- Well yeah, I think that's cool.
What made you get into the different
types of martial arts styles?
What was it that made it best for you?
(slow music)
- I think it's mainly because when I
was going through high school, in here,
and I was one of the three Chinese in my school.
So I got bully and the kids, they bully me.
A couple of kids beat me up and stuff.
So then I thought to learn to defend myself.
I remember it was one night I was watching
a Bruce Lee movie, "Return of the Dragon."
You remember how he went to Rome
and kick all the bad guys ass?
- [Jason] Yeah, that was pretty cool.
- With Chuck Norris and I thought wow.
Before that I've heard of Bruce Lee
but I've never watch his movie, anything like that.
And that just blew my mind.
Right after, I told my mom I got
to learn Karate or something.
And so I signed up for Karate class
near my home and I join it.
From there, I learn other martial art
like Chinese martial art,
Wing Chun and all that.
And funny thing is, after I learn martial art,
no kids beat me up anymore.
I think, through that, I learned self confidence.
And how to stand up for myself.
Interestingly enough, back then there was
one kid that beat me up and after I learn martial art,
I actually became his SIFU.
He's learning martial art from me.
And we had a very good relationship.
He apologize and that's when I found out
I'm a teacher, that I like to teach,
that I have a teacher's heart.
And at the time, my greatest dream
was just to open up martial arts school.
Before I got into the whole business world and everything.
But that was my dream.
Just open a martial arts school,
have a group of students, that was it.
'Cause money never interest me that much.
And so, in a way, what I'm doing now,
it's a different way to fulfill that dream
with my students and speaking and all that.
And I'm making videos.
Yeah, it's interesting.
- [Jason] That is interesting.
I also think it's ironic 'cause now,
you're a successful entrepreneur
and you're doing all these different types of videos.
What made you do martial art videos though?
Even though you're a successful entrepreneur?
- I never thought about doing martial art videos.
I thought it was just a fun thing to do.
I had this idea.
I have so many followers and I'm uploading
all these (mumbles) videos of my speaking
and training and that's cool but I thought maybe,
I could make some martial arts videos.
Number one, to document my own journey.
To see my own progress.
'Caused thinking back, I wish I had few more videos
when I was training and doing different things.
I wish I have those and now with YouTube it's easier.
Because there was a period of time
when I was younger, I was training every day,
two, three hours everyday.
I was very fanatic.
And then I won a couple of tournament
and stuff like that.
- Cool.
- And as I got into business because
of work and so busy so I didn't train
martial art for many, many years.
So about six months ago I got back into it
and I just love it.
I thought if I love it so much why not
share it with the world about my passion.
Also people, my fans, my followers who like
my business stuff, they see a different side of Dan.
They say it, hey, you know what?
I, actually, like this too.
I'm a Bruce Lee fan and that has,
even the Bruce Lee philosophies have shaped
what I do in such a deep level.
That I integrate a lot of that into my life.
I thought that would be very, very interesting.
What I didn't expect is now it would be so popular.
That some of the martial arts videos just took off,
as you know, you helped me with the channel.
People loved the videos.
I have people commenting, they are calling me SIFU
and all of that.
I'm not a SIFU and really,
I'm just a guy who likes martial art, it's my passion.
I'm not a full time martial artist.
I put it in description.
I don't have a school.
Sometimes they send me a message
and comment they want to come and learn from me.
I said I don't have an online course,
I don't have video training,
I don't have a school.
I don't have any of that.
It just what I love to do and it's all free,
I put it online.
If you would like it, they can watch it.
If they don't like it, they don't have
to watch it, it's okay.
But it's more for that.
For my own journey to document that,
to share my passion, to document my own progress.
It's fun, I think it's very, very fun.
- Your channel, I notice there's
a lot of positive comments on there.
What do you do about the negatived comments
that come on there though?
- I think most of the comments are pretty positive.
I would say 95% of the comments are positive.
They appreciate the effort that we put in
to making the videos.
- And they're from all these different countries too.
- All over the world, all over the world.
It's amazing.
And that's one thing I never expected.
Even with other social media.
Other social media, Facebook, all that is all great.
But YouTube, I feel like there's a connection.
That with the viewer, whoever is watching
the video, that I feel like wow,
like they know me and I feel like I know them.
They share a very personal story with me.
They comment, that's good.
I, actually, read them all.
That they're saying hey, you know Dan
that I'm a Bruce Lee fan too
and I'm a teenager.
I'm thinking of learning martial art.
Do you think I should learn it?
Or sometimes I see a comment from someone
who is like six years old.
Is it too late for me to learn?
I'm like wow, okay, so maybe my videos
have inspired them in some way.
That's a pretty good feeling.
So that now, I'm more determined.
That I'm gonna schedule the time,
I'm gonna make more videos as I progress
in my own journey.
Even I'm getting better in shape.
I was in phenomenal shape before.
But through work and working in front
of computer all the time, right?
Now I'm getting back into it and it's good.
It feels really, really good.
And because after make videos,
I cannot be slacking off.
I got to train, I got to block all the time.
So now I'm training about five, six hours a week.
So three days a week.
That also helps me with my fitness and everything.
That's awesome.
That's really, really good.
And sometimes people ask me the question
like which martial art is the best?
What martial art is good?
And sometimes you see these negative comments.
- There are arguments.
- Yeah they're arguing, no, I could kick your ass.
- Yeah just silly stuff.
- Or this kind of stuff.
