Jiu Jitsu and Working

[NameLikeNoOther]

The balance isnt in finding when to work and when to train. The balance is in yourself, and asking what are you willing to sacrifice in order to train more. for me,,, I sacrifice food.

Would you eat this to further the 'dream'?

https://youtu.be/IVO8smkZKPU

LOL

[Dallas Johnson]

Would you eat this to further the 'dream'?

https://youtu.be/IVO8smkZKPU

LOL

Well, I was in the Marine Corps, lived in Iraq, and Afghanistan, I used to have to drink water from a river that the afghans shit in, then suffered for it for over 2 weeks, I think I can handle an innocent C-Ration.

also I dont dream, I live. :P

[NameLikeNoOther]

Well, I was in the Marine Corps, lived in Iraq, and Afghanistan, I used to have to drink water from a river that the afghans shit in, then suffered for it for over 2 weeks, I think I can handle an innocent C-Ration.

also I dont dream, I live.

Sounds like your willing to make ultimate sacrifice, it should take you wherever you want to go.

[Dallas Johnson]

Sounds like your willing to make ultimate sacrifice, it should take you wherever you want to go.

I'm just a lowly white belt. I do what I can. I am not a tough guy. I am a nice guy that has had the opportunity to accomplish tough things, because I didnt let people tell me what I can and cannot accomplish.

If that white belt wants to teach jiu jitsu full time, then everyone (especially in this particular forum) should encourage him, not tell him to get a job instead and forget about it. If everyone in the world got a job, there would be no Olympians, no Athletes, no Artists or Musicians.... the Wright Brothers would have never invented the airplane, some professor in California would have never invented the internet in 1967 on a cocktail napkin in a bar, we wouldnt have 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu if Master Eddie just got a job and didnt follow his dreams of changing the world of Jiu Jitsu.

If the white belt wants to teach, and wants to know how to get there, I say encourage him.

[Jack LaBarge]

To possibly help one of you up incoming future stars or possibly an instructor now. With a job to work at, that makes some money and also has a very Jiu Jitsu friendly schedule. Of course this job is going to pay different in every area around the country so you guys would have to do your own research. The job is school bus driver.

Don't roll your eyes yet. I'll break it down in my area. Syracuse, New York: now the city schools have a contract with a company and those drivers make low wages. Now most of the suburb and rural school districts have their own drivers they hire. The range of hourly wage of this group is $16 to $33 an hour. 3 suburb schools in the area pay $30 and up to the full time drivers.

Let me breakdown full time drivers. They classify you as a full time driver when you get your own route. Until then you're part time fill in driver = call you when they need you. So it might take you a while to get a route. I've heard it take guys waiting up to 3 years to get those $30 an hour routes. I've also heard guys get in after training at other school districts. So $30 x 30(hours a week)= $900 gross give or take on the wage or hours. Full timers get around 30-35 hours a week.

So a full time driver has his own route. So he works around 3 hours(give or take) in the morning and around 3 hours (give or take) in the afternoon. So that's a 4 hour break in between work. Perfect for a noon class everyday!!!! And enough time to still get in strength & conditioning!! Done by 5pm ready for night training.

Other perks: weekends off, summers off, holidays off, xmas week off, mid winter break off (a week off in feb. at least in ny), spring break off. Need to make more money you can sign up to drive your school teams to games. Here in NY you also get the teachers health care & pension plan (state plan) so its pretty good.

Its not a year round job with the summer off. But that could be a positive! Obviously a clean record is a must and not to partake in the sacred plant. But it has its benefits to live a jiu jitsu lifestyle without starving!

By the way the schools train you to get the proper license also.

[Arman Fathi]

You see, it's not that mat time isn't a priority or that my dream of having a school or getting a black belt isn't a priority. It's that for years it couldn't be a priority. And even now, while I've found a way to get back in the game, it's still not a higher priority than other things. My family comes first no matter what. If jiu jitsu gets to a point where I'm missing time with my family or I'm putting us in a financial bind, I'm taking another hiatus. I love BJJ but not more than my family. And because my family is my main priority, and my job is the way that I provide for my family, then my job becomes my second priority above BJJ.

