Believe

One of my favourite all-time movies is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If you've seen the film you might recall toward near the end of the movie, Indy has to pass through several tests to reach the Holy Grail. At the start of the third test he rushes through a sculptured doorway called the Lions Head and finds himself standing right on the edge of a bottomless canyon. At this stage Indy's father lies fatally wounded, he desperately shouts out to his son "you must believe boy, you must believe."

With his hand placed on his heart, Indy closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and takes an enormous leap of faith into the ravine; thankfully he discovers an invisible bridge in order to continue his pursuit of the Holy Grail and the chance to save his father’s life.

Many years ago, back in 1987, I had to take a gigantic leap of faith. Admittedly it wasn't on such an epic proportion as Indiana Jones's quest, but none the less for me it was just as scary. My plan was to take a progressive step into becoming a full-time professional Martial Arts Instructor. You might now stop and say - where's the big deal in that then? Well back in those days beginning any kind of business completely from scratch, without any financial backing was an enormous task, let alone starting a new occupation that was hardly even recognised.

It was also a well-known fact and prevalent in many circles, that teaching martial arts for financial gain was often considered 'sacrilege.' I knew of several people that actually thought martial arts should only be taught for the greater good of the 'art' with very little payment needed at all. Initially I didn’t have a problem with this particular way of 'thinking' because it wasn’t my intention to earn a living from teaching martial arts anyway –  I just taught for the love of it, however once my circumstances dramatically changed I was left with no other option but to move into the World of free enterprise.

It was later pointed out to me by a high ranking Master, that many traditional martial artists never taught completely free of charge anyway, in fact there was often a hefty price to pay. Traditionally in the orient if a student really wanted to learn the fighting arts they would have to pay a significant amount of money up front. It was then up to the Headmaster of that School to decide if that that particular person was worthy to have as a student. If the position was declined for whatever reason the expectant trainee would have been turned away without any explanation or chance of recovering their fee.

As I mentioned in my last post, my very own opportunity to teach the martial arts as a professional occupation came about after I found myself unemployed for several months. The way I got started was through a government initiative called the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, which was an arrangement to get lots of people off the dole in the UK, encouraging them to start up their own businesses. When I first considered the option of teaching full-time, I remember telling my mother of my hopeful intentions; her immediate reaction was.... "Oh Martin, why don't you go find yourself a proper job."

This was just one of the many soul-destroying attitudes that I was faced with when presenting my newfound occupation.  Many other professional people never really took me seriously and just considered martial arts as a hobby or sport.  Another aspect, which often used to cheese-me-off, was when I had to explain what I actually did for a living.  I'd generally be met with the same old response, which presented itself something like this.  The individual would often listen to what I had to say, they would then take one step back, raise their hands in the air and say - "hey watch out,  I don't want to upset you."  
This must have literally happened to me hundreds of times and I eventually came to the conclusion it was much easier to inform people that I was a Fitness Instructor than to go through all the rigmarole of trying to convince people that I wasn't actually going to beat them up. 

Gaining professional credibility and acceptance over the last twenty-eight years has always been a bit of a hard slog. Persuading and educating people about the true nature and meaning of the martial arts has never been a straightforward thing. Martial arts has received so much negative publicity in the past; whether this comes from the many aggressive scenes witnessed in martial art movies, or just the public's overall perception - I’m not really sure... All I know is that people often associate martial arts with violence and aggression, which really couldn't be further from the truth.

Over the years it has always been my sincere aim to see my occupation presented and recognised as an honourable profession. Practising traditional martial art teaching methods I've always tirelessly aimed at portraying specific values such as courtesy, respect and self-discipline. I ask you, what other profession nowadays promotes this kind of practice, in conjunction with all the other physical attributes and benefits that martial art training has to offer? 

At this moment in time of writing, I now have several of my own Black Belt's considering opening up their very own Kuk Sool Won School's.  My very simple advice to them would be this: Comparable with Indiana Jones – You really do have to decide to take that gigantic leap forward - Once your foot touches the ground an amazing journey awaits you.  As the old (overused) Chinese proverb goes – A journey of a thousand mile begins with a single step.

I’m not saying that this pathway will always be easy one, nothing worth having usually is; however the rewards are plentiful and I don’t just mean in terms of financial gain. You will witness benefits far greater than money can buy.  Your success lies on the other side of the chasm – just take that one single leap of faith and like the advice Indiana Jones received from his father -  "you must believe." 

Check out the following clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFntFdEGgws

The Way Forward

After receiving the wake up call that I needed, I promised myself that I would do everything in my power to provide my family with a reasonable standard of living that they truly deserved.

Back in 1986, Alison and I were in the process of buying our first home. Like many other young married couples repaying the mortgage was a struggle, especially when the interest rates on the payments were around 13% or 14%. Despite this hardship we always felt a considerable amount of pride toward owning our own home and we worked really hard to make it an enjoyable family place to live in. It wasn't all doom and gloom back in those days, I had a very supportive wife that understood my passion for the martial arts and a gorgeous baby daughter that was full of laughter and joy. 

Rachel Aged 18 months

Rachel, I have to say was the perfect baby; she’d sleep all the way through the night without a murmur and would be a bundle of fun upon waking. As a toddler she always had loads of energy, so much so that I nicknamed her “Sparky.”  I first started teaching Rachel martial arts at a very early age, even before she could walk. I had this idea that I wanted my daughter to be able to look after herself in later life.  I always treated her initial training like a game, my hand often being the target for her to strike, however sometimes my training methods did have an adverse side-effect. I remember having to frequently warn many of my friends and family not to put their faces to close into Rachel’s pushchair, as she would often try and palm strike anyone who got too close. I have to admit - I always found that slightly embarrassing - but highly amusing at the same time.

Apart from spending lots of quality time with my family, operating my martial art club took precedence over most other things. It gave me a real sense of purpose and something to strive for each day. The number of students that were actually training at my club hovered around twenty-five. Being unemployed it was very difficult to make any kind of headway as I wasn’t allowed to earn any income from my classes - things did however change. I was thrown a lifeline from a very unlikely source. The support came in the way of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, under the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, which was basically a government initiative set up to help reduce mass unemployment in the UK. It was deemed to be an effective incentive for getting the British public off their backsides helping them to start-up their own small businesses. As a matter of fact, it was reported that during the eighties the Enterprise Allowance Scheme actually helped 325,000 individuals to become self-employed.

If you were on the dole back then you got £26 a week and you weren’t allowed to work. If you were on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme you got £40 and you could work. I qualified for the scheme   having been unemployed for a certain amount of months.  Once I had signed on for the project I was also given the opportunity to attend several free business start-up sessions. I immediately thought if I’m to stand any chance of survival I need to take full advantage of any additional help that was being offered. I did  make full use of three business workshops that were presented to me as part of the development package. It was during these meetings that one of the tutors reminded us of a very grim statistic; he said that only one in six people that were using this system would still be in business after their first year. 

These were gloomy figures indeed, however I made a very firm promise to myself that I wasn't going to be on the wrong end of those stats. My positive outlook was definitely going to be the way forward. It was now going to be 'all or nothing.'  I realised that my focus had to shift. I wasn't going to be doing battle against any single adversary anymore - the challenge was much larger - it was now all about business survival.