In life, in competition you will inevitably copy someone as you grow, and possibly not even consciously. I think this is a normal part of development, and as you grow you become more you……however you will see people who don’t emulate, assimilate, or ''facsimilate'' others…..they just plain steal. You see this in China, with questionable manufacturing practices, even in politics with speeches, in writing it's called plagiarism. In fact it even happens in the martial arts. I purposely don’t look at what other schools do in my area….one because it takes focus off what I'm doing, two because I don’t want to be influenced by it, and honestly three because I just don’t care. My Wife brought something to my attention the other day, another school owner copied pretty much, word for word a video I did, and btw their website is mysteriously similar, they have a logo of an award we won on some of their ads….I’m sure the list goes on. This particular person actually came to my school and took notes before they opened their own school. It's not a secret, it's not hard to see that's not being influenced….its a copy (and not a great one). She was hot, not happy, and I get it….ironically She also gave me the best advice about this type of situation years ago. She said “it doesn't matter how much they copy you….they can’t be you.” Truer words have never been spoken, it took me 48 years to become this version of me, it took triumphs, tragedies, and a mountain of effort. It took sweat, stitches, surgery, broken bones, and late nights. It took mistakes, and shortfalls, broken relationships, and misunderstandings. It took, getting back up, trying to be better, to be more, and doing it all over again, and again to find out who I am and what impact I want to have on the world. Becoming me is more than copying my words, its waking up at 5am, its going to the gym every week, going to yoga every week, reading and studying every week, putting on the blackbelt and not just talking about martial arts but training martial arts, getting kicked and punched, by amazing fighters I trained, to grappling with smart, strong grapplers I trained. Its being transparent about my fight and recovery with Anorexia so other people can start, continue, or win their fight with it, or any fight they find themselves in, its investing in my staff every day, giving 100 percent of me to my students when I'm on the mat whether I'm happy, sad, broken, motivated, injured, hurting, hobbling, or feeling like im in my prime. Its impossible to be me, one because I am just simply committed or crazy enough to dedicate my life to what I do, and more so because even a perfect copy is just a shadow of who I was yesterday….and today Im better, evolving, and improving. My superpower, your superpower, our superpower is finding out, and living into who we are. Of the astronomical and unknown number of people who have lived, or are alive now, and even who will be born long after we are gone….there will only be one you. Only one person with your set of skills, abilities, talents and blessings. It's up to you to find out who that person is, to share that uniqueness with the world, because no one else can. We need you to be you…..almost as much as you need you to be you.
