![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/US_POLO_CEO.png?w=2048\")
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Today, he hosts polo events with Prince William and runs a $2.7 billion empire\u2014but J. Michael Prince\u2019s first taste of leadership was a complete accident. Not only that, he was almost passed over entirely.<\/p>\n
When the CFO role opened up at Converse in 2005\u2014then freshly acquired by Nike\u2014Prince had been on the payroll for barely half a year. The company made it plain he wasn\u2019t in the running; he was simply there to keep the seat warm while they headhunted. But instead of feeling rejected, the now-CEO of US Polo Assn. treated it as a deadline to prove them wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey literally told me, \u2018You\u2019re not our person, you\u2019ve been at Nike for six months\u2026 you\u2019re not really one of us, and we\u2019re going to pull someone from the inside that\u2019s been with us for a long time,\u2019\u201d Prince exclusively told Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going to get the opportunity, but we need you just to kind of keep the ship going until we figure out who\u2019s going to be in that position,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd I thought, I\u2019ve got six months to prove myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to outwork anybody they\u2019ve ever seen in any of these roles, and I\u2019m just going to make it happen on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n That he did, grinding 90-hour weeks, sometimes pulling all-nighters to prove himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was one of those where, when big opportunities and big challenges presented themselves, that\u2019s when you say, I really have to step up and put in the extra time\u2026. I\u2019m going to take it on, I\u2019m going to do it with a smile on my face, and I\u2019m going to do my best to deliver excellence,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n Many would have walked away from being told they\u2019re not enough, feeling defeated. Prince saw it as a challenge. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in that position, it makes you want it that much more. It makes you work that much harder,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a motivator\u2014that little chip on your shoulder to prove everyone wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It worked. Nike gave him the role, and that same relentless drive followed him to US Polo Assn., where he joined as COO in 2017 and was promoted to CEO just eight months later.<\/p>\n That accidental CFO role turned out to be the foot in the door of an industry Prince admits is notoriously hard to crack from the outside. From Converse, he climbed to CFO of Nike Affiliates\u2014overseeing a $4 billion portfolio including Cole Haan, Hurley, and Umbro\u2014before crossing into luxury fashion as COO of Guess, then US Polo Assn. Today, he oversees 1,200 retail stores spanning 190 countries, and co-hosts charity polo events at Windsor Castle alongside Prince William.\u00a0<\/p>\n And he did it from southeastern Oklahoma, one of the poorest corners of America, with a degree from a small regional university most hiring managers had never heard of.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked what made him stand out amongst his peers, Prince doesn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cA great work ethic. Being respectful and considerate of others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere I grew up, I had this personality where you try to find common ground with people, you try to get along. A lot of companies had people who were always challenging in a negative way\u2014I just felt like I brought a positive energy.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s why he recommends that Gen Z who want to emulate his success take on whatever challenge is thrown at them\u2014with a smile on their faces, just like he did.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to get a handful of opportunities in life\u2014both personally and professionally\u2014always be looking forward and be thoughtful when you see those opportunities about how do I maximize that opportunity that\u2019s in front of me? Because it may not be there six months from now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n CEOs consistently agree that being in the right place at the right time can open doors, but simple, good old-fashioned hard work is what ultimately determines success. As Prince said: \u201cA lot of great stories have come from seeing that opportunity, jumping on it, and making the most of it. I feel fortunate that I was able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Likewise, Kurt Geiger\u2019s CEO got his big break while his manager was out of town. Neil Clifford pinned down the company\u2019s chief to get career advice\u2014and immediately took it, saying yes to moving to a whole new city for a promotion. But when he got there, the store was failing, and the staff was stealing merchandise. He swiftly climbed the ladder after leading the shop\u2019s turnaround.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s L\u2019Or\u00e9al U.S. CHRO Stephanie Kramer, who said that saying yes to every single opportunity thrown her way played a big role in her career to the corner office at the world\u2019s largest beauty company.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Doug McMillon scaled Walmart\u2019s ranks, from unloading trailers for $6.50 an hour at 17 to becoming the company\u2019s youngest CEO since its founder, Sam Walton. By the time he announced his retirement earlier this year, he was earning a $26.3 million salary. And it was all thanks to volunteering to cover his boss.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the reasons that I got the opportunities that I got was that I would raise my hand when my boss was out of town, and he or she was visiting stores or something,\u201d McMillon once recalled in an interview with Stratechery.<\/p>\n He\u2019d offer to step in for his boss in meetings and would put himself in leadership positions so consistently that he eventually became, in his own words, \u201ca low-risk promotion\u201d\u2014because people had already seen him do the job.<\/p>\n But even when he was eyeing up a promotion, he kept his head down and made sure to prove himself in the role he was in. \u201cThe next job doesn\u2019t come if you don\u2019t do the one you\u2019ve got well,\u201d McMillon added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Polo #Assn #CEO #grinded #90hour #weeks #Nike #told #wasnt #Csuite #material<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, he hosts polo events with Prince William and runs a $2.7 billion empire\u2014but J. Michael Prince\u2019s first taste of leadership was a complete accident. Not only that, he was… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11973,11971,424,426,369,1285,9215,9047,11970,1910,428,11972,11974,6546,10125,2100,7254,7493,4978,807,6405,7339,3042],"class_list":["post-10084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-90hour","tag-assn","tag-career-advice","tag-careers","tag-ceo","tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","tag-chief-financial-officer-cfo","tag-csuite","tag-doug-mcmillon","tag-employment","tag-gen-z","tag-grinded","tag-material","tag-nike","tag-polo","tag-sports","tag-the-promotion-playbook","tag-told","tag-view-from-the-c-suite","tag-walmart","tag-wasnt","tag-weeks","tag-work-life-balance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The U.S. Polo Assn. CEO grew up in one of America\u2019s poorest regions\u2014here\u2019s his career advice for Gen Z<\/h2>\n
According to CEOs, the secret to success is simple<\/h2>\n