Jordan Belfort 4 Steps to Success

Just a quick post on 4 steps to success from Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street. They say the movie “Boiler Room” was based off his life story.. and Leonardo DiCaprio is going to play a movie about him.. it’s tentatively set for a 2013 release.

Anyways, I just watched a 57 minute video on Jordan Belfort and thought I would save you all time and summarize the 4 main points in a short post.

4 Steps:

1) Vision – Have a clear vision of where you will be and what you want. Different from “goals”.

2) Control your state of mind – Manage the way you feel in the moment.

3) Belief – Break your limiting beliefs.

4) Strategies – A plan of action.

Connecting the four together you need:
Standards – What you will not settle for. Your musts in life.

–
I’m not saying that is all you need and I’m sure those 4 points could be expanded on.. but this is just a quick highlight of the video I saw and I do agree those 4 points are a common thread I’ve seen for most successful people.

Well.. Taiji to be exact. The Chinese pin yin for tai chi is “tai ji” and recently a large focus of my time and work has been revolving around this taiji company and the research and practice of tai chi. Here are some my tai chi related activities lately -

Visit to Handan

Jet and I visited Han Dan in Hebei province to pay our respects to Yang Lu Chan the founder of Yang style tai chi. They have strong roots in the practice of tai chi there and when we went there were hundreds of tai chi practitioners showcasing the art. Yang Lu Chan is not the creator of tai chi itself but is supposedly the one who helped spread it to the world and there is a lot of interesting history behind it.

Adidas All In Campaign

We also went to an Adidas pr event which showcased the WuJi training program. This program is in many gyms in China. It is a blend of aerobic and martial elements.

Adidas Event with Olympic Gold Medalists

There we met Adidas sponsored athletes. They were China olympic gold medalists for taekwondo, boxing, and soccer. They also tried out the martial arts aerobic program with the fitness instructors. The taekwondo olympic athlete adapted quickest (for apparent reasons).

Getting ready for tai chi training

I have been immersed in the history, culture, and techniques of tai chi this past year so of course I have also been doing tai chi training. I started learned tai chi before, but since I started focusing on my training for the world games in 2009 I paused all other training. This year however I have been privileged to learn with 19th generation direct descendants of the Chen village for Chen style tai chi. The way they can feel your generation of power and use your force against you is almost superhuman. I’ll have to continue this discussion later as my practice progresses. In summary, I have been learning both the compulsory tai chi sets from China wushu team world games gold medalist as well as the traditional chen style forms and applications from the descendants of the Chen village.

Eating Dinner with Wang Zhan Hai (my right)

One of the people I have been honored to interact with is Chen style tai chi master – Wang Zhan Hai. He is the eldest son of acclaimed Chen style descendant Wang Xi An. Wang Zhan Hai’s entire childhood and early adult life was dedicated to learning Chen style tai chi. He competed in tai chi push hand competitions and various mixed martial art style competitions and has fought with top masters in other traditional styles. He could basically knock someone across an entire room using what would seem to be little to no strength.

In the midst of tai chi philosophy and business talk, we went to meet some friends of his to further some tai chi projects. We had dinner at an interesting restaurant… that served “exotic” food. Let’s take a look.

Fried ants and scorpions

Some people will say it’s not a big deal and they’ve tried crazier things and some will say they would never touch it. I say… hey! I’m thankful for food on the table and… I’m having what the tai chi master is having. Bon appetit!

Mmmh Chips!

Stunt team friends

Last but not least, I’ve made some cool friends who are working on action and stunts in an upcoming martial arts movie in China. Since I have been involved in everything tai chi.. a couple of the people I was learning with told me to drop by some stunt rehearsals.. so I got some good work outs in, tai chi practice, as well as helping out here and there with some of the choreography.

These guys are super skilled, professional, and have awesome personalities. It’s definitely a different lifestyle doing stunt work in China. You are required to be able to help out with everything with no such things as bumps and bonuses and little more than a boxed lunch. On the plus side you learn a lot in a short amount of time.

Chuan Ge Stuntman Extraordinaire

Here I am kicking it with one of the stunt guys who’s frequently worked with JC stunts and was on Ip Man stunts. He has been in the game for over a decade. Super cool guy and loves what’s app! haha!

