“Many of us begin this art with little to no understanding of what we are getting ourselves into. Then, maybe a year or a black belt later, we realize this odyssey we have embarked upon and rest happily in knowing we have chosen a noble struggle.I think we owe most of our successes to our initial ignorance. When we begin, we cannot see the obstacles ahead, and so we march on optimistically. In hindsight, when we look back and connect the dots, we see just how green we were at the start, and it was only our ignorance that upheld us from the crushing despair of the task at hand.”

“Who you are as a person far outweighs what you do in an athletic arena.”

“There are no trophies for the real victories in life.”

“Jesus was not a carpenter forever.”

“Every interaction with another is an opportunity to serve.”

“Your happiness is in direct proportion to the amount you serve others.”

“Service, it seems, is the only antidote to existential frustration.”

“Life is always easier when lived for others, and living for others is the best way I know to live for yourself.”

“There is no higher calling than the service of your fellow man, and to do so through your own personal mastery of a craft is a gift enjoyed by few.”

“To base your self worth relative to others is to play a losing game. If you are at the bottom, you will be filled with self-loathing. If you are at the top, you will be filled with self-aggrandizement and ego. This will most certainly be one of your greatest obstacles to achieving whatever degree of mastery you are capable.”

“I believe the devil exists in those little, seemingly unnoticeable moments when we choose to value our own insecurities over the service of others.”