlett36:17

        Mm-hmm.

    12. DWDana White36:17

        So when, when I feel like somebody has made a really good point or an opinion on the show or the match made, it's like when we put together a fight, and I've been saying this since day one, they're like, "This card sucks." You can't say the card sucks until it's over, right? 'Cause these are obviously all really talented people that are on the card. Maybe some of them are, uh, you know, are, are younger and haven't proven themselves yet. But- You can't judge a card until the card's over. And believe me, if the card sucks, I'll be the first one to say that the card sucked. So there's just lots of things that are, that make sense and things that don't.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett36:55

        What has made the, the biggest difference to you in terms of your energy, your health, in making sure that you can show up really well every day? Because I'm, I, I'm- you're the reason I heard about Gary Brecka.

    14. DWDana White37:05

        Yeah.

    15. SBSteven Bartlett37:05

        And then I brought him on the show and he did really, really well on the show. And then it was that watching you talk about some of the impact he had on your life. He's a, a health expert that transformed your life. But I s- I say all this to say that in my life, I notice this variance between my good days and my bad days in terms of energy level, my ability

18. 37:22 – 39:47

    What Transformed His Energy and Health

    1. SBSteven Bartlett37:22

       to articulate myself. And so I'm longing to, like, get up to a high baseline.

    2. DWDana White37:27

       Yep.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett37:27

       So I'm wondering for you, like, what has that been for you?

    4. DWDana White37:29

       Yeah, he completely changed my life. When I hit 50, Gary Brecka changed everything. So I have two doctors, one in Vegas, one in LA. They're both great doctors. So when I started the whole Gary Brecka thing, they, they called me up together, and they're like, "Dana, what are you doing? What are you doing with this shit?" And blah, blah. I said, "Listen, man, the guy said, 'Give me 12 weeks and I'll change your life.' We'll see what happens in, in, in, in six weeks." I was like, wow, I feel incredible. And all these things that they couldn't fix, they just kept switching up the pills and all this shit, and one of them that was real bad was sleep apnea. I was waking up almost every night and throwing up from, from, from sleep apnea, right?

    5. SBSteven Bartlett38:14

       And how, how did you meet him? S- someone referred him to you, and you-

    6. DWDana White38:17

       Kerry Kasem. Kerry Kasem was like, "I want you to meet this guy. I'm telling you, he'll do this and that." I didn't wanna meet him. And then the, the weirdest thing ever is that my son turned 21, and I had his 21st birthday down in Miami.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett38:32

       Hmm.

    8. DWDana White38:32

       And Gary Brecka lives in Miami. And he says, "Well, we do IVs, so we could do all the IVs for you guys down there and whatever." And I said, "All right, cool." So we would go out and drink and, you know, then do the IVs. And then one day we're doing the IV, and he says, "Let me, let me take your blood, and let me, uh, let me do your blood work for you."

    9. SBSteven Bartlett38:50

       Gary said that?

    10. DWDana White38:50

        Yeah. And Gary had this thing that he could predict, you know, when you would die. And then I became obsessed with that. I said-

    11. SBSteven Bartlett39:00

        He, he gave you 12 years?

    12. DWDana White39:01

        10.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett39:02

        He gave you 10 years to live.

    14. DWDana White39:02

        So then, so then he, he, he said, uh, "Give me 12 weeks. I'll change your life. It's gonna be hard." And I said, "It won't be hard. Once I set my mind to it, I'll, I'll do exactly what you tell me to do." It took six weeks. Six weeks in, I was like, I, I never felt better. And clarity, legs, and all these other problems I have, and then sleep apnea gone. Me and my wife truly believe that he's wrong. I didn't have 10 years. We thought I had less 'cause of the way that I would sleep and all the shit that was going on with me. [inhales] And, uh, you know, this guy is a, is a life changer. I wouldn't be doing all the things. I mean, I'd probably still be doing UFC, but I wouldn't be doing all this other stuff that I'm doing. I wouldn't be able to run at the level I run at right now without him.

19. 39:48 – 41:54

    Why You Either Have the Killer Instinct or You Don’t

    1. SBSteven Bartlett39:48

       I hear another one of your quotes here.

    2. DWDana White39:49

       Mm. Yeah. It says, "You either have the killer instinct or you don't." And it's so true. [sighs] So this happened with Ian Gary.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett40:00

       [chuckles]

    4. DWDana White40:00

       You know?

    5. SBSteven Bartlett40:01

       I saw your interview.

    6. DWDana White40:02

       I felt like Ian Gary in that fifth round. You, you have this opportunity. You're fighting possibly the greatest fighter of all time, and you did a damn good fucking job for four rounds. And, you know, he was battered. His whole right side was busted up. His face was busted up, but he was beating you as far as rounds go. Now, you're the younger, bigger, rangier fighter. You just fought four incredible rounds. Get out there and put it on. You go out and start shaking his hands and hugging him, and do that when they're strapping the belt on you. Show Islam all the love you want when the fight's over. This is the fifth round. You have five minutes to shock the world and, and, you know, everything you ever fucking dreamed of and worked for can happen in this next five minutes, and you didn't do it.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett40:54

       Does that mean he doesn't have the killer instinct?

    8. DWDana White40:56

       I don't know. You know, he's a classy, really nice guy, but that's not the time or place to be it. You, you have to go out, and you have to, you have five minutes left to, you know. He didn't show it if he does have it. He didn't show it. Any, any guy, company, or person that wants to be a sponsor of ours, I'm not a logo slap guy. You just take your logo and slap it in, and let's hope this works out. No, I want you to win. When you're with me and, and your name is on our canvas, I want this to be a mutually beneficial deal for both of us. I want you to win. I want you to go, "Damn, thank God I spent my money on the UFC."

    9. SBSteven Bartlett41:41

       Mm-hmm.

    10. DWDana White41:41

        And you have to get up, and you have to, [tapping] you have to kick ass every single day, not just for you, not just for your employees, but for your sponsors, the network, and, you know. You're never out of the weeds, I guess, is the answer.

20. 41:54 – 44:36

    Why You Have to Be a Savage in Business

    1. DWDana White41:54

       You have to be an absolute savage in business. I mean, that goes right along with what I was just saying. You, you-

    2. SBSteven Bartlett42:01

       Are you a savage?

