Ohisashiburi desu nee!

I know, I know. What's that Japanese mean? And where have I been? Well, first off, the title means, "It's been a while".

I apologize but, I wish I could say to you all that I was away on a top-secret mission, need know basis only, but really I wasn't.

Where have I been?

Truthfully, I have been working. I love to blog but it does take time. So, I am back and I now have the time (once again) to share with you my thoughts on Protection (both martial arts and insurance).

My goal is every week to have a new thought posted on this blog. The thought for today comes from my good friend and colleague, Robin Schroff (the Juice gal). Go check out her post at http://www.idgonein60.blogspot.com/. Her thoughts on planning for your will and living will are right on!

Take care and see you all next week.

Ninpo ik kan my friends....

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide

Life Happens!

You just never know when "life will happen" to you. In my business, I see this everyday. Regular people who find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. In the past month, I have had clients, friends, and family that have experienced the following:

• being attacked by car thieves
• being run over by a bicyclist
• hitting a live wire while excavating a driveway
• being in a 5 car pile up on the roadway

Look, life happens, whether we want it to or not. No one knows what the future holds. Hopefully, only good things are in store for you. But realistically, bad things will happen too. You may not be able to control your future, but you can look it straight in the eye. You don't have to get wet when it rains. You can carry an umbrella.

Or in my case, have a protection plan - "Shugo."

The key to planning is doing it before you need it. So if you are attacked on the street, you have practiced your martial art ahead of time and can confidently handle an attacker. And if you end up in an accident, well, you have an effective disability plan that will pay you income (tax-free) when you can't work.

Planning won't guarantee you'll never face a tragic situation, just as wearing a seat belt won't keep you from crashing your car. But it will provide your family with financial protection. And whatever hopes and dreams you have for your loved ones can still be realized, even if the worst were to happen.

Keep practicing, keep planning.

Ninpo ik kan, my friends ...

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide

At the Beginning - Part 2

(On the phone, A is talking to B)

A: "How do you get there from here?"

B: "There? Where do you mean? And where are you?"

A: "I am here, and I want to go there!"

B: "For me to help you, I have to know where you are now and where it actually is that you want to go. Can you do that?"

A: "Well,...."

Ok, a little weird, huh? But it does happen. Someone not knowing where they are now and not knowing where they want to go. This is especially true when it comes to insurance planning.

Where are you now?
To go anywhere, you need to know where you are now. So if we are planning for the future and all of the "what ifs" that can happen, we need to closely examine today first. This is the first crucial step in long-term success.

For martial arts, this happens when I take on a new student. I need to know what arts they may have studied previously. I also need to know how they move their body; are they top heavy (shoulders move first) or are they centered? Do they clop their feet or slide across the ground easily? Is their stance too narrow or too wide. Etc, etc, etc.

The same happens when I take on a new insurance client. I need to know what they have already done and how it fits with where they want to go. I need to find out what policies they already have in place. After that, I have to determine if those policies are going to do the job when the time comes. For any protection plan to succeed, we need to have a thorough understanding of where we are today.

Where do you want to go?
In many ways understanding one's direction into the future is a lot more difficult. Today's "stuff" we know. It's here with us. But tomorrow's "stuff"? Well, a lot of that is unknown. My job is to ask questions - the "what ifs" - about tomorrow that most people don't want to consider.

Martial Arts "What ifs":

• if a drunk in a bar picks a fight with you, what do you do?
• if you are attacked at night, while walking to your car, what do you do?
• if an attacker pulls a gun on you, what do you do?
• if there are multiple attackers, what do you do?
• if a knife is involved, what do you do?

Insurance "What ifs":

• if your spouse dies, what do you do? what happens to your family? your home? your kids? your future?
• if you and your spouse both die, then what happens?
  
• if your business partner dies, what happens to the company? your employees & their families? your family? your partner's family?
• if you suffer a disabling injury or sickness, how long can you go with out a paycheck? is your disability benefit at work going to be enough?
  
• if you require care in your later years of life, will you stay at your home or go into a nursing home? if you stay at home, who will care for you? can they care for you? will you require home health nursing?

