(There's a TL;DR at the bottom)
Take the chance on yourself. Believe in yourself. Give it your all. Every penny. Every breath. All your energy. Ask for help when you need it. Always help others when you can. Keep pushing, keep pulling. If it all works out on your first shot... congratulations! You've cracked the entrepreneurial code!
If it doesn't, you didn't "fail." You've learned... a lot. You learned it through experience, not a textbook. You learned it through rejection, not through YouTube. You learned it through having difficult conversations, not through lecture. There's no replacement for experience, for it is the greatest teacher of them all.
A career in martial arts was the greatest education I could have ever asked for. You learn about yourself, what you're made of, that repetition and hard work cannot be replaced by any amount of passive learning. "Losing" is when you learn the most. You learned how to stay humble and keep your ego in check. You learn to work off your own logic, not emotion. You learn how to take grandiose concepts and break them down so even a 3-year-old can understand them. You learn patience, gratitude, and compassion. You learn to develop power and strength within yourself, develop it into confidence. With that confidence, you become fully authentic in who you are, what you say, and what you do. There is no academic replacement for these lessons.
For years I've said that everyone should train in a martial art, if even just for a few years in their adult life. How can you truly know who you are until you've had your wellbeing threatened? You're physically, mentally, and emotionally challenged in a moment. When someone is trying to bring harm upon you, how do you react? Have you prepared for that moment? Greater men than I have said that "Success is when preparation and opportunity meet."
Some would argue that they'd prefer to train for a marathon or a race instead. Sure, you'll be challenged in a similar manner, but I dare you to imagine running deep into that race and then you're attacked. An angry man jumps into your path, shoves you against a wall, starts to throw haymakers, trying to take everything you've worked so hard for. How do you react? Do you bow down and beg? Can you fight back? Can you use your verbal judo to bring the assailant to a calmer demeanor? When you're exhausted, when your back is against the wall... what do you do? It's here, in a fight, that you learn who you are to your core.
How is this different than business? Metaphorically, it's the same. We battle against exhaustion, against objections, against the onslaught of costs that come with running your own business (financial, emotional, mental, physical, the clock). They wear on you. It's a war of attrition that triggers your self-doubts, your self-limiting beliefs, and your true desires.
You bounce between the internal dialogue of...
"Is this for me?"
"How deep should I continue to dig, thinking I'll find the goldmine? Or is this process becoming the epitome of insanity?"
"Should I quit and just get a job?"
"Is this overall worth it?"
Pursuing my doctorate in Chinese Medicine and Taoism for the past couple years has taught me what martial arts could not. Not everything is a battle. Sometimes we need to learn to go with the flow. When it you're sitting in pain, worry, grief, frustration, and fear for hours, days, weeks, and months on end, perhaps it's time to let go. This applies to relationships, to material possessions, and even to businesses.
It also taught me that you cannot help others without helping yourself first. How can one pour from an empty cup?
When you let go and you're overwhelmed with a sense of relief, it's a lesson. Not only will you feel it mentally - but emotionally and physically too.
Last night, I decided to let go of operating my clinic full-time. The burden it was putting on me was doing far too much damage to every aspect of my life. Although I continue to grow and heal, it was like trying to heal the same wound that keeps opening. My pursuit of becoming a Doctor of Chinese Medicine was never about learning to heal the world but learning how to always heal myself.
The moment the decision was made, the moment I told myself to "let go," I was washed over with a sense of relief that transcended the mental into the emotional and then very quickly into the physical. There's a sense of loss and grief that I'm working through, but that will continue to process as I become more excited to use my skills to help another organization.
I've learned more than I can put into words. Through working in retail, through Martial Arts Instruction, through door-to-door sales in the brutal winters in New England, through cold calling, through project management, through studying Chinese Medicine, through my first attempt at an entrepreneurial endeavor, through bartending and waiting tables to make ends meet, through deep thought and reflection, through conversation, through consistent writing, through helping others grow and heal, through rejection, through loss, through learning to stay optimistic and positive regardless of any outcome. My most significant learning never came through academics - it came through experience and LIVING.
These are important life lessons that can be taken to ANY position in the job market. There are no "certifications" for these skills. If an organization requires me to obtain a certification for a specific role, I'll get 7 of them. If I need to interview 45 times for them to feel comfortable about me being a part of their team, I'll be ready for each and every one of them. If I must score 100%'s on all of their evaluations, I'll seek to score 110%. If I need to move, my bags will be packed. My wide-ranging set of skills gained through experience that very few others have is something that can be utilized to help a bigger organism grow... and I'm excited, joyful, and eternally grateful to do so.
My business of Kosmic Qigong will always remain open for those that seek to heal and grow through holistic methods, but for now, my skills will be primarily focused elsewhere. I look forward to helping bring growth to a larger organization out there and putting my skills to work.
Be Healthy,
-Kris
TL;DR - I'm looking for work in an industry that can utilize what I have to offer. My studies of Chinese Medicine, Taoism, and martial arts will always continue. I'll remain available to help others heal and grow, but my focus has shifted to bringing what I have to offer to someone else's table. If you know of a fit, please - reach out. Thank you all. <3