Here’s the back of his shirt. Looks cool!

Ip Man Stunt Team

So that’s my summary on tai chi developments for this year so far. I will continue training tai chi and researching its market interest and basically keep being involved with the growth of tai ji as a martial art and a social enterprise. Stay posted for further developments! =)

Dear all,

It has been an amazing learning experience being able to travel side by side with internationally renowned Jet Li. Recently Jet Li has formed a company focused on promoting health through elements of taiji (aka tai chi). I will be transitioning over to help with the development of this company- therefore we are looking for a new assistant.

Thanks,

This post is relevant as of April 2011.
See Job Description below.

Please only email the proper hiring email address listed below. Applications sent to any email address other than the one listed below will not be reviewed.

————
POSITION: Assistant to Jet Li — Internationally Renowned Actor and Martial Artist, Founder of One Foundation, Founder of BNU1 Institute, and Founder of Taiji Zen International

GENERAL BACKGROUND:
As a martial artist and action film star, Jet Li needs no further introduction. In recent years, however, Jet has redefined himself as what some call “the first Chinese social entrepreneur.”

In 2007, he founded One Foundation, a globally-minded charity with the simple idea that everyone has responsibility to help society. With the slogan of “every person, every month gives one yuan = one big family,” One Foundation has made history by paving the way in China’s NGO sector.

In 2010, Jet founded the Beijing Normal University One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute, or BNU1. With the goal of educating the next generation of social sector leaders in China, BNU1 is an accredited, degree granting academic institution formed in partnership with Beijing Normal University.

In 2011, Jet officially launched Taiji Zen International, a new movement to promote health and happiness through the practice of taijiquan (also known as tai chi chuan). Taiji Zen will also express the philosophy of taiji, which focuses on balance and harmony.

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITIES:
Serve as primary communication bridge between Jet and various personal and business relations; Arrange travel and scheduling; Maintain personal and business accounts; Execute public relations strategies; Review and prepare film production materials.

Responsibilities also include maintaining relationships and partnerships with multinational corporations, government and religious dignitaries, and media/film/public relations entities in the USA, Europe, and Asia.

Candidate must be willing to travel with Jet, often at short notice and potentially for long durations, and must bring great organizational skills and a flexible attitude. With disaster relief as one of the foundation’s focus areas, travel to harsh and inconvenient locations may sometimes be required. During film productions, the candidate will accompany Jet on set and will gain hands-on production-related experience.

QUALIFICATIONS: Fluency in English, Proficiency in Mandarin; Undergraduate degree at minimum

PREFERENCES: Male; Based in or willing to relocate to Beijing; At least 1-2 years of work-experience

TO APPLY: Please send your resume and cover letter to hiring [at] taijizen.com Attn: Alfred Hsing

So I guess I finished off 2009 with a bang by quitting my desk job, winning gold at worlds, and then taking off to live in Taiwan for 2.5 months. I finally broke free of this “path” that seemed carved since birth. Once I had walked this path of getting good grades, graduating college, and getting a corporate job, I felt I could finally venture into what the rest of the universe had to offer. I just started truly discovering the endless possibilities of life towards the end of 2010.. but 2011 was the year that I would start learning more, questioning more, and pushing the envelope on what is capable in life.

Let me take a look back at the fruits of my labor for 2010.

It was definitely a year of meeting people! Not that I ever cared too much about merely “meeting people” but if there were ever celebrities or idols that I wanted to meet, I more than definitely got that out of my system this year. So to start out.. right after watching the fireworks at Taipei 101 I finished my enjoyable trip to Taiwan and headed back to LA. I headed straight back to LA just in time to rehearse and perform at a demo for Jackie Chan!

Jackie Chan at the Lionsgate's Movie The Spy Next Door Premier

Immediately after the demo before my body had even cooled down I caught a flight back to SF bay area to perform with my brother at an event my mom was helping out with around the Civic Center in San Jose.
Here I am with my brother working on our fight choreography for the performance.

