How to Use the Martial Arts in Your Business

It doesn't matter what kind of business you're in; it doesn't matter if you own a laundry, do financial planning, charter fishing boats, or sell insurance, you can use the martial arts to gain a tactical advantage in your market. No, you won't be side-kicking anyone in the breadbasket, after all you're not Chuck Norris, but you can use martial arts knowledge and ideas in a way that give you the upper hand (or foot).

Here are three relatively-easy ways to use black belt skills in your work -and in your life:

1. Fall Down 7, Get Up 8
Martial arts experts spend hours, days, months, and even years learning and practicing counter-attacks to counter-attacks to other counter-attacks. There's always a response for every attack and from any angle.

In self-defense, you only lose when you give up trying. If you punch at my face, I block or dodge it and I attack your ribs. You block that attack and then counter attack to my leg, which I deflect and counter your counter with another attack. If you knock me off my feet, I'm just as dangerous on the ground as I was standing.

If I fall down 7 times, you can be sure I am going to get up an eighth time, as I know there is always a way to gain an advantage when I am committed at a "black belt" level. Everything that hits you in your business also puts you in a position to counter-attack with something that gives you an advantage. That's just the reality of combat -and business. You're not out of the game unless you give up.

2. Mastery is Not Achieved, it is Practiced
Being a "master" in your business is like being physically fit. You can get fit with diet and exercise, but you don't stay fit forever. Being and staying fit is a practice. Being a master of anything doesn't mean you are a "master" forever; to be a master of your business or the martial arts, you have to practice those things that bring about mastery. You can advertise and promote your business like a master for some period of time -and get great results from your work. But if you don't continue to promote like a master, you'll see a change in your results.

You might treat your employees with a masterful level of respect, to which they respond accordingly, but if you don't maintain that practice, you will soon see their behavior change. You are never "a master", you only practice those things that are indicative of mastery.

3. It Is Not The Bite Of The Snake that Kills, It Is The Poison Left Behind
In the martial arts, when you spar with an opponent, you're going to get hit. When you get hit, you have to instantly let the memory of the strike go. If you hang on to the fact that you got hit, if you sit in that pain, if you dwell on the mistake you made that allowed you to get hit in the first place, you're already getting hit again. You can't live in the past moment; you have to be in the present.

Likewise, when you take a hit of any kind in your business, whether it is a simple "No" from a client or an actual financial loss, you have to let go of it immediately. If you dwell on your misfortune, you're not in the moment; you're not in a position to counter attack or find any kind of tactical advantage. If you dwell on what just happened, you could be getting hit again before you are ready. In the martial arts, letting go is as important as the ability to get going -and this idea is exactly the same for business.

When you get bit, it hurts, but it isn't going to kill you. It's the memory of the event, dwelled upon and circulated through your bloodstream, piped into your heart, that does the damage. When something bad happens, don't allow the poison of it to enter your consciousness. Move on and smile instead.

Now here's a martial arts secret, a "bonus" for the reader that has made it all the way to the end of this article: Any martial artist who smiles after taking a hit has a distinct physiological advantage over his or her opponent. When your opponent thinks you have gone mad, it gives you a definite edge!

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