Episode 684 - Hanshi Frank Dux
Hanshi Frank Dux is best known as the character from the movie, Bloodsport, but he is much more than that.
The important lesson I try to impart with people is that, when you stop being plural in your thinking, every aspect in your life changes. And you will be surprised in how life becomes that much sweeter because you;re not looking outside yourself. You can really taste what things are going on, you can start setting goals you otherwise thought impossible…
Hanshi Frank Dux - Episode 684
If you’ve spent any amount of time in the martial arts or done any quick research, you will find that Hanshi Dux is often known as a controversial figure in the martial arts. However, his discussion with Jeremy goes places you would not expect. Hanshi Dux started training at a young age, and growing up, really wanted a way to test himself. This interview goes there, but also goes places you wouldn’t expect, and becomes a lot more philosophical and contemplative than one might expect. Listen in and tell us what you think. ~Andrew Adams
In this episode, Hanshi Frank Dux talks about martial arts and everything in between. Listen and join the conversation!
Show Notes
Know more about Hanshi Frank Dux on frankduxbloodsport.com
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, what's going on everyone? Welcome this is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio episode 684. With my guest today Hanshi Frank Dux. I'm Jeremy Lesniak, host for the show founder here at whistlekick. We're everything we do in support of the traditional martial arts, what do we do? What are all these things that we do? Well go to whistlekick.com, and find out. We've got a ton of stuff over there, including our store. And if you use the code, PODCAST15, you can save 15% on anything we've got over there from sparring gear to apparel, and so much for the show gets its own website, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is the place to go for that, where we bring you transcripts and links and photos, and all kinds of cool stuff for every episode, we bring it to a week. Why? Well, it's to connect and educate and entertain all of you wonderful, traditional martial arts out there. If you want to show some support, help us out in our mission. Yeah, you could buy something. But there are other things you could do, you could join our Patreon patreon.com/whistlekick, where we post bonus and exclusive content each and every week, you could also learn to maybe follow us on social media. Or you could even share an episode with a friend.
There are a lot of martial artists out there, not all of them, check out our show. And we would like to fix that. Hopefully, you'll help us in that goal. And if you want the full list, I almost missed this part. If you want the full list of all the things you can do, to give back to support what we're doing whistlekick.com/family. That's where we dropped that whole list. So today's episode, Hanshi Frank Dux, a big name, a large figure in the martial arts community. And, frankly, a bit of a lightning rod at times someone who has attracted some attention. And it's not always positive. I knew that going in, right. Like this is someone I know of, had never met him before. Our first contact was when we hooked up the zoom. And I think it went really well. It's a really good conversation. There's something I think it's really important to say here at the top. I won't go into any episodes. And if you know the history of this show, you know that this is true. I don't go into any episode trying to stir the pot.
I have no interest in making us look bad. I have no interest in making a guest look good. I have an interest in bringing a conversation between myself and whoever's on the other end. To the rest of you. I have no doubt that we're going to attract some attention for this episode. And not all that will be positive. Frankly, I don't care. Because whether you like or dislike, believe, disbelief, no matter what your opinions are on this, or any other episode we've done. This is a part of our cultural landscape. We are martial artists, we trained in martial arts. We have martial arts movies, and we have figures who are discussed. This is someone I've wanted on the show for a long time. I'm very thankful to the team for making this happen. And I'm very thankful to Frank Dux for coming on and sharing some time with us. Here we go. Welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on.
Frank Dux:
My pleasure. And you're in the Chicago area. Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm in Vermont. Vermont.
Frank Dux:
Okay. Similarly cold.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I was actually talking to someone in Chicago yesterday. Monday. Yeah, yesterday. And similar weather we both have been hammered with snow and cold and yeah. How about you? Where are you?
Frank Dux:
I’m in Las Vegas, I relocated to Las Vegas, East. Los Angeles and I was all over from Hollywood, or most have been. I've been very blessed in the sense of having some great locations where I lived out in the Hollywood Hills where Madonna was my neighbor.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes, I'm sure of their stories and probably can't say so. Knowing her: What brought you to Vegas?
Frank Dux:
Just I think it's the best place to live. Personally. I mean, it's easy to get in and out of people who pay to come here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's true. A lot of people pay a lot of money. Maybe not so much to get there but while they're there. I was there years ago and it's a remarkable place. There's a lot going on.
Frank Dux:
And yeah, the outdoors. You know, sitting outdoors, you love the outdoors it has, if you like shows, good dining and there's always something to do. That's what I really love about it. And it's you know, it's clearly conservative town card to what people would think. You know, whereas in other parts of you know, Nevada of course is very liberal, it's just such an interesting dichotomy, you know?
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, yeah, I was out there for a few days for work and waking up at 7am, 6:30am I was the only person up it seemed on the strip. There was nobody. There is nobody awake downtown there. Because, you know, I was going to bed at 12/one o'clock and they were still going hard.
Frank Dux:
It's kind of funny. I mean, I've seen people always thought, you know, when COVID hit, I was saying what a great opportunity to walk the streets and take pictures and videos of me walking with everything not thing you can make a doomsday movie.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Was it the Army of the Dead? That was shot at least takes place in Vegas? I don't know if you caught that, it was on Netflix.
Frank Dux:
I don't really watch any horror films. I just don't see enough in real life.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For sure. Well, you know, we're here to talk about martial arts. And we're here to talk about your journey. So, let's go all the way back. The analogy I like to use for people you know, if there was a comic book series, based on your life as a martial artist, what would be in the first issue?
Frank Dux:
Wow, I'm not familiar with comic book series. Know where to begin? I guess the best would be the Karate Kid. And in fact, when I did the movie Force Five, it was the movie Force Five with Fred Weintraub and Pat Johnson. I told him my story. And Pat told me later that became the inspiration. Because at the watch, currently, the writer was sitting right next to him often and the writer actually says, yeah, it was based on a kid who they met in the valley, who told him a bit of their story. And on my [00:07:18-00:07:20], my daughter washed off that kind of thing. He was a gardener, just like Miyagi was used to. I used to meet him at the Sego nursery, on Burbank Boulevard, which is right across the street from the apartment I was living in as a kid. And then I would go work with him. And he would show me things and do menial tasks and in exchange for those menial tasks and show me how they were actually more short moves. And he was really teaching martial arts. And then he just taught me more about what I should say, more about how to fish, how to do it myself, rather than okay, mimic me, and this is what you do. And a very different approach. And I got to thank him for that. You know, so.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's certainly a dichotomy in the martial arts about perspectives, how far can you go on your own? Right, whether that's for a long period of time or a short period of time, you know, most people advocate some manner of instruction.
