Don't Deny The World Of Your Greatness

In 1903, 8 days before the Wright Brothers flew into the skies with the first ever flyable airplane in history, The New York Times wrote an article about how it would take at least 1 million to 10 million years for mankind to build a flyable plane.

This story has always given me inspiration, especially in the early days of ONE Championship when haters, doubters, and naysayers told me that I was crazy, stupid, or foolish. I faced rejection after rejection, failure after failure in the first 3 years. No one would give us a break. Today, ONE Championship is Asia's largest global sports media property in history with a broadcast to 1 billion potential viewers across 128 countries. We also just crossed an annualized 2.5 billion video views online, and will likely hit a run rate of 12 billion in 2018. And we are still only at the beginning of our growth trajectory.

History is littered with critics who never accomplished anything with their lives. These people are what I call the bystanders of life. They analyze. They criticize. They think. They write. They talk. They gossip. But they never do. And guess what? They are long forgotten like that reporter who wrote the article about the Wright Brothers just before they went on to change the world.

Greatness lives in all of us. Forget the haters. Forget the doubters. Forget the naysayers. Don't let anyone deny the world of your greatness. Do good. Follow your heart. Chase your dreams.

Live your life.

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, Harvard Business School, Sports Illustrated, and many other major media. He is currently the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of ONE Championship, Asia's largest global sports media property in history with a global broadcast to over 1 billion potential viewers across 128 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 “Most Powerful Person in Martial Arts in Asia” by Yahoo! Sports and International Business Times. He is also 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.