I have to chuckle when people offer to sell Secret Martial Arts, for it is a selling gimmick. Heck, I even use it a bit, though, I prefer to sell my material as ‘how to,’ and the ‘truth.’ Well, here is a real secret, and it should be the very first thing you learn in the martial arts.
I was walking down an alley, and a very tough individual stepped into view and walked towards me. I knew the guy, and he was a bully, even though he was actually taking lessons at my training hall, and I knew that he was tougher than me, and I knew that he didn’t like me, and I knew that he was going to beat me up. So I did the one thing, the only thing, that I could, I told him how great he was.
Man, I was watching you at the dojo the other day, you really know how to move! When you took Tom down, that was the slickest thing I have ever seen! How did you do it?
Did you take him down with a trip or a sweep, it was so fast that I couldn’t tell. All the tension went out of him and a sheepish grin started creeping across his face. And he started to tell me what he did, the set up he used, and I actually started learning stuff that only a bully could figure out and use, and…he was no longer a bully.
Now, I used this trick often during my wild and wooley school years. I wouldn’t know anyone at a party, so I’d pick somebody out and ask him about himself. I didn’t act defensive, I just put on some sincere curiosity, and before you know it I would be having a grand time, people would gather around and want to be part of the conversation, and they would be having a grand time, too! And, guys, this works for the ladies (and ladies, it works for getting the guys), because people love it when others are interested in and admire them.
And, I used this trick all through my adult life. I held jobs where I had to sell things, and I never tried to sell things, I would just walk up and tell a joke, make people laugh, and be my friends. And I would ask them about themselves, and though it seemed like I was wasting time (having fun and laughing) I always made sales.
Now, to be truthful, I don’t think this would have worked as well if I didn’t know the martial arts. Studying the martial arts gave me a calmness and confidence that nothing in my younger years ever did. Simply, because I was learning how to fight, I didn’t have the desire to fight, and I suddenly found that I could get along with people.
So, the Secret Martial Art is any martial art, if you use it to become calm and confident, and then share that calmness and confidence with a simple sincerity that I have come to believe is crucial to a successful life. When I write a newsletter, an email, talk to somebody on the cell, I admire them, and life always works for me. Remember, admiration, sincere interest in your fellow man, all pumped up by the discipline of the Martial Arts. this is the only real secret, and I think it is the True Martial Art.
Matrix Martial Arts 