    3. DWDana White42:02

       I don't like to [laughs] you know what I mean? I don't know. I would let other people judge whether I am a savage or not, but yes, I will tell you this: I absolutely, positively have killer instinct. And every day that I show up here, I'm, I'm here to fucking win. [paper rustles]

    4. SBSteven Bartlett42:20

       You'd think the former president of Nespresso would be a pretty hard person to convert to a new coffee company, but just one sip of Cometeer Coffee made him invest But let me tell you the reason why I became an investor. So I had a big box of this arrive on my desk in the London office, and then I'd say within about an hour and a half, the Slack channel that we have starts blowing up with people asking, "What the hell is that thing that's been left in the kitchen?" It is unbelievable. So instead of trying to make it yourself at home and balance the flavors, they flash freeze it at the perfect moment, so all you have to do is pop it out of here into a cup, pour hot water on it, and it tastes like nothing you've tasted before. You can also make delicious iced coffee drinks as well. Just pour it in. No machine, no brewing with plastic and all that nasty stuff. And you can get $30 off your first order at cometeer.com/stephen today. That's cometeer.com/stephen. [page flips] I wanna speak to the business owners listening and watching right now. I know what it's like to be personally responsible for every decision. I founded my first company at 21 years old, and honestly, the pressure can be immense. It's the kind of mental load that takes its toll below the surface. I recently did some tests through fast sponsor Function, which got me thinking about that invisible impact. I found that I had low levels of omega-3s. I had deficient levels of vitamin D, probably because I sit inside this dark room all day, and that has totally changed how I construct my day going forward. I get up in the morning, and the first thing I now do is I go for a walk outside in the sunshine, in part to help my vitamin D levels increase, but also because it helps to reset my circadian rhythm. With Function, you can check your brain health, your aging, your stress, and so much more. They provide over 160 lab tests for what is equal to a dollar a day and member pricing on advanced imaging. Head to functionhealth.com/DOAC to join and use code DOAC25 for a $25 credit. [page flips] There's gonna be s- some people listening that are at the start of their careers, and they're, they, they'll be inspired by you. They'll wanna win like you've won. They'll want to climb to the, the sorta peak of the mountain in whatever pursuit they go after. And I'm ki- uh, the question I'm kind of wondering is, like, is there a way they can learn

21. 44:36 – 45:14

    Can You Learn the Killer Instinct?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett44:36

       this savagery-

    2. DWDana White44:37

       Hmm

    3. SBSteven Bartlett44:37

       ... this killer instinct? Do you, have you ever seen someone go from not having it to having it, whether they're a fighter or someone else?

    4. DWDana White44:43

       Hmm. That's a good question. I don't know if I've ever experienced somebody who didn't have it and got it. I do- I don't think that I have. But here's what I do know. If you wanna get into business for yourself, you have to have a, a certain mindset, and you have to be a killer, man. You have to. And you have to not just think about yourself. There's a lot of other people that you have to think of more times than less before you.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett45:13

       Do you

22. 45:14 – 46:20

    Why a Chip on Your Shoulder Can Drive Success

    1. SBSteven Bartlett45:14

       think you have to have a chip on your shoulder?

    2. DWDana White45:16

       Uh, I don't know if you have to have a chip on your shoulder, but, you know, I... most guys you see do. But it's because you get up every day, and it's you versus the world. I mean, e- everybody's coming at you. And the more successful you get, I mean, if you, if you look this up, I mean, every business that's ever been successful, right, there's a army of scumbag lawyers out there that will find a way to figure out how to sue you because, you know, you did something wrong, or the other thing that happens is people that are involved in your business that don't become successful, it's never their fault.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett45:53

       Hmm.

    4. DWDana White45:53

       It's somebody else's fault on why they weren't successful. And, you know, there, there's always a... There, there are groups of lawyers, like companies out there, massive companies and smaller ones too, that actually fund. You can go in, and you can invest in a lawsuit with them and, and be a part of it. So every day when you get up, there's just, you know, scumbags, regular people, good people that are all coming after you.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett46:19

       Question

23. 46:20 – 48:48

    Who Dana White Would Never Want to Compete Against

    1. SBSteven Bartlett46:20

       then. Which person would you [chuckles] ... Of all the entrepreneurs and killers you've met, which one would you not like to compete with as it relates to business?

    2. DWDana White46:29

       Hmm. I don't think... I, I l- I wanna compete with them all.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett46:32

       But is there anyone who gives you all that concept?

    4. DWDana White46:33

       I like it. Listen, we're, we're at a level now where I was saying to you, the NFL and-

    5. SBSteven Bartlett46:37

       Yeah

    6. DWDana White46:37

       ... Major League Baseball, these guys are all... You know, first of all, they've been around for 100 years or more or less or whatever it is. And I'm, I'm at a level now where we're competing with the elite of the elite in sports.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett46:50

       Who is the most badass entrepreneur you've ever met?

    8. DWDana White46:54

       Uh, I don't know. That's a tough one. Like, there's guys that, there's guys that, that, that I like and respect, like the, the Michael Jordans, uh, Carl Icahn. I, I like guys like that, you know?

    9. SBSteven Bartlett47:05

       What about athletes that you've worked with? Was there any that you, you sort of put in a class of their own in terms of them-

    10. DWDana White47:10

        Conor. Conor McGregor, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Chuck Liddell when, you know, it was his time. Ronda Rousey. You know, and people, people that, you know, wanna talk shit about Ronda Rousey now. Let me tell you what. Ronda Rousey came to me. I didn't want women in the UFC, right? And, and the reasoning is I was trying to sell men to networks and sponsors, and they were like, "Oh, this is too whatever." Women-

    11. SBSteven Bartlett47:33

        Eh.

    12. DWDana White47:33

        Ronda Rousey grabbed me at an event, said, "Hey, I'm Ronda Rousey. Can I get 15 minutes with you?" We went into my room at the, at the arena, and I don't know, minutes into the conversation, I'm like, "Holy shit. I think I'm gonna do this, and she's the one to do it with," you know? And she came in with the whole fucking bravado. You wanna talk about a chip on your shoulder, I mean-

    13. SBSteven Bartlett47:58

        I've never-

    14. DWDana White47:58

        She had it. You know, so many people now wanna hate on her. She is a fucking unicorn.

    15. SBSteven Bartlett48:04

        What do these people have, the Conors, the Khabibs, the Rondas? What is it?

    16. DWDana White48:07

        Conor McGregor, I went to dinner with him when we signed him. I left that dinner. I called Lorenzo Fertitta, and I said, "Dude, I don't know if this guy can fight or not, but if he can even throw a punch, he's gonna be a massive superstar." He's, he's incredible.

    17. SBSteven Bartlett48:24

        What was it?

    18. DWDana White48:25

        Well, the number one factor in this business, can you fight?

    19. SBSteven Bartlett48:30

        Mm-hmm.

    20. DWDana White48:30

        How good are you? Number two is the, is this, this mentality Of manifesting and just sitting there and you're telling me what you're gonna do and how it's gonna happen and how it's all gonna play out. And I've only had a handful of these meetings in 25 years. A handful.

