After finishing my first martial arts class, I knew it was something that I was going to do for the rest of my life. This past birthday marks 40 years of consistent training for me and I’ve had wonderful, life-changing experiences and some remarkable friendships.
I have always wanted to share this passion with other people. I have learned invaluable life lessons about discipline, humility, faith, love, commitment and a host of other things that I’ve tried to pass on. I realized in my twenties that some day I was going to open a dojo and make a living teaching my passion. I was going to “live the dream.”
This past year, I’ve had the opportunity to do just that. I left my job and my profession and opened my first commercial school. Even though it was a little late in life for me to do so, I wanted to give it a shot and fulfill my dream while I still could. The last thing I wanted was to lie in bed some day preparing to meet The Maker, regretting not having the courage or faith to follow through.
But there is way more to opening a business, especially a martial arts business than I could have remotely anticipated. Any entrepreneur can tell you that going rogue means you wear “all” of the hats, from marketing to bookkeeping, business planning and a host of other chores aside from actually providing a product. I’ve been full circle with the whole social media thing and I’ve tried to reach out to my local community a couple times to get my foot in the door and attract potential customers. I have beleaguered my current students to recruit their friends. Not exactly the “Mr Myagi” scenario I expected where people simply come to the door looking for lessons.
I’ve always known that martial arts training is a hard sell for most people, even in places like Japan and China. A lot of that has to do with the tremendous amount of commitment it takes to become proficient in just about any style of hand-to-hand combat. Before I opened this dojo, I held classes on military bases, community centers and in our two-car garage. I never had to worry about coaxing people to train. Actually, most of my advanced students who’ve been with me for a long time regale in fact that I actually tried to drive people away from our school through rigorous calisthenics and other physical and psychological tactics. I’d say things like, “It just gets worse from here” and other such non-affirming phrases in an attempt to size them up and see if this is what they really wanted. This was the “old school” way of weeding people out. It’s how I was brought up in martial arts and honestly, I still believe it has value.
But if you want to make a living teaching Budo in America, you cannot create that kind of environment and hope to have a successful business. I’m not putting anybody down, but the typical martial arts customer expects a certain amount of encouragement as well as a welcoming atmosphere, amenities like showers and separate dressing rooms and so on. People are awed by Asian martial arts but their perception of the journey and the reality are two different things. I’ve been to some pretty inspiring dojos with expensive flooring, nice art work, and other high end features. And people paid a premium for all that as well as the assurance that they were learning “authentic” martial arts. Perhaps. But it’s been my experience that schools like this often produce arrogant, entitled weekend warriors who couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag.
So, I’ve had to learn to leverage all of this in the past year. I still believe there is a contingent of people out there looking for a real dojo. And what it that? Well, for me, it’s a place where people learn very quickly that their perception of training is nothing close to what it actually is. It’s a place where people frequently fail to meet their expectations; a place where there is encouragement, but also admonishment and the occasional fat lip as well as plenty of moments when it’s clear that your training and dedication are insufficient. That realization should push you to train harder…not give up. That’s where real humility comes from. If all you want me to do is pat you on the back and tell you how good you’re doing, then go watch a self-help video. Creating an atmosphere where “everybody is a champion” is akin to having social issues dictate military training and policy. Great way to lose a war...or street fight.
If I sound a little bitter, I am acutely far from it. This experience has taught me a great deal, including how to deal with failure. If I allowed my fear and anxiety about making a living dictate how I run this dojo, we’d be teaching lots of little kids, women’s self-defense courses and kick-boxing classes.
No thanks. I’d rather have an acceptable failure than a successful business I couldn’t stand.
I am not a community center director; I am a martial arts teacher. And this is not a spa or an after school program. If you are looking for a hobby or just a unique way to spend a couple of weeknights, please go somewhere else.
This is a dojo. We are dedicated to helping people understand themselves and the world around them a little better through pain, fatigue, frustration and failure. Keep at it and you will improve. Keep at it, and the discipline that you attain will permeate in all areas of your life.
Dave Malgiano
Tatsu Dojo
Jissenkan Budo
Dojo Cho
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