A Loss To Remember Forever

I keep the photo below in my office as a reminder to give 1000% of myself to each and every day. I remember this post-fight interview like it was yesterday even though it was many years ago. I can count on one hand the number of times that I remember crying in life. I never cry. However, I cried like a baby after I went back to the locker room that night. I also cried myself to sleep. And I cried the next day too. You see, the worst kind of loss is the one where you lose to yourself. As a fighter, I performed well below my abilities because I had succumbed to my fears, doubts, and insecurities that night. I lost to myself. I can accept losing to a better man, but I cannot accept losing to myself.

In life, we are either “all-in” or we are nothing. Greatness lives in all of us, but we cannot unleash it with one foot in and one foot out. Either we are alive with passion, or we are not. Either we listen to what it is that ignites our souls, or we do not. Either we conquer our fears, doubts, and insecurities, or we do not. You can fool the world, but you can never fool yourself. Deep down inside all of us, we know if we are giving it our all or not. We know if we are doing everything possible to unleash our potential in life or not. We know if we are truly giving ourselves to our dreams or not. It doesn’t matter what other people think or say about us. It only matters what we think about ourselves. At the end of the day, the greatest achievement in life is to outperform yourself. #success

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.