24. 48:48 – 52:56

    Do You Believe in Manifestation?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett48:48

       Do you believe in manifestation in that regard?

    2. DWDana White48:50

       Oh, I- um, manifesting is real, and I'm a, I'm a big believer in, in manifesting. When you decide who you are, what you wanna do, what you're gonna accomplish, and you get up every single day and you work toward it, it is impossible for you to fail.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett49:06

       Some people just take one side of that bargain. They'll say, "I'll just sit here and think about it. I'll make my vision board." But then they won't get out and press the pedal.

    4. DWDana White49:12

       Right.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett49:12

       It's kinda like, uh, getting in a car in your garage and setting the sat nav but not, you know, putting your foot down.

    6. DWDana White49:17

       That's exactly right. Not stepping on the gas, you're right.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett49:20

       Yeah.

    8. DWDana White49:20

       You, you go in there and you, you program your fucking, you know, your GPS system, and then you never step on the gas-

    9. SBSteven Bartlett49:25

       Yeah. [chuckles]

    10. DWDana White49:25

        ... and you don't fucking go anywhere. But yeah, if, if you lay out your plan, you know who you are, you know what you wanna do, it's impossible to fail. And then th- th- then wh- what does failure mean?

    11. SBSteven Bartlett49:36

        Mm-hmm.

    12. DWDana White49:37

        What, what, what does failure mean? M- my thing about success in life is, are you happy to get up every day and love what you do? You know, I know a lot of billionaires that are miserable, miserable human beings.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett49:50

        Why? Like-

    14. DWDana White49:51

        I don't know why. It just... Listen, being happy is a choice. Do, do you love what you do? Do you wanna get up? Do you wanna be happy every day? And, and to me, that's the key to success. I actually... I'll tell you a story of my son. My oldest son called me the other day, and he's like, "Dad, I need some direction. You know, I- I'm thinking about this, da, da, da, da, da." And I always tell my kids, "I want you guys to be happy." He goes, "Dad, don't give me your fucking happy speech."

    15. SBSteven Bartlett50:15

        [laughs]

    16. DWDana White50:17

        "Happy speech. I need some fucking direction, and help me figure this out." So I think we had a good conversation, and, uh, he seemed happy when we got off the phone, but yeah.

    17. SBSteven Bartlett50:28

        What did he want direction on?

    18. DWDana White50:29

        You know, just, just life choices that he's, he's looking down the barrel of right now. Don't be that guy that's laying in the hospital bed dying, saying, "I wonder what would happen if I tried." Yeah. I don't want any regrets. I don't wanna be, you know... I, I, I don't want any regrets. And I don't right now. I d- I d- I don't regret anything. If you, if you pushed me hard and said, "Tell me one thing that you regret," I don't believe that I have any. I don't believe that I have any.

    19. SBSteven Bartlett51:00

        I know you don't like it when I go here, but I wondered to- wanted to ask you if you have any of that. Your parents have passed away a couple years ago.

    20. DWDana White51:06

        Well, well, that's the thing. When you, when you talk about, like, you know, this podcast, "Diary of a CEO," I, I don't think that, that it's all, you know, cookie cutter and stamp.

    21. SBSteven Bartlett51:17

        Mm-hmm.

    22. DWDana White51:17

        Everybody has their own things. You grew up different than I grew up. All you grew up different than we grew up. And there are things that, you know, obviously had big impressions on you when you were young, but I hate the past. I don't, I don't like the past.

    23. SBSteven Bartlett51:33

        Why?

    24. DWDana White51:33

        And it's not just my childhood or anything like that. Fuck the rear view mirror. It doesn't matter. Whatever happened yesterday means nothing today. And some of these kids, you can never let the past affect your future, right? So people say to me, "Hey, do you ever look back and go, 'Wow, we did this?'" No, fuck that, 'cause whatever we did back then got me to here.

    25. SBSteven Bartlett51:57

        Mm-hmm.

    26. DWDana White51:57

        Right?

    27. SBSteven Bartlett51:58

        Mm-hmm.

    28. DWDana White51:58

        We're here. What just happened a few hours ago doesn't mean shit anymore. It's gone, right? What's next? What's next? What's next? I don't ever look back and let... You know, you, you learn some things, and you learn some lessons and, you know, good and bad or whatever happens, but these people who sit around and go, "You don't understand. My dad did to my mom," and fucking who gives a shit? Fucking everybody went through that stuff. Shut up. That doesn't matter anymore. Don't let the past affect your future. So people will say, "Do you ever just sit around and reflect?" Fuck no, I don't reflect.

    29. SBSteven Bartlett52:33

        [chuckles]

    30. DWDana White52:34

        I'm thinking about what's happening tomorrow and what's gonna happen and, you know, who's gonna come after me in the next fucking few days and, you know, how do we build and how do we get bigger and how do we get better, you know? I'm 57, but I wanna be better tomorrow than I was today in every way that you can possibly be better.
25. 52:56 – 58:49

    How He Learned to Leave the Past Behind

    1. DWDana White52:56

       Yesterday never mattered to me, you know? You took whatever lessons you had from that, good or bad, right? It's like, it's like these kids that grew up and said they didn't have any role models, you know? Oh yes, you did.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett53:09

       Does that mean-

    3. DWDana White53:09

       You had tons of them.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett53:10

       Does that mean that you can't... You're not hurt by things?

    5. DWDana White53:12

       Never.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett53:13

       You're never hurt by things?

    7. DWDana White53:14

       Never hurt by things.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett53:15

       Really?

    9. DWDana White53:15

       Never hurt by things, yeah. And people, I always, I, I, I... You know, people that are close to me be like, "When's the last time you cried?" Fuck, I don't even know the last time I cried. What does crying do? What does... How does crying fucking help in any way, shape, or form? And you know, maybe for some people crying's great. Crying doesn't fucking work for me. I'm not a crier. And it's pretty fucking hard to hurt my feelings. And I'll give that to my mom and dad, my uncles and aunts. I mean, we, we had a fucking tough crew. When people who were supposed to love you would say the things that these guys would say to you, you know. What, what, what is fucking this guy over here? You think I give a shit what this guy thinks? It's like when we talk about getting canceled. Who can really cancel you, right? Oh, the New York Times doesn't like that I... Fuck the New York Times. Give a shit about the New York Times. I have a group of people in my life that mean something to me, right? That I care about. Their opinions, you know, my relationships with them, whatever, mean a lot to me. And if one of them went away, that would, that would bother me, right? Other everybody else, oh God, why give a shit what, you know, three guys on the fucking internet think or, you know, some guy who writes for something or the fucking New York Times, which, you know, through COVID, New York Times was on my ass like crazy. But This is, this is what I always think about

    10. SBSteven Bartlett54:40

        And are you saying that came from the fact that people that were supposed to say nice things and be super affectionate and cushy when you were younger, they were saying horrible things-

    11. DWDana White54:48

        Yeah

    12. SBSteven Bartlett54:48

        ... so it kind of built a resilience in you?

