How Martial Arts Can Help You Succeed as an Entrepreneur
More than 3.4 million Americans participate in various martial arts, and you don’t need to be a professional fighter or a black belt to enjoy their benefits. Presented below by Bucks County Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, here’s how entrepreneurs can benefit from practicing martial arts while running a successful business.
Article by: Doug Briscoe
Learn How to Control Your Emotions
It’s easy to lose control of your emotions when you’re an entrepreneur. You’ll likely face huge setbacks, financial worries, and massive uncertainty. Worries can grab hold of your mind and body, and martial arts are excellent for learning how to control your emotions as an instructor can teach you how to channel frustration and stress in a productive direction.
Experience Incredible Stress Relief
Martial arts can offer the perfect stress relief if you’re feeling pressure during your entrepreneurial journey. Some soft-style martial arts are excellent for relieving tension, such as judo, Krav Maga, wrestling, Aikido, Muay Thai, and Jiu-Jitsu.
Embrace Failure and Build Discipline
Learning to embrace failure is essential for entrepreneurs. After all, around 20% of U.S. businesses will fail within the first two years and 65% will fail within ten years. But failure can be turned into a learning opportunity, and this is what practicing martial arts can teach you. There will always be someone better than you, and you’ll feel humbled daily. Humility in a context of perseverance helps you become more resilient overall, and resilience is what you need to succeed in business despite failures.
If you want to earn a black belt in any martial art, you must show up and prove yourself regardless of how you feel. When you’re an entrepreneur, you always have to show up because you’re the head of the business. Showing up to every opportunity and putting in your best effort is another trait that leads to success.
Other Ways Martial Arts Benefit Entrepreneurs
As a business owner, you'll face a number of stresses as you take care of basic business practices. If you're just starting out, for example, you may be deciding whether to form an LLC for your new business. LLCs offer tax benefits, less paperwork, more flexibility, and limited personal liability. You'll have to research the regulations around forming an LLC in Pennsylvania, and you may want to save money on costly fees by filing for yourself. While these kinds of practices are ultimately beneficial for business, they come with their own headaches and can easily make you feel overwhelmed.
This is where practicing martial arts can come into play. For one, you'll feel stronger if you maintain healthy fitness levels that can sustain you during your entrepreneurial journey. You'll be able to rely on new friends from class, too, and expanding your friend group can help you build a network of contacts that could prove vital for your business success. Finally, martial arts gives you some much-needed "me" time to focus on yourself during the hustle.
Succeed With Healthy Habits
Martial arts are an excellent tool for creating healthy habits to help you succeed. Visit Bucks County Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which teaches people how to perfect their character through traditional training in order to develop individuals who are physically and mentally progressive.