Dana White doesn’t understand power (Gary Shaw does)

As most of you guys know, I’m a pretty big mixed martial arts (MMA) fan.  If you don’t follow it closely, here’s a summary of what’s going on.  The UFC right now is the biggest name in MMA.  Most people don’t even know what MMA is, they just call it UFC fighting.  The UFC has the best fighters in the game right now.  Smaller organizations are trying to grab a few of their fighters and kick start their organization off the heels of one or two big name guys.  It hasn’t been a very successful strategy yet for any of them, but there’s a few organizations on the horizon that are going to be making some noise due to their great strategy that’s based on power.  Some of these are prime examples and correlate well with The 48 Laws of Power.

Court attention at all cost

• Gary Shaw is the president of an upstart MMA league called EliteXC.  Gary Shaw understands how power works.  He’s the smaller organization and has nothing to lose by throwing stones at the UFC.  He just wants to be heard and to get EliteXC’s name in the press.  Well he’s done a great job at that.  Robert Greene states that you should always appear larger than normal, don’t get lost in oblivion, stand out from the masses.   Gary Shaw has doen this perfectly by throwing numerous insults at Dana White and the UFC.  He’s stated over and over again in press conferences that Dana White is scared of his organization, and that he thinks the fighters in EliteXC are the world champions.

Make other people come to you – Use bait if necessary

• Would Dana White mention EliteXC for any reason if Gary Shaw didn’t call him out?  Of course not.  It would be like Google mentioning some startup search company.  Gary Shaw baited Dana in by appealing to his ego and hot head.  Dana, trying to hold up his macho image fires off line after line defending the UFC and trying to insult Gary Shaw.  The more he talks, the more Gary Shaw wins.  Perfect bait.

Win through your actions – never through argument

• What does Dana white seek to gain from arguing with Gary Shaw?  Nothing.  Keep your mouth shut Dana and keep producing the best MMA tv show and pay per view out there and people will see why the UFC is a better product.

Disdain things you can not have – Ignoring them is the best revenge

• Ding Ding Ding!!!  Dana White needs to read this paragraph one hundred times over.   By acknowledging a petty problem, you give it credibility.  EliteXC was nothing when Shaw started throwing insults at the UFC.  Dana White should have realized that the UFC was miles ahead of the small organizations and treated them like so.  Anytime he got a question or comment about one of them, all he had to say was non chalantly “no comment” or “next question”.  It sounds too easy, but thats all he needed to do.  By lashing back out at Gary Shaw, Dana was giving EliteXC credibility.  Think about it…. If you were sitting at the bar with your girlfriend and some little dork with pimples and no game tried to hit on her would you think anything of it.  Nah you’d laugh, tease him a bit and keep talking to your girlfriend.  Now how about if George Clooney came up with a big smile on his face and smoothly started talking to her?  Obviously you’d be a bit more worried.  George Clooney is a legitimate threat to steal your girlfriend, while the Poindexter has no shot whatsoever.   EliteXC had no chance of stealing the UFC’s thunder, but Dana’s ego gave them some hope…

Overall thoughts

• Gary Shaw took his no name organization into the spotlight by playing Dana White like a fiddle.  EliteXC rode the credibility Dana gave them and just inked a deal with CBS to broadcast fights on Saturday nights.  The laws of power have been around for centuries and are grounded in events and situations that continue to rise up over time.  Learn them now and make them a part of your life.  When you get to the point that you make decisions based on the 48 laws without thinking, you’ve made it.  The goal is to be like water.  Never rigid in your approach, always  adapting and changing to the situation.  Kudos to Gary Shaw for understanding power and using it to his advantage.