Aside from all these demos, 2010 was also a new year for “wu shu” for me. Taking a gold at the world games was as far as I could have ever hoped to go with competitive taolu wushu. Immediately when I got back to LA I started training with world games sanda medalist Jason Yee. I was really excited to hear that he had moved to LA and was also working in entertainment. Including some wushu private lessons that I started teaching, I basically trained every day of the week – sometimes 2 times a day. My training would consist of sanda with Jason, wushu at LA wushu, tricking at white lotus, and gym time at LA fitness.

Me and Jason

A little sampler of my training at White Lotus.

For me, it was also a really meaningful year for wushu in another sense. 2010 was my last year doing competitive wushu. I was invited to the 2010 Sport Accord Games in Beijing, China based off of placing top 6 in a qualifying event at the world games.

My Last Wushu Competition

After more than 10 years of training wushu and competing, part of me looks back and thinks, it’s hard to believe that this part of my life is over. A couple years ago I couldn’t imagine a day where I wasn’t focusing on making the US wushu team. Of course everything has it’s time and place. I am so happy to have finished off my final competition at the Sport Accord Games. It was a high level first of it’s kind event recognized by the IOC to be held like an olympics for martial arts. I got my chance to compete in Beijing – a birthplace of modern wushu. Best of all I got to spend this trip with my US wushu teammates Sarah Chang and Peter Dang as well as my Canada wushu buddies. =)

Plus I finally got some espn-like wushu coverage with one of those high flying dolly-ing cameras. Check out my final performance.

Jackie Chan even congratulated me after the tournament. He ended up being an honored invited guest performer for the 2010 Sport Accord closing ceremony. You can still see my competitor badge below.

Alfred Hsing and Jackie Chan

It’s amazing how things are all connected. Before getting a job in Beijing, I was going to fly to China anyways because I was invited to compete at the Sport Accord games. Then I happen to attend the games to compete AND for work because Jet was an honored international wushu ambassador. Meanwhile Jackie Chan was singing as an honored performer.. and I had just happened to perform for him earlier on in the year for his movie premier at The Grove in LA.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a year of meeting people – part of that was because I became a News Correspondent / Interview Host for Pac Rim baby!

I had the opportunity to interview a lot of artists and performers that I have a lot of respect for.. such as: Mike Shinoda, Cung Le, Tia Carrere, ABDC dance crews, and many others.

Cung Le Interview

Mike Shinoda

Outside of meeting some awesome peeps on the Pacific Rim team and on the red carpets.. my celebrity streak didn’t end there… but first! let me do a little summary on my business developments.

2010 was actually a very interesting year for WushuKicks.com – my online martial arts business. Aside from acting projects and training all my other time was focused on WushuKicks. WushuKicks went through some good clean ups. The site design and functionality was improved; it was the first year we were incorporated; sales increased month to month; vendor relationships developed; and I grew new lines of business. WushuKicks was also a sponsor of CMAT this year. Overall the scale of WushuKicks definitely grew.. and in fact I am looking for another person to possibly join the team to help out in a learning and assisting capacity (contact me at alfredrocks(at)gmail.com).

WushuKicks sponsors CMAT 18

Martial Arts Complete

One of the new lines of business under WushuKicks was Martial Arts Complete. My good homie and buddy Adam McArthur and I had this idea to promote martial arts nutrition. I started talking to him about this in 2009. Finally in 2010 our idea came to fruition and was finalized. We set up the site www.martialartscomplete.com (after being scammed by some guy who only half finished our site). Then we finished the designs, product pictures, legal work, certifications, and got our first sale not too long after our product was completed. =) Look forward to more development for 2011.

I guess the most interesting part was that in the middle part of the year I ended up moving to the other side of the world and still fully remotely managed WushuKicks. With less time spent I even noticed sales continued to increase! Life is good!

NOW.. why did I move to the other side of the world? I guess most know by now. I got a life changing email (and skype call) that landed me a job to work for my childhood role model Jet Li.

andy alfred jet clinton

The job has had it’s ups and downs in terms of how draining and demanding it can be… but I never regret making this decision to up and move from LA to China. Oh yeah, so the picture above is with Clinton at a Clinton Global Initiative event in Hong Kong. Also the reason I shaved my head is because I landed a small role in a movie WITH Jet. I shaved my head to play a monk. I actually got lines, a close up, and some work with the stunt team as well. I mean.. wow.. from driving hours in traffic just to audition for scattered roles in LA to working with China’s most famous directors and being in a scene interacting with Jet Li… this alone made 2010 an amazing year for me! Unfortunately I’m not allowed to post up pics from the set yet, but when the movie comes out I will definitely post up some news.

