Joanna
Jędrzejczyk

Joanna Jędrzejczyk is one of the most famous and most decorated fighters of martial arts.
As a 16-year-old she started training in Thai boxing and after six months she became the Polish champion in this discipline. Joanna competed in muay thai for 10 years and broke the record of 70 victories, winning the world championship six times and the European championship five times. She was the first Pole to join the renowned UFC organization, where she defended the strawweight championship several times.
Sport is not the only field of her activity. Joanna is a graduate of management studies and is also successful in business. She is also happy to share her successes, which is why she is developing her own JJ's Stars Foundation, which will educate younger fighters. She is also involved in charity activities.

Our interview with Joanna

Joanna Jędrzejczyk is undoubtedly one of the best and most successful MMA fighters in history. Talent, hard work, persistence and perseverance are the elements that helped her on her way to the top. The same features also determine the success of each investor. In an interview with XTB, Joanna talks about her development, ways to face challenges and the ability to set goals.

Your sports career is not only MMA, but also muay thai, kickboxing and boxing. Discovering new disciplines requires determination. What drives you to constantly develop?

It is primarily my huge appetite for life. I try to live very intensely, I still have little time for everything, and my activities would probably be enough to be shared with a few people. Today, of course, I have many more opportunities to enjoy life. But even as a young girl who had little else but enormous ambitions and dreams, I tried to make the most of each day. Many people think that development is a constant striving for perfection, but we will never achieve it anyway. That is why it is important to find ourselves and be our true selves in everything that we do.

What would you advise people who are afraid of new challenges?

What drives me to act is making small changes to my life every single day. You have to stop waiting and start acting, because life is not about the will and enthusiasm for work, but about performance. Each of us has our own personal world championships every day. Our own challenges that we have to face. Every day we can get to a new level, gain new skills, overcome our own limitations and achieve new successes. This is the true beauty of life.

Your sport discipline requires you to stay in shape at all times. How have you found yourself motivated to train every day all these years?

For many years my motto has been: “Per aspera ad astra - through hardships to the stars”. I always say that we are worth as much as we can give from ourselves. Others can help us, guide us and advise us. My coach can tell me what exercises to do, but if I myself am not motivated to work, I will not achieve much. I am bearing that in mind before every fight, every training, every sparring, but also before every important life test. Sometimes it's tempting to take a shortcut, but I know that then the success won't taste so good.

How do you set goals for yourself in life and in your sports career?

The most important thing is to answer the question of who I am today and who I want to be in five years. What do I want in life, both from myself and from others? This will help you define your goals. It is not worth focusing on the obstacles or opinions of people who will bring us down to earth and try to talk us out of our plans. I always felt that I was special because I was stubbornly pursuing my dreams.

You also have to remember that time flies. So if I set myself a goal that I want to achieve within, let’s say, a year, I know that a year has 12 months, a month has 4 weeks, and a week has 7 days. And that every single day I have to do something that brings me closer to the successful completion of my plan.

Each fight requires excellent tactical preparation. What was the most important for you before each of the next fights?

Before each fight, I knew that I had a huge, even heroic job to do. I always try to do as much as possible, both in life and in sports. In training, I always want to do more than enough, do more exercises than planned by my coach. That is why, before entering the octagon, I could calmly say to myself: "Hey JJ, you did everything you could". It makes me feel like a winner before the first round even starts. It would be a failure to give up one's dreams and ambitions.

The life of an athlete can also be demanding - often the series of success is suddenly interrupted by failure. How do you deal with situations when you have to leave the octagon with your gloves down?

Martial arts is a constant competition. You win one, you lose one. When I lost my first fight losing the title, there was a fear that fans would turn their backs on me and forget about me. Sometimes I had a bad moment, I was tired. But I always knew I couldn't stop because my competitors were right behind me and if I let go, they would overtake me. Even when I had my weaker moments, when I hated training, I always tried to look for positives. I always asked myself what I love about martial arts, what gives me joy and happiness. So the key is to focus on the positives. And things that are out of our control should not bother us. I have been learning this for a long time and I am still learning it.

Your life is not only a sport, you are also active in many other fields, including business. Has sport given you something that you use in other areas?

Many athletes are successful in other areas like business. I think first of all sport teaches discipline. Sport is not only about physical condition or a perfect shape. It is also tenacity and stubborn pursuit of a goal. Sports rivalry made me always want to be one step ahead of others. Sport has also given me the ability to deal with life problems. When I go out to train or enter the octagon, my life problems that seemed enormous suddenly become very small. Through sport we become mentally stronger and more resistant to what may happen to us in life. That is why I encourage everyone to take up physical activity every day.

In the interviews you have repeatedly said that you have achieved what you have today with hard work, because you started from scratch. What advice do you have for those looking to stay motivated?

I often say that the path I have gone through is not “from zero to hero”, but from one stage to the next. I had to spend many years to get there, but it resulted in my successes later. I believe that patience is very important. We often have a great appetite and would like to see results almost immediately. Meanwhile, you need to be able to feed your appetite with a small spoon, enjoying what you have today. I had to make over 100 fights before I came under the wing of the Americans. Then my life turned on a dime and I finally started earning money that allowed me to make my dreams come true. But it took me 12 years. So if someone, after two months of training, asks me: "how much longer, when will the successes come, when will I start earning?", I say: I do not know. But I know it's worth waiting, even if it takes five or ten years.

Press release

Joanna Jędrzejczyk promotes investing with XTB

XTB has started promoting its investment solutions. The new XTB ambassador - Joanna Jędrzejczyk, a titled Polish martial arts competitor, the first Polish woman in the UFC and a three-time world champion in Thai boxing - appeared in their advertising spots.

In its new advertisements, XTB emphasises that investing in various types of assets is available to everyone. They also add that the company provides its clients with tools that facilitate entry into the world of investments: daily market analyses, as well as numerous educational materials.

XTB promotes a wide range of investment solutions it offers. In their new advertisements, the new brand ambassador explains that thanks to XTB solutions, investing is available not only to experienced market players. And sugar is not only a tasty addition to coffee. Anyone can invest in both of these commodities thanks to the simple and friendly solutions offered by XTB.

- We observe that the investment market has changed significantly recently. Low interest rates on bank deposits or concerns about a further growth of inflation mean that the group of people interested in investing their savings is constantly growing. In addition, we are more and more willing to use mobile applications for investing. That is why we emphasise the convenience of using our xStation platform, also available on mobile devices. Thanks to that, you can manage your investments anywhere and anytime. - said Joshua Raymond, Director of XTB UK.

XTB provides retail investors with quick and easy access to financial markets from around the world. Thanks to this, they can choose from over 2,100 financial instruments, ranging from CFD stocks of companies from the most important stock exchanges in the world (with zero commission), through contracts for commodities, currencies, indices or cryptocurrencies, up to ETFs. XTB operates in 13 markets around the world and serves over 445, 000 customers.

This is another XTB campaign using the image of a well-known figure. In 2020 the company presented a series of spots with the participation of one of the most successful football coaches, José Mourinho, earlier the Hollywood actor Mads Mikkelsen also appeared in the XTB campaign.

[14.02.2022]