    13. DWDana White54:50

        No fucking doubt about it. No doubt about it. They built me [laughs] for this, for this life and this, uh, you know ... And I always say I wouldn't take back one thing from my childhood or want different parents or a different family or a different setup. It was incredible.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett55:06

        What were they saying to you?

    15. DWDana White55:08

        Uh, I don't know. Listen, I, I, I'm a ball buster. I like to bust balls and, and whatever, even with my friends and my crew, and that's the way my family was. My family was a hard group. Like, my grandmother, w- w- which I love both my grandmothers on both sides, were incredible. You know, there's nothing better in life when you're young than to have great grandparents. I mean, everybody watching this right now, everybody thinks of their grandparents and like, "Ah, yeah, your grandparents were the best," and all that shit.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett55:34

        Mm.

    17. DWDana White55:34

        Like, my grandmother, my Irish grandmother on, on my, the ... You say, "Hey, I love you, Gram." Fucking, nothing back. "Good to see you. See you later."

    18. SBSteven Bartlett55:42

        Oh, really?

    19. DWDana White55:43

        Yeah, yeah. There, there was none of that type of shit growing up. Yeah, yeah. There you go.

    20. SBSteven Bartlett55:48

        I, when I heard about this, I thought, "Oh, shit." So this is a book that your mother published.

    21. DWDana White55:52

        I've actually never seen the actual fucking book.

    22. SBSteven Bartlett55:54

        This is a book your mother published-

    23. DWDana White55:56

        Yeah

    24. SBSteven Bartlett55:56

        ... about you, Unauthorized, is a biography.

    25. DWDana White55:58

        Yeah.

    26. SBSteven Bartlett55:59

        I think she-

    27. DWDana White55:59

        And put a bunch of pictures in here of me when I was a kid and all this shit. But I think, you know, this happens a lot. I mean, she put my fucking wedding pictures in here and shit.

    28. SBSteven Bartlett56:07

        And she didn't ask you to publish this book?

    29. DWDana White56:09

        No. Put fucking wedding pictures in here and all this fucking shit. I mean, I, I, you know, I saw some Kobe Bryant stuff where Kobe had to, like, sue his mom. She was selling his [laughs] shit from his bedroom and, and, you know. It happens, man. It happens. It's unfortunate, and it's-- I've actually never seen the book. It's the first time I've ever seen the book.

    30. SBSteven Bartlett56:28

        I'm not gonna read it out or anything, but, um, in the book, she's critical of you at certain points.
26. 58:49 – 1:04:26

    Has Dana White Forgiven His Mom?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett58:49

       Have you forgiven her?

    2. DWDana White58:51

       Um, yeah, listen, I, I didn't, I, I don't go on shows to speak negatively about my mother. You know, I was telling you earlier, I wouldn't change anything, and, you know, people say, "Do you think you are where you are today because of your parents?" Absolutely, 100%. You know, good, bad, whatever, however you wanna look at it. You know, my parents passed away. I don't want to tell bad stories about my parents, but, I mean, that's one of the, one of the grossest, most disgusting things that you couldn't even imagine possible until it happens to you, and, you know, what are you gonna do? You gonna fucking cry about it and, "Oh, you don't understand my fucking..." Fuck it.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett59:28

       Well, you got, you got an opportunity-

    4. DWDana White59:30

       It happened, and, and it, it, you know, it is what it is. The thing that, that, that's bad about that and what she did is a lot of other people, I think she hurt in that book. She didn't hurt me, but other people that, you know ... A lot of things that aren't true and a lot of people that didn't do anything to her in that book that, you know. And again, I've never read it, but I've had lawyers tell me about it [laughs] and shit like that, and then the, the, you know, the, the, the personal private pictures that she just threw out there that, you know, she really didn't have the right to do. Um, you know, it just, it just, it's one of those things that when you become successful, this type of shit happens to you.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:00:17

       You have a wonderful partner like I do. How would you t- um, on Piers Morgan, you talked about her psychoanalyzing you. [laughs]

    6. DWDana White1:00:24

       Mm.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:00:24

       My fiancée does the same thing.

    8. DWDana White1:00:25

       Right. [laughs]

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:00:25

       I think my fiancée deep down thinks I must be fucked up and is, is, is in constant search-

    10. DWDana White1:00:29

        So true

    11. SBSteven Bartlett1:00:30

        ... of evidence that I am fucked up.

    12. DWDana White1:00:31

        Yeah.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett1:00:31

        In part because she knows of my, my childhood and my, my relationship with my parents, so she assumes that I must be fucked up.

    14. DWDana White1:00:36

        Right.

    15. SBSteven Bartlett1:00:36

        And it's like everything is confirmation of it. [laughs]

    16. DWDana White1:00:39

        Well, she'll get into this thing where she'll start telling me, she's like, she'll try to talk about my feelings. She's like, "How do you feel about this?" And that, and that's why when Piers Morgan was q-... I said, "You sound like my wife." You know, "It's impossible for you not to be able..." Yeah, I said, "It's not impossible, and no, you're wrong." And then, and then once you do an interview like that, and it'll happen in this interview too, it's like then people start going, "Oh, this, this guy's gotta be a psycho not to fucking..." You know? And maybe, maybe that's true. Maybe you're right. I don't know.

    17. SBSteven Bartlett1:01:09

        You did no different.

    18. DWDana White1:01:10

        But I don't like to talk about this kind of shit, 'cause it doesn't matter at the end of the day. It doesn't matter. Like I said, the rear view mirror means nothing, right? Let me tell you what's not gonna... You're not gonna get rear-ended in fucking life, unless you did some horrible things in your past that are gonna come back and fucking get you or whatever. The, the, the, the rear view mirror means nothing to me. I learned from it. I, I had these experiences, some incredible, some not incredible, but they all built who I am today, and, and, and that's all that matters.

    19. SBSteven Bartlett1:01:43

        I think therefore it does matter, because a lot of people think, they go through life thinking that, "If this happened to me, I can't possibly have a future, be successful. I can't possibly move forward." And so hearing someone that went through a, in my view, an, a, a objectively very tumultuous, very difficult upbringing, and has been able to separate themselves from it and, and look forward, I think means it does matter, 'cause it shows that it's possible.

    20. DWDana White1:02:06

        Well, I don't ever wanna sit down and, and talk about things where l- I, I'm like some victim.

