As I’ve mentioned before I have a couple of self-defence web-based businesses that I have started. We found a local self-defence expert and recorded him with a simple video camera teaching self-defence (easiest way to create a product on the planet. Find a local adult class and record it. It can be on cooking, learning a language, learning to paint. Anything! Contact your local adult college for what classes they do). I enjoyed creating the product so much I decided to throw myself into learning Taekwondo; the martial arts the self-defence expert was teaching.
Often when you begin a project of any kind it is from the wrong end. You tend to think first of what you want to accomplish, imagining the glory and money it will bring you if it succeeds. You then proceed to make this concept come to life. But as you go forward you often lose patience, because the small steps to get there are not nearly as exciting as the ambitious visions in your head.
Instead you must try the opposite approach…
Learning from Martial Artists: how short-term goals will lead to success for your web-based business.
So, back to learning Taekwondo. Now I’ll be honest at first when I walked in there I thought “I’ll learn the basics so that if any moron tries attacking me or my family I’ll know enough to stop them and then I’ll quit. Doing this twice a week for an hour seems like a lot of hard work”.
In my mind’s eye I saw three meatheads trying to attack me and me jumping up in the air, spinning around and knocking them all out with a single kick. Then delivering a James Bond-esque line and getting a round of applause from all the impressed watching women. Of course, this all took place slap bang in the middle of a convention for glamour models (hey, it’s my imagination I can think as I please!)
So in I walk to the first lesson with the mindset of “Get in, learn a bit, get out”. After the first lesson I thought to myself “This is a bit slow. When is he going to teach me the real cool stuff?”. I thought that after the second, third, fourth, fifth…
Don’t get me wrong I was enjoying the whole process, really enjoying it. But I wanted to learn the cool stuff you see in films.
Then I started to notice something happen.
When I first began Taekwondo I was about as flexible as Pinocchio. I couldn’t touch my toes without feeling as though the back of my leg was about to blow up and I couldn’t kick higher than my waist. By the sixth week I could kick to head height without much trouble and my punches and kicks are about ten times harder and faster than when I began.
Joe had started by teaching me the basics and gradually I have improved. There would have been no point me jumping in and him showing me how to perform a chop kick (where you bring your foot above your head and drop it down) in the first week as I was so inflexible I would have probably lost my scrotum.
The point is I needed to start small and learn the basics before progressing. Now I’m hooked!
There is a lot we can learn from the martial arts.
In Taekwondo you can only get “graded” four times in a year. Think of grading as completing a level in university. You get a new belt with each grading you pass.
The thing is most people start a martial art and think “Ok I want to be a black belt”. Then give up when they realise it could take years. I have now set my sights on becoming a black belt. And I’ve set myself a goal of doing it in three years. And I will hit that goal no matter what. I’m dedicating two hour-long private lessons a week to achieving this.
Now if you could get graded in Taekwondo as many times a year as you wanted to, people could probably become a black belt in a year. But you see that’s not the point. The black belt shows years of dedication and work. It won’t just be handed out to someone who threw a few kicks and punches for a year. It takes work, dedication and discipline. It won’t happen overnight. And that’s why when I achieve the black belt I will be able to be massively proud of it. It will be proof I dedicated myself to achieving something.
What I understand though due to my experience in entrepreneurship is that whilst it’s great to have a goal, rather than just focusing on the black belt I will now focus on achieving my first belt: the yellow belt. Whilst the black belt is my ultimate goal I need to first aim at the yellow. Because without the yellow there will be no black.
The martial arts set-ups are incredibly clever. By breaking up each new level into belts people both have a long-term goal, but can see themselves moving towards it as they gain new belts. The psychology behind this is massive. People see they are making progress.
You must immerse yourself in the field you are trying to excel in. You must read about it, watch videos on it, and most importantly do it yourself. And dedicate yourself to noticing every little victory you have.
When it comes to the Internet we have been sold onto the idea that anyone can make millions overnight. It’s possible, yeah, but for most people that just isn’t going to happen. Instead you need to focus on mastering the skills needed to succeed online. You need to have dedication. And that is the greatest weapon any entrepreneur can have. Dedication to their goal.
Too many people want to start an online business and see thousands overnight. And when they don’t see that they give up. In the martial arts world these are the people that start a few lessons and give up when things get a little tough. I won’t tell you what my instructor calls these people.
Those who succeed in any area are those who try something and stick with it no matter what. They enjoy the successes but also the failures, because with every failure is a lesson to be learned.
Here’s something quite cool that I do whenever I feel myself getting a little down about a venture or something I am trying to succeed at. It’s a little weird but it helps…
I downloaded the software from http://earth.google.co.uk/ This doesn’t cost anything but it gives you a satellite view from space of the earth. You can type in your own postcode and it will zoom in from space to above your house! (Don’t panic, privacy means nothing can be seen in too much detail. Your naked sun bathing secret is safe!).
You can zoom anywhere in the world. Check out landmarks in Paris, London, New York, Tokyo. You can zoom into countries on the other side of the planet who still live in tribes and are untouched by usual civilisation. They don’t know about TV’s, the internet or anything like that. Their reality is like caveman times to us.
The thing that really hits me about Google Earth is the sheer vastness of the planet we are on. You can type in your postcode and see your road. Then zoom out a bit and see your town. Then a bit more and see your county, then your region, then the UK, then Europe and so on until you have zoomed all the way out to space again.
When I do this I am hit with a feeling of awe. Awe of just how big this world is and just how many people are on it all with their own dreams and goals. I get a feeling of me versus the world and it’s down to me to stand out. No one else can help me do that. It’s down to me to make my life what I want it to be. Because there is a whole world of people trying to get what they want in life as well. And only those who are genuinely dedicated will get what they want.
Can you imagine if success was as easy as some people like to think it is? With all the people on the planet if success was easy and everyone was succeeding there would be no real reward anymore. Success would no longer be success, it would be the norm.
Here’s the bottom line. Achieving something of note isn’t easy. And I for one am glad of it. I am glad that I had to work my backside off to achieve all the financial rewards I am today. I am glad that there are thousands of scriptwriters being rejected every week because when my scripts get made, it’ll make it all the more sweet. I am glad that it will take me years to get my Taekwondo black belt. Because I will stand out from all of those who have tried and failed to get it because they gave up when they didn’t get rewards overnight. I will be rewarded for my dedication to making my life as successful as I can.
Life is about living. You choose how to live it. You can either be one of these immature chumps who thinks that they deserve to be a millionaire without putting any effort in or you can say to yourself “I am going to make this work no matter what” and then start working on the first step of making money online, the right education. And that’s what I am here to provide you with. Follow me, persist with what I teach and you’ll get to where you want to be.