Tales of Sports & Business Optimist: Prologue

Tales of a Sports & Business Optimist: Prologue (January 6, 2023)

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

-Helen Keller

I’ve started other businesses before, and it’s hard work, no two ways about it. But I’ve come to learn that while starting a business is one thing, starting a professional sports team is something different altogether. Add to that starting not only a professional sports team but helping start a brand new professional sports league inside the world’s most competitive sports and entertainment markets of North America. Some might call that crazy because that’s exactly what it has been.?

But as Helen Keller said, “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” From the unofficial outset of the Utah Warriors back in 2017 and the official launch of Major League Rugby (MLR) in 2018, there might have been a tad bit too much optimism [heavy sarcastic tone] at times during this journey, but as any entrepreneur or business leader will tell you, you can’t go a day without working with some sort of hope if you’re trying to build something lasting and meaningful for communities and individuals.

Despite the rigors and, to be truthful, the extremely soul-wrenching hard times that I’ve experienced over the last six years, I’m grateful for the journey and the lessons learned during those years. And I hope there might be a person (or maybe just two) that could benefit from hearing this story. Maybe the challenges and the opportunities that I have faced can help someone, and more importantly, help that person maintain what many might call the “foolish optimism” of chasing and building something that has never been done before.?

As such, over the next six weeks, I’ll recount six lessons that have corresponded to the six years of experiences of starting and building the Utah Warriors and being part of the evolution of a growing professional sports league in North America like the MLR. I hope there are some principles highlighted that might be valuable to you and others in whatever personal or professional manner possible–whether sports and entertainment is your industry or if it’s something completely different.??

Candidly, I was skeptical of sharing the experiences from the last six-plus years of my life. Partly because I’m quite private with my business dealings in general and because I believe in the euphemism that the “proof is in the pudding” when it comes to business and other areas of life. But I have also been personally skeptical if people would care to learn and hear about these experiences in building something very uncommon in the world of business.?

In the end, it was a recent experience of sharing some of this story with our Utah Warriors’ staff, most of whom never saw some of the hardest days for the Utah Warriors and the MLR, that it dawned on me that there is something cathartic and empowering not only for me, but also for others, in sharing one’s lived professional (and in this case, very personal) experiences.?

So, in an effort to share and open up my story to others, I’ll be writing weekly for the next six weeks in the lead-up to the Utah Warriors’ launch of our sixth MLR season about the lessons and experiences of establishing, building, failing, learning, failing some more, and continuing to build a professional sports team and league in North America. And I can only hope the six lessons and experiences are worth the time to read for at least one person who might find them valuable in some form.??

This six-part personal and professional series will be titled: “Tales of a Sports & Business Optimist” and each installment will highlight one of the six things learned over the course of the last six-plus years. A new edition in this series will be posted on LinkedIn each Friday and also shared on various business and rugby news platforms.?

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with one overarching thought before diving into this six-part journey: real actionable hope is a far-grander asset than any of us can possibly imagine. In all of the lessons learned from the last six years, the greatest lesson I can share with others is that of hope. Not fool-hardy naivete, but solidly-founded hope that is based on daily deliberate action which is always coupled with wise planning.?

"It’s my desire that this six-part series can highlight the intrinsic hope that exists in all the meaningful aspects of our lives, including our professional ones no matter how dark it might seem at times."

It is my experience, as well as my hope (dare I say), that the next six weeks will offer at least one person the empowering motivation found in this kind of personal and professional hope. For, as the late Desmond Tutu once said, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” And it’s my desire that this six-part series can highlight the intrinsic hope that exists in all the meaningful aspects of our lives, including our professional ones no matter how dark it might seem at times.?

I sincerely hope you enjoy these thoughts and lessons learned from the past six years of building one of the more unique businesses anyone could possibly look to build.?

Please feel free to leave your comments and feedback weekly. I look forward to interacting with you over the next six weeks!?

• January 6, 2023–Prologue
• January 13, 2023–Episode 1?
• January 20, 2023–Episode 2
• January 27, 2023–Episode 3
• February 3, 2023–Episode 4
• February 10, 2023–Episode 5
• February 17, 2023–Episode 6