When I was a kid I studied Chinese martial arts and, in particular, Jeet Kune Do, the martial art approach developed by Bruce Lee. The one thing that Lee always repeated was “no way as way” and “be like water.” Which to me always meant: be open and adaptable to situations.
If you think about most business schools they teach a certain approach to creating a business. While there are the fundamentals if you look closely, no school teaches innovation. Innovation by its very nature cannot be taught. An environment that fosters innovation can be taught but isn’t in most business universities. That’s why you have students like Bill Gates who dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft. Harvard wasn’t teaching how to create something new but rather how to perpetuate something old.
Other examples: Facebook founder dropped out of college to pursue building Facebook; Apple Computers founder Steve Jobs never finished college. Google founders dropped out of Stanford University. The list can go on. Nobody gets a degree in being a “Master Entrepreneur”… entrepreneurs must adapt and react to the environment.
Which led me to the thought that much of what Bruce Lee did in martial arts was about a philosophy that can be applied to business. So I pulled out my old copy of Tao of Jeet Kune Do and wanted to share some of Lee’s sayings. Here are a few along with some business lessons that I added that correspond:
Victory is for the one, even before combat, who has no thought of himself.
—>applied to business: put your customer first and not yourself
If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror.
—>applied to business: listen to the market; don’t create something nobody wants
The point is the doing of them rather than the accomplishments. There is no actor but the action; there is no experience but the experience.
—>applied to business: enjoy what you do, riches are not the reason
To see a thing uncolored by one’s own personal preferences and desires is to see it in its own pristine simplicity.
—>applied to business: look for the core essence of the solution, make it simple
The problem is the answer. Understanding the problem dissolves the problem.
—>applied to business: if you’re not solving a real business problem you don’t yet understand the problem
The second-hand artist blindly following the sensei or sifu accepts his pattern. As a result, his action and, more importantly, his thinking become mechanical. His responses become automatic, according to set patterns, making him narrow and limited.
—>applied to business: copying others only leads to mediocrity and not success; innovation cannot be “taught”
The efficient structure in attack and defense.
—>applied to business: focus on a niche since they are easier to grow and defend
It is not daily increase but daily decrease–hack away the unessentials
—>applied to business: decide based on need versus want; need should drive business, don’t be distracted by things that create no revenue or earnings value to the company
To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities
—>applied to business: opportunity never knocks at your door, you must go knock on its door and, don’t forget, open it
Use only that which works, and take it from any place you find it
—>applied to business: lessons and common sense can be learned from many sources, not just “schools”. Just like these ideas are applicable to business.
Nice analogy. I love Bruce Lee and it is very interesting how you translaste his skills into business analogy.
Great analogy, we as entrepreneurs must always remember this concepts, you cannot buy innovation.
Abrazo,
thank u mr harmon for sharing bruce’s very insightfull intellect. u c u put others first (in sharing this), therefore u have most definitely achieved my brother.