Be Your Own Master
Be your own Master and don’t tell the whole world about it. Talking about the martial arts than actually doing is not going to earn anyone the Master title if that is what they are aspiring to. There are instructors who call themselves Master and actually believe they have earned the right to use that title without putting in the time, effort and attain the accomplished skill level. What makes it worse is when they declare the title themselves instead by the right people who believe they are worthy of it. Unfortunately, the Master title is not an official title so it is misused and abused by the few who are often seeking recognition and acceptance.
Masters of ‘back yard’ origin will inform people they have been in the martial arts for an extraordinary number of years. These years include the very time they may have tried out a boxing lesson at the PCYC and it will only be years later they actually start any formal training. There are others who include football and basketball training as part of their total years of training in the martial arts (now that’s funny). Others conceal the 10 year break they’ve between sessions.
This type of Master has issues. They demand respect and treat people as servants. A real Master is nothing like that and does not even like being called a Master, the other one does. It takes a lifetime to master the martial arts but even longer to be a Master. Clearly, some people can live with George Costanza’s famous quote (Seinfeld) “it’s not a lie if you believe it”.
There is only one way for these persons who can justifiably use the word Master but I will leave that to people’s imagination.
GA