    21. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:11

        Yeah.

    22. DWDana White1:02:11

        I'm the furthest thing from a victim. And I think that, [laughs] especially if you grew up in the '70s and '80s, a lot of bad shit happened to you, in a lot of different ways. It just, it was a different time, a different place, and I think that my parents, and my grandparents before them, they grew up in a different world and different times and, you know, th- things, things weren't easy for them either. They went through some shit that got them, you know, to, to, to where they were. And I don't blame them. I don't have any ill feelings toward... You know, me and my sister will talk about my mom, and we'll be like, "How the fuck did she do it?" She was a single mom. My dad was what he was. Single mom, worked her ass off, you know, did all this stuff, and, and she did it. She ra- she raised two kids, right? No matter all the bad things or whatever that happened, the, the book and all that, she, she raised two kids by herself, and moved across country from Boston to Vegas, you know, with two kids and a dog and a car. We drove cross-country. You know, I remember we were going through the Midwest, and there were tornadoes coming and shit. And like all the stuff that we did, and we went through, she did it. She did it by herself. And, and my sister and I, even though we didn't talk to her for years, you know, at the end of her life, um, we credit her and respect what she did.

    23. SBSteven Bartlett1:03:33

        Hmm. Anne is a little bit right, isn't she? 'Cause my partner's is a little bit right. I don't tell her. [laughs]

    24. DWDana White1:03:38

        Yeah. [laughs] She's Italian.

    25. SBSteven Bartlett1:03:40

        Y- your wife, Anne.

    26. DWDana White1:03:41

        Yeah. You know, they're all together all the time and, you know. But when, when you have that, that type of a family structure, which is the complete fucking opposite of what mine was, it, it's cool to see. So I've sort of the, the, the best of both worlds. And her family's great, you know. Any time while I was building this business, her family was helping with the kids, and they all worked together, and they all did all this. So, you know, I, I, I've been lucky that I've been able to experience both.

    27. SBSteven Bartlett1:04:08

        There should be a button just down below here, and if it says subscribed, you're already subscribed. If it says subscriber, that means you're not yet. And if you're not subscribed, please could you do us a favor and hit that button? It helps the show more than you know, and according to the algorithm, you're someone that watches our show, but you haven't yet hit that button. Thank you so much.

27. 1:04:26 – 1:04:27

    Ads

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:04:26

       Okay, we've got two more.

28. 1:04:27 – 1:06:51

    Why You Should Trust Your Gut Over Focus Groups

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:04:27

       Here we go.

    2. DWDana White1:04:30

       Trust your gut, not the focus groups. Yeah. Everything that I've ever done has been o- based off my gut and what I felt would... I mean, the Power Slap thing, I mean, you wanna talk about the critics, I mean, you know, UFC, huge, sold all this money. And, and, and I remember seeing people, "He's gonna, he's gonna destroy his legacy by, by doing this and that." And all the shit that they said about the UFC, they then said about Power Slap. Anything new that people don't understand or, uh, or don't get, th- they, they attack and go after.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:00

       But sometimes your gut is wrong, no? Sometimes your, your, sometimes you get things wrong.

    4. DWDana White1:05:05

       Yeah.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:05

       You think something will be-

    6. DWDana White1:05:06

       Yeah, there's no doubt. Well, luckily, not, not in business it hasn't yet, so.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:12

       Not the big things.

    8. DWDana White1:05:13

       Yeah.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:14

       But I think that sometimes, because I, I'm quite wary of the fact that we sit here and we give people advice to trust their gut. But, like, some people's gut is, like, not good.

    10. DWDana White1:05:22

        Yeah, but if your gut is wrong, here's what I always think. What's the worst-case scenario?

    11. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:28

        Yeah.

    12. DWDana White1:05:29

        The worst-case scenario is you go back to work.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:31

        You learn something as well, I guess. Yeah.

    14. DWDana White1:05:32

        Right? If your gut is wrong, or if you don't make it, and you don't wanna... Your worst-case scenario is you go back to work.

    15. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:41

        Mm.

    16. DWDana White1:05:41

        It's not a bad worst-case scenario.

    17. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:43

        And speaking of work.

    18. DWDana White1:05:44

        Right? I used to think the day that I walked out of that hotel, I was 19. If this whole thing doesn't work out, I'll have some great experiences, but if I have to go back and go back to work, I tried. I gave it a shot. I can't wake up when I'm 40, and that was the thing. When I was a bellman, I was making great money, right? I was able to have a good life for myself. But then I saw these guys that worked with me. One of the guys was 45 years old. He made the same money I made. He had the same benefits that I had. He had the same schedule that I had. So what's the worst-case scenario? I'm 45, and I come back, and I, you know, I do the same thing. It's not a bad worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is you never try. You don't try to do it. And then you wake up and you're 45 and you're like, "Fuck, man, I wonder if... What..." When I had no kids, no, no, no, nobody depended on me for anything, and I never gave it a shot If you're only in it for the paycheck, you've

29. 1:06:51 – 1:07:47

    Why Chasing a Paycheck Means You’ve Already Lost

    1. DWDana White1:06:51

       already lost. Yeah, it's absolutely true. Nothing I ever did was based on money, because if I did base it on money, I'm still standing in the hotel lobby, because that was the much better option at the time. 401k, right? All the, you check all the boxes, dental, medical, cash, checks, all these fucking things at 19. If the money was the deciding factor, I'm still standing in the lobby of the hotel. Now, when I left and said, "I want to be in the fight business," everybody told me it was fucking stupid, right? And when you say that, what does it mean? Does it mean where I am right now and what's going on right now? You could never predict that. You could never, you couldn't even fucking dream it up, the shit that I've done and the things that I've been a part of. In your wildest dreams, this wouldn't be it.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:45

       Where does luck fit in this equation?

    3. DWDana White1:07:46

       A lot.

30. 1:07:47 – 1:11:07

    How Much of Your Success Was Luck?

    1. DWDana White1:07:47

       I think a lot.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:47

       Really?

