One the neat things about my Saturday Black-Belt class is when the Grand Master comes out at the end and gives the class a little motivation/morality speech. His speeches are sort of a strange mix of Confucius and Vince Lombardi, combining the Eastern ideals of duty, dedication and self-examination with the Western can-do, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps optimism.
The man is fifteen years older and a head shorter than me, but that in no way diminishes his authority. With his hands clasped his back he paces in front of the class with the full confidence of a man who could literally break in half anyone in the room. In his accented English he addresses the room while we stand at attention.
“You mus hav confidence! You mus wok hard! Tae Kwon Do is about controlling your body, controlling your mind. If you control those two, you can control your life.
Let me ass you, what you worry about? Are you worry about your past? You cannot change that! Why you worry about it? Huh? (long pause, now softer) You mus only look fowad. You mus only focus on the future. And if you do that, you can do anything.
This is only a sample, and it actually has a lot of variation from week to week. We then all bow deeply and finish up class.
Window Manager - An Executive Who has Nothing to do but Look out the Window
(aka "whatever")
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