Last year I watched “Birth of the Dragon”, a movie based (very loosely) on Bruce Lee’s fight with Wong Jack Man in 1964.
Being a Bruce Lee fan – not just of his martial arts, but his approach to personal development as well – I was looking forward to seeing it.
I was disappointed …
Sure, there were some cool fight scenes. But the movie made Lee into a secondary character, and created a silly “Romeo and Juliet” storyline involving two other characters which became the main focus of the film.
And then it veered off in strange directions, making up even sillier fight scenes that never happened in real life.
The unfortunate thing is it didn’t have to go in that direction.
The story of Bruce Lee vs. Wong Jack Man is interesting enough, without some (apparently drunk) Hollywood screenwriters taking liberties with what happened.
The fight happened because Lee was teaching Kung Fu to white people in San Francisco. Kung Fu traditionalists in China objected to this, and Wong Jack Man (a Shaolin master) challenged Lee to a battle.
There are varying accounts by eye witnesses to what happened in that fight (only a handful were in attendance), but whatever happened caused Bruce Lee to change his fighting style and adopt Jeet Kune Do.
So you could say that the Bruce Lee vs. Wong Jack Man fight gave the world a new martial art, and gave birth to “The Dragon”. A legend was born.
There’s more than enough in that story for a 1 hour, 43 minute movie without making up a bunch of crap.
So what does this have to do with the coaching world?
Like those drunk Hollywood screenwriters, a lot of coaches feel the need to embellish their backgrounds to sell more stuff.
How many times have you heard from people who were supposedly living on bread and water, sleeping in their cars and ready to “end it all” but then discovered a magical system that’s making them 7-figures or more (and graciously offering to sell it to you)?
Most webinars follow this script … do some really make 7-figures? Sure, but not nearly as many who are putting themselves out there like that (and let’s not forget that if you gross $1,000,000/year but spend $800,000 on overhead and ads, you aren’t making 7-figures, you’re making 200k).
There’s no need to inflate your story – focus instead on just being real and helping others.
As Oscar Wilde said: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”.
If you’d like to get more coaching clients without selling your soul or making up stories, my Secret Coach Club newsletter can help with that.
The May issue goes to print soon, so the deadline to get it is next Tuesday night:
