How Fighting Prepared Me For Entrepreneurship
- they should teach martial arts in business school
I‘ve observed an exceptionally high amount of passive-aggressive behavior and a lack of self-care in the business world. No judgement, we all have our struggles and we’re all just trying to figure ourselves out in this crazy world so I thought I might offer personal experience along with some humble advice: Learn to fight.
Stress
A funny thing happens inside the brain when it experiences high stress, especially the kind of stress that threatens our safety or security. Our brain switches from the cerebral cortex — the thinking part of the brain where fine motor skills are managed — and moves into the limbic system — the “monkey” brain that isn’t capable of fine motor skills and intricate calculations because it’s only concerned with gross survival. Inside our limbic system is where fight or flight is executed. Inside the cerebral cortex is where we think deeply and make logical, technical decisions. It’s where compassion, humility, and cooperation live. It’s where most professionals spend the majority of their day, doing smart things and being creative. That is, until the sh*t hits the fan.
Have you ever received an adversarial Email or news of a pending lawsuit (you’ve been served) or been in a heated negotiation? Chances are, if you have you’ve likely felt your anxiety level increase, the hair on the back of your neck stand up, your heart quicken, your mouth dry, and a sense of panic or anger creep in. You might lash out or shrink into the nearest shadow. That’s your monkey brain taking over when the stress becomes threatening. That’s where knowing how to fight becomes an entrepreneur’s greatest asset.
Pain Threshold
Americans lead a strongly pain-averse existence. In fact, it can be argued that our cultural inability to live with pain is the driving force behind our country’s opioid epidemic: The US comprises 5% of world population and consumes 75% of the world’s prescription drugs, 20,000 Americans died last year from opioid overdose, and 2 million Americans live with prescription drug addiction. Pain is a natural part of life and learning to live successfully with it and learn from it is one of the greatest character building exercises any person can go through. Sadly, as Americans, pain management is literally a business owned by Big Pharma and we’re not only being poisoned by its drugs, but robbed the opportunity to learn from pain and build the tools to live happily in spite of pain.
This is where martial arts training offers a considerable advantage to entrepreneurs and all people. Learning about pain, how to cause it, how to receive it, how to live with it, and how to perform well in spite of it is the unspoken skill set in every good martial artist’s arsenal. In fact, it’s sometimes said that the difference between an amateur and a professional fighter is their ability to perform in spite of pain. The same is true in business…
Learn to perform well in spite of pain and you have an incredible advantage over the rest of the business world.
Think of it like this: You’re building your startup, funds are very low, tension is very high, you get scary Emails from investors, adversarial phone calls from vendors, and the pressure of knowing your life, your family’s life, and the lives of those involved in your startup are all resting on your shoulders. Now imagine you have a very low pain tolerance. How are you going to handle all of this pressure? This fear? This anxiety? We’ve seen countless startups fail and lives ruined because its founder wasn’t strong enough to navigate the rigors of business. Not because they weren’t smart enough or talented enough or motivated enough, but because they couldn’t handle the pain that comes with startup life, especially when your business isn’t doing well. If that founder learns how to fight, he/she will learn a new relationship to pain and find him/herself better equipped to lead their startup through the hellfire into the light of day toward success.
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” ~ Bruce Lee
Fitness
The lack of self-care in the startup world is alarming. This holds true for the business world in general, not just the startup community. The “hustle harder” and “no days off” mentalities are eating us alive and when coupled with poor diet and lack of exercise we have a recipe for illness and early death. We also have a recipe for underperformance. You see, your mind can’t function its best when housed inside an unfit body. The correlation between mental performance and physical wellness is direct and very strong. When you consider the physical and emotional stress entrepreneurship puts you under we’re fooling ourselves to think we can get by safely and effectively ignoring our health. Learning to fight, that is, training in martial arts, is one of the more beneficial forms of exercise because you literally get in shape while learning life-saving skills. And here’s the best part… you don’t have to get in shape before starting to train in martial arts. You can start today exactly as you are.
