I just received a Donald Trump Doll from Stephen Oliver, which in his own mind was probably a brilliant marketing ploy, but I am not a fan of Donald Trump and think he is what is wrong with America. Stephen’s catch phrase was to “Be the Donald Trump of Martial Arts” which would translate to…”Do what ever you have to do to make money, lie, cheat, compromise to meet the common denominator, it’s all about money” I would think a better philosophy would have been “be the Bruce Lee of the Business World”.
I have told him that his goals are not my goals, but he still e-mails, mails, and calls. When I look through your magazine is now roughly 90% about managing money and 10% of Martial Arts. You could save yourself some time and just remove the “Martial Arts” from your magazines name. Just as the Bible says “you cannot serve two masters” I believe it is the same with the Martial Arts industry. If 90% of your time is spent on the money side and only 10% on the Martial Arts side, you will become a very rich pseudo Martial Artist. I truly believe this is true of the entire Mile High Student body.
I am in a rural town in MN. I told Stephen that there is no way that anyone could charge $159 a month for lessons and have more than one student. I checked the average income of towns the mile high karate schools are located, and it turns out at $59 a month, my students are spending a higher percentage of their monthly income than anyone in the Colorado Schools! If my point was to make more money, I would move. But my point is to reach a community, right here. I have 130 students and am blessed beyond measure. If you have any pull with your new boss, could you tell him to stop calling me?
Chad Ridler
Ridler’s Martial Arts Academy