    3. DWDana White1:07:48

       And I wouldn't call it luck. I'd call it timing. Everything in life is about timing. So there was this kid, his name's Adam Corrigan. I went to high school with him, and he was a rich kid in high school. I was not. And I didn't have a car, all that shit. This guy would pick me up and drive me to school every day, right? And think about this, and, and this is the way I always think about it. For him to come get me, he had to wake up 45 minutes to an hour earlier, get ready, drive over, get me, and then we both had to be to school on time. And I had this blanket pol- like I told you, I quit drinking when I was 21. And I also had this blanket policy in my 20s. I didn't go to anybody's wedding. Everybody you ever knew was getting married when you were in your 20s heading toward your 30s, right? And it, first of all, you have to fly somewhere. You know, I lived in Boston. You know, you had to fly somewhere. Takes a bunch of time out of you to go to. So I would, no, I wouldn't go to anybody's wedding. So then Adam Corrigan is getting married. How am I not gonna go to Adam Corrigan's wedding with all the things that he did for me when we were in high school? I go to his wedding. And who do I run into at his wedding? Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:07

       Who you end up-

    5. DWDana White1:09:08

       I hadn't seen in 10 years or more. So Lorenzo comes up to me at the wedding and says, "Hey, how you doing? I just got on the, on the Nevada Athletic Commission, and I heard you're, you're, you know, you got a boxing gym. You train. I want to come in and train with you." He came in on Monday, and me and Lorenzo have been together ever since, and Frank.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:28

       And you bought the UFC together for $2 million-

    7. DWDana White1:09:30

       Yeah

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:30

       ... sometime thereafter.

    9. DWDana White1:09:31

       Mm-hmm.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:32

        So if you hadn't been loyal to your friend from school and gone to his wedding, then, I mean, who knows?

    11. DWDana White1:09:37

        Yeah.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:37

        Sliding Doors moment. So I guess-

    13. DWDana White1:09:39

        Everything in life is about timing.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:42

        Do you believe in karma?

    15. DWDana White1:09:43

        I do. I don't believe in much. Like I'm, you know, I'm not religious. I don't believe in God, the devil, ghosts, goblins. I don't believe in any of this shit. But I believe in karma, because I've seen it play out good and bad. I've seen karma.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:59

        There is a, there is a big fight coming up, um, a big UK fight coming up between AJ, Anthony Joshua, and Tyson Fury. One of the biggest fights in boxing, you, you know, for the last, at least the last decade for sure.

    17. DWDana White1:10:09

        Definitely in the heavyweight division, yes.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:11

        Yeah. Who do you think is gonna win?

    19. DWDana White1:10:14

        They both had tune-up fights that were very, very sketchy. So-

    20. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:18

        Yeah

    21. DWDana White1:10:18

        ... we'll, we'll see. You know, it's not like either one of them completely dominated in, in their tune-up fights. So it's an interesting fight to see. And obviously, you know, two of the biggest, most famous, most popular heavyweights to ever come out of the UK. So.

    22. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:33

        If you had to pick.

    23. DWDana White1:10:34

        If I had to pick, I don't pick.

    24. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:37

        You were about to pick. [chuckles]

    25. DWDana White1:10:38

        Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    26. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:38

        You didn't tell me the three things. You can tell me this. [both laughing]

    27. DWDana White1:10:42

        You're getting nothing from me that you actually want in this interview. What a waste of time. [both laughing]

    28. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:49

        I guess, so there is this empty one.

    29. DWDana White1:10:50

        Oh.

    30. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:50

        I wanted you just to write one more. That's front of mind for you. And again, this is just a, a principle for all my audience who are various ages that are thinking about how to be successful in their own, whatever they're doing in their lives. Um, it can be anything. Okay,

31. 1:11:07 – 1:18:04

    Why You Can’t Be Afraid to Take Risks

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:07

       what did you write? Do not be afraid to take risk. Okay.

    2. DWDana White1:11:12

       You will never accomplish or achieve anything that you want out of life if you're not willing to take the risk. You know, and it's always easier to do it when you're younger, before you get married, before you have kids. But don't be afraid to do it then either. What is your worst case scenario? To me, the worst case scenario is always laying in your deathbed and going, "I wish I woulda."

    3. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:40

       Yeah.

    4. DWDana White1:11:40

       When I built my house here in Las Vegas, right, I was like, "This is the last fucking house I'm gonna build." And, and you know what I don't wanna do? I don't wanna wake up some morning and go, "Damn, I wish I woulda..." So I went way over budget [chuckles] and you know, the whole deal. And I wake up every day in my fucking house, and I love it. And I've, I've been there eight years, and I've never said, "Damn, I shoulda." Never. You know what I mean? I'm just saying, in everything that I do in my life, I don't wanna wake up and wish that I had. You know? Do not be afraid to take risk. You know? And if there's something out there that you feel like you want, and you, you know, fucking go. Go. Go get it. What's the worst thing that can happen? You end up back at work, right? That's the worst case scenario. And it's not a bad worst case scenario.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:12:27

       In a way, we kind of do live like we're gonna live forever. When you think about, like, 'cause really, you know, neither of us know how long we have left.

    6. DWDana White1:12:34

       So, um, there's a movie that really impacted my life when I was a kid. It was called Vision Quest, and it's a wrestling movie. You know, this kid's in high school, and he feels like he never really accomplished something. He's, you know, he wanted to leave his mark in high school, so he's gonna drop a couple weight classes and try to beat the greatest wrestler in, like, the country or something. The Shoot was the guy's name. But he's in class and there's this, the, you know, it's like his poetry teacher, his English teacher, whatever it is, is telling a story about a poem. And he says, "What does this mean to you?" And the kid, Louden Swain is his name. Louden Swain says, "You know, this little girl's walking through the park and all the leaves are dying and falling off the tree, and then she realizes that she's gonna die someday, too." And then there's this, this-- one of the greatest scenes in a movie of all time. So he works at a hotel in high school. He works at a-- He's a room service waiter. The head chef that works with him every night is always, uh, like, he's cutting weight and doing all this stuff, and every time he's around this guy, this guy's negative. Like, "What are you doing this for? Pick up the fucking thing and eat it. Eat some food, do this and that." And it's always like shitting on him. So he gets to a place where he's getting ready to wrestle The Shoot, and he meets this girl, falls in love with her and all this shit, and he's willing to blow it all and give it all up. And she leaves because she sees that this is happening and she leaves him and he's all fucked up. So where does he go? He goes to the chef who's always shitting on him because he knows he'll talk him into quitting. "Fuck it. You don't have to do this. You don't have to do that." He goes to work and the guy's not at work. He's supposed to be working. So he goes to his apartment, knocks on his door, and the guy's dressed up with a fucking dress shirt and a tie and he's like, "What are you doing? What's going on? You're not at work." He's like, "Well, aren't you wrestling The Shoot tonight?" And he's like, "Yeah, but you're gonna-- they're gonna dock you a day's pay work." And this guy goes into basically, "I'm fucking sitting in this apartment alone one night and I'm watching TV and there's a guy named Pelé. Have you ever heard of him?"

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:36

       I have.