Frank Dux:
Well, here's the reality of it. People are taught because of schooling to look for portal approval before they act. Okay? They want they'll see a murder murder taking place from but until somebody jumps in, they don't jump in, or fire. And that's because of the way people are conditioned from childhood. I grew up in a very, you know, poor family. My parents were, you know, survived the Holocaust. I learned right off the bat to never look for the government to take care of me, you know, which is a very important lesson. Because they didn't look to the police to protect men and look for justice anywhere, except whatever I could find for myself. And that included education. You know, if I wanted an education, I had to find it on my own. And so I think if people who took more responsibility for their actions come into the world and are taught that you are responsible for your own actions, you don't educate yourself and look to other people to give you things you need to work at it.
We'd have an entirely different world, a different society. The way tyranny works is they want dependency. So what they do is they try to build in dependency, people who are in power want you to depend on them so you answer to them so they can order you around. The greatest fear is that we become independent. That's why you see the disintegration of the middle class because when people started getting in the middle class, all of a sudden they had the time to think about things they had time to evaluate, when is it really in my best interest to do this? Is it really in our best interest to go to war? I mean, you saw that with Vietnam, people started protesting against Vietnam. Why are we in Vietnam? What is the real goal here? And this was really, this is an important aspect. So what do they do? Like I said, they create this, this idea of dependency tendency that we need to, it's just, if you really pay attention to how education systems are structured, are they really educating us? Are they conditioned?
I mean, the big myth is you need to go to college and be successful. No, you don't, the majority of successful people in the United States never went to college. You know, it's just the opposite. They started business careers early, and we're debt free. They weren't saddled with college debts. Good majority of who made their money went into real estate. And they started off as like, guys working on a construction yard, lifting bricks, doing daily labor, saving money, getting a place, turning it around property, leveraging it, and before you know it, they're multimillionaires today.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now, this mindset is this approach. Are you creating this first and did you mention his name, is this gentleman.
Frank Dux:
He's really attached to the [00:11:41-00:11:43] Tanaka clan, of course. They have a long lineage of throwing the Emperor, which is interesting. And his family, I guess kind of broke away so that it was in a way that broke those familial ties or that that that regimented thinking, you know, Japan's very orderly, very regimented and flexible. And there's an end there in their thinking, which also works, don't get me wrong, I'm not making the equation of this is right, or this is wrong, I'm just talking about the reality of where your life can go, ending your mindset. And mindset is really important. One of the first things I teach my students is, the first and most important thing you have to learn is perspective. If you cannot maintain your perspective, you've lost control, you're no longer in control of yourself.
You don't have proper perspective, you can't see danger, you can't perceive danger, and you walk right into it. At the same time, you can see opportunities by which you can take advantage of them. And so that's the one of the things that he was really ideal at. And reinforcing in my life was to maintain a good perspective and, and take responsibility for my own actions. And that's exactly what I did. You know, I went to work when I was 12 and a half years old, because we just didn't have enough money at all.
My mother was sickly all the time. And I just, I remember scrubbing. For $1, I cleaned a term partner building for a manager who was getting paid me obviously, you know, several $100 for the same job. But I don't complain about it. Because I did enough of it. We're also seeking to find that work. And that money I got allowed me to put food on the table for my family. They gave me an opportunity that otherwise I wouldn't have. And as far as a Marine Corps, you know, same thing is there just wasn't enough to go around at all.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, was that attitude that I guess, approach of fending for yourself providing what you needed, whether we're talking about money for the family, or martial arts guidance, you know, looking within, was that aligned with what your parents taught you? Or was that in contrast?
Frank Dux:
You're very much aligned. My father, you know, had escaped Nazi Germany or Austria actually, in the age of 13. So he had to fend for himself at 13. My mother left on her own, she was 14. So they had those guys and still then they were being hunted and tried to be killed at that time in history. If you're a Jew, I'm sorry. They're that they got you when you went to a concentration camp, or they shot you where my mother saw. She worked in a factory for example. She had a job in a factory in Hungary. And she was very lucky because she was very good with mathematics. And her uncle had arranged to have a real soft like secretarial job which for some odd reason, she cooked. She wasn't just because she couldn't make it work for her. So as an alternative, they let her go to work and quality control and build radio tubes and she was able to do all these high complex things like rule measurements and things. One day, it wasn't then the Germans who came in were actually the Hungarian police. And she tells a story. And it's really it's tear jerking when she tells it because you could see her, her eyes well up with tears, and what have you.
And I remind you, she's maybe 16 years old at this time. And they came in and they read out a list of names, and one of her names, her name was read out. And she was let outside and she's put against the wall. Okay. At the same time, she's looking at other names of people, and they're being collected. And it's a vast majority of these young girls. And she remembers her best friend who's pregnant at the time. And they walk them into the middle of this huge lilac garden, at the factory compound. And she remembers this policeman wearing this green feather in his cap and on a white horse. And all of a sudden, the trucks that they had, everybody thought they were gonna be taken away in these trucks.
Then the rag curtain came down. And all these young girls were machine guns right before her eyes. And then she was taught, and then he loses his comment coming from a balcony while other people watch this. And a person's laughs, look at Tuesday, I didn't have to work full day. I mean, that's the kind of crap that impressed my mother. And she made it very clear to me, you know, about the cruelties in life. And again, you know, how she was spared, you know, by her skill sets having something valuable to say, consider your life. When I started out as a young boy, I wasn't learning martial arts so much as to be a great martial artist. I wanted to be a teacher. So that set me on a path to learn as much as I could. I didn't have the money to go into school and where the kids would be turned away. What I would do is I figured out what I can do to kind of learn and I would go over to [00:17:16-00:17:18] school called real dojo on Lankershim Boulevard to get off and junior high and get out of school.
And this is before Tanaka so just slightly before and he would basically, you know, basically go over there. And the Chinese restaurant, a couple doors down. And I would clean the Chinese restaurant exchange and would give me their cleaning supplies and want me to clean windows and sidewalk them this school. And I did that for several other schools too, by the way, and an exchange bill would open up the blinds. He saw what I did, and he would let me learn from him on the street. And, he would kind of make gestures like, turn your foot this way or that way the other kids weren't looking in other busy areas in the class and is teaching you through the way. Yeah, and he and he would come out to try to get me in, had run away. I was always afraid, you know, I don't know what it was that I was afraid that he thought maybe I'm stealing his lessons or something. But I was getting held back.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How old are you at that point?
