Kevin Koym

  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Testimonials
    • Quotes
    • Awards and Accolades
  • Speaker
    • Keynotes
    • Watch Kevin Speak
    • Past Speaking Engagements
  • Consultant
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Book
    • Videos
    • Contact

Injury as Teacher, Failure as Teacher

April 26, 2014 by kevin Leave a Comment

Today I had the honor of leading Aikido class at the dojo (martial arts training hall) that I have been practicing at over the last decade.  Although I am a second degree blackbelt, and have been training for the last 16 years, as might be somewhat traditional, I taught Aikido basic techniques.  No matter how long I train, and no matter how much experience I might have, the basics are always something to return to in sharing Aikido with others.  To offer a new lense on the basics, I shared experience of being injured to be the frame to look at basic techniques through- exploring how loosing some ability (due to injury) taught me to learn the underlying Aikido technique better.

Many Aikido techniques can be simulated with too much strength being used- trying to overpower the person that a student is practicing with…  yet that’s not true Aikido.  Aikido can be very powerful, yet in many ways its very subtle in how the technique  attaches to an attacker’s attack, and harmoniously ends the attack. Learning how to be subtle, to be gentle, and through doing so, generating more ability to respond to an attacker.

Yet in getting to learn this subtlety, injuries do happen in Aikido (as in life 🙂

What’s interesting is that its because of some of these injuries I, as a 205 pound male who is use to using his strength, at times have had to “re-learn” how to be more subtle.  On the Aikido mat, I have broken my left foot, separated my right shoulder, ripped my right knee (ACL), and broken my nose, among other injuries.  Each of these injuries has been a training tool… forcing me to not to be able to use my strength as I tenderly try to heal an injury while still training.  Each injury has a lesson that it offers, especially while the injury hasn’t healed, on how to be more subtle in the technique, requiring less physical power, yet creating an even more powerful ability to throw an attacker.

As a side note, its because of the use of subtlety that women or a youth or a smaller framed man can master Aikido perhaps faster than a “stronger” male- and have an effective means of defense in protecting themselves… those of us use to having sheer strength are, in a way,  at a disadvantage to learning the subtlety of Aikido. In my case, that’s why I have learned so much after an injury.

What’s an example of this injury teaching process?  One example- when I ripped my right knee ACL a year ago, I had problems stabilizing myself when moving quickly on the mat.  My ACL ligament’s condition forced me to find stability in my muscles for the ACL wasn’t there there to hold me stable naturally.  Relying on my muscles for stability made me bend my knees even more, bringing me closer to the stance that my Aikido teacher always told me to do before injury (the lower to the earth an Aikido student is, the more power he/she can generate from their legs in a throw).  So now its been a year later since the injury, and I am at least 5 inches closer to the ground when executing a throw… and through this need, I’ve become a stronger Aikido practitioner, even though my injury has not yet fully healed.

There are many lessons that I offer from this idea, and as i have found Aikido to present insight for life, and insight for entrepreneurship. First, realize that injuries happen.. and many times injuries end up offering a way to learn a practice (like Aikido, like entrepreneurship) at a deeper level.  Learning how to avoid getting hurt is important, yet, when getting hurt, or perhaps as in entrepreneurship hitting a business failure, see if you can, what is possible to be learned from the hurt, and go deeper. You’ll take your insight to a more subtle level in the practice that you’re following.

Filed Under: entrepreneurship, inspiration, risk

Video from the Road: Antofasta

September 28, 2011 by kevin Leave a Comment

For more info see these post:

Prelaunch of a network of entrepreneurs in Antofagasta (in Spanish)

A report of tonight’s activities with support from Leonardo Maldonado, Estuardo Robles, Bijoy Goswami, and Steve Golab

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Chile, entrepreneurship

Conformity vs Discipline

September 5, 2011 by kevin Leave a Comment

In the workplace as in many parts of life, I have found that there’s a simple distinction that guides what I tell many a new entrepreneur into their first startup.  This distinction is conformity versus discipline.  Being an employee requires that the individual conforms to someone else’s directions. Day by day activities are directed by someone else.  Results are beget from following structures set up by someone else… and at the end of the day, or a 40 hour workweek, many times the employee may step away from work, leaving behind whatever results have been achieved, and thinking about other things.

The entrepreneur has a different scenario.  Many times there are no structures that have been set up by anyone else, requiring the entrepreneur to set them up.  It takes discipline to set the directions that a startup will go. It takes discipline to get up in the morning, especially when demotivated because of present results, to go at it again. It takes discipline at the end of the day to somehow quiet the voices of undone task, doing one’s best to mentally walk away from work that needs to be completed for that day’s rest. It takes discipline to not allow success to go to one’s head, but instead, maintain a humble approach that keeps the entrepreneur’s eyes open for the next opportunity, or the next threat.

Either way, choosing the path of conformity or discipline, there is a choice that must be made, and a willingness to pay the price of that choice.

Filed Under: distinctions, entrepreneurship

People Over 35 Have Recently Launched 80% Of Startups

July 9, 2011 by kevin Leave a Comment

Interesting to read the following article- given that so many young entrepreneurs get press for high flying Internet startups- but quietly in the background older entrepreneurs are building high growth, heavy innovation startups.  See the following for details:

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, people over the age of 35 made up 80 percent of the total entrepreneurship activity in 2009. That same year, the Kauffman Foundation conducted a survey of 549 startups operating in “high-growth” industries — including aerospace, defense, health care, and computer and electronics — and found that people over 55 are nearly twice as likely to launch startups in these industries.

via People Over 35 Have Recently Launched 80% Of Startups.

Filed Under: economy, entrepreneurship

Why Some People Have More Luck Than Others

July 9, 2011 by kevin Leave a Comment

The following article talks about how certain entrepreneurs affect how “lucky” they are in business success.  Its a really interesting read, with a simple meditation (see the quote below).

They are the people who say to themselves: I am humble enough to say I don't know how to make better/perfect happen on my own; I am curious and courageous enough to ask questions that might help make something closer to perfect; and finally I embrace the “glass half-full” optimism that the end result can always be improved, so let me act towards that objective.

via Why Some People Have More Luck Than Others.

May we all learn to create luck in our startups.

Filed Under: entrepreneurship

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »

Pages

  • About
  • Awards and Accolades
  • Blog
  • Book
  • Coach
  • Consultant
  • Contact Page
  • Home
  • Impact Through Innovation
  • Keynotes
  • Let’s Take Action Together
  • Press Kit
  • Quotes
  • Resources
  • Signup for Updates
  • Speaker
  • Testimonials
  • Upcoming
  • Videos
  • Vox me on Voxer
  • Watch Kevin Speak

Connect With Me

Here's where you can find me on social media.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About
  • Press Kit
  • Quotes
  • Testimonials
  • Speaker
  • Consultant
  • Resources
  • Awards and Accolades

copyright © 2023 Kevin Koym . Design by BuzzworthyWeb.com