Is “Head in Your Arse” too harsh a thing to say about the martial arts industry —or us? 

I think not. 

Try this (as a test): Visit 10, 20, 30, or 100 martial arts school websites (as I have, 10 times over) —and look for something unique.

RARE. 

“We are a black belt school!” “House of Pain.” “House of Discipline” (says the 28 year old tattooed high school dropout who has embraced his inner-mma-fighter). “The Student Creed.” “Little Dragonette.” “Little Assassins.” “MMA Fitness.” “Israeli Commando Fitness .” “We teach someone else’s words!” 

To hell with personal experience, with investigation, with sitting down and working, working, working to put your knowledge into something powerful and important —-BUY WHAT YOU TEACH (it’s easier —and in the long run, cheaper!). 

To hell with actually researching, studying, and God forbid, understanding Toaism or The 7 Habits or The 8-fold Path or Budo or anatomy and physiology or anything much more than the birthday party, the ice cream social, the pizza party, SEO and how to cheat it, how to upgrade, how to double your gross, how to sign up 60 students in a month. 

And consultants? They’re a dime a dozen. Kids make Youtube videos telling other school owners (“The Industry”) how to build a better program. Why? Because it’s easier to talk on a camera and give advice to strangers than it is to go into your own community and affect REAL CHANGE —or solve real problems. Best to face and talk to people who expect nothing from you, who won’t scrutinize that you’re all small talk and very, very little about action-of-any-relevant-consequence.

BE DIFFERENT 100 MEMBERS, as This is Where Your Tuition (Value) Will Come From

Start with your own personal martial arts training.

Start with what you read, tonight, tomorrow, the next day. 

Start with going back to school (you can do 1 class, yes?).

Start with doing things worth doing (battle diabetes, battle depression, battle bullying, battle anger, battle piss-poor diets that lead to illness, battle apathy, battle gender-related-violence, battle bigotry, battle the Tobacco Industry,  battle conspicuous consumption, battle the medias crazy manipulation of children’s brains, battle bad manners, battle ignorance, hell….battle anything that’s worth the battle). 

Start with actually STUDYING philosophy.

Start with perfecting your knowledge of food, fitness, and health.

Start with building a noble, noteworthy, telling project portfolio.  

Start with shutting off your TV, closing your laptop, pushing yourself away from your desk, and getting into your community in a way that few people ever do. 

Start with refining your words, refining, refining, refining…

Start teaching by your example, not what sells. To hell with what sells —and more power to innovative, important, useful service to mankind.

Write more. Video more. Teach more. Read more. Simplify more. Reduce More. DO more for others. Think more. Subvert the dominant paradigm and turn away from “The martial arts industry.” LEAD it. Eventually the industry as it is will go away —and we will be left with the things you’re now planting the seeds for, today.