A few weeks back, MMA fighter Conor McGregor announced he would retire.
At one point, McGregor was the UFC lightweight champion. Right now, he’s best known for trash-talking, street brawls, and taking any opportunity to promote his own brand of Irish whiskey.
For me personally, he’s an easy guy to hate.
How could you not?
McGregor talked a lot shit prior to his last fight. He then got his ass kicked convincingly over four rounds, and had to tap out. This didn’t keep him from talking shit — and he still keeps it up, even now that he is supposedly (but unconvincingly) retired.
To top it all off, he looks and acts like a clown — albeit a dangerous, aggressive clown.
That’s how I felt. Until recently.
Recently, as I watched various clips of Conor McGregor prior to his last fight, I got a strange impression.
I realized that in spite of all the boasting, here was a man who realized full-well that he would go into the cage and probably get beat up, and beat up badly.
He was willing to get punched and kicked and strangled by one of the most dangerous men on the planet.
And he was willing to make a fool of himself before and after the physical beatdown.
And for what?
For long-term success, that’s what. McGregor reportedly earned $100 million last year — only a few million of which came from his fight money. The rest came from endorsements, and increasingly, from his own business ventures.
Like that whiskey company, which is now selling more bottles than Jameson.
And that was my strange impression — that McGregor’s provocative fight persona is all done with an eye to the future. And it’s working for him.
Because of this, he reminds me of another sports figure who went on to have big success in business (and further).
I’m thinking of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And so I wasn’t surprised to find that McGregor and Schwarzenegger hold each other in very high regard.
But anyhow, what’s the point of all this?
It’s simply to recommend a bit of Conor McGregor’s attitude.
Of course, you don’t have to allow yourself to literally get brutalized in pursuit of massive amounts of money.
But figuratively? Maybe learn to take a punch. And allow yourself to get laughed at, to be mocked, and to be humiliated.
After all, you’ve got a plan. And you will be a success one day, while everybody else will still be cackling at their keyboards and behind their TV’s.
At least that’s how I look at it. And if you want more of my thinking on the psychology behind success in marketing, you can find it here: