Editorial
Old Dog,
New Trick?
The First Word
Randy Reid
I
Old dogs...
’ve been called an “Old Dog” on a couple of occasions (and I’ve been called
worse)....
At my age (60) being referred to as an
old dog is a double edge sword. The term
‘Old Dog” can mean someone of experience,
knowledge and wisdom which feels kind of
cool. Maybe all those years weren’t wasted
and now I’m a veteran and I know all the
tricks.
Or it can have another meaning. It can mean
that I’m too damn old to change or, too hard
headed to embrace new ideas or systems. It
can mean that I’m too old to learn new tricks.
The first part of my martial arts career I was
focused first on competition and growing my
organization. I was successful at both (10-0 as
a PKA kickboxer by golly!) and I built the biggest organization this state has ever seen (OK,
it’s just Wisconsin, but we had 20+ schools...).
By the measurement of times I was successful.
Very successful.
But times change and sometimes people
don’t. I didn’t. I stayed on the “more is better”
path. More students, more upgrades, more
cash-outs, more schools, more fee’s for the
students, more marketing more staff, more
overhead. More, more, more.
I was successful, but I hated it.
In my case both definitions are correct. Let me So I sold the schools and closed the organization.
explain:
4
Dojo Nation • March 2015
continued on page 6