Frank Dux:
Oh gosh, I just turned 13 years old. But 14 is just right there. And it was just before I met Tanaka, I met a talk I think where I was really close to 15 years old. So, yeah, he and I would go down to bond [00:18:50-00:18:52] . Milan had a school on Santa Monica Boulevard and he converted a garage with like four for five days. And he turned that into a studio and above his window and his mirrors above his mirrors. He had this calligraphy and the clear view stood for benevolence, courage, valor, wisdom as three symbols were meant for things. And those four things became those four symbols. The three symbols if you look at my patches, you'll see those three symbols in there today. And those four things were the secret to developing or what they call my no mine in martial arts.
Or what they say is called mission when you're dead to temptations you control remember that your perspective you control your angers your emotions, because what it really means is you have to have the courage to take on new ventures when things become over well being, you have to have the valor to meet your obligations for baseball winning odds. You have to, you have to have benevolence to, to show towards your worst enemy, because a true warrior turns a negative into a positive. Right. And when you can do all those things, you're doing it because you're coming from a place of wisdom, not because from a place of emotion, because the other elements are all emotional states of mind, and goes back to what we're talking about, maintaining perspective. And so when you're able to divorce yourself from emotion, think logically through the situation, you can arrive at the right resolution or answer to resolve whatever conflict is in front of you.
Sometimes that's negotiation and negotiation, some striking work. You know, that's the reality of it. And so, I took those principles. When I first started teaching, and I was 19 years old, when I did, it was 1975. And what I did was, I didn't want to call myself a Sensei, because that's a Japanese term for teacher. I don't call myself Shifu, because as a Chinese teacher, the traditional words, and I was not a traditional martial artist I was self taught, essentially, yes, I had many instructors. But I came up with my own system, which I call Dux Ryu. Which means it flows from Dux, that's what remains close to the river comes out of me. And so to be completely honest with everyone I was dealing with, I invented the word Shidoshi-do in four ways. And the last thing is the Chinese symbol.
Of course, I picked three symbols or words from three different arts. For Japanese, being the way in Korean, like Taekwondo, or tangsudo people can relate to that. And the last one was she, which was Chinese, which was the symbol for the force within you, or course, life and death. So it's for ways of the dead boys of being dead emotion, and I wanted my students to ascend to that level. And as I'm the teacher, what am I doing, I'm uplifting them to that level shadow sheet. And that's how I came up with that symbol. We used it in Bloodsport, now everybody in the world around I'm a shadow sheet. And it's not a Japanese word, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
There, the way you're talking about that sounds very reminiscent of monks. You know, just this talk of let's progress past the point of needing the baggage or being bogged down in, you know, emotion and was there a religious element to that for you?
Frank Dux:
What kind of element is religious? No, just the truth. Okay, dealing in truths, you know, dealing in my jury dealing what my parents taught me observable realities. You know, it's just that simple, nothing comes out of a heated argument, except hurt feelings, you know, you're not going to prevail. But, you know, in some situations, you're going to end up losing the situation, especially if the guy's a better linguist. I mean, it's like trying to have an argument with somebody in Chinese, you know, say, example.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's not gonna work well.
Frank Dux:
It's not gonna work. But if you take the emotion and you take in your work, from a logical point of view, you can diffuse anything, for example, and this comes into my principles, one of the things I teach is called the triangle force, all life works up a triangle for so you really want to win, and combat the whole secret as you maintain your triangle force on your opponent and deny them the triangle force on you. Okay, and that has to do with the geometry involved in quite, I mean, it's just, it's really simple. I can prove it over and over again, and I've done it and that's why my system is used by you know, States Navy SEALs, probably the best forces around the world because what I developed was a way to bypass the amygdala and access the frontal cortex of the brain. I'm not really teaching new techniques and teaching them new ways to access it. And that's what maybe lifestyle so deadly, and that's what made my style so versatile, and that's why you'll see like Dux near jiu jitsu dictionary, taekwondo, Dux from judo, MMA, urban combatives Krav Maga, because they're taking these principles, I'm telling you, and we're applying it to the application technology that people are taught, and it makes them better.
And actually, you know, it's a real game changer. Good example, that is, I would say contact. This guy named Jesse James Tucker, Jesse hounded me for two years to teach him I was retired, my wife said, No, this guy seems very sincere. So okay, come on out. And I told Jesse what to do when he first came out to visit with me. Because that's impossible, there's no way you can do that. When you left, he was like it, it works. It really happened. And this is a guy who is an experienced teacher and has well over 20 years in the martial arts and he walked away like you like, he just took this first step in this journey, and that's kind of what I do is I try to teach these days, the higher concepts.
They try to make us a little billable to all instructors and say, Look, I'm not here to change your system, I'm here to change you and make you better at how to communicate better with it. And really understand what I call the laws of conduct. people sit down and they think they know martial arts and it's through no fault of their own. Okay, it's through the lack of education that's available. No one has actually sat down like I have identified what a couple of laws of combat and there are direct laws reproducible results, and you follow these formulas, you will get this result period, and there's certain styles of work certain formulas and why they work and this is where they break down when you understand that…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Can you give an example? I think I get you but I'm not. Can you share…
Frank Dux:
Give me an example. Give me an example, Krav Maga is based on a principle called bad code. Okay, burst attack destroys the circle to the oblique. That's the whole circle game. Grappling is based on the principle of trapping you have to use your trapping drawing a man or you have to get close to you have to end manipulation and those are just some simple principles you know. Only work along the principles of focus action skills, strategy tactics, what I call fast if you really want to get someone, all your views destroy any one of those five points and you win the gunfight for example, right taking away your focus you deleted to see. I was sure. So simple. So people aren't identifying things in that way. It's like, okay, he throws a punch. And I'm going to throw a punch back. Why? Why?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because you're trying to…
Frank Dux:
See, that's my point. You can't explain. How to explain… Sure, you're right. Okay. You throw a punch back because you're trying to hit him with overwhelming force. And you're hoping that you're one force will determine the outcome. Bottom line, okay. So, another way to defeat his will to run force takeaways, abilities. Okay. You said before to punch me in the face and I thought I'd throw you know, fireplace ash, mix with glass in your eyes. Who was that? But probably you, right? I definitely won the fight. Because you don't, you don't expect it to come from a perspective of, I'm going to punch you. You don't see that coming. That's what made ninjutsu so dangerous, as principles like when I was talking to my instructor, he was like, no, you have to, you don't fight on their terms. You fight your fight. Okay, that's keeping you in my triangle force. And you and I are not in your triangle.
Jeremy Lesniak:
What are the points on the triangle?
