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