My perspective isn't meant to be inspirational. It's meant to be cautionary. I've chased my dreams. Like I said, a lot of motivational speakers tell you to jump head first into your dream as if failure is impossible. I recently suffered a terrible hardship because I took that advice and my business failed. Hard. I'm not done though. I'm dusting myself off. I'm trying again. But this time, I know that it's smart to jump with a parachute. It's smarter to check the depth of the water before I dive in. If anything, I'm more inspirational than a lot of these inspirational book boys. I wanna know what slum they grew up in. I wanna know how they dealt with not having parents. I wanna know how they overcame mental illness and addiction and how they're still fighting to succeed. Most of these book writers are silver spoon boys who get to give inspirational advice from a golden throne. I'm not a pessimist. I'm an optimist. My optimism is simply cautious optimism because I've experienced some horrible things in life and I know that life can shit on your dreams at any time.

You make some fair points. In the spirit of being cautionary, I'll reveal that I am currently not married with no children. To be fair, I don't have to explain to anyone where I'm going or what time I'll be home. The tradeoff being that I'm often times lonely when I come back home from training. To my point though, I've met many higher belts that were training before they met their wife and once they became serious with that person, insisted that jiu jitsu continue to be a part of their life . I've found this to be a fairly common thing with people I've met; those who were training before they met their significant other rarely quit because their significant other made them, versus those that picked it up while married and are now in the position to convince a significant other to let them have that 'me' time. Unless you offer her that she can have 'her' me time, or have her take up jiu jitsu too, possibly with the kid(s), it's a tough sell. But having kids changes things obviously. There are different circumstances and it'd be unwise to throw out an umbrella statement here on the forums, as you fairly pointed out. There's a lot of different circumstances.
My advice though to someone who is single, train jiu jitsu. Train it enough that if and when you do meet a significant other, it will be such a staple in your life that they won't see it as a distraction in your relationship but rather, as something that enriches your life and makes you a better person to be around. They may even be potentially enthused by it. That's my cautionary advice for single people coming from a guy that has no experience whatsoever being married. So...take it for what it's worth

Regarding your comment about the book boys, my quality of life has gone up from advice that I've read in different books. Did every single person I've read about and can learn something from start from the slums? Not necessarily. Did they all have parents? Some yes, some, no. Did they overcome addiction or mental illness? Majority, no. In all fairness, I take exception to that comment you made for the sole notion of being a student of jiu jitsu, where there is this understanding that you can learn something from someone no matter where they come from, no matter their level, no matter their place in life. To be an optimist, one must look for the good in everyone they talk to, learn from, interact with. With this will come more knowledge, more self-awareness.

Regarding your use of the word can't. You say I can't fly at will, I can't make a million dollars appear out of thin air, etc. No doubt. But you're talking about literally breaking the laws of the universe. Of course you can't do those things. I can't walk through walls. I can't grow blades out of my hands like Wolverine. I can't shoot lasers out of my eyes like Cyclops. But I can become a millionaire if I put my mind to it, write down my goals, align with the right people, and stay organized. I can become a black belt, as long as I stay consistent. I can visit outer space in my lifetime. Who says I can't? Unless something is physically (and I mean LITerally impossible to do), I believe I can do those things, as well as anything else. It takes work, and it won't be easy, but if it were easy then anybody you've ever trained with would be a black belt by now.

What was that movie with Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger? Twins? There you go. Moral of the story: don't go telling a guy that he can't get pregnant.

[Dallas Johnson]

To possibly help one of you up incoming future stars or possibly an instructor now. With a job to work at, that makes some money and also has a very Jiu Jitsu friendly schedule. Of course this job is going to pay different in every area around the country so you guys would have to do your own research. The job is school bus driver.

I 100% agree!! My ex girlfriend, as an Olympic level Gymnast and a school bus driver, and she would no sh*t, wake up at 4am, train for 1 hour in the living room, then drive the school bus from 6am till around 9am, come home, take a nap, then train for 2 hours in the living room or at the gym, then drive the bus from 2pm till 5pm, and would teach Gymnastics from 6-9 or 10 pm every night. If she wanted overtime she would do band trips or athletic events for the school district. She made $17 an hour starting out!

