Beyond Technique

As I opened my martial arts school one day, unlocking the door and turning on the lights, I began the routine work that led into a routine day. Classes began and ended as usual and, except for a birthday party for one of the kid’s classes, the day would have passed like any other. We ...

Twelve months ago, I sat down to begin writing a column for this magazine, a column about philosophy and how it relates to business. And at the time, my son had just been born and things were changing in my life. Up until that point, while running my business, I would get caught up with ...

I was speaking to a school owner from a pretty typical suburb the other day, it was really entertaining, and I thought you might find it interesting as well (which he gave me permission to share with you). So, this gentleman, a nice, sharp guy, has been running his school for 14 years, and has been “stuck” at about $26,000 a month gross for the last seven years.

Somewhere in the middle of rushing between activities, places and people, somewhere in the crevices of our wall-to-wall work schedules, there is the time we take for ourselves. This is when we do something a little extra for ourselves—perhaps a hobby or simply to relax and focus our minds to reorganize our thoughts. A little ...

In the daily routine of running a business, it can become easy to look for patterns that make our lives easier. In fact, looking for patterns is built into the human psyche. So many strange photographs and ghost sightings can be explained merely by the fact that the human eye is predetermined to find the ...

Un our journey through life, it may at times seem as though we’re passing through a great jungle, devoid of civilized comforts, safety nets and hospitality. Where huge trees of worry take root in the soil of aspiration and shed used leaves, which create a carpet of urgency, pushing us along. At some point in ...

Driving north along the coast of California to San Francisco is an experience rooted in Zen. There’s virtually no traffic, and the scenery is refreshingly bucolic, with a landscape so green it rivals bank vaults. I’m not a big fan of driving, especially after years of my nerves being worn to stubs in Los Angeles ...

The air on the Santa Monica pier is usually alive with the emissions of countless biological organisms, giving it that fresh, faintly fish-smelling sourness that lets you know that you’re in the midst of life; and this despite the fact that tons of raw sewage are dumped from there into the Pacific Ocean every day. ...

Somewhere in the middle of rushing between activities, places and people, somewhere in the crevices of our wall-to-wall work schedules, there is the time we take for ourselves. This is when we do something a little extra for ourselves-perhaps a hobby or simply to relax and focus our minds to reorganize our thoughts. A little ...

Let the games begin. I’m not referring to a game of soccer or basketball, but of the game of running a martial arts school. Just as any other type of game, this game has players, rules, objectives and, of course, levels of dedication. Whenever someone enters the game, his or her dedication will match one ...