At one point every student will consider quitting. Once a student came to me and stated that he didn’t want to train any more. My response was, “Good, normal people naturally get overwhelmed by this amount of work. Now we know that you are perfectly normal.” I let that hang out there a bit and then continued. “Would you like to be better than normal?” He replied that he would, I said, “Then don’t quit and let’s get that Black Belt. It takes an extraordinary person to earn their Black Belt, not a normal person. Be extraordinary.”
Not quitting is the way we teach the two most important lessons to become successful in life, perseverance and self-discipline. There is no other way. Smart people are not guaranteed success. Talented people are not guaranteed success. Those are great traits, but with perseverance and self discipline, you can become successful without either of those things, even more so if you have them.
Parents, give your child a fighting chance in life. Get them enrolled and keep them enrolled. No one ever earns their black belt and says, “Darn you Mom and Dad for helping me to earn this?”
