making a living on MA?

[Adam]

Does anyone here make a decent living just working with something martial arts related, apart from running McDojos and fighting professionally? Can it be done, because the instructors I've know have usually been either rather poor or working on the side.

[Kwan Jang]

-There are many school owners who are very successful who run high quality programs with high standards. Steve La Valle, Dave & Tim Kovar, Ernie Reyes,Sr. They have as high or higher standards than any in the MA. There are the belt factories abd McDojos out there, but for the most part they usually have limited success. The reason is in MA the quality of our product is the quality of our students and the quality os our programs. There are some who are good marketers and businessmen who have success w/o quality physical programs, but even they are giving value in character education and empowering people, otherwise they would have no lasting sucess. High quality MA, intense physical programs, and valuable character ed. that helps make the world a better place are not contradictory. You need to learn business and educayional skills to black belt levels in addition to your MA skills. This way tou can live the life of a true professional (along the lines of a doctor, attorney,ect) for both the value you give to your community and the level of your education/years of training deserve. If you do it w/ integrity, there is no reason to "sell out". You can be successful with a 6-7 figure income, give value to the world, and produce even a high volume of black belt graduates and keep higher and more demanding standards and requirements than the schools who whine about how you sold out as they only produce one BB every three yrs.(but are not up to par w/ yours.)