Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

Businessman:
There is no “way of business” per say, but to repurpose the
admonition a little, martial arts can have significant value for
businesspeople. As practitioners we learn how to set and achieve
challenging goals, understand strategy, set tactics in motion to
accomplish our objectives, and improvise when necessary to stay on
target, all of which can be used on the job to help us guide and
counsel our teams and organizations toward commercial success.
Over time we develop inner strength, becoming calmer and more
emotionally resilient than most of our peers too. This can be a
significant advantage in stressful times. Those of us who have
achieve advanced ranks frequently teach too, which means that we
become adept at public speaking, proficient at explaining
complicated concepts in everyday language, and develop the
intuition to know with certainty when to let disciples struggle in the
name of learning as well as when to intervene and lend a helping
hand to help them overcome plateaus. All-in-all, few things can
prepare us for leadership in business—or in life—better than martial
arts.
For example, Jessica Alba is a famous actress but did you know that
she is also a highly successful businesswoman? She was recently

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featured in Forbes magazine as having developed a billion dollar
business by founding The Honest Company. And, she’s also a
martial artist, one who has done many of her own movie stunts.
Speaking of actors and actresses, Jennifer Aniston, Christian Bale,
Jessica Biel, James Caan, Courtney Cox, Robert Downey, Jr., Sean
Patrick Flannery, Mel Gibson, Lorenzo Lamas, Adrian Paul, Elvis
Presley, Christian Slater, and a host of others all practice (or
practiced) martial arts of one kind or another, whether they did action
movies or focused on other genres. In fact, martial arts can help
folks find success in most any walk of life. German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, and Russian President
Vladimir Putin are all accomplished martial artists. Former Japanese
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and former United States
Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and George
Washington, were all martial artists was well.
[39]
 Finally, US Senator
Ben Knighthorse Campbell was captain of the 1964 US Olympic
Judo team.
Rather than saying never stray from the way, I prefer to say never
give up on your training... Physical fitness, mental agility, self-
discipline, confidence, and perseverance can all take us far, yet in
my mind the most important attribute of martial arts that is directly
applicable to the business world is the ability to remain calm under
pressure. For example, I work in the aerospace and defense
industry. It’s a very challenging profession in part because the work
comes in waves; we’re either swamped and struggling to catch up or
downsizing and chasing cost reductions to remain profitable. After
the 9/11 attacks air travel plummeted for several years, driving
massive layoffs in our sector when our airline customers went into
retrenchment mode and orders dried up all around the world.
Although demand for travel and plane orders eventually picked back
up, reprioritization of military programs and sequestration cuts in the
United States hammered the defense side of the business, so while
we do hire for attrition from time-to-time, we’ve been in an almost
continuous layoff cycle for more than a decade. It’s a real challenge
to remain optimistic, make well-considered decisions that affect

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friends and coworkers, and avoid exhaustion in this sort of
environment, yet in large part due to my martial arts training I have
managed to do so when others have burned out.
So, never stray from the martial arts. Work hard. Train well. And,
keep learning.

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