I mean think about it.
Anyone posting that kind of comments,
if they need to beat somebody or hurt somebody
to prove their self worth,
I think it's pretty sad.
That it means they're, probably,
not a happy person.
And I think martial art
is a way to, it should give you peace.
That it shouldn't bring out more violence.
And you notice martial art if very, very interesting.
Why I love it so much is,
in Chinese there's a quote we call that (Chinese Phrase).
It means self actualization through martial art.
(Chinese Phrase).
So if you think about martial art
in modern age, that talk about self defense.
You learn how to defend yourself
and that's all good but why train hours,
every week, for years for five
or ten seconds may not happen in your life?
- That's true.
- If you think about it it makes no sense.
It, actually, makes no sense.
That why you train that many hours for that.
Something that may not happen to you.
Nowadays, really, most people would rather
be on iPhone and iPad and computer.
If you talk abut self defense,
it's 10 times more efficient just get a knife.
- Yeah. (laughs)
- I don't care you train for 10 years,
20 years, I get a knife.
I, instantly, have a huge edge over you.
Or in the states, get a gun.
- That's right.
- So whatever training you've got,
somebody got a knife.
- It goes right out the window.
So it makes no sense.
For self defense and some people,
oh I do it for self defense.
Actually it makes no sense.
If you talk about self defense,
if a knife is 10 times more efficient
and if not for self defense,
oh it's for health and fitness.
Yeah but you can golf.
- Yeah, you can golf.
- You can play basketball.
You can play football.
You can do so many sports.
Then why martial art?
For me, I can only speak for myself.
I found that through training,
when even I'm doing a movement,
when I'm practicing something
that's when self actualization comes in.
That I am eliminating my own defect.
That as I learn this move I do this punch,
always that doesn't have the speed I want,
it doesn't have the power that I want.
It doesn't accurately that I want.
I got to train it, I got to think about it,
I got to learn it.
And through that process is almost,
to me at least, is a form of meditation.
You can meditate here, just meditate that's cool.
But through the motion I find that wow,
I learn a lot about myself.
- [Jason] It's, definitely, another level.
- Another level and it's easy to be calm
when you're sitting down,
there's nothing happening to you.
But how can you be calm when someone
is trying to hit you.
- [Jason] Yeah, exactly.
- Trying to hurt you.
And that kind of stuff I find it transfers
into my day-to-day life.
So I love that, the focus, the discipline.
Being able to face your own demons.
Even your own bullshit.
So you might say, hey, I'm pretty good,
I'm pretty fast.
Are you really fast?
Are you really good?
Can you actually, I hit pretty hard,
can you actually hit pretty hard?
So you got to face the truth.
And that's why I love when Bruce Lee
said, "Martial art is, honestly, expressing yourself."
I think it's very, very true.
That you can say whatever you want
but it's the truth.
Is the stuff good, is the stuff not good?
I find that fascinating.
So I think this is a form of exercise,
a form of meditation that I enjoy.
So many people on YouTube watching videos.
I think that's why people like my videos.
That they might like my teaching
and some people, they may not like my teaching.
They might have negative reviews, negative comments.
But most of the time, you see people
who will leave negative comments,
first of all, most of them they don't have a face.
They don't have a picture.
- Exactly.
- Why is that?
- Self confidence issues.
- Self confidences issue, yeah.
- It could be all kinds of things.
- All kinds of things and you need
to be afraid to show the world who they are.
They are very brave hiding behind a keyboard
but a keyboard warrior.
But versus being out there.
- Yeah, expressing yourself on video.
- Yeah, why don't you make some video?
- Yeah, let's see how you do right?
- See how you do and see who are you impacting?
- Exactly.
- Who are you helping?
Easy to just criticize.
Don't criticize what you haven't done.
That's why I rarely, myself,
even I go to a movie,
even it's a lousy movie,
I rarely criticize any kind of movies,
even though it's a lousy movie.
Because I don't believe people should
criticize what they have not done.
If I criticize it, you make one
- There's a lot of work
to go in a movie.
- Even lousy ones.
Then you go make one.
Unless you can do it better than the guy,
then don't criticize.
- Right, you have no space to do that.
- No space to do that.
And that's what I believe in.
And people comment and criticize.
Most people, they're not happy people unfortunately.
- That's true.
- And that goes against the meaning of martial art.
Finding peace, finding happiness,
finding internal happiness.
That's not what the art is about.
The art is about finding inner peace and happiness.
And I think people learn it the wrong way.
Sometimes you see a comment,
oh Dan, I want to challenge you and all this shit.
- There's some ego issues also.
- No, no, no, no.
- (mumbles) ego, pride.
- You don't need to challenge me, you win.
You win.
You want to tell people you beat me up.
You want to tell people you're better.
You want to whatever.
I don't, really, care.
It's not what it's about.
To hurt me, I'm gonna defend my family.
Or I'm gonna sue the guy, it depends right?
(laughing)
Only thing I have, I got monies.
- Modern style.
- Yeah, I got money so I can sue the guy.
But yeah, it's not what it's about.
I think it's learning through
what you are learning and through that exercise
and proving yourself is an interesting journey.
I'm glad.
People like it.
Hopefully we'll keep making videos
and I'll make them till people don't like it.
Hopefully they still like it.
But we try to crank out so many videos
on a regular basis.
- Absolutely, awesome.
Thanks for sharing that with me.
- You're welcome.
(soft music)