Some other good memories on the job include: meeting other celebs like Rob Cohen, Ekin Cheng, Jay Chou; working with top entrepreneurs and philanthropists like Jack Ma, Wang Shi, Ma Hua Teng; emailing Bill Gates and Warren Buffet; shaking hands 6 times with Bill Clinton; helping choreograph Jet’s Adidas Q4 clothing line poses; hitting up movie premiers; changing history (watching the One Foundation achieve status as a public NGO in China).

Jack Ma and Alfred Hsing

adidas front kick pose

Despite all the cool people and fun sounding events… moving to China and working for Jet was one of the most draining and demanding jobs I have ever had in my life. For the first 3 months, every day I passed out from exhaustion. Within the first 3 weeks on the job one time in Shanghai I woke up in a hotel and didn’t know which city I was in for about 2-3 minutes. When I got here, I couldn’t read Chinese as well and I was much more unfamiliar with how everything works. I am so thankful that my reading ability has improved and my listening comprehension for business and philanthropy terminology has increased as well. I still feel I have a ways to go, but I sincerely want to make a push to improve my Chinese to a near-native level this year.

It has definitely been a year of accomplishing goals. I got the chance to work with both Jackie Chan and Jet Li this year.. and that’s a goal I had set upon achieving since the 7th grade. Also I had always wanted to move to Asia and live here for 6 months – 1 year and now I’ve made that happen as well.

I rounded up the year and made everything come full circle as we finished up 2 movies by the end of December and I took a short vacation to Taiwan. So again, for the second time I spent my New Years Eve watching the fireworks at Taipei 101. This year was a 100 year celebration for Taiwan and it was also 2010, a nice round number, so apparently double the money was spent on fireworks. The firework display was in fact AMAZING this year! Fireworks zigged and zagged and flooded up and down the 101 building. It also lit the sky with all kinds of shapes and lights! I think this was a great great great way to kick off 2011.

Taipei 101 2010 NYE

New Years in Taiwan with homies

It was great to spend the end of 2010 in Taiwan with friends. Ngan, Sarah, and I joked about all the former US wushu team members moving to Asia and kicking it in Taiwan. It was a fun vacation and my Taiwan trip will surely have it’s own post.

Overall this year I think I reached new heights in my understanding of the universe. If last year I pushed physical limits of the human body (training and training and more training till it hurt all over) this year I started to push the limits of the mind… my mind.. human minds.. and questioning more deeply on how our human minds limit ourselves. I hope and sincerely believe that the relationships I have developed this year were many and far reaching. I believe the fruits of labor that will be sown in 2011 will be seismic!! even in comparison to past years. I hope for success in the acting and entertainment field for 2011. Even beyond acting developments.. I think I am growing in knowledge around spirituality and life’s truths. I know there will be further developments in this area as well. If 2010 was pushing boundaries.. 2011 is where we break the tipping point for goals and possibilities.

I hope you enjoyed my recap of 2010. Welcome 2011!
- Alfred Hsing

A Day in the Life of Alfred Hsing – July 24th, 2010

Recently over dinner I met someone who mentioned a project called “Life in a Day“. I saw a short clip of it a few days ago.. and then lo and behold I log in to YouTube today and see it boldly blasting all over the place. Today is “YouTube Filming Day” for the project of Life in a Day.

Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create a user-generated documentary film shot in a single day. This experimental documentary will be executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald. The film will premier at the Sundance Film Festival Jan 2011.

It also just so happens that July 24th and 25th (which is still the 24th in the US) are the only days I will have YouTube access because I’ll be back in China tomorrow (where YouTube is blocked). Thus I felt some calling to document my life on this day… and plus I had been meaning to create a video on “A Day in the Life of Alfred Hsing“.