Frank Dux:
Triangle and human terms of another way to look at it? Are you married at all? Or not? Or have been in a significant ruination? I have been? Yes. Okay. So, one side of the triangle, there's you, the other side of the triangle is your significant other. Okay? And then together, the base is the to you together, alright. Okay, you see that? So, that's how the world sees me. So you have a triangle, you got that what can bring you in closer together is what we call a third dynamic run, centerline and martial arts just like and we're fighting. Okay, I have a centerline. Whoever dominates the center line wins. Okay, Wing Chun is based on that. Right. So, I take that same principle like you see in Wing Chun and apply it to my life and that way. So what do we know about the satellite? Well, what the satellite can be is what we call a dynamic of conflict. Okay, because all the dynamics happen there, right? Exchange blows and we deflect, okay, you get caught cheating. What do you do? You're trying to deflect? No, I wasn't cheating.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. Make sense? Okay.
Frank Dux:
And that element can bring you together or it can destroy you, maybe? Yeah, I was caught cheating. And I'm cheating because you know, you're not putting out. Right? Having a direct conversation makes the other person go, oh, you know, I'm not meeting their needs. That's the human real reality or, its financial problems and marriage. That's what it can be. People don't address that dynamic. They just play this game and go around the triangle finally kind of spreads apart, you know, you have your triangle, and eventually what happens up base, there's no triangle anymore, is it when you sweat, there's no big kids. Again. That's my focus, you can take the same principles in martial arts is what I teach that triangle force model. And we can apply it to our lives and make it better. And that's what martial arts really was really all about. It's about resolving conflict, without violence. And with mutual benefit, that's where people forget, you have to have mutual benefit. Otherwise, any peace you have will not last. There unless you're, of course, with a psychopath.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There may be some folks listening who know, you know, your history. And they're finding that statement about martial arts. Maybe, maybe it's coming across as something unexpected, perhaps odd coming from you. Have you always had that perspective on martial arts? Have you always seen it that way? Or did that change?
Frank Dux:
Now, I've always seen, I started off with my models and learned it. That's why I had such success. That's why you have to understand I have had an orchestrated effort of a magnitude you cannot believe to try to drive me out of martial arts. Because I speak the truth. And the truth makes people who are forced to be changed by it angry, they resist it, they will hate you for okay. And this is the reality. You know, I forced a lot of changes in the industry. I wouldn't go along with the illusionary business of it, where people are saying, oh, we do this, we do that and said, no, you don't. You're not ethical. You can't be sitting here and telling me you're teaching kids to be upright standing, you know, people, and they have gone strong discipline minds while you're going in the back room. And you know, you know, do a lot of cocaine. Okay, it's not a judgment call. It's just as a sign of why would you do that if it's gonna hurt your body? Are you working contrary to what you're teaching? You have to live with what it is you're teaching, you're just you're being confronted by people on that? And I gotta tell you, a lot of the best instructors I know come from the most sorted pass. Oh, I'm thinking, No. Good. Because they recognize their mistakes. And then they're able to recognize them and others and say, hey, man, I know what you're doing. And let's get you straight. Let's do this, let's do that. They can actually genuinely talk about a place of love, knowledge and personal experience and understand what the other person's going through, how to find sympathy, find compassion. For others, you know…
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'm going to infer that you'd include yourself in that group.
Frank Dux:
Well, my journey was a little more different in the sense of, I never was engaged in any form of substance abuse, I can't speak to substance abuse, okay. But I can again, that's where I come from the point of using the technology and I can approach them some. Why are you doing something that's counterproductive to you and show them how the martial arts model works, for example, and how they can apply it to their life? Okay. I'm not as effective. I'll be honest with us, a guy who I've had in my studios who was a substance abuser, who has to learn the technology, and he's reaching out to that kind of person that that I can tell you right now, that person, one of my instructors actually went through that. He is far greater at that than I am. Okay, I know my limitations, you know. But the point is, I was the one who actually identified it, and was able to teach that so they can use that, you know, and he's able to educate me to pay you know, here's the medical realities of when a person, let's say, uses substances, how it creates different you know, pathways in the brain and how they fire and how they get they have these pleasure points and0 they're amplified.
And that's why the people keep trying to get a hit to get that. Get that back because the receptors are there more receptors now because, and so I've educated myself to get to understand what people struggle with, but I could never know, almost I went through it myself how difficult that may be, you know, or what that physically feels like, you know, I mean, I don't have to cut off my hand, have compassion to somebody. And so and help them. And that's, again, it's the technology. It's understanding the interrelationship between martial arts or what a couple of laws of combat and behavior are and how we can change the world. And one of them, just like I said, just the first thing we're talking about, maintain perspective, how do you maintain perspective? You know, and you and you keep that, and one of them, it's probably one of the things that really helped me through a lot. I mean, I have people actively lying about me every day, I aperion videos, making claims that are just, if anybody bothered to chest to the simple research, they know they're not true, like my instructor never existed, okay. You can go on ancestry.com and do a search, you see a doc exists. Okay. But people will continue with that. Why? You know, all the [00:36:36-00:36:37] doesn't exist, yet we have, it's been going on since the 30s. And 40s, you can look at it.
You know, I was on a show called Viking samurai. And I actually had to explain to people the math involved. And I really recommend it to people if you hear. Oh, it's impossible, because the math goes to a liking summary. On YouTube, look up the podcast, and it's called [00:37:01-00:37:02]. And we explained it in detail. And you will understand that there's, it holds no water. Because what it is, is, again, people are being deceptive for their own their own agenda serving their own agenda. And they're trying to rationalize or use, you know, math and perverted in a way by creating a different kind of model for what it is, you know, we're talking Asian martial arts, the agent mindset is circular. The western mindset is linear. And you and you understand that you understand that I'm teaching real martial arts.
I competed in a real martial art competition, whereas most martial art competitions today are not real martial arts, there are traditional Asian martial arts issues. They are martial arts, so they're not traditional Asian martial arts, like I competed in. Why? Because they're all linear. It's all brackets, a single elimination, it didn't work that way. You know, you'd have a circle in the old days, 60 fighters, and you'd step to the left, if you caught the next guy, whoever was left standing. That's how you kind of figured out one.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Interesting. When, if you look at how people form opinions, or how they present opinions, we know plenty of research in psychology has shown that people start with an emotional response. And they will backfill logic or data or math to justify right, what they believe. And, you know, the last thing I'm going to do is step into your story and say anything about your story, because it's not my story. I could talk about my story, but it doesn't take long looking around at any aspect of the world to see oh, there's an emotional decision that someone shoehorned you know, a data point or logic or, you know, that person said this, so it must be true to justify to themselves, so they don't feel like it's solely an emotional response.
