Martial arts is about reaching your potential. Like learning an intricate kata, success is a matter of learning the right techniques, and then executing them in the correct sequence. It’s not a miracle, nor does it depend on luck. This magazine and the ACMA program present you with techniques and sequences. Your job is to follow through with urgency and learn the materials that are available from NAPMA.
Your age, gender and culture don’t matter, as it relates to nature, which is neutral. It plays no favorites. Nature returns to you equal to what you contribute, no more and no less. Only you can determine your contribution.
This is the Age of Achievement for the martial arts. Never have more students, instructors and school owners accomplished so much as they do today. There has never been a better time than now for you to achieve success, happiness and financial independence, as a martial arts professional. All you need to do is to learn how, and then put what you learn into action.
Everything I will teach you has been tested and proven in the crucible of real life. My experiences have made me sort of a guinea pig for these ideas. I started so far behind that no one could have blamed me if I hadn’t amounted to anything.
I was as born in Canada in 1944. My parents were people and hardworking, but we never seemed to have enough money. I still remember my parents saying again and again, “We can’t afford it.” Not matter what it was; we couldn’t afford it. They had lived through the Great Depression and they had fully recovered from the experience of worrying about money all the time.
As a kid, I was what was called a “loser.” I fooled around in class. I was always shooting my mouth off. When I was 16, it first dawned on me that if I ever wanted things to change for me, then it was up to me to change. If I didn’t like being unhappy and unpopular, and in trouble all the time, then it was up to me to do something about it. Thus, began my lifelong search to answer the question, “Why are some people more successful than others?”
After dropping from high school and working as a laborer, I went off to see the world. I have since traveled to more than 80 countries on six continents. I have had experiences that most people could not imagine. I have been dirt poor, hungry and sleeping on the ground countless times in foreign lands. I have also stayed in beautiful hotels in the great cities of the world. In time, I became a senior executive of a $265-million development company. I’ve met four presidents and three prime ministers. My wife and I even had dinner with the President of the United States less than six months after setting it as a goal.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is this: You can’t hit a target you can’t see. You can’t accomplish wonderful things with your life if you have no idea of what they are. You must first become absolutely clear about what you want.
To make this system work, it is essential that you decide exactly what “success’ means to you. This is your first assignment. Using zero-based thinking, imagine you could return to the beginning in every situation in your life and start again. Ask this question, “If I had this decision to make today, knowing what I now know, then what would I do?”
Refuse to compromise your answers. Be perfectly honest with yourself. Define your ideal in each situation before you allow yourself to be bogged down with all the reasons it isn’t possible for you. All great achievement begins with your deciding what it is you really want and then dedicating yourself wholeheartedly to attaining it.