Let me know what you guys thing because I plan to submit this tomorrow.

In other news, I created a new website – www.alfredrocks.com

alfredrocks.com

I’ve always had the domain alfredrocks.com, but before it simply linked to a blogspot page. Now that I am getting more involved in production and acting, I felt it was only right to have a clean simple page with my head shot, demo reel, and resume – all of which are on the site. =)

There are still a few minor changes I might make to both the “Life in a Day” short and my new alfredrocks.com site. Overall they were both fun to work on. Feel free to leave feedback!

Tsim Tsa Tsui Meeting

So Misa and I among a group of other young entrepreneurs have a monthly meeting we like to call Young CEO meetings.. we try to model the meetings like the big boys in EO… but either way it’s a great way for us to get good feedback on ways to improve our businesses and also keep each other accountable. This meet up wasn’t specifically a “CEO meeting” but it was awesome in that we both usually met up in LA and this time we were able to update each other while both being in Hong Kong.

Alfred and Jet Avenue of Stars

We took a walk on the Avenue of Stars so of course I had to say what’s up to my boss’s hand print!

Mango Smoothie and Tea

After that it got hot from all that walking around so we kinda randomly stumbled our way around and found a chill spot to have some drinks. This day was a much needed day of chillin out because Jet didn’t have anything really work related planned and I actually got to meet up someone I knew from LA which was a nice change of pace. Moreover, due to our monthly meetings, Misa pretty much knows everything that’s going on with WushuKicks up until I left for China and I was pretty up to date with her food truck business NomNomTruck so there was tons to talk about.

Rockin out at Racks in lkf

We hit up the Jade market, did a couple of other things, met up Ryan for dinner in Central, and then ultimately ended up at Racks to hang with Pat from AliveNotDead!

Pat and Alfred at Racks

It’s nice to be able to meet up other AnDers in all different places from LA to Beijing to Hong Kong. Pat, Ryan, and I caught up over dinner. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay out too late so I’ll have to continue where we left off and hang with Pat next time I’m in Hong Kong.

Misa and Alfred at Racks in LKF

Surprisingly, some of the pictures that Ryan took – that Misa and I both thought he was totaling messing around… came out okay!

Me and Jason - Final Sanda Training before China

This may be my last post from the US in a while because for those of you who don’t know.. I am MOVING TO CHINA TODAY! I kind of can’t believe it myself that I am re-locating to China. I’ve always wanted to live out there for over a year, but I’ve always had various reasons why I had to be back in the US. Now I have the perfect reason. I got an amazing job opportunity in China and there is no better reason or time to be out there than NOW!

That being said, I still want to update you guys on everything I’ve been up to aside from the move. I’ve honestly been so busy the past 3 weeks that I haven’t even had time to sit down and spend 20 minutes updating my blog.

The Move
I’m not even sure where to start. Let’s see – So about 3 weeks ago I get a call on a bright and early morning. I’m still half asleep when I get a phone call. I pick up. It’s an international number. It ends up being an interview for a job that I applied to. Fast forward a few days later; I got the job and I am told that I need to fly out to China in about less than 3 weeks! Yikes! In less than 24 hours I decided this was the right thing for me to do… and I decided to make the move.

I now had to cancel my trip that I had ALREADY booked for August for the 2010 Sport Accord Combat Games, which I will still be competing in, and I had to get a visa rush processed since there was so little time. I turn my passport over to my travel agent.. and gadzooks! my passport pages are FULL (darn all that other traveling) so now I have to do an expedited “add pages” to my passport. Meanwhile I also had to get a visa done on my Taiwan passport, but I needed my US passport in order to process some paperwork.. which made things cut very close!

There were sooo many other things I had to do. To list a few, I had to find a new roommate to take up my room, sell or have someone look after my car, work out logistics with wushukicks, say farewell to friends and family, pack, buy new luggage because my old one broke, purchase new airline tickets, and clean out my place since I was moving out.

WushuKicks
For my online business, I had to make it fully functional while being on the go. It was close, but still needed some crazy intense upgrades to be done in 3 days. I created an auto-responder for customer support because I noticed a lot of people were asking the same questions so I forwarded people to the Frequently Asked Questions part of my page.. which I also heavily updated to reflect the most common questions. I then created 2 more team emails where one person would be a backup to handle order processing if I was not available and another staff would handle customer support questions only. I changed a few policies of the business so that things were more clear cut and less dependent on my personal decision making.