Frank Dux:
Oh, yeah, I agree with you there. But the other thing is, you have to understand we have to consider people who serve agendas, many, many of them are hidden agendas. Some of the agendas aren't even known to the person who's doing it. They have a deep emotional issue going on, and they're projecting whatever it is that they are seeing onto somebody else. For example, I know guys who are absent frauds in the martial arts, but the biggest accusers of fraud of everyone else, they have websites dedicated to revealing crime yet, if you look into their background, they were translators. They weren't really martial arts, so they really didn't absorb. They went through the motions. They dress. They roleplay. And that's the difference. There's a difference between role playing a martial art and actually becoming one. What's the difference? Because it requires a high level of ethics. A good example of that is I look at this mega weekend going on in Atlantic City that's gonna come up. All these so-called respectable martial artists are going in there to get awards that they paid for. It's a marketing tool. They're deceiving the public because this is an earned award.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So I do want to be careful of calling out specific people, that's a line we really try to not cross on this show.
Frank Dux:
Well, I'm not calling out any more events, I'm calling out. I'm calling out a reality. Okay. And reality is this. When a person does that they're not hard. They're not only harming the public, they're harming themselves, when they have a real achievement. How does that measure up anymore? It has no value of consciousness, the same principle of everyone gets a trophy. Every kid participates in and gets a trophy, where's the lesson in that for a job? You're always going to be taken care of, you're always going to come out a winner.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And we certainly agree on that player. And in fact, we did an episode a few years ago about why I strongly disagree with participation trophies.
Frank Dux:
Right? And that's exactly what you're seeing, and those events, that's my point. And we as martial art leaders and leaders of schools, we need to stand as the example for the brothers. How can you be an example and preach what we're talking about, like no purchase trophies? Okay, and learn the hard lessons of life and learn that, hey, if you want to, you really got to work harder at harder than the next guy. If you destroy that lesson, how could you say you're being an ethical person, you're being the example that you're not. And that's why I'm against it having nothing to do with personality. And there's a different way to reframe the context of these events, we could still have these events. But they're not. They're not done in the right frame context.
And this is the problem because everybody's looking for the pat on the back. They're looking to be famous for famous, they think they're famous, that'll bring them happiness, or they make that much more money, they're going to be happier, they get the big house, they're going to be happy, or they're going to, you know, they got the fancy boat, they're going to be happy. And yeah, how many people I've watched blow their brains out. We've gotten everything they've gotten in life that they thought would make them happy. Happiness starts from within happiness actually comes from giving to others, believe it or not.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, how do we address that? Because what you're talking about whether we look at it as a martial arts issue, wanting to pat on the back, or we look at it as a societal issue or a global issue, it's real right there. A lot of people are desperate for validation, wanting to feel like they're good enough, like they measure up in some way. Right? If we can, if we dial that into martial art, go ahead.
Frank Dux:
Look, I'm gonna stop you right there because it goes right back to what we want to talk about perspective. Sure. We're looking for validation, so worthy looking outward. In martial arts, were you supposed to look inward? And that's the lesson. That's what people need to learn. And that's what they need to practice. How do we teach them something by doing the opposite? Okay, I cannot be a sober person by drinking every night. That is true. Okay. And that's what they're doing. They're drinking in this. This thing that creates an illusion for them. It temporarily gives them an escape, but it's only a temporary escape. It's not facing the issues, the underlying issues. That's the problem of substance abuse. There's something else working at it and that's why people are doing it. So we deadened the pain. They're not addressing issues of activism. Great example. That's fanatical activism. If you look at most fanatical activists, you'll see that they come from a real trouble, childhood or past or something traumatic in their life. And they're so bested in this activism, because it's an escape from them having to look inward and deal with what they need to deal with. And correct what they need to correct at home. A master is supposed to teach masters and people below them how to implement that in their lives, change a community, but in return, he was like, I can't do that by being unethical, or going along with a practice that I know is not correct. It's killing people. Yeah, look outward, let's reinforce this looking at crap. This is my issue with it. And, people will have to understand that it has nothing to do with a personal issue whatsoever. Okay. I've only gone to a couple of Halls of Fame, and actually a keynote speaker at one.
And I actually talked about this very issue at the Hall of Fame and I got a standing ovation, it was the Masters called thing with [00:36:36-00:36:37]. He told me it was probably the most moving speech she'd ever heard in his system. Okay, please can he do it right, he has some kind of a scheme screening process, if you will, for getting that validation. Whereas other guys, it's like, hey, go out, you've been selected. Just pick your award, you want to be MMA champion of the year, and never fought in any fight in life. There's one guy, he's getting an award this weekend. He's zero and three. You know, I can respect the participating buddies getting a participation to work. Let's be honest, you didn't achieve anything. We say he's pulling himself. He's cheating himself out of real victory.
It's like, I've had people walk in and say I want to be a blackbelt. Like, I just walk into the door. And I'd say here you go. First meeting. And they're like, what? You want to do it on a [00:46:36-00:46:37]? No, no, no, I want to make them see they're what they really want. And you know what's great about that? I had people in my system who never got a black book. They're 20 years old and they have no problems. They never said, oh, I've got 10 years in grading. No, it's a level of competency. This is your level of competency. And they're happy with it. And they are respected by the other students because they keep trying?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I've got a question for them. Because you're pulling on a thread is really personal for me. And depending on the day, I go back and forth on how I feel rank has served us as a community and industry or…
Frank Dux:
Rank is nothing more and it's you gotta put it again. Let's put it in the right perspective. Okay. If you're getting ranked to the validated, it's you're doing a disservice. If you're selling rank in your school as a as a as a way of validation, you're doing that person a disservice if you're using it as a barometer, as a form of measurement is a form to make sure that hey, I'm not going to pick this guy against another guy, a sparring match, where he ends up, you know, going out horizontally at a class, then it's out. And that's why rank was invented. There were no ranks in martial arts until it became a sport until they started to turn jiu jitsu into a judo sport. And the very, very first Judo matches, by the way award, the MMA rules aren't today, you could punch the face, you could do all the things that you see today. That was judo. Okay? And, and in the needed, just like you have an amateur and you have professional MMA matches and how you rank people. That's why the Institute, the belt system, it was taken from the top hats that the bureaucrats used to wear in Japan, the level of supervision, that's why you have a black, the black came about because that was a top bureaucrat. You see, the lowest one was a white, white top and then turned into belts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Is there. So given the current climate with belts, which do you think we should address?
Frank Dux:
Sorry, I'm tearing up my phone. Okay.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I thought. So certainly not the first I've even had my phone make noise. You know, I've been doing this for years, and it still wants to while I mess up? Would it be easier to address the perspective that you're talking about? Or would it be easier to address the rank if we wanted the faster way to start making some changes?