Fighting
I’ve spent the last 29 years training and competing in various styles of martial arts, from grappling to striking to bladed weapons and firearms. I’m also a member of the US Martial Arts Team and a 2-time World Martial Arts Games silver medalist. I even spent a handful of years training military SF/SOF, federal agents, and local & state law enforcement in various fighting techniques and methodologies. Over nearly 3 decades studying hand-to-hand combat I’ve learned quite a lot about myself, about mankind, about anatomy, about conflict resolution, and about physiology. If I were asked to sum it all up I would say, simply, that I’ve learned how to stay calm when the sh*t hits the fan and tolerate crippling pain, which has made all the difference in business.
As fighters we spend an inordinate amount of time learning techniques and perfecting our bodies as weapons. We learn counters and attacks and defense and footwork and how to condition our bodies for the rigors of fighting. Perhaps most importantly, we learn how to remain calm when standing across from a trained killer who wants to kick our head off and we learn how to push forward when we’re getting our butts kicked and receiving pain. Spend a few months learning to spar and suddenly that C-level in a custom suit with the stern look on his/her face doesn’t seem so threatening, neither does his/her lawyer. It’s a great moment when you’re sitting across the table from somebody you’re in a contentious negotiation with and he/she is fuming and you’re unflinching, calm as a cucumber, maybe smiling. That ability to be the calm, gooey center of an otherwise stressful scenario affords you several key advantages:
- Logic — you’re still in your cerebral cortex so you’re thinking more clearly than the angry party across from you, which puts you in the driver’s seat for the negotiation.
- Intimidation — if you haven’t stood across from somebody you’re about to fight and seen nothing but calm on their face it can be terrifying. Why aren’t they scared?! Often, the more relaxed fighter wins.
- Professionalism — heated moments can make for hot comments and decisions that will later bite you in the butt. Staying calm keeps you out of the kind of reputation-ruining trouble that lack of impulse control causes.
Here’s the secret that fighters know and many business people don’t: Fear is a liar.
If you listen to fear it will always tell you it’s in charge and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you listen to fear it will always tell you your cerebral cortex is off limits and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you listen to fear you’ll always be lied to.
What experienced fighters know is how to control their fear so it doesn’t take over. It doesn’t take decades of martial arts training to learn how to control fear, it’s actually very simple and anybody can do it; you don’t have to be a ninja, and it WILL work for you…
The Trick
What is 2 + 2? What is 3 x 3? What is 12 - 4? Congratulations, you’re now in your cerebral cortex. This little trick, doing simple math equations, is among the quickest and easiest ways to switch your brain back into your cerebral cortex and out of your limbic system when you’re stressed or in pain. Too good to be true? Well, this trick is something professional fighters at the highest ranks use during fights to keep their brains sharp. Their coach/corner will actually yell out simple math equations during the fight in order to switch the fighter’s brain out of its stress-induced limbic mess back into its combination-landing cerebral cortex. If you ever watched a fight and it seems like a fighter isn’t doing anything right and their coach/corner is throwing their hands up in frustration it’s often because the fighter has gotten stuck in his/her limbic system and literally cannot hear or contemplate the instructions being given to them by their team. When in the limbic system they certainly can’t execute the gameplan they’ve been rehearsing for months ahead of the fight and they definitely aren’t throwing crisp punches and kicks. If only they knew what 2 + 2 is.
The same holds true for your work adversary and for you. So who would you rather be? The stressed out fighter who can’t think and act clearly or the calm, focused fighter in complete control of him/herself?
So next time you’re finding yourself in a situation that’s causing your anxiety to spike, stop and ask yourself what 8 x 4 is and then ask yourself what 6 + 15 is. Then take a deep, slow breath and as you exhale start thinking your way smartly through whatever it was that caused you stress in the first place. It’s that simple.
Remember, the only thing that matters in life is the impact we have on others.
