Ted Leonsis

More than a decade before companies like Google and Facebook made the word “entrepreneur” ubiquitous, Ted Leonsis helped define the term for the internet era.

Not long out of college, this son of immigrant parents raised money from investors, started a company, ran it successfully for several years, and then sold it for tens of millions of dollars. It was the mid-1980s and he was only 28.

With a success story of this kind at a young age, many biographies of other successful entrepreneurs would end here, but Leonsis was only just beginning. In the same period that he saw monumental success, a jarring experience on an airplane brought Leonsis to a profound truth. “I was already wealthy and successful as a young man,” he writes, “but I wasn’t happy.”

I believe with all my heart that my pursuit of happiness has made me a better businessman.

TED LEONSIS

As he took aim at the problem and honed his ideas over three decades, a philosophy emerged that is unique in American business: happiness, rather than traditional measures of success, should be the end goal. And it should be actively pursued.

“I became happy in the same way that I became successful in business: by developing a plan,” Leonsis writes in his book, The Business of Happiness. “I became happy by paying attention on a continual basis to how I was tracking against my plan.”

He started with a list of 101 things he wanted to do in his life – a personal scorecard – and began to complete them. This evolved into a set of principles about happiness that includes ideas both large and small. For example, Leonsis argues passionately about the importance of a connection to others, the need to join communities, and to give back to those communities in meaningful ways. These ideas, he says, can be broadly applied.

“I’ve learned that there aren’t only happy people; there are happy businesses and companies,” he writes. “Some of the same rules seem to apply to institutions as individuals.” To build further on this, Leonsis developed the concept of the “double bottom line” – the idea that organizations can both increase revenue and have a positive impact on people’s lives. This is now the philosophy that guides all of his business endeavors.

Perhaps most important, Leonsis argues that by pursuing happiness, traditional measures of success almost always follow. As he put it, “Happiness is a driver of success, not the other way around.” It’s hard to argue with his record.

Leonsis founded a company that was bought by AOL. He then served as a senior executive during AOL’s spectacular rise as an early catalyst for the digital evolution in America and worldwide. As a founder and partner at Revolution Growth, a venture capital firm that bankrolls passionate entrepreneurs creating disruptive new products and services, he has helped guide many budding companies that are now household names.

Today, Leonsis’ primary role is CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment.

On his 101 list, owning a sports team is one of the goals and dreams. With a portfolio as extensive as his, it’s clear Leonsis has far surpassed his own expectations.

Monumental owns NHL’s 2018 Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals, NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Washington Mystics, NBA G League’s Capital City Go-Go, Arena Football League’s 2018 Champion Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade, NBA2K’s Wizards District Gaming, and Capital One Arena.

The cutting-edge enterprise oversees the management of MedStar Capitals Iceplex, the state-of-the-art training facility for the Capitals, and George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena. It also partnered with Washington, D.C., and Events DC to build a new, ultra-modern Entertainment and Sports Arena at the St. Elizabeth’s campus in Ward 8 in Southeast Washington, D.C., which includes the MedStar Wizards Performance Center practice facility for the Wizards, and the home court for the Mystics and Go-Go.

Monumental Sports Network, a digital platform that covers the D.C. region’s sports and entertainment news across mobile and OTT streaming devices, is also part of the MSE collection.

It’s a lot of work. But, as a team owner and business leader, Leonsis continues to put his unique philosophy into practice.

He makes a point to stay deeply connected with his people and teams, and is known for profoundly personal gestures that show his commitment to helping others. He treats his leadership role with great care, alternately referring to himself as “chief cheerleader” and “chief worrying officer,” and explaining that fans are one of his most important communities. “I have a deep-seated belief that there’s a huge social responsibility in owning these iconic brands,” Leonsis says. “The teams really aren’t owned by me and my partners. They’re really owned by the city itself. And so we want to be in service to the community.”

He also continues to innovate, most recently by working to broaden the field of American sports, evolving Arena Football teams and acting as a vocal advocate for sports gamification. “As an entrepreneur, I’ve always been shocked at how long it takes for some of these things to take off, and once they hit how fast and how big they become,” he says.

With audiences, Leonsis shares his uncommon philosophy for creating success that’s rooted in happiness. Ebullient and energetic, he presents the key factors of living a life with purpose – fortified by a harrowing and emotional reckoning at the height of his early success.