I spent 2 weeks negotiating with UPS and my merchant services for better rates. I got them, but I don’t think it was as helpful as I had hoped for. At least I got my shipper account set up with automated billing. I also put my inventory in the hands of 2 trust worthy people and voila…! Let’s see if wushukicks can run while I am traveling, in china, and internet-less (from time to time).

Farewell Party
I had a small going away dinner with some former co-workers and friends that I have and haven’t seen in a while. All I can say is I had a good time seeing all my friends in one place and the positivity and support lit my face up in uncontrollable smiles.

Sweep the leg

The Karate Kid Demo
The next day let’s just say I was the worse for wear and had a long night… but I still had to be up early. I think I was up by 8am (which is how early Ive been getting up for the past week despite sleeping after midnight). I ended up running around doing all sorts of errands only to finally muster up the strength to drive out to Whittier to do a DEMO for a theater’s opening night of The Karate Kid. It took an hour to get there in traffic and I almost fell asleep twice. My buddy Adam was not helping either because he was practically falling asleep as well. We have both had crazy schedules and he booked a voiceover on a Disney show as a lead/regular… so congrats to him too!

We got there and demoed. It was cool… just a standard demo.. and afterward we got to watch The Karate Kid for free. A lot of people are talking about the name and how it’s just a marketing ploy. In the movie itself it does justify the name the “karate” kid to some degree. Also, it stays true to the premise of the original, but yet still is its own unique movie with its own powerful cast that holds its own. The movie definitely struck a cord when Jaden gets on the Air China flight moving to a place so far from home… I knew that a few days later I would also be boarding an Air China flight and making a very big move in my life. I liked Jaden’s performance and the relationship development between him and the girl that he likes. I would recommend watching this movie.

Nor Cal
So I stumble home after the movie around midnight.. because the movie is kinda long and I went to eat pho with Adam afterward. I start to pack for my drive up north AND pack for my move to China.. but I don’t make it passed 2 socks and I pass out asleep on the floor of my room. I was THAT tired! I wake up at 4am and continue packing. It takes me super long because I am not just packing to go up north I am sorting out what I want to bring to China and what I want to bring home and leave at home. I finally start driving up north at 9am but have to make 3 stops just to rest my eyes because I was starting to fall asleep by 11am.

At 3:30PM I run into the Kung Fu Magazine Tiger Claw tournament to support the Wild Aid event. I performed part of my longfist with a few ditang falls! The registration money was donated to help save Tigers for the Wild Aid foundation. I was glad to support my friends at Tiger Claw and the Tigers. Also ran into Dean, Kunyu, Emilio, Cao Yue, Peggy, and other wushu people. I had to cut out soon after the Wild Aid event because I was dead tired and my house was in my car. That night I hung out with my boys E and Hue. The following day I did a photoshoot for Kung Fu Magazine. The last day up north I visited my friend Mike at Google. Google has an amazing campus. The vibe is very casual and cool! I had some lunch there and was surprised (though I shouldn’t have been) that they even do google analytics on their dining halls! Then my bro took me to the airport to return to LA.

Google Campus

Brothers

My good friend Rel picked me up from the airport.. then I jammed over to teach my last wushu lesson with Geeta. She has learned a ton in our few short classes.

…well that pretty much leads up to where I am now.. a few hours away from meeting up with some so cal fam and getting on board my flight in a few hours. I am going to continue doing some last minute packing, but before I close this final US post… please keep updated with me everyone. I am so grateful for all my friends and I don’t want to just disappear, but this is definitely a journey I need to undertake! I hear that facebook and google are relatively inaccessible in China so keep in touch with me via my blog, email, or any other means. If you don’t hear from me it’s probably because I am traveling or in a place with limited access.