Frank Dux:
Or do you think we are all learning the lesson and I call it it's the most it's the first lesson of martial arts first law perspective, maintain perspective. And that's what I'm trying to do here is trying to re educate instructors and saying, I love what you guys are doing. But here's where you're messing up. You are somewhere along the line. You weren't taught this lesson. You know, and it's a lesson from history. So don't blame it as a lesson that your instructor didn't give you. You know, what makes us so respected as an industry or supposedly why martial arts were respected is because we had the proper perspective, we maintain the perspective. We're the guys who are supposed to stand in crisis and stand up for people when they can't take care of themselves. I know when we had the earthquake in Mexico, my students immediately the way I trained them, really found out everybody was everybody's family, okay. And the ones that weren't, they went to the dojo, and they had food and water. And then they went out and organized and started taking people out of buildings.
And they were doing this hours before the police, and ambulances or anybody responded. And they were just all over the city. I mean, because we had schools everywhere. And they were just saving people left and right, organizing things. So because of the way they were taught, maintaining perspective, right, perspective is we got to protect the children, we got to do this, we have to have water, we have to do this. And we have to find out who's injured and organized. And they, they didn't know in organized fashion, he didn't look to the police. They didn't look medical, they looked to themselves as a family. This is how we're going to take care of ourselves. And now we're going to take care of our community, and then we're going to go outside that. And we can do that as martial artists. We shouldn't do that as a martial art. And we need to refrain from these halls of fame. I'm not saying we can't have it, I'm saying we need to reframe them. They need to be put in a proper perspective. Not cheapen the arts, not turn into the circus. Start reinforcing where people look. Looking inward is closed out.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We have a wide swath of people all over the world. The one thing they really have in common is they speak English. And they have likely some training, but at least some interest in martial arts. Now, a lot of what you're talking about, I'm sure folks who've been around a few decades. They're dialed in. What about someone who's been training for maybe a year or two? And they're hearing you and they're saying, you know, I get it? It makes sense. I don't know if I'm learning from that kind of a person. What would you advise of them? Go right back to where I told you before, take responsibility for your own learning.
Frank Dux:
You know, yeah. Because he has his own way of doing things. Okay. Sometimes you have to trust the process. But at the same time, like I said, if you're watching a guy and he's a bully, and he's not living up to what he's teaching you it's time to leave. It's time to go find someone who can walk the walk, not just talk to talk. That's what it really comes down to. And in a sad reality, but it's the truth and or you need to have that conversation when you say, Look, you know, I love you as a teacher, but you're messing up.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Such a difficult conversation.
Frank Dux:
Yeah, but you know, what will come out of it? You're not selling you're risking the relationship. Anyone who has a deep meaningful relationship will always risk the relationship. Okay, to do what's right, you don't sell. You know, you don't enable people to continue to make mistakes. Think about how many people go down the wrong path. And I put it to you simply. You saw a blind man, he's about to step into heavy traffic, would you grab him by the arm? Or would you let them go? Grab? So why aren't you willing to grab somebody who's blind and what they're doing and they're about to get hit by a truck. Load of truths or or set they're setting shows up for this. Stepping up to this big chasm of failure. Why wouldn't you do that? Show it. Where's your humanity? Where's your courage? Right, he goes back to the [00:54:31-00:54:32]. Yeah, you have to have courage.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think that's probably a good part of this is that you get enough people who don't have the courage to do the right thing, say the right thing. Take the risk of the relationship. There's these symptoms that are going to come out of that.
Frank Dux:
It's actually not courage, conditioning, and talking to me to look for plural approval. Okay, And the reason they do that is because they've not learned perspective. It all goes right back to perspective. We can pull this and I can take the layers off, and I'll take you right back. It always goes right back to perspective, maintain perspective. If you maintain the right perspective, and you continue to walk that path, you will reach what you thought are unattainable successes in your life. And I've got one credit with 16 World Records. I didn't get there because I addressed my failures, I looked at my house and said how can I do this better? What am I doing incorrectly? What can I do better than that? And how do I get to this level, and I didn't, I wasn't competing and looking for the journey. As the end goal, I was looking at the process of, you know, life is enjoyable when you understand and you look at it, not as like an attainment of certain materialistic things with an attainment of a memory. You know, that's why people who have all these wonderful things, but at the end of the walk, they're jumping off a building just because there's no nothing memorable in the journey to get there.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, yeah, a lot of the people that I pay attention to, of late express that as gratitude, you know, if you can dial in, if you can feel grateful if you can recognize it, other other people, other events, were responsible for getting you to where you are now. And it's really hard to feel bad, when you are also grateful.
Frank Dux:
Here's an example. And it's a hard one for people to swallow and think about, I really want you to think about it. Especially men who may feel abandoned by their father, or let down by their father or abused by their father. Rather than resent them, I want you to change your mental attitude, want you to turn to her and put yourself in power and power yourself. And thank them for what they did, because he or whatever they did, even the most screwed up thing they ever did to you.
They made you who you are today. Okay, be grateful that that happened to you, as screwed up as that may be because it put you on a path of who you are. And that's what I try to tell all these young men and that's it. And you can do that. Then you can unshackle yourself from the horrors of the past. And you do not have to look into a bottle or look to be validated by others. And this is the issue. This is what's really going on.
Again, people are looking outside themselves, not looking inside them. That's why we mean one with the universe in martial arts, one with yourself where everything becomes within you, not out of you. And most people don't understand that. They just hear the words. They don't understand the concept of putting everything out there and put it within you. You're one with it. You're not looking outside.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You've mentioned a few times, I'm going to imagine that there's some kind of whether it's an official or not vetting process that you have. If someone's going to become your student, is this part of that? Do they have to be somewhere in terms of perspective for you to say, You know what, you're ready for me? You're not ready for me?
Frank Dux:
No, because I've never said no to students. Anybody who's come to me, I've never turned anyone away. I just always have a challenge. Don't give a good example, I had a kid come to me who was in a wheelchair, every instructor turning them away. Just said, Okay, here's another challenge. I've got to take all these things I've learned and how do I improve this guy's life, how do I get him outside himself? Not feeling sorry for himself? How do I teach him martial arts? And I told him, I looked at his legs and I looked at his movement and I said, you know, and they did a special on that's incredible on this by the way, you can actually see it. You can hear the words from his own mother. And I told him to let so I'm going to get you up and walking. And everybody looked at me like when the doctor said it's impossible.
