Gratitude And Google

It’s not every day that you receive a welcome like this one (see below). I walked into the Google Asia Headquarters for a full day of meetings today, and this is how Google and YouTube rolled out the red carpet for ONE Championship.  Needless to say, I was impressed and it kicked off our partnership on an awesome note. Stay tuned for massive news!

It wasn’t long ago that I was facing rejection after rejection, failure after failure, in launching ONE Championship. The first few years were very, very bleak, and I am quite sure that 99.9% of people would have quit. All of my friends and family thought I was either stupid or crazy. And the world definitely thought I was both stupid and crazy. It was simply not rational to keep losing tens of millions of dollars with no progress and no results. The only thing that kept me going was my love for martial arts and my belief that Asia needed its first multibillion dollar sports media property. Those tough days have given me a lot of gratitude today for even the smallest wins on this adventure. I remind myself every day to stop and smell the roses. I want to cherish every moment of this amazing journey. It might sound trite, but it is so true – the greater the adversity, the sweeter the reward.

Today, ONE Championship is Asia’s largest global sports media property in history with a global broadcast to 1.7 billion potential viewers across 136 countries. And we are just getting started. Thank you to the entire YouTube and Google teams for your amazing hospitality today! #gratitude

Chatri Sityodtong is a self-made entrepreneur and lifelong martial artist from Thailand. His rags-to-riches life story has inspired millions around the world on BBC News, CNN, Financial Times, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Channel NewsAsia, and other major media. He is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of ONE Championship, Asia’s largest global sports media property in history with a global broadcast to over 1.7 billion potential viewers across 136 countries around the world. Forbes most recently selected Sityodtong as one of Asia’s next generation tycoons. He was also named “Asia’s King of Martial Arts” by the Financial Times and the “3rd Most Powerful Person in Sports in Asia” by FOX Sports. He is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at INSEAD, Europe’s top business school. Sityodtong holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Tufts University.