Today is the day I make my move to China! Let’s see what’s in store! =)

Bruce Lee Inspiration

I just read the above motivational quote and I’m glad I read it. Things are fast changing for me as I prepare for another adventure. Life and my lifestyle will change very soon! All for the best I hope. Anyways, I am very pressed at the moment and this quote is awesome because it tells me that I am acting in a way that is inline with Bruce’s philosophy on living a fulfilling life.

Here is the quote:

“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” –and we’re still running-”if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

A man must constantly exceed his level! Time to be a man!

Now to a huge list of things that I have to do within 2 weeks:

transfer business email forwarding
UPS shipper account company testing trial period
update FAQ
find customer support staff
book flight up north
book flight to china
sell car
find new roommate
clean house
buy new laptop
buy new luggage case (maybe also buy one of those traveler backpacks)
optometrist appointments
acting classes
get visas
martial arts training
teaching lessons
buy new camera lens
buy new phone (thinking unlocked iphone)

Chris Yen and I

I had a lunch meeting with Chris Yen, Donnie Yen’s sister, last week… and it was a very productive meeting! Read on!

Chris Yen Inside Kung-Fu

For those of you who don’t know – Chris Yen is an awesome martial artist and entrepreneur. Early in her martial arts film career she worked with acclaimed action director Yuen Wo-Ping in 1986 on a project shot in Taiwan. Later in her career she went on to work with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson helping her brother out on the set of Shanghai Knights. Soon after she went to Hong Kong to film a stylish female assassin role in “Black Rose.” Chris Yen’s performance in Black Rose led to a profile in the South China Morning Post, which in turn led to a featured appearance with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show, broadcast live from Hong Kong to millions of viewers. Invited to LA for auditions by a top casting director from Columbia Pictures, she has been featured in several commercials and was cast as the lead in the youth market action film Adventures of Johnny Tao, as well as in a supporting role in A Good Day to be Black and Sexy, an official 2008 Sundance Selection. She continues to work hard and develop projects with her writing partners.

Her brother Donnie Yen has appeared in more than 40 films and TV shows, including: “Ip Man”(2008), “Flash Point” (2007), “Saat Po Long aka SPL” (2005), “Shanghai Knights” (2003), “Hero” (2002), “Blade II” (2002), “Highlander: Endgame” (2000), and “Iron Monkey ” (1993).

Interestingly enough in March 2009 I posted an article on Chris Yen on the WushuKicks.com Wushu News blog – http://www.wushukicks.com/chinese-martial-arts/tag/chris-yen/ It’s amazing that a year later we got to sit down to chat over lunch.

Enough with the talk. If you haven’t seen her demo reel… check it out. I particularly like the wheel kick at 1:12.

We got in touch through a mutual friend and originally met up to get some feedback on her thoughts on Martial Arts Complete and some sponsorship. If you’ll notice in the picture at the top that pink and white “M” is a Mooto hoodie courtesy of MOOTO USA. Much thanks Mooto! and of course we got love for WushuKicks.com up in there as well.

Chris Yen and Martial Arts Complete

This ad isn’t the FINAL version yet, but it’s pretty close. I must say I’m pretty proud of this because I took this picture on my Nikon D60 at a boba cafe, edited it, and did the design as well. And to do Chris justice I must say that it was not a planned out photo shoot or anything and she just came in her casual attire, but she came out looking great. After clearing out the background and putting in our martial arts complete background I think the whole thing looks pretty cool!

Business aside, we had a lot to talk about regarding wushu, martial arts training, movies, productions, refinancing, and the tasty ham and corn on french bread appetizers. Chris mentioned that she will be back and forth between Asia and the states and we talked a lot about her personal project Kore8Films and what it takes to get things off the ground. It was a really great meeting and I am honored to be able to sit down with such an accomplished yet humble martial artist. Definitely look out for her in some big projects ahead!

ham and corn on french bread

Mike Shinoda

Source: www.casualiscool.com | Stunts: www.alfredrocks.com

Am I getting better at manifesting my dreams or was this coincidence? I was thinking about Fort Minor’s song and the next day I wake up and meet the guy behind it. Let’s not forget the time I had a dream I met Jackie Chan while I was in Taiwan and the next day I get an email from Robbie saying we are demo-ing for Jackie Chan. Here is the Mike Shinoda manifestation story:

I went to the East West Players Visionary Awards yesterday to do some interviews for Pacific Rim. There were a lot of great people there and talented Asian artists. =)

The strange thing was this: 4am the night before I was writing song lyrics for my business fraternity’s 10 year reunion event…

Past present blending through the ages
Destiny scripted on your manuals pages
From E-xi till DnI we cry and laugh
That sig on the back you can keep my autograph

A fraction inspiration, the rest is sweat
Building boats and memories we’ll never forget
In you and I got u.n.i.t.y.
Reach for those dreams the limit is the sky!

