![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PrinceStandStraight25-e1780911929319.jpg?w=2048\")
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Polo has long been called the \u201cSport of Kings\u201d\u2014a world of manicured lawns, champagne, and generational wealth. So you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking the CEO of a $2.7 billion global heritage polo brand comes from old money connections, with an Ivy League education and a corner office inherited rather than earned. But U.S. Polo Assn\u2019s CEO J. Michael Prince is none of those things.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in the middle part of the United States, southeastern Oklahoma\u2014which is actually one of the poor parts of the country, there are four or five really poor parts of the United States, and that\u2019s up there with them,\u201d Prince tells Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s not wrong. Nearly 600,000 Oklahoma residents (14%) currently live in poverty. Southeastern Oklahoma has been one of the most persistently deprived corners of America, where nearly one in four residents in some counties live below the poverty line.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, Prince brushes shoulders with Prince William, the future King of England. For nearly the last decade, he\u2019s been running U.S. Polo Assn. out its global headquarters in Palm Beach, overseeing the $2.7 billion brand spanning 190 countries, 1,200 retail stores, and 15 million social media followers.<\/p>\n And he says it\u2019s all thanks to taking up the \u201cboring\u201d job that millennials and boomers abandoned: accounting. \u201cThe only chance I have, coming from a small university, to really have a great business opportunity, was through public accounting,\u201d Prince adds.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t his passion either, but it was his way in\u2014and the job that few others want\u2014that opened doors to some of the world\u2019s most covetable brands.<\/p>\n With a degree from the small regional university, East Central University, and then later a Duke MBA, he climbed his way to CFO of Nike Affiliates\u2014overseeing a $4 billion portfolio including Converse, Cole Haan, Hurley and Umbro. It was his entry ticket to the C-suite of luxury fashion, first as the COO of Guess, then as the COO of U.S. Polo Assn in 2017. Just eight months later, he was promoted to run the company.<\/p>\n Credentials only get you so far. Ask Prince what made him stand out among his peers for promotion after promotion, and he doesn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n \u201cA great work ethic. Being respectful and considerate of others,\u201d he says. \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 In Prince\u2019s eyes, the formula for success is simple: work hard, stay positive, and pounce when opportunity knocks.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to get a handful of opportunities in life, both personally and professionally,\u201d he says. \u201cAlways be looking forward\u2014and be thoughtful when you see those opportunities about how to maximise them. Because they may not be there six months from now.\u201d<\/p>\n And he\u2019s not the only CEO to admit that success hinges on something far simpler than qualifications alone: your attitude.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said that an \u201cembarrassing amount of how well you do, particularly in your twenties,\u201d depends on it. The reason why Jassy thinks positivity determines success is pretty straightforward: People want to be around positive people.\u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, numerous leaders, including the CEOs of Pret and Kurt Geiger, have stressed that being nice to their boss and coworkers was one of the biggest determining factors in their success.<\/p>\n Chanel\u2019s chief outright told Fortune<\/em> that the fashion house hires for personality before credentials. And Glean\u2019s CEO\u2014running a $7.2 billion AI startup\u2014recently told Fortune<\/em> he receives thousands of applications a day, and yet he still can\u2019t hire enough candidates with a strong work ethic.<\/p>\n These days, Prince\u2019s world looks very different from his childhood in southeastern Oklahoma.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every July, he\u2019s at Windsor Castle, co-hosting a charity polo event alongside the Prince of Wales\u2014an event U.S. Polo Assn. has sponsored for years, making it the second-longest-running sponsor on the roster.<\/p>\n And working alongside Prince William, he says, has been its own kind of masterclass.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I love about him is that he is so sincere, so thoughtful,\u201d Prince says. \u201cHe engages with you as a person\u2014with my son, my wife, our business partners. And you\u2019re like: he\u2019s got the weight of the world on his shoulders, he\u2019s going to be King at some point. Yet he\u2019s out there playing polo because he loves it, raising money for charities that are so happy to be acknowledged.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe does such a great job of connecting with you as an individual, so that you feel like you\u2019re the only person he\u2019s focused on right now,\u201d Prince adds. \u201cThat professionalism\u2014that ability to connect\u2014is something I\u2019ve taken note of.\u201d<\/p>\n And perhaps there\u2019s something in that for all of us. Even the future King of England\u2014with a schedule most of us can\u2019t fathom and the weight of the monarchy on his shoulders\u2014makes time for the things he loves, shows up fully, and gives back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Polo #Assns #CEO #grew #Americas #poorest #regions #hosts #Prince #William #runs #billion #brand<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Polo has long been called the \u201cSport of Kings\u201d\u2014a world of manicured lawns, champagne, and generational wealth. So you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking the CEO of a $2.7 billion global… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[310,847,7872,10126,1056,529,424,426,369,9054,1910,2177,8266,4183,430,10125,1042,10121,10122,10123,10124,8167,1076,6788,4008,2100,7254,4978,81,7945],"class_list":["post-7900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-amazon","tag-americas","tag-andy-jassy","tag-assns","tag-billion","tag-brand","tag-career-advice","tag-careers","tag-ceo","tag-chanel","tag-employment","tag-fashion","tag-grew","tag-hosts","tag-jobs","tag-polo","tag-poorest","tag-pret-a-manger","tag-prince","tag-prince-harry","tag-promotions","tag-regions","tag-retail","tag-road-to-wealth","tag-runs","tag-sports","tag-the-promotion-playbook","tag-view-from-the-c-suite","tag-wealth","tag-william"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7900","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=7900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Andy Jassy swears by it, and so does the U.S. Polo Assn. CEO: Attitude will take you further than any skill on your resume<\/h2>\n
U.S. Polo Assn. CEO shares the lesson he\u2019s learned working alongside Prince William for years<\/h2>\n