Sometimes you learn things in the strangest places. Being a writer, I’m always looking for story angles and tidbits of information to pass onto MAPro readers. I recently ran across a fascinating article I believe relates directly to most of the instructors in this industry. The article was bout, of all things, fishing, and the role that luck plays in it. I’ve never been very interested in fishing because I thought there was no skill involved, just luck. Some friends and I got a crazy idea a while back and paid a hundred bucks a piece to be taken 30 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico for an all-day fishing trip. I thought at the time that we must have picked an unlucky spot because mostly what we did was feed the fish – not only our bait but breakfast too, and anything else we might have had on our stomachs.
When I was a kid, my dad took me fishing a lot, but I never remember us having much luck at catching fish. Of all the sports in the world, I thought fishing had to be the one where luck played the biggest role. After all, the one question I heard more than any other, as my dad and I returned to camp after a long day of fishing, was: “Did you have any luck today?”
When I read what a champion angler had to say about fishing and luck, my mind was changed forever. “There are no excuses for not catching fish, and luck plays a very small role in fishing,” say the author, Fred Ward, of the article I read. “In fact, luck really has nothing to do with fishing at all.”
According to Ward, there are four simple reasons why most fishermen don’t catch more fish:
- Fishermen refuse to listen.
- Fishermen won’t change their fishing habits.
- Fishermen don’t study the fish.
- Fishermen keep thinking catching fish is mostly luck.
This is a brilliant analysis of exactly why many martial arts instructors fail to reach their potential as successful school owners. How do I mean that? Listen to these same four reasons with the word “instructors” substituted for “fishermen,” and see if it doesn’t hit you like it hit me–right between the eyes!
- Instructors refuse to listen. An unwillingness by a leader to adapt to new techniques and ways of thinking is a ball and chain around the ankle of his business. Our industry has been slow to change the way we presented our products, and because of that, other industries, such as the health club industry, have blown by us. If we learn to observe what other industries similar to ours have done to succeed, we wouldn’t always be struggling to catch up.
- Instructors won’t change their school management habits. There is no shortage of excellent school-management information available through ht National Association of Professional Martial Artists (NAPMA). The problem is not a lack of information, the problem is not doing anything with the information once you receive it. I call it “implementation procrastination,” and it has handicapped more school owners than you could imagine.
- Instructors don’t study their market. Every businessperson should know the people they are trying to do business with. Instructors should be involved with their communities in everything from local business committees, to volunteer trash pick-up days. The more time you spend with your market, the more you will know about what people around you really think of you, and your school.
- Instructors keep thinking that having a successful school is mostly luck. I believe luck is one of man’s worst concepts because it places too much emphasis on something out of his control. Too many people spend their entire lives waiting for something lucky to happen, instead of using resources currently available to them to create their own success. Owning a successful school does not happen by luck, but many of us behave like it does.
