Unreasonable in the Company of Greatness

Unreasonable in the Company of Greatness:

Victor Cui (Alberta 1994) Aims to Outwork Everyone Else

“Anyone that chooses to join a fraternity is an unreasonable man,” asserts Victor Cui (Alberta 1994).

“When I joined the fraternity, almost everybody I spoke to said, ‘Why would you do that? You want to join a frat, be a frat boy? How does that make any sense?’ Reasonable friends gave me reasonable advice.”

But in the Epsilon Alpha Chapter at the University of Alberta, Victor found a group of men who, like him, did not want to follow the reasonable path. “When you join the fraternity at 18 years old, you don’t know what people’s journey is going to be,” he explains. “You only know that you’ve come together because you want to learn from others around you and be part of an organization that demands a different standard, demands a higher level of values, of integrity, and holds you to it. That is not a reasonable choice at that age.

“Many people think of ‘unreasonable’ in the negative sense, but I look at the word unreasonable as a very positive word.”

Living the Dream

Since graduating in 1994, Victor has literally been around the world and to the pinnacle of success in international sports marketing. In 2010 he cofounded mixed martial arts (MMA) platform ONE Championship and helped build the company into Asia’s largest sports media property, broadcasting events to over 150 countries and with a current market valuation of over $1 billion (USD).

Given his heritage and upbringing, it is no surprise that Victor has made his career in sports or that he has thrived in an international arena. In the 1970s his parents migrated from the Philippines to Edmonton, Alberta, where Victor was born. His father’s work then took the family to Africa, Europe, and Asia before returning to Edmonton. Victor’s father introduced him and his brother to boxing at an early age. He later gravitated to martial arts, specifically taekwondo, in which both he and his wife are black belts. He also competed in other sports and dreamed of a career in sports. After completing high school in Edmonton, he attended the University of Alberta, studying international politics and joining Phi Gamma Delta.

Based in Edmonton after graduation, he built expertise in sports management and marketing, traveling internationally to work on such momentous events as the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia – which he calls his first big break – and the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Closer to home, he managed some of Edmonton’s most prominent sporting events, including the 2001 World Championships in Athletics (track and field).

Leaving Canada in 2002 to immerse himself in international sports marketing, he was hired by ESPN STAR Sports, Asia’s number one sports broadcaster, and became senior director of its event management group, based in Singapore. In 2010, after six-plus years with ESPN, he co-founded ONE Championship. Victor served in a variety of roles, beginning as the company’s first CEO. He went on to become CEO International and led multiple areas of the company’s global business. He also served as CEO of ONE Elite Agency, managing some of the world’s biggest MMA athletes and celebrities.

How many dream jobs does one person get in life? Most people would consider themselves lucky to find one. Victor is still counting. From working the Commonwealth Games and the Summer Olympics early in his career, to ESPN, to founding and building Asia’s largest sports media property, where do you go next?

How about returning to your hometown as the top executive of the professional football team you grew up pulling for? On January 25 of this year, Victor was announced as president and CEO of the Edmonton Elks Football Club, one of the flagship franchises in the Canadian Football League (CFL). The team, which is community-owned (like the Green Bay Packers), was founded in 1949 as the Edmonton Eskimos. The name was changed to the Elks in 2021. Edmonton has won the Grey Cup, or CFL championship, 14 times, most recently in 2015.

As president and CEO, Victor is responsible for overseeing the entire operation of the club, both business and football. He reports to the board of directors and, in collaboration with the board, sets the strategic vision for the organization.

Any longtime fan of a professional sports team can appreciate Victor’s excitement when he says, “The opportunity to return home and lead this cherished organization that I grew up watching from the Knothole Gang is truly a dream come true.”

As the saying goes, you make your own breaks. Great jobs and success are not dreamed into existence. Victor credits his success to unreasonableness, surrounding himself with great talent, hard work, and, yes, persistence.

Unreasonable

“A lot of my leadership experiences started with what the fraternity taught me,” says Victor. “The first one is being unreasonable in the company of greatness.

