A Story To Improve Your Business And Your Life

I got a cool story to tell you guys that could actually improve your business, your life, and just about anything.

I realized on the way over at the airport that it’s literally 11 years ago, almost, that I competed in the adult division black belt of Masters Worlds.

It was kind of surreal.

That’s my first and only Adult Worlds.

I want you guys to know a cool story from that and how that can help you out with things.

So I go to the Adult World and do the open class first. The scariest could be as 33 thinks that having a black belt for almost 3 years before I finally worked up the courage to do Adult Worlds. Because if anybody doesn’t know, Adult Worlds is one of the toughest things on earth for jiu-jitsu guys.

I go in. I win my first match and I’m high as a kite.

It was a crazy feeling to win a match at the black belt level at Adult Worlds. For me that was epic.

I go back to the bullpen looking around and there’s Gobball, Lovato, Braulio, Roger. I’m like, holy shit I’m a dead man.

It was kind of funny sitting there, thinking back about how I felt because it was the biggest 180 feeling I probably felt in a long time.

When I was on top of the world. I won a match on the black belt adult level and then I’m like looking around. Who am I gonna fight next?

This sucks.

Everybody is a legend and then there’s me.  

I’m sitting back there, I’m like you know, what’s gonna happen?

The worst thing possible is gonna happen. I’m gonna have to fight hard Roger Gracie.

And I was like man this is Murphy’s Law.

Travis says you’re too late to Worlds. I just land in Dallas so I know I’m gonna make it Sunday. I miss Saturday, usually.

Another story

Travis and I have been to so many worlds together. But we’ve been in the last five or six I think and made it walkthrough Sunday and watch all the worlds.

To us, it’s like the Superbowl. We go to watch, coach guys but obviously, sit back on Sunday and watch. But Jordan’s graduating so Travis gets a pass so there’s me this Sunday.

I don’t know if I’ll be staying late enough to catch all the matches, depending on how on-time the IVA DGF is. But kind of a cool story. If you don’t know, Travis and I actually went to the worlds in 1998 in Baja Tu Jukka.  The Tu Jukka Tennis Club.

Travis won a silver medal up Bluebell so that was a lot of fun. It was crazy. If you’ve never been to Tu Jukka, it’s nuts, the Mundi owls are ridiculous. Energy. Everything. It’s a lot of fun

Travis and I have been doing that since a long time ago.

Going back to the story

I’m in the bullpen warming up and I’m looking around like I’m a dead man. You know these guys are so much better than me like oh my gosh.

I won my first match, go out there looking and now suddenly the ring coordinator yells my name.  I was like, oh cool, alright let’s see who this is gonna be.

I’m like, “who I got?” And he didn’t say a word. He just gave me this shit shitty grin and I knew who it was. Oh, you got Roger.

Of course, he’s got, Roger. It’s like I go out there and my god it’s okay. He’s just a regular person. Just Roger Gracie. It’s not a big deal. He’s won how many worlds? Go out there.

Literally, the amount of press coverage and people that were watching that match was insane. I’m sitting there like, man I don’t make a highlight reel. And that’s obviously the wrong attitude to have. But if you don’t know who Roger Gracie is, Google him.

And it was an epic slaughter story that day.

Basically, he destroyed me.

I pulled guard. He passed guard. He mounted and choked me. Of course, I was pissed off, sat there pouting like a little baby. And go sit down to watch matches the rest of the day.

I watched him proceed to do that to every single person that was the worlds. Roger, basically, past everybody’s got the guard. Mounted on. Choked. I was thinking I was victim one of eight or something, I don’t know. A lot of submissions.

But so the moral of the story is this was ten years ago.

So I look back over my jiu-jitsu history and I’ve had my ass kicked by some of the best people in the world. That actually helped me become a better competitor, a better person, a better businessman, and things like that.

That’s one thing I love about Jiu-Jitsu.

In the jiu-jitsu lifestyle that we get to live is you go out there you might fight somebody who’s just amazing. Get your ass kicked but you learn from it – you get better.

For me those experiences, fighting a Roger Gracie it was insane. It was so much fun.

I’ve lost a lot of really good people. I could have quit and been a little baby even like oh I lost blah blah blah.

But the cool thing was I took those compounders and eventually got semi-good at Jiu-Jitsu. I won a Masters World Championship. Beat a lot of good people but I never would’ve done it if I’d quit.

So that’s the moral of the story here to help you out in your life in your business.

Things are gonna get hard and things are gonna suck. You’re gonna have something bad happen.

Bad things happen in life. Just get up. Pick yourself up and get back to going after it, doing the things you need to do to get successful. You can do that in business, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, life, or just anything.

You’re gonna get knocked down but the losses that you come back from that define you and help you become a better person.

For me, it was a cool experience. Now I try to go back every year if I can, to watch it. My wife jokes about me going back here, we’re like jiu-jitsu nerds. I’ll sit there all day with my acai and watch some jiu-jitsu.

I shared that little flashback with you guys because I didn’t realize it was eleven years ago that I was Roger Gracie’s first victim when he submitted.

Conclusion

I hope you guys like my story and I hope it helps you out in your life and the different things you’re doing.

Life is not easy but one manages to enjoy the journey.

We just need to keep going and keep moving. Read about how to do just that in my previous blog here.

You’re gonna get knocked down. People are gonna shit on you. Bad things are gonna happen but you know it is what it is.

Make the best of it. Just keep making yourself better, what you do and do you.

P.S. If you need help in growing your school, make sure to check out my program, Your First 100 Students.