Dana White Says Entrepreneurship Offers Less Freedom Than a 9-to-5

UFC CEO Dana White spoke to Steve Bartlett on Monday’s episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast and talked about the importance of working in an office. 

“This younger generation that thinks you can work from home and build a successful business, it’s impossible. You can’t do it,” said White. 

Even after working for the UFC as President and now CEO for nearly 25 years, White still puts in long hours. “I’m in the office from 8:30 in the morning, and I don’t leave the office till 7, 8, 9, 10 sometimes,” he said. 

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White explains that if you want to be an entrepreneur because you get to make your own schedule and take time off, you’re looking at it all wrong. He says that a 9-to-5 will give you more of that freedom than entrepreneurship. 

“There is no such thing as a day off when you run your own business. There are no birthdays, there’s no Christmas, there’s no Thanksgiving,” said White. “There is always a new issue that will pop up that you’ll need to deal with.”

That doesn’t bother White though, because, “when you like what you do, it’s fun,” he continued.