I will say she hated it though, but it afforded her the time and money to follow her dreams, which at that time was to transition from doing gymnastics to joining the Marine Corps. no sh*t, she joined the marines, and is a Military Police Officer now. She said her motivation in boot camp was to never go back to driving a bus ever again lol. but it did help her live the life she wanted.

One of the things I did, back in 2005 is I was a Night Stocker (no, not stalker), for King Soopers in Denver, (grocery store). So from 10pm till 7am, I stocked the shelves. then I trained noon classes in bjj under John Crouch (Royce Gracie Black Belt) and would go home, and sleep for 4 hours and do it over again. I was 19 at the time so I had the energy. I did that for about 3 months then joined the Marine Corps. I joined the Marine Corps in 2005 hoping to go to Okinawa and train in martial arts there, but I went to Iraq instead, BUT, I got onto the Marine Corps All Varsity Submission Wrestling Team, aka Marine Corps MMA Team for 6 months when I came back from Iraq, so it all paid off in the end.

Point being, sacrifice will always pay off in the end. whether it be food, sleep, money, relationships. If you want it bad enough, you can get it.

[Arman Fathi]

If the white belt wants to teach, and wants to know how to get there, I say encourage him.

If your goal is to one day make money teaching jiu jitsu, there are several worse ways you could be going about it. Mat time is key. Mat time is king. Mat time is the all-great equalizer against youth, athleticism, speed, flexibility. The more you associate with those that you want to be like, in this instance, those that teach jiu jitsu, the better chance you have at doing just that. Which means going to class if you one day want to teach jiu jitsu. If this is your goal, go after your goal. And all you'll get from here is a 'hell yea son.' Maybe a 'be careful'. But we're family it's all the same. Hooting for you.

[David Rosado]

Fellas, first and foremost I want to start off by saying that I sincerely appreciate all of your perspectives. My recipe for finding truth is to include all data, throw it in a proverbial blender, and see what remains. So even though my perspective may seem like it conflicts, in reality, I believe that it blends in well for the sake of wisdom.

Second, I wanna say, even if we disagree, we're still fam, and it's all love on my end.

If that white belt wants to teach jiu jitsu full time, then everyone (especially in this particular forum) should encourage him, not tell him to get a job instead and forget about it. If everyone in the world got a job, there would be no Olympians, no Athletes, no Artists or Musicians.... the Wright Brothers would have never invented the airplane, some professor in California would have never invented the internet in 1967 on a cocktail napkin in a bar, we wouldnt have 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu if Master Eddie just got a job and didnt follow his dreams of changing the world of Jiu Jitsu.

If the white belt wants to teach, and wants to know how to get there, I say encourage him.

Encouragement without practical wisdom is incomplete. Plenty of people are encouraged to do terrible things. Like sell drugs. Or use drugs. So simply encouraging a white belt is incomplete. Offering advice, perspective, wisdom, experience in conjunction with encouragement is what makes it valuable. It's similar to telling a homeless guy to stay positive. You're encouraging them. But what's the value? Nothing if you don't put something behind it. Whether it's a few bucks or a few minutes of time. Simply "encouraging" is incomplete. And because it's incomplete, it can be damaging.

How are you going to say that "if everyone in the world got jobs there would be no.....?" Then you say your ex girlfriend, an olympian, worked as a bus driver? That's a job. Eddie Bravo WORKED for the UFC. That's a job. WORKED for a strip club. That's a job. Plenty of people worked jobs during the process of pursuing their dreams. Maybe you mean "career." Even some UFC fighters still work jobs. A job is not an interruption to a dream. More often than not, money is required to achieve a dream. A job is a facilitator. As a good book taught me, "work is your friend."

To possibly help one of you up incoming future stars or possibly an instructor now.

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Jack LaBarge again."

See? Practical advice.

