(upbeat music)
- A lot of people ask me why do I have martial art videos
on my channel, on Dan Lok's channel.
Well because I've been practicing martial arts for
so many years and I believe in business and martial arts.
There are a lot of parallels.
There are a lot of things that I learned from martial arts
that apply in sales, in entrepreneurship, and in business
and there are things I learned from business
also apply to martial arts.
I believe a lot of those things are interconnected.
So today I wanna share with you what are the five things
I learned about life and business from Wing Chun, right?
Now, in Wing Chun, the first I wanna share with you is,
in Wing Chun, we talk about the straight line theory, right?
And that's why while go to punching Wing Chun
is the straight blast,
and what it means is, when you're facing the opponent,
and the opponent doesn't have to be a person,
it could be a scenario, an obstacle in life, right?
Instead of going a curve like a hook punch
or like a big round punch, right,
we wanna see what is the closest distance
from A to B, right?
What is the most efficient to get something done?
So in Wing Chun, we don't punch this way,
we don't punch this way,
we don't punch this way.
It's straight line, right,
and a second punch that when we punch,
we don't pull back and say like a karate punch,
right, you hit, and you come back, right?
Wing Chun is much more like
a machine gun, right?
Just like a machine,
we do this, right, punch, right?
It's much more like this, right?
When we practice and we're doing a drill
of some sort, right?
So it's a straight line.
You can see that.
So, the straight line theory in business,
I believe is the same thing.
When we're looking for a solution,
sometimes we make it way more complicated
than it needs to be, sometimes the solution is so obvious,
right in front of us,
and hey, just go from this to this.
Oh, but what about this?
What about if it doesn't work?
What about it works too well?
And what if we fail?
No, just boom.
Right, just do that.
Like, ta-ta-ta-ta.
And you'll get to your results.
So that's first thing I learned from Wing Chun.
Now, the second thing I learned from Wing Chun,
which is very interesting is
that it's focus on the outcome and not the process.
Now in Wing Chun we have a lot of trapping techniques
meaning, let's say I throw a punch to Peter.
So, here, I have an obstacle.
So, from here, I see the straight line
okay, so, I'm gonna hit, gonna hit Peter
in the chin here but, boom, I have an obstacle.
But what happens in life, we get so attached to this.
Then we're like, oh we're fighting over this like, ugh!
I wanna fight over this.
This obstacle, we always focus on the process,
but we're no longer focus on the outcome.
The outcome is not the hand.
The focus is here.
These are the branches, the work is more focused
on the trees, right?
So, in Wing Chun in Chinese we talk about (speaks Chinese)
means we chase the (speaks Chinese) figure, not the hands.
We only do trapping when there's an obstacle.
So, when there's an obstacle we can trap, and we can hit.
(upbeat music)
Right, so we are not thinking about the hand.
It's just, I try to hit, try to hit, there's an obstacle
then I can trap, and I can punch.
Right so, I focus on the outcome.
We don't loose sight of the outcome.
So that's the second thing that I've learned from Wing Chun
that applies in life, as well.
And the third things that learn from Wing Chun
and that is structure over strength.
Now in business, sometimes you are competing with a company
that is much bigger, that's got more resources,
that's got more capitol
there are more people, they are a better brand.
Well as a smaller company, how do you beat a bigger guy?
Right, you can't do that with strength.
Lemme look at those guns, they're pretty big!
So you're facing a guy with like 150 pounds,
200 pounds, it depends on your size.
If your strength versus strength,
you're gonna loose.
So Wing Chun is designed for the little guys,
to beat the bigger guys.
And you don't do that with strength,
you do that with structure.
Lemme give you the perfect example.
If I was to push with Peter, I'm like using my muscle.
And I'm pushing him, he's pushing me, right?
You can see that.
Again, right?
Cause I have no structure, my structure is off.
However, if I have the proper,
say Wing Chun structure, right?
And then instead of fighting force with force
my structure, my shoulders relax, right?
And then I, as he is slowly giving me pressure, right?
Now just relax more, a little bit more.
Continue, continue.
See now because my structure give me strength
all his force is now transferred to the ground.
Like this, right?
A little bit more.
Lean a little bit more, right?
So there's no strength, right, it's not strength.
It's just this, see, this is relaxed.
I'm not doing this, see, I'm not doing this.
Right, see that?
So structure, but if my structure is wrong.
Push.
See that, my structure is wrong.
So structure over strength.
The fourth thing that I've learned from Wing Chun
and that is fundamentals over fancy techniques.