“As you start out in the fraternity, you have this group of arrogant 18-year-old men who decided not to follow the reasonable advice of reasonable friends. They are from all walks of life -- different religions, different ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds -- and they come together in the fraternity. Somehow they build this common bond around something more they each want in life. And with each other, in the fraternity, they slowly discover what that something else is and what this lifelong bond is about.

“That is the beginning of the journey of being comfortable with a sense of unreasonableness that you understand, and reasonable people do not. That’s such a big lesson for me, because with a lot of the things that you want to do, people of good intentions give you reasonable advice that leads you down a reasonable path. We’re very fortunate in North America compared to the rest of the world, in that achieving a reasonable life is within the grasp of most people. To have a roof over your head, running water and indoor plumbing, food, all these kinds of reasonable expectations that are achievable in North America, whereas, in other parts of the world, no matter what people do, they will never escape poverty. We’re so fortunate to have this reasonable life there for us if we just do a few things -- get an education, stay out of trouble, treat people with respect, be responsible. You can have a good life, have a car, provide for your family.

“Those are all reasonable goals, but a lot of times the things that you want to do that are not the average and are on a different path require you to have faith in your unreasonable goals. And that’s why I love that word. It used to faze me when people said, ‘Be reasonable’ or ‘You’re being unreasonable.’ But today I look at that as a compliment.”

In the Company of Greatness

“In the fraternity you’re around all these people, and you’re building a foundation that is unmatched, in my experience, in your later years of professional relationships. You meet people later in life, and they become good colleagues, good co-workers, or good friends, and you know them. But in the fraternity, you’ve got relationships that build, decade after decade, from a time when you all were still trying to figure life out, and you were helping each other do that, whether it was studying for an exam or supporting a brother who just broke up with his girlfriend.

“I think back to my days in the chapter and looking around at my brothers. Recalling today our growth together and knowing what they have all accomplished in their lives, I realize that that was the first time that I was with people that had such amazing potential. In my pledge class I was by far the dumbest, so I was lucky – and still consider myself lucky – to be in that group.

“In my work life today, when I’m in meetings and I look around, I get the feeling that I used to get in the fraternity: How did I get so lucky to be at this table with all these talented people? I am continually amazed at that. Greatness wants to be in the company of greatness; people want to be around other talented people.”

Work Hard & Persist

“When I walk into a room, I’m almost always not the smartest person there.

“Generally in my life, whatever I was doing, whether it was sports or academics, I was never the naturally smartest. I never got the highest grades. I was never the fastest runner. I was never the most talented. There was no particular talent or skill where I was the best.

“The biggest strength that I developed was when I decided, if I didn’t have the talent, then I would have to outwork everybody else. If the coach said do five laps, I’d do eight. If I thought you had to study two hours for something, I’d study five. I put in the extra time to make up for my weaknesses. This also put me in the mindset that, when I’m around other people, I’m there to learn. Of course I want to give, but I want to absorb and learn from others as opposed to thinking I’m here to spread my knowledge and teach everybody because I’m the smartest in the room.”

“In some of the lowest times in my life, when I thought that everything was going to be a failure, that quote of ‘Persistence’ and that belief that persistence will yield rewards was one of the things that I drew upon. In anybody’s path in life, you’re going to face these moments where you have to decide ‘Do I persist with what I want to do, or do I give up?’ And sometimes giving up is the right choice, but sometimes you have to have faith that your persistence will yield rewards.”

The Sweetest Influence

“My grandfather always used to say, ‘Even best friends were strangers at one point.’ That is literally what the fraternity is. You walk in on the first day and think, ‘Who are these people?’ They’re absolute strangers, and they end up being lifelong friends. It's such a unique experience because you don’t get a chance to do that anywhere else in life. The fraternity has been such a big part of my life and of my friendships, and I am eternally grateful.”

Victor has been featured in the Fraternity’s video/podcast series On the Banks. To hear more of his thoughts on the fraternity experience and his theme of “Unreasonable in the Company of Greatness,” go to www.phigam.org/OnTheBanks.