8th Degree Taekwondo black belt and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu brown belt Richard Johnson talks to me about his martial arts journey, and how martial arts teaches basic principles about life and personal responsibility. I’ve known Richard for a long time but I’ve never talked to him in depth about how he got started in martial arts, and how he turned it into his business.
Richard started in martial arts when he was in high school and was tired of being bullied. His idea was that he was going to start winning the fights with the ones who had picked on him. Instead, he hasn’t been in a fight since.
Well, he’s been in a lot of fights, but they were all in competitions. Within a few years of starting Taekwondo, he was a national champion black belt. Now he owns a Taekwondo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school in Austin, Texas (www.southaustintkd.com). In spite of all of his Taekwondo accomplishments–being an 8th Degree Grand Master Black Belt ain’t nothin’!–he pushed further and earned a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
In his school, he teaches 10 Tenets, which are
- Honor
- Courtesy
- Integrity
- Perseverance
- Self-Control
- Courage
- Community
- Strength
- Humility
- Knowledge
It’s not hard to figure out how these tenets apply to real life, but Richard explains how teaching about kicking and punching and blocking translates into real life with these 10 tenets.
There’s a lot of readily applicable information, and you may find yourself wanting to start your own martial arts journey! Enjoy this interview, and let me know what you think!
I had a great time interviewing Twitter’s Senator, Shoshana Weissmann! If you haven’t already, you can find her on Twitter, @SenatorShoshana. If you’re a Twitter kind of person, I highly recommend you follow her. She is also the digital media guru for the R Street Institute (@RSI or rstreet.org), a free market think tank in Washington, DC.