According to Nielsen, ONE is now the world’s most watched combat sports promotion and ranks among the top 10 largest…
How To Hire The Greatest Team
As a CEO, I hire only PHDs.
My definition of a PHD is a superstar who is poor, hungry, and determined in attitude and spirit. I don’t care about paper qualifications, age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, or any other typical societal bullshit. These society-made walls divide us. In reality, we are ONE. We all laugh, cry, dream, and love. I embrace diversity, and I celebrate differences. I believe in the power of meritocracy. I believe in the power of dreams. I believe in the power of the human spirit.
Leaders must stand for a certain set of values, and do everything possible to defend, nurture, and protect those values. Values are the bedrock of the greatest companies on the planet. When a leader and his/her team have shared values, aligned goals, and a common mission, wonderful things can happen. The secret sauce for any company is its culture. Values create the foundation for a great culture. And a great culture inspires extraordinary achievement. At ONE Championship, there are 6 core values (in order of importance) that drive the culture:
Integrity: Do the right thing even when no one is watching. No one is perfect, but try your best to do the right thing. Don’t lie, cheat, or steal. Do your best to live in a way that would make your mom proud.
Happiness: Spread happiness. Try to be a source of positive energy and happiness for yourself and your colleagues. Positive energy is what changes the world for the better. Happiness is what creates extraordinary performance.
Excellence: Excellence is doing your job above and beyond the call of duty even when no one is watching. Hold yourself and your colleagues to the highest standard of excellence.
Continuous Self-Improvement: Try your best to learn, grow, and improve 1% a day in every area of your life. No one is without flaws or weaknesses. We are all imperfect. We are all works-in-progress. Be intellectually honest with yourself so that you can always improve. Use constructive criticism as an opportunity to unleash your potential.
Teamwork: Put the needs of the team ahead of your own. If you look at history in any sport, world championship teams are made of selfless individuals who put the team ahead of themselves.
Loyalty: Loyalty is black and white. If you want everyone to invest 1000% of themselves into your success, you must be loyal to everyone. No one will give 1000% to you if you are not loyal. It is the simple law of reciprocity. Be worthy of your teammates’ loyalty. Be loyal to your team and your team will do everything in its power to see you succeed.
Through our real-life superheroes at ONE Championship and the magic of storytelling, we are on a mission to ignite hope, celebrate values, create dreams, inspire nations, and change the world.
The most important things in life – your character, your values, your resilience, your work ethic, and your hunger – are never found on a CV. Our greatness does not live on a piece of paper. I want to hear about the time you got bullied. I want to hear about the time you cried because you fought for a dream or a belief. I want to hear about the time you failed and what you learned. I want to hear about how far you travelled in life on nothing, but integrity, grit, courage, and hard work. For me, a rockstar is someone who wants to achieve the extraordinary in life, someone who is ready to climb the biggest mountains to unleash his/her potential, someone who lives to defy odds, someone who is willing to make the toughest sacrifices for a dream, someone who dares to be an original. Above all though, I want to work with someone who yearns to change the world, and longs to make a positive impact on billions of lives together.
Our greatness lives in our choices – every day.
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.