I remember the first month when I learned Wing Chun,
my shi fu, my instructor, was teaching me
this straight punch, right?
The whole first month, all we did is
just straight punch.
We do it this way, we do it this way
we do it forward, we do it backward
and after a month of this it's stupid.
Like this is a scam, right?
I pay my tuition, shi fu doesn't do anything.
Just teaching me this shit.
Like and what the hell is this?
I was thinking I wanna learn these fancy techniques,
they're doing some cool, fancy techniques.
And suddenly, it's like a bit like Karate Kid.
Wax on, wax off.
Then my shi fu said, "Ok , now you hit somebody with this,"
"now let me train you with this."
And it's like, ooh!
Because I've been practicing for a month,
I didn't know, I was internalizing some of the techniques,
very simple technique.
And Wing Chun it's very, very simple
it's very direct.
We don't have a lot of techniques, right?
You have the snapping hand, which is the (speaks Chinese).
Yep, (speaks Chinese) or you have the (speaks Chinese) here.
Which is the, right?
Holding hand.
Or you have the (speaks Chinese), this is like that.
If someone throw a hook, (speaks Chinese),
from here, and that's okay.
You don't have a lot of fancy techniques.
It's just those fundamentals, over, again, again, again.
That's what makes it cool.
It's the application of very basic techniques.
Because when you are in a scenario
where you are getting attacked,
what you don't want is you don't want a lot of techniques.
Let's say you have 100 techniques.
Someone attacks you, and you say,
"You know what, lemme think about it, I wanna use
"technique 55 combined with technique 64
"and then I'm gonna finish him off
"with technique 72."
No, when in doubt, you just hit.
And you don't want to have three whole punches
in your mind, you just want one.
Right, and then if there's something in the way
that you wanna use your sensitivity
and you wanna do something else.
But it's variations of them.
And you practice for so many years with the same stuff.
So, fundamentals over fancy techniques.
Number five, probably the most important thing
that I've learned from my shi fu, my instructor.
And that is, who you learn from is way more important
than what you learn.
You can learn different style,
let's say you wanna learn Wing Chun.
Learning form one instructor versus another instructor,
there will be huge difference.
In fact, even though it's the same style,
each instructor has their own interpretation
of what that style is.
Some are very traditional.
I've learned from a Wing Chun instructor, very traditional.
That's okay, you only stand this way.
You only do this.
And you will always fight this way, right
And then I learned from other instructors,
where, "Why the hell would you do this?"
and "Why the hell would you do this?"
You should come from a natural stance
and you're gonna explode at any time.
For some, they combine with some other martial arts,
where they pull from Wing Chun to boxing.
Nothing wrong with that, there's no right or wrong.
But who you learn from, because you're not just learning
from that, that instructor.
You're picking up his habits, his beliefs system as well.
So be very, very careful even though you are learning
from the same technique, maybe you are looking
for Wing Chun school in your area, right?
But, who you learn from?
And you wanna learn from an instructor
that is always growing.
That's always testing his theory.
That's like, "You know what?
"I don't know if that works, let's test it out.
"Let's experiment, let's see if that gives you more power."
Instead, "No that the way I always do it,
"that's the way my shi fu does it, and that it!"
It's like a religion and we don't change a damn thing.
Martial arts is not like that.
Back then, you think about different techniques,
and now you have to think about,
oh what if people have weapons?
What if you have a scenario
where you are back against the wall?
What about, you have multiple opponents?
Things change, what if it's close quarter?
What if it's not close quarter?
What about if it's a hi-jack
that you just popped a car and someone attacks you?
You gotta take all that stuff into consideration.
Keep in mind, Wing Chun was developed, it was developed
in a temple, it was developed on a boat.
Right, the Red Boat Wing Chun.
Things have changed, right?
Even the boat has changed.
So you gotta take all that into consideration,
and say, "Hey, modern day, what works?"
So, those are the five things that I've learned
from Wing Chun.
I think martial art is a very, very interesting thing.
I love martial art compared to other sports
because it's always a self-discovery journey.
You're never good enough.
It doesn't matter how good you are.
You're never good enough.
You can always find little things you can improve.
You're not competing with anybody else,
we're competing with ourselves,
that we want to eliminate our own defects.
So, those are the five things I have learned from Wing Chun.
Comment below if you are a martial artist.
What are some of the life lessons that you have learned
from your martial art?
It doesn't have to be Wing Chun, it could be anything.
Comment below, share with everybody else.
There's some important lessons to learn about yourself,
about life, go ahead and do that.