My Brilliant Career Martial arts key to a way of life and doing business
Brendon Katz is a trainer and the manager at Fight Sports Centre
We change lives. From stressed-out execs who need to smash something, to property owners who feel safer and more confident learning self-defence, to students and stay-at-home moms getting and staying in good shape, we make lives better. We have specialist trainers in mixed martial arts (MMA), judo, boxing, muay Thai, boxercise, kickboxercise and functional fitness. There’s an awesome atmosphere in the gym. Everyone who comes in is lekker — there are no inflated egos or lousy attitudes. Everyone comes in to work hard, there’s no judgment. If you’re not sweaty and messy, you’re not working hard enough. And everyone drives everyone else to uphold the work ethic. The energy is infectious.
That said, it’s also a fun, laid-back atmosphere. We open at 5.15am most days, and from then, until we close at 7.30pm, there are guys and gals hitting the bags or the pads or on the mats or weights. It’s a great place to work, and work out. I’ve put a lot of thought into the benefits of exercising, and the benefits of exercising in a combat sport especially, the way it changes you on a primal level.
You were an MMA fighter. Has this made you a better businessman?
There’s an art to everything. There’s a science to everything, too. You must learn, test and understand the science first, and then, when you express it in your own unique way, it becomes art (because art is self-expression). I learnt that the hard way with worldclass athletes punching me in the face. That was good motivation. Once the art started to fall into place, what was difficult became smooth, what was fast became slow. That’s art. Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War that war is a “game” of strategy, of leverage (levers) and force multipliers. I want to know which levers to pull to get the best results. I guess you could say 15 years of getting beaten up taught me that I liked levers.
I studied most of a sport psychology degree in my early 20s. I dropped out in the last month of my last year after getting distinctions all the way. I’d taken what I wanted from it. It gave me some theoretical basis. I’ve also been blessed to have a lot of time with world-class coaches like Nick Durandt and Shuaimeng Liu. I also have a very obsessive, impatient nature, so I want to develop brilliance in my clients as quickly as possible.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
I wanted to be a fighter for as far back as I can remember. I remember watching a box- ing match on TV, I must have been about five. I stood in front of the TV and imagined what it would be like to fight; I was ducking and weaving and throwing punches.
What is the best career advice you have received, and who gave it to you?
I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by brilliant business people so I’ve had mountains of good advice. Avoiding the common stuff, I’d say there is one thing that is not spoken about enough. “If you’re not the most useless guy in the room, you’re in the wrong room. But if you don’t know more about your industry than everybody else, you’re going to get eaten alive.”