…and that line “a fraction inspiration, the rest is sweat” was inspired by Mike Shinoda or Fort Minor’s song “Remember the name”.

So at 4am I fell asleep thinking about Fort Minor’s lyrics:

This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!

and the next morning (same day) I wake up to a text from Pacific Rim saying “hey I know its kind of last minute but can you help cover the East West Players Awards at 6:30pm today?” So I said yes.. and BAM! I’m covering the event and then get to meet and interview Mike Shinoda! It was awesome because I really like his music and style and he seemed like a very cool person.

If you guys don’t know, Mike Shinoda is an Asian American artist best known for his vocal and musical endeavors with two-time Grammy-winning, multi-platinum rock band Linkin Park who also has his own project Fort Minor. He also is an awesome graphic designer that graduated from The Art Center — and I happened to have just come back from The Art Center that day watching a screening for a grad program short film I worked on.

Other actors/performers were at the event as well. Here are a few other pics:

Joan Almedilla Miss Saigon

Kaba Modern was there too!

kaba modern and mike shinoda

I had a good time at the event for sure. I also was hanging out with a fellow volunteer, Michi, and she taught me some improv games. There’s one where you pick a random letter of the alphabet like.. “G” for example so then I would say “Go get me some apples” and then the next person would have to start with the next letter of the alphabet “H” and they would say “Hellll no I’m not getting apples for you”.. etc / There’s another game where you can only ask questions.. and that was fun too. I think I might try to check out some improv groups when I have more time. I heard about OPM (opening people’s minds) and a few other improv groups. It would be cool to work with some really good improv people.

In summary- it may have been a coincidence or it may be that I have my hands in so many things that I’m bound to “accidentally” meet people that I am inspired by, but part of me thinks that the universe definitely does work in such a way that if you go about it the right way, paths will cross and dreams can manifest.

Martial Arts:

Mooto Backpack

Got a sick white backpack from my sponsor – MOOTO! They are sponsoring me with gear that I shall be sporting at my next competitions such as at the 2010 Sport Accord Combat Games! Mooto is known for being a high end korean taekwondo focused brand. They are expanding and are already based in many countries like the US, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, throughout Asia, etc. Anyways, I can’t repeat enough times how cool that backpack is.. it has pockets and zippers everywhere and a mesh lining that keeps your back separate from the actual bag to prevent your back from sweating. More details at wushukicks.com

As far as training.. I have been consistently working out of course, but not as much as I’d like. I’ve been trying to nail down a lot of work and projects so I had my competition focus diverted. With taxes filed, 2009 year wushukicks finances done, and site upgrades completed I should be able to go complete focus the next 2 weeks.

On Saturday we also had a crazy photo shoot for Martial Arts Complete. A lot of good buddies came out to help including Adam, Robbie, Tamiko, Greta, Kim, and Travis. Much thanks to our 2 professional photographers that drove all the way out from Fresno – Shaun and Boone! I’ll post some picture after we sort through all of them.

Here is one just taken on Boone’s iPhone for fun. It still came out dope though!

kung fu sidekick block

In website news… I contracted a web programmer to clean up and make wushukicks.com even more secure. We got the ssl encryption working flawlessly. Made a few other cosmetic changes as well and I am a happy camper. This took me a grueling 3 days of ocd style managing because I really wanted to get this locked down.

Misc:
Got new dryer installed – had to ghetto rig the exhaust in the back. Might have to fix that in time. – Shin sen gumi with Ant.
Dinner and sake with Ryan – Ryan learns the meaning of “unfiltered”
In the process of helping Audrey purchase her first home! =) Putting my real estate license to good use!