We've been talking about reasons why dojo owners fail. Last week we talked about ego, attitude, and overhead.

But today we're going to discuss something that screws up a good number of martial art school owners before they even get out of the gate. And that is...

Taking Advice, And Why You Should Choose Your Advisers Wisely

Few martial art school owners start off knowing what it takes to start and run a successful martial art school. Unless you grew up helping your parents run a successful school, chances are good that you're going to start off not knowing much about how to make a dojo grow and run efficiently.

Sadly, as I mentioned previously ego is a rather common issue among martial arts instructors. So, many new school owners come into this game thinking that they are going to do things a certain way and still be successful.

Typically it only takes a few months of sweating whether or not you're going to make rent, or only getting one or two inquiries a week, or teaching classes of only three or four students to realize that you need some guidance and advice to grow your school.

But then, there are the outliers...

Winning The Martial Art School Lottery

One phrase you might have heard me repeat in the past is "winning the martial art school lottery." What I mean by that is, some inexperienced school owners start schools and have success right out of the gate.

I call this winning the martial art school lottery.

If this describes your situation, congrats. Sometimes it's because of location; the school owner just happens to pick a fantastic location with plenty of foot traffic and street traffic in an affluent area.

Sometimes it's due to timing. The school owner opens their dojo in the right place and also at a very propitious time. Perhaps the economy is on an upswing, or interest in their martial art is trending upwards.

And sometimes, it's inexplicable. The school owner is just plain lucky.

When You Catch Lightning In A Bottle, It's Impossible To Repeat The Process

Granted, there are always other factors involved in the success of any business. Hard work, dedication, and providing a quality service, for instance.

But the problem with catching lightning in a bottle is that it's often impossible to repeat the process. The reason is because the person who "made it" through luck often has no clue what they did to make their dojo a success.

Why Those Who Can, Can't Always Teach

Sure, they can speculate all day long... but when you stumble upon success, your chances of repeating it are nil to none.

Unfortunately, many of these people suffer from the delusion that they are martial arts business experts. And they start consulting businesses.

The obvious problem with that is they don't really have replicable, reproducible business systems and practices. But since they don't realize this, they just go and teach their clients to copy whatever they do in their own dojo.

But without a process of trial, error, and experimentation, they have no idea how to start and grow a martial art school under less than ideal circumstances and conditions.

You see, luck is a very hard thing to teach.

Don't Follow The Most Successful Person - Follow The Most Successful Teacher

There's an old saw in personal development circles that says in order to become successful in the shortest period of time, just find someone who is successful and copy what they do.

That approach may work if the person's actions led to their success. But if they became successful through sheer luck... well, good luck with that.

Because experience beats luck, every single time.

This is why I strongly suggest that you don't just follow the advice of the most successful person you can find. Instead, find someone who has a track record of helping other people succeed.

By doing so, you'll know you're following someone who knows how to teach others the steps to starting and running a successful school. And, you'll increase your own chances of duplicating their success dramatically.