You make some fair points. In the spirit of being cautionary, I'll reveal that I am currently not married with no children. To be fair, I don't have to explain to anyone where I'm going or what time I'll be home. The tradeoff being that I'm often times lonely when I come back home from training. To my point though, I've met many higher belts that were training before they met their wife and once they became serious with that person, insisted that jiu jitsu continue to be a part of their life . I've found this to be a fairly common thing with people I've met; those who were training before they met their significant other rarely quit because their significant other made them, versus those that picked it up while married and are now in the position to convince a significant other to let them have that 'me' time. Unless you offer her that she can have 'her' me time, or have her take up jiu jitsu too, possibly with the kid(s), it's a tough sell. But having kids changes things obviously. There are different circumstances and it'd be unwise to throw out an umbrella statement here on the forums, as you fairly pointed out. There's a lot of different circumstances.
My advice though to someone who is single, train jiu jitsu. Train it enough that if and when you do meet a significant other, it will be such a staple in your life that they won't see it as a distraction in your relationship but rather, as something that enriches your life and makes you a better person to be around. They may even be potentially enthused by it. That's my cautionary advice for single people coming from a guy that has no experience whatsoever being married. So...take it for what it's worth

Regarding your comment about the book boys, my quality of life has gone up from advice that I've read in different books. Did every single person I've read about and can learn something from start from the slums? Not necessarily. Did they all have parents? Some yes, some, no. Did they overcome addiction or mental illness? Majority, no. In all fairness, I take exception to that comment you made for the sole notion of being a student of jiu jitsu, where there is this understanding that you can learn something from someone no matter where they come from, no matter their level, no matter their place in life. To be an optimist, one must look for the good in everyone they talk to, learn from, interact with. With this will come more knowledge, more self-awareness.

Regarding your use of the word can't. You say I can't fly at will, I can't make a million dollars appear out of thin air, etc. No doubt. But you're talking about literally breaking the laws of the universe. Of course you can't do those things. I can't walk through walls. I can't grow blades out of my hands like Wolverine. I can't shoot lasers out of my eyes like Cyclops. But I can become a millionaire if I put my mind to it, write down my goals, align with the right people, and stay organized. I can become a black belt, as long as I stay consistent. I can visit outer space in my lifetime. Who says I can't? Unless something is physically (and I mean LITerally impossible to do), I believe I can do those things, as well as anything else. It takes work, and it won't be easy, but if it were easy then anybody you've ever trained with would be a black belt by now.

What was that movie with Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger? Twins? There you go. Moral of the story: don't go telling a guy that he can't get pregnant.

???? LOL. Not sure if you were intentionally making a joke with that last line, but Twins is different from Mr. Mom. Twins is a classic. Mr. Mom is garbage.

Anyhow, as usual, I appreciate your insights. In my defense: I understand your point that you can learn from anyone. And trust me, I do. But not all information is applicable to everyone. So it's not that I can't learn from silver spoon boys. It's just that some of their information isn't relevant to where I'm currently at in life. Analogy: if they're giving me a map to drive from Denver to NYC, but I'm still in Oregon, that map is useless until I get to Denver. The information will be useless once I get to what they consider a starting point. Make sense?

As far as the word "can't," I enjoy using extreme examples to highlight my point. And your response reaffirms my point. By understanding what you can't do, you are able to home in on what you CAN do. And being acutely aware of what you CAN do is super encouraging because you're able to focus on those doable things.

See, my life has been looooong bouts of misfortune with short bursts of good fortune. So I see the world from a different hill. I'm on a different hill because I was born in a different place. Because I was born in a different place, I had to take a different path. So I just see things a little differently. But I acknowledge that we're all walking toward the same destination, right? In your path "can't" is a bad word that discourages you from your goal. In my path, "can't" is a good word that tells me what to stay away from. I hope that makes sense.

[Khaos Keith]

ummmmm, I just quit my job after 6 years with them, kind of over the corperate life

I couldn't find the answer to doing both since at that job i was working 60+ hour work weeks and had to move away from my gym to keep it.

Quality of life i guess. I made the decision of life and family, over money and security. Which is a scary decision but an exciting one.

If you find a way to properly do both, let me know haha.