There’s a major martial arts tournament happening this upcoming weekend in Toronto, Canada.
And one of the biggest draws for this tournament is that they’re offering around 15-20 full one hour seminars with the best of the best in the sports martial arts world—that are all FREE for competitors.
Recognizing the unbelievable value in this, I immediately started to make plans where I could go for the seminars and have my instructors cover for me (teaching classes at our martial arts school), and then come back to run the school and cover for them while they went down to compete.
But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized… I was being selfish.
I wanted to go to the seminars so that I could come back and teach them all that I learned—and be the bearer of knowledge.
When really, I should be taking myself out as the middle man and allowing them to go and get the information first hand. They’re the ones who are competing and they’re the ones who are on the “come up” part of their journey.
I’ve had my time to compete in these tournaments and attend these types of seminars. It’s time for me to check my ego and humbly step aside so they can experience what I fell in love with first hand.
And besides, even if I retaught every seminar verbatim when I got back, it still wouldn’t be anything like the original experience. First hand learning will always blow second hand learning out of the water.
…And if I (we) really cared about our team’s growth, we’d be willing to make some sacrifices to prove it.