Just In Case Dana White Calls- David Ledoux -

Just In Case Dana White Calls

I couldn’t sleep last night.

Tossing and turning. Usually I am a deep sleeper.

Why the restless night?

In my mind I was in Las Vegas at Dana White’s office. Dana White is the visionary driving the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I was pitching him my idea to build a new $300 million+ per year division within his company.

It was a fairly epic dream. Loud, vivid, real.

I woke up at 3:45 a.m. and actually wrote some notes on the pretend meeting. The downside now is it’s 6:30 am and I am feeling the effects of the sleepless night.

As crazy as it sounds to wake up in the middle of the night to write down an idea, I actually learned this technique in 1996 in Tahiti. I was at a seminar discussing the future of entrepreneurial endeavours in light of the changes that the internet would bring. One of the intriguing concepts was the meme of “intrapreneuring”.

Intrapreneuring was the negotiation of limited autonomy within a traditional corporate structure to build an entrepreneurial business. The advantages would be access to infrastructure, talent, money and resources. The downside would be the parasitic relationship between giant and pygmy. I wrote an essay about what it would take to save dinosaur corporations like AT&T. Building internal business incubators would be an example of intrapreneuring.

From Bankrupt Brand To Most Valuable Sports Franchise

In my lucid dream state Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC would own 90% of the new division, with me as President and minority share holder. It would be a night and day commitment to build a half a billion dollar revenue stream within 5-6 years. Then we’d bring in experienced senior managers to run the behemoth and I’d pass the reigns. Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta would no doubt be fascinating to work for, and with. The only reason I would even entertain this idea is because I wouldn’t have to wear a suit and tie. I know it sounds absurd, but it’s a deal breaker.

The seed of the original idea I actually drew out a decade ago when the WWE bought Ted Turner’s failing WCW division. The sports entertainment industry was exploding with a new momentum curve in the late 90′s, and I saw multiple opportunities to leverage their TV exposure and their popularity. For fun I drew out a game plan in case I ever ran into Stephanie McMahon or her father Vince. I had studied Vince’s moves for 20 years in business. He is brilliant, ruthless, driven, and a genius. He took a business model from regional to global inside 25 years and became a billionaire in the process. I see a lot of that brilliance in Dana White.

It’s easy to dismiss writing down fantastical business model ideas in the middle of the night as wasted sleep time, but let me assure you strange things happen in life. About 13 years ago I did an analysis of starting a venture capital company to buy up distressed direct sales companies. The internet was hammering mid-sized mlm and party plan companies. Money was flying around because of the dot com boom. I didn’t know my head from my butt in terms of raising that kind of capital, but I knew the direct selling, internet marketing and affiliate business models intimately. Within a year of this idea Tony Robbins and some former Amway investors started an incubator and bought up Discovery Toys and Regal. Like I said, you just never know.

But wait, it gets even more interesting.

About 9 months ago I was in a room with a man who used to run a global company doing a billion dollars per month in sales. Sitting around the room were venture capitalists and 8 figure investor pools. The homework I had done a decade earlier was invaluable in that setting. I never imagined I would be invited to sit at a board room table with those kind of guys. Or maybe I did. Maybe that’s why we get awakened at 3 am. It was an….interesting…meeting. My take away? Be ready. And if you get asked to give your honest opinion, give it, regardless of the consequences.

So if I ever run into Dana White and he asks “what’s new Ledoux?” I’m ready. Would he be difficult to work for? That’s part of the challenge. I’m sure Steve Jobs and Henry Ford were tough to work for too. (if Mr. White’s assistant needs to reach me, my # is 234-542-3963)

So what can YOU take away from this?

If you are afraid that you can’t do this kind of stuff, let me challenge you right now. It’s imperative that you stretch your brain and keep the myelin proteins constantly searching for new neural pathways. Grab a piece of paper and a pen, or your iPhone and put this document into Evernote. Instead of thinking about half a billion per year intrapreneuring divisions of a global brand, let’s play with the reverse.