No one really enjoys answering these types of questions. But, they do appreciate me helping them through it. Look, do you buy a newspaper for the paper? No absolutely not. You buy it for the information; the news. So when you buy insurance, you are not buying the policy, but the piece of mind knowing that when life happens, you have a plan that will protect you/your family/your business.

And when you buy martial arts, you are not buying the "art," you again are buying the piece of mind knowing that when life happens, you have the necessary physical skill, mental clarity and emotional balance to protect yourself and your loved ones from harm.

In Japanese, "sensei" means "one who has gone before". This is commonly interpreted as "one who has more experience in doing something over another". Allow me, and my experience at exploring protection issues (self-defense and insurance), guide you and yours to that piece of mind that we all seek.

Ninpo ik kan my friends ...

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide

At the Beginning

Yep, that's me before my very first white belt test. I was 15 then and weighed all of about a buck twenty or so. I think back at that time and now realize how young, naive, and clueless I was about many things. But, I also remember how happy I was (and still am, yes I still have that same ear-to-ear cheesy grin, what can I say, I love life) and how determined I was to succeed. I knew then that martial arts were "my thing" and nothing was going to stop me from understanding and practicing every little bit I could learn.

Let me tell you, it's taking great effort for me to post this picture up on my blog. I know I am going to suffer some humiliation from key people (Weston, Matt & Mel to name a few), but I think I will take that risk. You see, it's always important to remember where you have been. Only by examining the past can we measure where we are today in the present. Likewise, the past and present are our road signs for the future.

Whenever I hit a plateau in my study/practice of the martial arts, I tend to reflect backwards. I think to myself, am I better than I was a year ago? Have I grown in some capacity over the last year? Is my knowledge base better than what it was? Most times than not, my answers are all "yes." However, although I may have grown and bettered myself from year to year, am I where I want to be? That answer is always "no." My teacher, mentor and best friend, Matt Amend, always taught me that no matter how good you get, there is always someone better. Translations: (1) don't be satisfied with your accomplishments and (2) don't get a big head.

In the martial arts, we all start at the bottom, or in this case, "At the Beginning." My beginning, that this picture represents, was the first step in a journey that has not yet ended. A journey that is my passion to become the best that I can be: the best martial artist for myself, the best teacher for my students, the best advisor for my clients, the best father for my kids, the best husband for my wife. I want to become the best person that I can be. I urge you to strive for the same. It's a journey but it all has to start somewhere, sometime. Why not now?

Ninpo ik kan my friends...

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide

"Giri"

Ahh, the famous (or is it infamous) "black belt." The pinnacle, the goal, the dream, right?? Well, it depends on your perspective. When I lived and worked in Japan, I found out a very hard lesson. The Japanese, at least my teachers, would issue rank when a student demonstrated, in their opinion, sufficient skill. Now, to the westerner receiving that rank, the thought process was something along the lines of, "Yes, I did it! I am now a black belt." When receiving rank, to the westerner, it is acknowledged credit for hard work done. It is a reward.

But is that the only perspective? Or more precisely, was that the intent of my Japanese sensei (teacher)? In Japan, I discovered that it was not.

When a rank is bestowed upon a student, it is given with an unmentioned request &/or requirement. You see, the teacher, most of the time, gives out the rank before the student has demonstrated the skill necessary for it. The thought process is that you will feel the obligation to your teacher to strive to become all that that rank represents. Even though now, you do not have what it takes for that rank. Basically, the teacher is recognizing that you have the potential to get there and hopes that by giving you the rank, it will trigger that extra motivation within you to strive for it.


In Japanese this concept is called "giri" and is sometimes translated as the "moral obligation" that people have between each other (such as parent to child, boss to worker, and in this case, master to student). For our example above, the most basic definition I can give is a debt of gratitude and a self-sacrificing pursuit of an ideal - e.g. what the rank represents. It is a bond between master and student beyond mere recognition and actually beyond the actual belt itself. It is reciprocal as well.

Now, what does all of this have to do with insurance, right? Well, having lived and worked within Japanese culture in the 1990s, this concept of giri is the foundation of my relationship with my clients. I am not just a salesman to them. I am their insurance advisor. And I have the moral obligation to make sure that they know and understand their individual protection plans. I feel this giri when I start working for each client. It is a feeling and a relationship beyond that of just hiring me to get you a policy. It is a relationship that I feel compelled to do my very best. My mission is to educate and empower each of my clients so that they fully understand what their protection plan is and how it can be used. Again, it all comes back to Shugo.