    8. DWDana White1:14:36

       And he says, "I watch this guy. He flips upside down and backwards and kicks the ball into a net and rips his shirt off and runs around the place and the fucking crowd's going crazy and it's rup-" Look, I, goosebumps telling you the story. So he says, "A human being, a species that I'm actually a part of, you know, I'm sitting here alone in my apartment and I start crying." You know, it's not the six minutes, it's what happens in that six minutes that matters. But basically, this movie spoke to me like nothing had ever spoke to me before. And, uh, I got it, you know? We don't have time. There's not a lot of time, and it does seem like we're gonna live forever, but we're not. And to these younger people, like 30 years old seemed so fucking old to me when I was 18. You're 30 like that. Don't waste your time. Don't be afraid to take a risk. Don't be the guy sitting home alone at whatever his age was at that point in your fucking apartment thinking, "I coulda done more than this. I coulda been bigger than this. I coulda been better than this." That is, that's, that's the fucking worst thing that can happen to anybody. You don't wanna be that guy. And listen, not everybody is built that way or for that. I told you, some people, listen, they want that city job, 401k, the benefits and all that shit. They want weekends off and they want holidays off, and there's nothing wrong with that. We, we need all types of people in this world to live. But if you believe that you are an entrepreneur, you believe that y- in something that you wanna build, do not be afraid to take the risk.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:16:19

       It's gonna cost you, though. It's funny, as I was thinking about you talking about your big house in Vegas, but then also the fact that you were there for four days in the last two months.

    10. DWDana White1:16:26

        Yeah.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett1:16:26

        That's actually that behavior that got you the big house and... [chuckles]

    12. DWDana White1:16:30

        It's true. Yeah. And I wouldn't change a second of it. I love this shit. I still get up every day and I'm fired up to get in here and get to the office. And I love like-- You don't want me to get into this bullshit. It's too long or whatever, but, you know, I'm working on something right now that I just became fucking obsessed with. I became obsessed with it. And I got these guys, Tucker, at my office. I, I, I got this kid, Merriman, at my office, and all these guys that are really talented, creative people. And I l- I, I get them in a room with me and we start talking about it and I sh- tell them what my vision is, and then they get into it, and then they start doing what they do and building their th- and then it's just like, fuck it. Mm. I just, I love it, man. The team that I have built, you know, when I get in a room with these guys and we start talking, it's incredible what you, what you can build and what you can do and what, what's available and what, what you can accomplish. And Ari Emanuel, Ari's this guy, you know, the ultimate all-time super agent. You know, he came in and did the deal for the UFC, got the WWE and many, many other things and people he's built in his lifetime. And he's the guy that when I come up with something creative and I call him and I'm like, "I need $30 million. I wanna do this." He's like, "I'll get you the money." So I've gotten to a point now where I've all these people that are part of my fucking team, and when I come up with something, we all get together and then we make it fucking happen.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:02

        Is there a destination in your mind?

32. 1:18:04 – 1:22:06

    What Are You Still Chasing?

    1. DWDana White1:18:04

       No.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:05

       There's no destination?

    3. DWDana White1:18:06

       No. Bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:08

       And then what?

    5. DWDana White1:18:09

       Right? Well, think about this. Then I die. Then I die. Who gives a shit, right? [chuckles] It's this-- I can't picture myself like, "Hey, I made a bunch of money. I'm gonna fucking retire." And do what? And do what? You know? I, I probably take four-- Uh, not this year. I'm fucked this year. But-

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:28

       [chuckles]

    7. DWDana White1:18:28

       I take four great vacations a year, right? Uh, and if my wife had her way, it'd be 15 days. But I, you know, we're, we're, her and I are battling over a v- over a vacation this year. But I couldn't imagine. By the time I'm done with my vacation, I can't wait to get back to work. I'm so excited to get back to work and, you know-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:49

       Do you enjoy your vacations?

    9. DWDana White1:18:51

       Yeah, yeah. It takes me a couple days, right?

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:53

        [chuckles]

    11. DWDana White1:18:53

        I mean, anybody who, who, who runs a big business and, and understands this, you get there and, and you're shaking off the shit that's going on and all the stuff, and then by like day three, I'm in, you know? I enjoy myself. I enjoy hanging out with my kids. And then by the end, I'm back on the phone going I'm coming home. Everybody get fucking ready. I'm coming home

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:17

        One of the things that, um, is obvious speaking to you is that self-awareness really, um, is the advice that you've, you've sort of given today, because I imagine a lot of people wouldn't like your life. They would find it miserable, whereas you find it so exciting. And I think that's the-

    13. DWDana White1:19:31

        Very true

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:32

        ... it's a really important point of nuance when we have these conversations, which is you're not necessarily saying, from what I hear, that everybody should have your life. You're saying just, like, be aware of, like, who you are, and this is who you are.

    15. DWDana White1:19:42

        100%

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:43

        And you're just giving everything to what, who you are.

    17. DWDana White1:19:45

        Yep. And even when we hire at the UFC, like the woman on the other side of this wall right here, Lenay Breckenridge, animal. Animal, and brilliant and, and just fucking I have so much respect for her. Then I got Craig Borsari, I, I, I, I got Hunter Campbell. I, I have all these guys that, that, that work for me, and they are all killers, right? Then you go, and there's people that come in, and they work nine to five, and they-- It takes all types. I'm not looking for 650 fucking killers.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:14

        But the ones that work close to you-

    19. DWDana White1:20:16

        Yes

    20. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:16

        ... they need to be killers.

    21. DWDana White1:20:17

        You, you can't be within a fucking, a mile of me if you're not a fucking killer. Yes. But it takes all types, and, and, and I-- and like you said, I'm not saying my life is the life for everybody. It's f- the furthest thing from it. So that's why I say some of these kids that think they want to be entrepreneurs, they don't know what it really takes. And there's plenty of guys who have been entrepreneurs and made that, that, you know, the kids call it the bag. They made the bag, and they fucking run. And they, that's it. That's a wrap. And they, they go do other things they w- they wanna do. But the, the-- but that's beautiful thing. So I'm a big motorcycle guy, right? And I remember I always used to say, "When I get to a certain point, I'm gonna get my buddies together and my cousins, and we're just go on these incredible rides all around the United States." And then I started getting older. I'm like, "Fuck, I'm in my 40s. Wh- when do I think I'm gonna do this?" So every year, I don't give a shit, I carve out, and we go to a destination, and we fucking ride motorcycles. Now, everybody that I've known, once they get to a certain age, when I say men start to get-

    22. SBSteven Bartlett1:21:27

        Mm-hmm

    23. DWDana White1:21:27

        ... softer when they get old, they feel like they can't handle the bikes anymore, right? And, and they stop riding. If and when I get to that point, I don't know if that will happen to me, but if it does, I own, like, 30 fucking motorcycles. I'm gonna ship them all to Italy. Like this is Italy. I'm gonna ship them to the top of Italy. I'm gonna have a truck, have all my bikes in it, and I'm gonna ride them all the way down to the Amalfi Coast, and then I'll just leave the keys, and I'm gonna leave them on the side of the fucking road in Italy. I'll leave them all there. That's gonna be my last fucking ride of my life. [laughs]

    24. SBSteven Bartlett1:22:02

        Send me a text when you do that, and I'll be [laughs] I'll be waiting down the [laughs]

33. 1:22:06 – 1:24:33

    The One Last Goal He Has to Accomplish

    1. DWDana White1:22:06

       Deal.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:22:06

       Dana, we have a closing tradition on this podcast where the last guest leaves a question for the next, not knowing who they're leaving it for. The question left for you is: If you could only complete one more major goal, what would it be and why?

    3. DWDana White1:22:19

       I've already built the biggest fight brand to ever exist, you know. Um, now I'm getting into boxing. I got Power Slap. My goal over the next, it's a seven-year goal because I have seven years in my Paramount deal.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:22:38

       Mm-hmm.

    5. DWDana White1:22:40

       To build the biggest combat sports brand. That is, it already did, but to a level that it, that it just can't be replicated again. It's just like when I'm dead, it's gonna be impossible to beat what I've built by the time my life is up.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:22:58

       Speaking of haters, there's a lot of people saying that you can't do it in boxing.

    7. DWDana White1:23:01

       Yep.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:23:01

       It's different. I've heard them all say, "This is 150 years old. You can't do what you did in UFC in boxing."

    9. DWDana White1:23:07

       How about Power Slap? [laughs]

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:23:08

        Yeah.

    11. DWDana White1:23:08

        Right? I mean, you wanna see something that people think doesn't work and isn't right and isn't possible. But again, that, that's, that's... I love it. That's all the fuel that I love hearing that and people telling me what you can't do. And everybody who's watching this right now is gonna deal with some level of people telling you what you can't do and what's impossible. Nothing is impossible. And literally, at UFC headquarters, the only thing you can't say is no. I don't accept no. Don't tell me this can't happen. You know, on Craig Borsari again, I dropped-- Tom Brady hit me up and says, "Hey, I'm in town. You wanna go to U2?" I'm like, "U2? Where's U2?" The Sphere, their first. I went to the Sphere, and I saw it, and I was like, "Holy shit. The star of this show is the Sphere."

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:23:57

        [laughs]

    13. DWDana White1:23:58

        I called Borsari, and I said, "I don't know what you're doing next weekend, but cancel it. You and the crew are coming to the U2 concert. Come, I wanna do this." And we did it. The president leans over to me and says, "We should do a fight at the White House."

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:24:11

        Yeah.

    15. DWDana White1:24:11

        "Yes, sir. I agree. We should do a fight at the White House." And then now Craig Borsari came to me with his own idea that I think is fucking brilliant, and I'm working on that one now. But we don't say no at the UFC. It's just we, we always, whatever people think is impossible and can't be done, not only will we do it, we'll do it at a level that just blows people's minds.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:24:31

        Why will you win at

34. 1:24:33 – 1:28:10

    Why Dana Believes He’ll Win at Boxing

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:24:33

       boxing?

    2. DWDana White1:24:34

       First of all, boxing was my first love.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett1:24:37

       Uh-huh.

    4. DWDana White1:24:37

       And I knew the sport was broken, and as it started to decline, and I, I just, I know how to fix it. I, I, I know what to do. You and I gotta get together again in like five years and talk about boxing again and, and watch what we do. Watch what we do over the next five years. I mean, I'm already two years ahead of where I thought I would be because this, the, the, the guys that are doing it right now are just so bad at doing it. And I should have known that going in, but, you know, I, I, I give everybody the benefit of the doubt, and I don't look at anybody and say, uh, "Oh, yeah, let's not take this guy serious." I take everybody serious and And I love to compete. And if you say you want to compete with me, I look at competing as a fight.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:25:24

       Are you talking about Eddie Hearn?

    6. DWDana White1:25:25

       Talk about all of them. Every one of them. Eddie Hearn is weak. Eddie Hearn, his dad built that business. His dad's a real guy. Like his dad's, as I get deeper into this thing, his dad is the guy. And I see it in Frank Warren. Frank Warren just came out recently. He hasn't talked any shit. He hasn't said anything. You know, he's been completely silent through this thing. He said, and I just saw an interview with him the other day. Frank Warren is like a, Frank Warren's the real guy. Eddie's not the guy. Eddie's dad is the guy. And I'm not saying this to shit on Eddie. I'm just being honest. And I don't dislike Eddie. I don't dislike him. But he's not the guy. His dad's the guy. And Frank Warren. Frank Warren, I just saw this interview with him and I was like, fucking love it.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:26:13

       Why? What made you-

    8. DWDana White1:26:14

       He's just like, you know what? All this fucking talking and all this fucking bullshit. Let's fucking fight. Let's, you know, he's like, and I'm like, you know, that's the guy. And a few other things that I've seen with Frank Warren. Frank Warren's like a fucking real guy.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:26:29

       Eddie Hearn's work rate is impressive. I just remember seeing him one day in New York and I remember him standing there for like six, seven hours with the media just doing like every single blog and me going, what the fuck is he doing? And he just did every, on this rooftop in the heat in New York.

    10. DWDana White1:26:43

        And he's responding to every little fucking thing that's going on. And it's just like, the truth is, nobody's done more to try to hurt the AJ Fury fight than Eddie Hearn. It's like he's, I don't know. I hope AJ owns a piece of Matchroom. Eddie Hearn's dad is, Barry Hearn's a real fucking guy. He's the guy. And Frank Warren. These old school fucking hard dudes that, you know, when I see them talk, yeah, I get it. I see through all the bullshit and I know who's who and what's what.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett1:27:23

        Having interviewed both of you, what I find exciting is you're both absolutely relentless. And so it's funny because there's the fight business and then there's this other fight business going on above the fight business, which I think is quite interesting as a fight fan. Dana, thank you so much for being so generous with your time. I've been a fan of the UFC for the longest, longest ever time. And it's remarkable what you've done. And so it's super inspiring for me as an entrepreneur, but also, yeah, you expand the paradigm of what is possible. So thank you so much for taking the time and giving me this privilege.

    12. DWDana White1:27:50

        Wait till you see what we do in the next seven years.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett1:27:52

        I can't wait.

    14. DWDana White1:27:53

        Me too.

    15. SBSteven Bartlett1:27:54

        YouTube have this new crazy algorithm where they know exactly what video you would like to watch next based on AI and all of your viewing behavior. And the algorithm says that this video is the perfect video for you. It's different for everybody looking right now. Check this video out. I bet you, you might love it.

Episode duration: 1:28:11