Bruce Lee was a physical force to be reckoned with, and just as much a spiritual force,
merging the two through intense discipline and training.
The result was a man who had total confidence in his abilities to achieve greatness, and
followed through with it by just about every metric one can be judged by.
Fame?
Check.
Chiseled abs?
Check.
Fortune?
Absolutely.
Lee died tragically at age 32 from an allergic reaction to a painkiller he took for a headache.
Even at that relatively young age, though, he had managed to amount a fortune of around
$10 million.
What's crazier is that according to Quartz, he predicted he would have that amount in
a letter he wrote years earlier, along with many other visions for his future that would
soon be realized.
In January, 1969, Lee wrote a motivational letter to himself spelling out his intention
to become an international icon.
The letter read:
"I, Bruce Lee, will be the first highest paid Oriental super star in the United States.
In return I will give the most exciting performances and render the best of quality in the capacity
of an actor.
Starting 1970 I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980 I will
have in my possession $10,000,000.
I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness."
Lee is truly proof of the power of dedication and intention.
And what proves it even more is the fact that decades after his death, he's still pulling
in millions.
According to Forbes, his estate made $7 million in 2013 alone.
A man who lived at the confluence of dreams and reality, Lee was every bit as much of
a philosopher as he was a fighter.
According to his official website, after moving to the US at age 18, he began earning money
as a personal martial arts teacher, while also working a family friend's restaurant
and performing other odd jobs.
Eventually, his success as a teacher and profound personal drive led him to create the Jun Fan
Gung Fu Institute in Seattle, one of the country's first martial arts school in the style.
"Yep, Lee's going to teach me all this."
"I cannot teach you, only help you to explore yourself, nothing more."
"Alright, alright."
Lee's positioning as the foremost gung fu authority in the United States quickly garnered
him attention, and eventually led to his role in the Green Hornet television series, followed
by feature-length films, all of which broke box-office records.
But he would be the first to tell you that his wealth was merely a by-product of following
the passion and energy which coursed through him.
As reported in Business Insider, he was always focused on the bigger picture, viewing money
simply as a tool for achieving deeper goals.
Lee believed that rewards would naturally come to him if he stuck to his philosophical
guns and chose work that he was passionate about.
He spelled out this philosophy in another letter he wrote when he was just 21 years
old.
"My policy is that money is an indirect matter.
The direct matter is your ability or what you are going to do that counts.
If that comes, the indirect things will follow."
He elaborated,
"When you drop a pebble into a pool of water, the pebble starts a series of ripples that
expand until they encompass the whole pool.
This is exactly what will happen when I give my ideas a definite plan of action."
Time and time again, Lee's philosophy of passion-first was proved correct.
Today, there are hundreds of Lee-inspired martial arts schools all over North America,
inspired by the style of fighting he created, Jeet Kune Do.
"What is this thing you do?"
"In Cantonese, Jeet Kune Do, the way of the intercepting fist."
He also met his wife Linda after she began taking lessons at his school, and caught the
attention of Hollywood during a martial arts exhibition.
While building his acting career, he supported his family through private lessons with celebrities
and sportsmen like Steve McQueen and Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer,
who credits Lee's training with much of his success.
Adbul-Jabbar wrote in an essay for The Hollywood Reporter,
"He taught me the discipline and spirituality of martial arts, which was greatly responsible
for me being able to play competitively in the NBA for 20 years with very few injuries."
Lee's most successful film, Enter the Dragon, debuted shortly after his tragic death, catapulting
his status to mythical heights.
Though he isn't around to see it, the ripple effect of Bruce Lee's legacy is as strong
as ever, proving the power of selfless determination.
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