Mm-hmm.

So, and this turned out to be the largest electrical products launch in U.S. history at that time.

But what I mean by the basics are is I'd kind of done all of that work and then I just took a breather for a second and I thought to myself, okay, I always use the same things.

I always use these principles of thinking, of operating.

And then I thought to myself, how did I come up with these principles? right? And that's why Lessons from the Math was born.

It was really something like, you know, because I had so many people come to me and say, hey, Ben, you know, my son Joe's just graduating college.

He's thinking about doing this startup.

How did you deal with it when you're younger self? And then as you have matured and maybe one of the last jobs you've had, how has it changed for you?

Sure.

Well, the book came about as I was looking at trying to put together a set of wisdom that I might leave for my daughter, you know, who's now 21, and I wanted to give her something as a reference.

And many times I've been asked by other parents of kids that are graduating school, and they would say, hey, Ben, would you mind talking to Joe? He's got an idea for a business he wants to start, you know, and I get involved early on this way.

And so it kind of came from this, right? Being asked a lot and really thinking about what's important.

And so of these 12 principles in the book, right? Lessons from the mat, the first and most important principle is I call it the stillness muscle.

And just like you have to hold a camera lens steady as you're taking a photo or an image, right? So you kind of have to have a clear mind when you're looking at something that's in front of you.

And so, you know, one day after training with my instructor, Master Kang at the time, an old Korean gentleman, you know, he turned to me after the lesson and he said, hey, Ben, do you meditate? And I kind of half-jokingly, you know, said, well, not really.

I've never heard of this company, Mochila, M-O-C-H-I-L-A.

Mm.

And so it's the same way in martial arts, right? When you're in a physical engagement, what happens, right? You need to see, you know, what's really in front of me.

Is the guy kicking me? Is he punching me? Am I being choked? Like, what's really happening here? And then you, of course, should have the tools, the experience, the knowledge to try to appropriately, right, disengage yourself, get past that problem, which should've been, you know, should be your training, should be all these other things that come into bear.

But this first step, right, of getting this silence is super important, you know? And so I, and how I got here was, you know, my Hapkido instructor, this old Korean master guy that had fought in the war and been a monk and done all these different jobs and things, and, you know, we're, we're training with s- you know, we just finished some weapons training and, and, you know, we're ending the class.

And Master Kang looks at me, and he says, "Hey, Ben, do you meditate?" You know, and of course I know what meditation is, and I've done some of that before.

And I'm like, "Well, yeah, well, sir, you know, I'm pretty busy, you know? I, I haven't been able to find, you know...

Like, y- but I do meditate occasionally." And you know what he said to me? He looked at me in the, dead in the eyes, and he just said, "Do you have two minutes a day?" What was I gonna say to that? I said, "Yeah.

What does that mean when you say, "Take your ego, put it over here"? You said that a couple times.

Mm-hmm.

And so it's the same way in martial arts, right? When you're in a physical engagement, what happens, right? You need to see, you know, what's really in front of me.

Is the guy kicking me? Is he punching me? Am I being choked? Like, what's really happening here? And then you, of course, should have the tools, the experience, the knowledge to try to appropriately, right, disengage yourself, get past that problem.

Which should've been, you know, should be your training, should be all these other things that come into bear.

But this first step, right, of getting the silence is super important, you know? And so I ...

And how I got here was, you know, my Hapkido instructor, this old Korean master guy that had fought in the war and been a monk and done all these different jobs and things.

And, you know, we're, we're training with ...

What does that mean when you say take your ego, put it over here? You said that a couple times.

Mm-hmm, yeah.

We talk about alignment as, you know, think of yourself as standing tall.Right? When you stand tall on the ground, your feet are firmly on the ground, you're upright, your posture is good, your head is looking forward, you know, y- you're, you're in a great physical place, right? And I think what happens is, is that many times in business, right, we are not aligned.

And I'll just give you an example that, you know, I, I have mentioned in my book, you know.

I was...

You know, I, I had this in- incredible startup that was, uh, you know, building kind of the next generation cloud services.

This is before Amazon even had a cloud service.

And, you know, I designed this system, raised a, a lot of money, had, you know, great people working for the company, and my sales team basically called a meeting with me.

You know, do, do you see different ways people are interacting, both when practicing jujitsu, but also when, uh, when trying to bridge that into business? So are you seeing some big difference in the way generation tackle that?