What Startups can Learn From a Dojo

I am fortunate that all the dojos I have been to had great atmospheres, great respect for each other and never been abusive at all. Even the demanding Sifu and Sensei, although not easy to please, were not abusive at all.

On the other hand, and this is an exception than the rule that I had the experience of working in, a really I have to say, dysfunctional startup.

In retrospective, I can understand and forgive of the things that had happened back then. It was a startup led by founders chipping in their own money, thus having a lot of stake for success. At that time, we're chasing to get a product out there to get started as soon as possible while not knowing how the market will respond. My superior was a founder, a techie, a super achiever and perfectionist. And because of all of that, he has everything at stake to make his startup happen and God damned it, he's going to succeed.

As a result, the atmosphere was tense. It was given that working overtime without additional pay was required. All this while, it was at the beginning of the COVID epidemic that meant we disallowed to get out of the office at all. And usually, while having lunch during lunch time in the office (we were forbidden to go anywhere because of the pandemic), there would be a "put down" lectures where employees were reprimanded and belittled.

In short, it was torturous.

In A Martial Arts Dojo: Respect

In a martial arts dojo, at least the ones I had been to, there is respect. There is respect whether you're a white belt or black belt to each other. In fact, in all dojos, we have to take off our shoes or slippers. And even more, in some other dojos, we're expected to bow before entering the dojo itself to show respect towards the dojo and towards the photos of the founders if they were hung in the dojo.

Even at the starting of the sessions, at the start of a spar, and at the end of the sessions, we're required to bow to each other and to our Sifu, Sensei, Coach, and Prof. And for competitions, although both sides will exert everything they can to beat each other, at the beginning and the end, there's always the bow, the handshake, all the signs of respect for each other.

Yes, perhaps they're just formalities. And yes, there will always be the bad apples. But in general, my experiences were great. With watchful eyes of the Sensei, Coach and Professors, usually the bad apples will go away soon enough.

Moreover, why the formalities are important is because it always brings back the atmosphere of giving respect to each other. Since we have to face each other at the end of the session and will probably meet each other on the next session, we learn quickly to be respectful to each other.

Even guests from other dojos, especially the black belts. Because this value has been instilled into them, they're very respectful even if they're only be present for that one session.

In a Martial Arts Dojo: Learning from Instructions and Trainings

Don't get me wrong. If you're going to represent the dojo and compete, the Sensei/Coach/Prof will go hard on you. However, for all the learning process, from the imparting of the instructions, showing how to execute the moves, and the practicing of the moves, everything were done with tolerance and respect.

This is where the art is, I think that a startup can learn from a martial arts dojo: How to push that motivate us to exert fully but also be done respectfully. And this is what was missing when I was working with this particular startup. Perhaps in the beginning, it was respectful enough. However, as time progressed, everything were out the window.

Tech Founders Learning Martial Arts

Nowadays, there are tech founders learning Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Let's hope the lessons they learnt at the dojos will be brought into their companies and perhaps starting a new tech culture that we all can follow and learn.