Failing Your Way To Success

Posted by Mike Massie on April 20, 2010

“The way to succeed is to double your error rate.”
Thomas J. Watson

Definitely worth a read...

Recently, I’ve been reading “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Stanford psychology professor and researcher Dr. Carol Dweck.

I’d recommend it for anyone – it’s a clear and well-supported explanation of why your mindset has so much to do with success.

And since I started reading it, it has stirred some serious introspection regarding my own personal outlook on the challenges and failures in my life.

Take, for instance, my early experiences in starting and running a martial art school.

I thought it would be easy to open a school and get students – all I had to do was find a place to teach, run an ad in the paper, and I’d be sitting pretty with a classroom full of students.

I was wrong.

In fact, I failed three times before I finally started my first successful school… a story I detail in the first chapters of my martial arts business manual, Small Dojo Big Profits.

Surprised I’d be so open and public about my early failures?

Well, I am going to go out on a limb here and say I believe that’s one of the big problems in our industry…

That no one wants to admit:

• Their failures -
• When they’ve been wrong -
• When they’ve made mistakes -
• The times when they gave up and called it quits -

Well, I think I’ve mentioned before that I have not had an easy life. Oh, I have been blessed in many ways, but for the most part my life has consisted of a lot of struggles interspersed with some bright spots along the way.

I think it’s because of this that I’ve spent so much time studying people who have overcome adversity.

And, in the course of my observations I’ve noticed there’s a common thread in all stories about people who succeed in the face of great difficulty and disappointment…

The truth is, most people who achieve success fail much more often than they succeed. Or, as someone once put it, they “fail their way to success.”

But in our industry, there is a pervasive negative attitude regarding failure, and I believe it stems from a more deep-seated attitude toward weakness.

Martial artists aren’t supposed to show weakness. They’re not supposed to be “weak”.

Right?

I mean, we eat our own. Just let someone show weakness or be perceived as being weak, and I guarantee you that the jackals will be circling for the kill in no time flat.

So, martial artists get very good at hiding what they perceive to be their “weaknesses”.

And that leads me back to how “known” martial arts figures don’t want anyone to know that they’ve failed or made mistakes.

Maybe it goes back to the old image of the “master” or sensei being an all-knowing figure who is always right.

But, even though we want to believe in that image, we all know it’s just an illusion.

One that gets in the way of learning and growth.

The reason it’s such an issue, is because it leaves no room for error… and therefore, none for experimentation and growth as an industry.

Admit it – it’s darned hard to go out on a limb, when you know what public failure could mean. Ridicule, back-stabbing, and being shunned by the martial arts community.

It happens, you know it and I know it. We’ve all seen it.

But, the important thing to remember is that everyone fails… especially those who are willing to take risks.

And risks are part and parcel of being in business for yourself. It’s actually quite elemental to being an entrepreneur.

Look up “entrepreneur” in the dictionary, and here’s what you’ll find:

en?tre?pre?neur – a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

So, what’s the takeaway from this?

First, that there are two ways to look at failure.

1. One way is that failure is something to avoid at all costs.
2. The other is that every failure is one step closer to success.

The second takeaway is that failure is only a sign of weakness when it can’t be admitted or discussed.

But when it’s out the in open, analyzed, examined, and learned from, it becomes the cornerstone that success is built upon.

Teach More Adults, Now!

Posted by Mike Massie on August 25, 2009

The Challenge With Filling Your Adult Classes

One of the all-time biggest challenges instructors share with me is:

“Mike, how do I get more adult students?”

In recent years, the answer you’ve been hearing is, “Add MMA classes to your school.” Well, I agree – MMA classes will attract more adults in your school… mostly consisting of young, broke types who will gladly spend $80 on an Affliction t-shirt and then tell you they don’t have money for tuition this month.

Personally, I like MMA and I like working with young adults, too – so the pros sort of outweigh the cons in my mind with the MMA market. But, there’s another huge issue that no one has brought up when it comes to MMA filling the void in your adult enrollment…

The Real Truth About Filling Your School With MMA Students

While the FAN BASE of mixed martial arts is undeniably huge, the actual percentage of the population who is really interested in DOING MMA is not that large a slice of the population.

As I said above, they are mostly young (say, 16 – 34) and looking for a harder and more physical type of training. Despite what you may have been told – statistically, that’s not a whole lot of people.

(And I know there are some large MMA schools out there. But, those are generally going to fall into the category of gyms where pros train that are located in large, densely populated metropolitan areas… you aren’t going to find many large no-name gyms in small towns.)

Things I’ve Learned From Teaching MMA

Look, I try to test everything I can (within the bounds of ethics), because if someone says something works, then I want to know about it. So, I offered MMA in my school for over two years.

Here’s what I found:

1. The real market for MMA only accounts for a small percentage of the overall adult population. (If you think I’m off on this, ask yourself why Dana White isn’t rolling out MMA schools across the country.)
2. Most adults want to do some of the MMA training (and it’s fun to do when performed safely), but they don’t want to do hard contact sparring or high impact grappling all the time. (Fact: Women make up 50% of the population. Fact: Many women would like to learn practical self-defense skills. Fact: It is socially unacceptable for a woman to show up to work with a black eye and bruises up and down her arms. Fact: More guys than will admit feel the exact same way…)
3. The young guys who show up looking for MMA training DO want hard contact and high impact grappling (at least, the ones who stick around after the first week, right?).

So, what do you think happens when one of your young MMA students tees off on Sally Soccer Mom or Ted Executive? Yep, you lose them – for good!

But, softening up your MMA class is a disservice to your MMA students…

And, you know that you need to attract the MAJORITY of the adult market to have a really strong adult enrollment in your school…

So what are you supposed to do?

Here’s The Answer I Came Up With…

The answer is to offer what most adults really want when they walk into a martial arts school: Fitness and Reality Based Self-Defense.

In case you haven’t heard, at last weekend’s seminar in Austin we introduced and taught two new adult programs…

Fighting Fit™ and the Self Defense Black Belt Program™

Both programs are based on research and field testing I did in my own school during the recent recession, and after three years of research and field testing, and a year of preparation, we’re launching these programs and making them available to martial arts school owners starting in early September.

But, you get to hear about them first on this blog – I’ll be posting more info on the Fighting Fit program next week, but today I’d like to focus on the SDBBP…

Here’s a “teaser” video to give you a peak at what we did at the seminar on August 14th – 16th in Austin:

The Big Question You May Be Asking

I know many of you will be asking, “Why a self-defense program? And, doesn’t this compete with what we already do?”

In answering this, first I’d like to point out that this program is designed to attract people into your school who would NEVER consider doing a regular martial arts program, for whatever reason.

Now, I’m not going to go into a long discussion about why most adults aren’t interested in what I call “culturally-influenced” martial arts…

But I will say that “culturally-influenced” arts are really only for a niche market – which is why the typical market penetration for martial arts schools is only around 1.5% of the local population.

People don’t call your school and say, “Yes, I’m calling because I’d like to be steeped in the martial traditions of a foreign culture.”

Uh-uh. They call and say, “I’d like to learn how to protect myself… I want to learn self-defense.”

The draw is learning self defense, which is why realistic self-defense programs have a widespread appeal with the majority of the adult population… not just a small segment. Everyone is a potential customer when you teach realistic self-defense. Everyone.

Protected Territories

Also, I’d like to mention the fact that we’re providing school owners with protected territories. The idea is to give you an edge over your competitors, by having something no one else in your area has.

Complements Your Existing Programs

Third, the program is designed to complement what you already do. At the first Instructor Seminar, we had instructors from every walk and background… and they all said that the program was brilliant in it’s simplicity and that it could easily be implemented in their schools.

There are several ways to implement this curriculum:

1. It can be taught as a stand-alone adult program.
2. It can be taught as a self-defense component to an existing program.
3. It can be taught in small group classes and private lessons.
4. It can be taught as an add-on program for your BBC, Leadership, and Master’s students.

Obviously, the most profitable way is teaching it as a stand-alone program. But, I understand that different schools have different needs… so I created it to be versatile.

Offers Fast Results – A Major Draw For Self Defense Students

Fourth, it allows you to offer a short-term solution for the every day citizen who wants to learn self-defense now. While the core program has 3 full years of material (laid out in easy to follow and implement weekly lesson plans for each level), the Level I curriculum can be learned in 3-4 months.

The Invisible Adult Market = The Ones Your Never Hear From

The fact is, there are many people who want to learn self defense, but they don’t want to spend a lot of time doing it.

So, the SDBBP allows you to attract that market… and hopefully you’ll also get many of them to stick around for a year or more. And, some of them may even decide to do your other programs as well.

That means you get students you’d never be able to attract with your current programs, and you can feed those students into your core programs as time goes on.

Besides that, the material is a blast… the instructors who saw and worked it were raving about it (check out these videos to hear it in their own words).

It’s Effective

And, finally, it works. When I first started working this material with my students, I had two adults on two separate occasions who had to use it… after only a few months of training and with no prior experience.

In both cases, they came out of their scrapes safe and sound. Now, I’m not saying this is some ultimate martial art – it’s not. But it is a darned solid martial-arts-based self-defense curriculum that is focused on what works for the majority of people.

Interested In Finding Out More?

Our next Instructor Certification Seminar will be held on October 17th and 18th in Tomball, Texas at Champions Combat Arts, 12034 Spring Cypress Rd., Tomball, TX 77379.

For more information, click this link: Self Defense Certification Program

And About That Fitness Program…

I’ll explain more about the fitness program in coming blog posts.

For now, suffice it to say that it will allow you to make karate camp money without the karate camp overhead, time commitment, or hassles… more on that next week.

Until next time,

- Mike Massie

Chasing Lions – Jay Peroni

Posted by Mike Massie on June 30, 2009

In those days, there were warriors...

It’s not often that I mix in religious messages with my business messages (although, in the martial arts world religious messages are as ubiquitous as wet in water – you just don’t realize it because it’s culturally based).

However, I think this blog post by Faith-Based Millionaire author Jay Peroni is a great message for anyone who is facing challenges as they pursue their business with passion and fervor.

http://www.jayperoni.com/2009/06/what-lion-is-god-calling-you-t.php

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did… the quote in the beginning (describing the deeds of Benaiah, one of King David’s three mighty men) reads like an action sequence from Gladiator.