Ninpo ik kan, my friends...

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide

Focussed Intent

Real or not real? Are you pretending or are you actually doing? This is a concept that I put forth to my martial arts students on a weekly basis.

Real protection involves practicing with a focussed intent. You see, when you simulate an attack you need to create as much energy that the real attack would have in a self-defense situation. If you do not, then you are not really practicing, but posing. All too often this is the case in many martial arts studios in the world today. Not all, but many. Real practice requires real energy.

You can even make the same claim when it comes to your insurance protection planning. Is it real or not. Is it a real plan that will protect you, your family &/or business in the event of life's tragic twists and turns or is it just a product that you bought; a product without an overall purpose or plan? Protection planning involves a product but is not the product alone. A real plan involves asking some very serious questions about the reality of life.

Questions such as:

(1) If you died today, what would happen to your family, your business? What happens to your retirement plan, your college funding, your future?
(2) If the key-person in your company were to be disabled tomorrow, how will that affect your company's performance? How will you train a replacement?
(3) If your business partner suddenly dies, are you prepared to have his/her spouse as a partner?

A real plan will examine these questions and come up with answers. It will create a base plan with contingencies for the "what ifs" of life. In other words, just as in the martial arts, real planning requires real energy.

So, ask yourself, "am I really doing or am I posing? Do I have focussed intent?" Only through real focus can one hope to achieve real results. This is how I help my students as well as my clients. Again, it is all about "Shugo."

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide

New Logo!!

Here it is the brand new, official Holzer Financial logo!!! It's simple, elegant, refined and much, much more.

Special thanks go out to Mel DePaoli at Omicle, my graphic arts designer who developed it. She has a great eye for design and can help practically anyone go from ordinary to extra-ordinary. Thanks again Mel. You can contact her at info@omicle.com. You won't regret it.

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide

It's All About "Shugo"

When I meet someone and they ask me for a business card, I hand them not just a card but a statement. You see, my card has two Japanese characters running down the right hand side. These characters, in Japanese, are read as, "Shugo."

Of course, the next question I get is, "what does that mean?" The simple answer is "Protection." That's what I do. I help others "protect" themselves and those that they care about from life's unexpected twists and turns. This could be in regards to self-defense or in the realm of financial protection.

You see, I am owner and head instructor of the Pittsburgh Combat Club but I am also a Partner at Holzer Financial. One is about real world self-defense and the other is about real world insurance planning. In both cases, it's about educating and empowering my students/clients to take knowledgeable action. Action that will protect themselves and their loved ones.

So, what is "shugo"? Shugo is the concept of protection. It can be physical, mental or emotional. It is the peace of mind that you gain knowing that you can protect yourself and your loved ones through action. I have learned this and now wish to share it with you.

Welcome to my dojo!

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide

It's about time!

I've only been on David's case for a year now about setting up this BLOG. Finally, he's caved in and it's up and ready to go.

I know you'll love this BLOG because:

1. David is a fun and crafty writer, thinker, and doer.

2. David is an excellent teacher (both in the martial arts and in the realm of insurance - I'm a student and a client).

3. David is ALWAYS on the look out for both his clients and students - his passion and purpose in life is to EMPOWER others.

So, enjoy this BLOG and thank David for any and all help he provides you in his weekly dose of rants, raves, and stories.

Weston Lyon
KING of the Functional Fitness Jungle &
Author of USE IT TO LOSE IT

Irassyaimase - Welcome!!

Welcome to my blog, finally!! Yes it is true, I have finally caved in to the outside tech pressures (insert Weston's name here) and launched my blog - "Dojo No Shugo" or the School of Protection.

I hope to spread the word about my different perspective regarding the martial arts and the world of insurance.

In the weeks, months, years to come I imagine this blog to be filled with thoughts, quotes, and provoking ideas that will make you think, "what's he on?"

So on with the blogging!!

David L. Holzer
Insurance Advisor & Martial Arts Guide