What is Revealed by
These 2 Secrets of Exercise Equipment?

Dear Friend,

Say what you want about Free market economies, good or bad, but they do reflect certain undeniable truths.  A person is successful in a Free market when he sells something that other people want.  The flow of money reveals a customer’s desire and serves as a Martian probe into the landscape of the human brain.

There are 2 dirty secrets of all successful home gym equipment that designers of the home equipment have learned from working with their customer base.  These secrets are features that must be built into all home equipment for it to sell successfully.  What do you think those 2 features are?

Digital displays?

High Aerobic activity?

Weight Loss?

Good pamphlets?

Color?

None of these?  Well if you said none of these, let’s say that you won, because you’re never going to guess.

The second most important feature of exercise equipment is that it must be able to fold up and be put under the bed or, not quite as good, in the closet.  Now the ability to fold up has nothing to do with it being convenient to use, it has to do with being able to put the equipment away where it can be forgotten about.  Out of sight, out of mind!

The first most important feature of exercise equipment…you must be able to hang clothing on it.  If you can’t hang clothing on it, the return rate for the equipment is extremely high and the purchase rate will also be much lower.  By being able to hang clothing on the exercise equipment, the brain views the exercise equipment as having value even when it is not being used.  The person will keep it as a result, and is likely to by more equipment.

The free market has educated equipment designers on these two factors by causing equipment that didn’t meet these two needs to fail horribly and those that did to succeed.  It has also revealed what people really want when it comes to home exercise equipment: something that makes them feel mentally better and reinforces the value of exercise within their heads.

Let me tell you some little lessons the free market has taught me about offering martial arts and qi gong programs to the public.

In general, a person can have 1 excuse and still become a student.  If he or she has more than one excuse, he or she isn’t going to sign up for a private intro lesson.  This isn’t a money issue.  Even if the lesson is Free, he will either not sign up or will not show up for his appointment.

Many years ago, when I didn’t know any better and allowed people to take intros in the general class population (a foolish and common practice in America), that person would often be disruptive and non-cooperative.  There are psychological reasons for that behavior, but as a new school owner following naïve school models, I didn’t recognize multiple excuses as being an important indicator.  Of course, I have known better now for many years.

This excuse making behavior is predictable enough to be about 98% reliable.  What that means is that if I’m talking to someone about one of our programs, if they make more than 1 excuse about not starting the program, I’m not going to see the person in class any time soon.  The up-side of that is that a person with more than one excuse really isn’t ready to be in a Water Mountain program.

A lot of times, I’m asked what the difference is between kung fu and other martial arts.  Well, the truth is that there are relatively few differences among striking arts.  The difference between kung fu and other striking arts is that Chinese systems tend to control the opponent’s body to set strikes and defend against strikes.  The other major difference is an emphasis on human behavior—both in understanding one’s own behavior and understanding the behavior one’s opponent.  Any Chinese system that lacks behavior training may follow the physical system, but it is not kung fu without the mental training.

Are You a Talker or a Doer?

Excuse-making behavior is a major performance inhibitor.  A person that makes excuses frequently is generally less successful, less happy, and in poor quality relationships.  Such a person is called a Talker rather than a Doer.  As the old saying goes, “Talkers talk and Doers do.” 

The truth is that everyone lives somewhere between the pole of Talk on one-side and Doing on the other side.  If you want to know what kung fu and qi gong training does, it gradually moves a person from the talking side to the doing side.  A Black belt makes far fewer excuses than a white belt.  He or she reaches a point of personal power where he simply work against obstacles, even when there is no guarantee of success against the obstacle.  Very few people will do such a thing.  Of course, the same doer behavior emerges within qi gong training only faster, because in qi gong you have to deal with your behavior much earlier.

Becoming a stronger and stronger doer has a direct effect on a student’s life.  I have watched time and again students get better grades, earn promotions, and thrive within their businesses after joining Water Mountain.  Doing always gets better results than sitting on your hands.

Reflecting on 2008

I am well aware that Water Mountain is the community of students and instructors and not me.  The success of Water Mountain is a result of the relationships that we have all formed and the mutual benefit we all provide one another.  I am happy that in 2008, I am seeing that community be recognized for its excellence through the July S.W.A.T. Magazine article on the school.  I am also happy to learn that Black Belt Magazine will feature the school in an April 2009 article.

The classes in 2008 really came into their own.  They have always been excellent, but sometimes now when I watch them I am amazed to see how well people work together.  That rate of behavior change, the maturing of young students, the thriving of adult students, well, it’s just shocking.  Such gains come only through the magic of having the right people doing the right things and I am thankful to have had a strong role in getting it all going.

Warm Regards,

Master Mikel Steenrod