This is impossible, but I knew for my studies and In one go into a car and I could feel that I could reconnect the pulses, the connection, it's like rewiring. Like, it's like an electrician going into boxes, saying, hey, you know what? All these wires are broken, but I could take this wire and put it here and I could put that wire here and kind of make it work. You know, it's Mickey Mouse who will make it work. Right? It was the same thing with him. I did the same thing. And as you can see in the video, I got less. You know what he was walking like a real person, but he was walking, he was on his own two feet. And he was able to go across the room to his mother for the first time. Okay, and that's on video. There's a guy named Justin Harvey and that Justin, he was bound up. I mean, he had moved. In years, he was literally I met Justin on the phone. I didn't even know what his condition was. But he invited Justin to come out. And he suffered from cerebral palsy to come out. And I said, I'll train. He's a big blood sport fan. He watched what sport, just the timing was three. It's the only thing that got him through the day. So it was a really, really great story with them.
So I found Justin, he is like this. He can't even move his muscles. He's just frozen. And as I'm putting him in the car, and then forget it. He knocks off my hat by accident, right? Those are fighting words. That's fighting words. When I needed them, then we just cracked up. Well, Justin, I'll tell you should get him on your radio show. You can tell you about what it was like in those three weeks. I had Justin walking also. Okay. And in fact, I had Justin starring in a very funny story that showed you how it was he always dreamed of, he wanted to fight, he wants to be right, right. And so I started putting my thinking cap on and again, maintaining perspective. It's okay, I know I do. I was living. At that time, Seattle on a lake had its own dock. And I took chests down to the lake and I invited my other students over how to fight in the water. You know, put her likeness on Justin. Another student, Sean [01:02:38-01:02:39] who I laugh at, because Sean doesn't know how to swim. I took him to the dock. And the first thing I do is “so, you're ready, Justin”, because I threw him in the water. And the guys were of course down below to help him but he's kind of paddling, you know, Justin's trying to he's trying to stay afloat as you can with the guys who are there, so you're going to be sparring today, Justin. I said, Sean, you're ready to start adjusting? He goes, but I can't. So, I said what makes it fair, and I pushed him to the course. He's floundering around and clamoring around and Sean, I go “Sean, stand up. Stand up”. You're not drowning, using wastewater. Right.
But the point is, I took away Shawn's ability to use his legs and maneuver in the water. And the same thing held true with what, Justin? And now even the tables and they started and just in one, and I got beat by a guy in the chair. Yeah. Go Yeah, you need to work at this don't. Because yeah, I do. Alright. And it's a funny story. But it's again, it all goes back to these lessons. I keep telling the first important thing you have to always remember, maintain perspective, you can change the world with the right perspective. You can change anything, it's just doing that changing it up, what can I do differently? What can I do differently? How can I make this work? How can I mix and the answers will come to you? You know, and that's and that's important that instead of being in an argument with somebody and feeling yourself, right, turn the argument around, start looking at things through their eyes. You know, and you'll be surprised how you can change things in your favor. You know, I mean, I had a guy and before you could say anything, hey, I cut you off. I'm sorry. Could you take a break? I need to make it terrible. Or my wife oh my god, my work was brilliant.
Again, I got a great story for you. Absolutely brilliant. What she did was we were in a vehicle and we're going into. When we first came to Las Vegas, we lived in a condominium complex. And we pulled in, and there's plenty of ways to get around us. He just said go around. And I pulled over for a phone call. And I'm at the curb buddy. Right? But I guess I wasn't in the curb far enough for whatever guy was coming in to make that like, right turn this guy, you could tell even partying all night, it was 10 attitude. And he's honking behind me like to just go around me, right? I'm dealing with my call. And she's honking and gets really upset. Finally, he pulls around in front of me, he gets out and walks to my car. Right? He opens the door and my wife's looking at me, oh my God, he's gonna kill you, I'm ready to like, I really like, nails, on top of which I have really half my size, when I really realized that later. But he just had a really bad day. It was obviously drinking or something. And was very aggressive. And my wife goes, “Oh, please. You know, excuse us, you know, we just got terrible news, you know, our, our, our mother's in the hospital and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah”. And she really talked to him from a human point of view. The guy. Again, she was smart enough to change the perspective of what the situation was for him. He's going, “Oh, he was apologizing to us”. You understand?
He couldn't do enough at that point. And again, what do we do there? Yeah, so it wasn't maybe ethical to not tell the truth. But there are exceptions. An exception is when you're going to avoid violence when you're going to actually serve some greater injury that becomes a tool and in all warfare is based on deception. You know,San soo we use that tool. And again, what is all warfare is based on deception, what is deception, changing people's perspective. And all again, it all comes down to that one wall. And you start with the most basic thing of that and maintain that in your life like your integrity, like not going to these events like I was telling you about? Here's the reality. Most people don't think about how a lot of people see these events like we're talking about as marketing tools. Can I have businesses? I can see that's a valid argument. But what they don't see is that it's a double edged sword. At the same time, if you have all these pros, trophies and belts and plaques in your office, and believe me, I got plenty of them. I mean, I'm not gonna…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Take it well, listeners. But for those listening, not watching the video, yeah, we're looking at a wall full of plaques.
Frank Dux:
Okay, anyways, my point is, if you have a client who turns around or clients and sees that you and feel that you deceived them, that these weren't earned, you end up with an empty school. You have people calling you a fake and a fraud you could be one of the best and work the hardest all your life and all of a sudden because you look for that validation outside you give away your power and then identify that you're looking for validation and if you're looking for validation, how could you be someone they're seeking? You're supposed to do it right? Yeah. Typically. So I just caution people and it's so easy for me to sit here and go along with the flow and not rock the boat. Okay, and make everybody feel really peaceful and oh, boy, I'm glad he's there. But then I wouldn't be who I am. I wouldn't achieve a position of leadership in the community. If I was plural, in my thinking, and that and as a martial art, we're not supposed to me. So, that's the important lesson that I try to impart on people and when you stop being poor and you're thinking, every aspect in your life changes, and you will be surprised at how life becomes that much sweeter. Because you're not looking outside yourself. You can really taste what things are going on.
You can start setting goals you might otherwise have thought weren't possible. You know, think of all the inventions that came about because, and people said, oh, that's impossible can't be done. But a lot of things, right? Here you are, you're on a radio show, right? Yeah. How many people start out and say, Oh, I'm going to get a radio show? And I'm going to do this and that and they say, now you don't know. You don't know, people. And what ends up happening, they don't do it. If you had listened to the negative voices that probably told you, you couldn't do this. Where would you be?
Jeremy Lesniak:
I'd be back where they are. In fact, we've had a lot of that over the years. And then now a lot of revisionist history is going on.
Frank Dux:
Oh, yeah. But my point, my point is, it goes back to plural thinking. As a martial artist, we're supposed to state that. That's why again, it goes back to what I was telling you to be one.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, what's next for you? What's next for you? What if we go back a few years? What would have happened between now and then?
Frank Dux:
Inside? It's not? What's new for me? It's really, what am I going to do to continue my message and get it out there. And I think, point I want to create a program. And I'm not the one who created this, but I want to really redefine it. And, and I want to put the martial arts back in martial arts. And I think one of the ways we do it is with a protocol I'm going to call for better for lack of a better term martial art therapy. Okay, it's a better way of understanding and reframing the context of what we're talking about, starting with, like, lesson notes, per sector. The next lesson I talked to people about is be dynamic and and we can talk an hour or two on that alone, as well. Sure we could. But that's what's next. And for me, it's again, it's part of the continuing journey. You know, one of my goals was when I first started working.
And I had an opportunity to open a school in Beverly Hills, a guy who wants to do my part. He saw the financial gains of franchising my name with less work coming out and setting up a string of schools and doing all this. And another guy come on my school and he wanted me to help bring into to martial arts to Mexico. They're looking for any come to me before. But it was an impactful moment for me. And I found myself at a crossroads. And I had to make a choice and, and as a result, I chose not to go ahead with the multimillion dollar school franchise business owner occupied all my time, because that's what was being required of me. And I probably would have been set up for life and had a different, you know, different aspect of things. But I decided, you know what, I look inside myself. Everything was gonna be more meaningful for me. So I went to Mexico. And now we have schools all over Mexico. I helped build up the entire industry there with a guy named Manuel Mondragon, who later became the National Security Director of the country. And David Moon and other fine gentlemen who also brought taekwondo there, I think he's got 400 schools there. Maybe more than 1400 schools will take that back. In fact, if you look at the first professional taekwondo games, you'll see this is long gone and myself.
They're seated right next to the Grandmaster moon. For the first professional games held in Mexico. We're at the head table. Nice. Okay. In Yeah, and I'm very proud of the fact that I have an award that was continuous folders, the first second only for nationals to receive this award from the mayor of Mexico City. And for the programs we did there, and we you know, like I said, right. I mean, I put together programs where we start out in the parks, that's how I started teaching martial arts. I was in a park, I didn't have a studio, I didn't have anybody to help me. Show me how to run a school. I learned so much. And I did the same thing in Mexico. So we have schools all over Mexico and it's in a variety of different things: taekwondo, Kempo, judo, Jiu Jitsu, mixed martial arts, kickboxing, urban combative, krav maga, I can go on and on. They're all related, we have schools, you know, little call all these schools, we could have under one banner, we call it the circle of iron circle where we all kind of work as like, like the [01:15:28-01:15:30], everybody's equal, and we all work together. And it's not about rank, rank is something separate. That's just sort of like, you know, a measuring tool.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So, if I may, it sounds like you've built this incredible group of people. And if it truly is, I'm imagining that when you selected that imagery, you know, around the table that you took it to heart, you don't sound like someone who just casually chooses things. What have they taught you?
Frank Dux:
Well, I'll tell you from all of this, I caught the attention of the World Organization for peace. And now I'm a delegate on this delegate for Nevada for the organization. And that organization, just for those people who aren't familiar with it, they're the ones who brokered the peace treaty, if you will, or the meeting between the President of North and South Korea, they're the ones who did that, and organized that. Which is kind of…
Jeremy Lesniak:
Looks like the recording and auto started my apologies, we continue to make it work. We'll make it work. This is not how we normally run, start again. Sure.
Frank Dux:
No, okay, I'll just start here, we're saying, the thing about the organization is that it's, it's about knowing harmony, and through harmony, we're able to resolve issues and non-political ways. So we have sustainable solutions to social problems.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's a great place to start to fade out. So, we've covered a lot of stuff here and likely, and intentionally, not some of the things that maybe you would have expected, some of the listeners would have expected because I don't like doing the same interview. Everybody does. I got to know you. You know, I got to know what makes you tick. And that's what I was most interested in. So as we fade here, I leave this part up to the guests. What do you want to leave people with? You know, we've got an hour plus a conversation that they can go back and listen to anytime they want. But you've given speeches, you've given successful speeches, you know that the way things end is pretty important. So, how do you want to end this? What are your kind of final thoughts, final words to the folks paying attention, our conversation today.
Frank Dux:
I want people to really take to heart what I said, think about taking the time to digest. And know that they themselves are special, they don't have to look outside themselves for validation. It will come from doing the opposite of what you think the harder you work at trying to chase it, the more elusive it'll be. Come comes through actions, not words, not staged events, actual real contribution. And it comes from within you. It's the way it shines through you. And that, again, goes back to what we were talking about here. And that was my first lesson. I teach all my students when they walk in the door, and that is a maintained perspective. You know, don't sell yourself out. Don't cheapen yourself from having a victory. Don't make your life hollow. You know, take stock in who you are. Love yourself. You know, if you feel the need to escape, ask yourself, why are you needing to escape? What can you do to change? What is your situation? You know, what aren't you doing? Even the other question I have to ask people and just remember if you maintain a healthy perspective, in income from a loving perspective, not anger towards everyone, including yourself. You can change the world because the world is big. throwing a pebble the ripples Go out, they always returned.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That was the conversation, wasn't it? I'm really thankful that Hanshi Dux was willing to go where I wanted to go. And we were able to have what I honestly thought was a very respectful conversation, even though we went out on some of the fringe stuff, and we talked a little bit about some of the controversial stuff. I'm appreciative that that wasn't the thrust of the conversation. I think anytime you have a figure who becomes controversial, a lot of us try to reduce that person to controversy. Any of us is more than that. We all have a lot of things in common. And I will take this back to a statement I've made on the show many times, no matter who you are, and what you train, we all have more in common as martial artists we do that separates us we have more alike than indivision you could say in a number of different ways. So thank you, Hanshi Dux, for coming on the show. And for having such a fun conversation. I really, really enjoyed this.
Now, remember, we've got a website for this episode. Transcript may not be up day of but it gets there eventually. Whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. And if you're gonna support us in the work that we do, remember, you got tons of stuff you can do. You could follow us on social media, you could leave a review, you can pick up something at whistlekick.com the code, PODCAST15. And of course, we have our Patreon, patreon.com/whistleKick, the whole list, whistlekick.com/family. interested in having me come out to your school for a seminar, we can do that. Just reach out. Jeremy@whistlekick.com if you've got guest suggestions or other feedback, as long as it's respectful, I'm game to hear it. Let me know by email. That's it. Thanks for coming by. I'll see you next time. Until then train hard, smile, and have a great day.