Why I Write Blogs
By Moshe Katz
CEO Israeli Krav International

May 8, 2014, Maaleh Adumim

At the end of most blogs I usually offer an opportunity to buy my book, or a Krav Maga DVD or come to train with us in Israel. It suddenly occurred to me that one might think I write the blogs in order to promote my products at the end of the blog. That occurred to me today while taking a walk around Maaleh Adumim.

And then I thought about it.

Most of my blogs, one way or another, come to the theme of taking control of your lives and training in Krav Maga, but yet it comes from a hundred and more different angles, with a thousand different stories.

And it occurred to me that if my business manager (which I do not have) told me, "Moshe, you must write a blog every few days to promote the IKI products", well, I would say that would be an impossible challenge.

Imagine, you start with the point of "I need to sell this DVD" and I must come up with a story, a blog, a lesson, to sell that product. No way, too difficult. To keep coming up with new stories to sell a product, way too challenging.

So how do the blogs come about?

The answer: In the totally opposite way.

Please Explain, OK, I will give you an analogy.

There was once a great rabbi who was known for his great analogies. He would use colorful analogies and stories to make a point, to teach a lesson.

One day his students asked him, "Rabbi, how is it that you can continuously come up with such great analogies?" "How do you always find a story to match the lesson you wish to teach us?"

He answered, "I will give you an analogy" and he continued to tell this story.

"Once a couple of friends where traveling and entered a wonderful forest. In it they saw an arrow in a tree, smack in the middle of a circle. Wow, they thought, there is a marksman who hit the target directly in the middle. They continued walking and found another bulls-eye, 'Wow, this guy must be a great marksman'. They proceeded to wander through the forest and found many more targets, all with the arrow smack in the middle. They concluded that whoever shot these arrows must indeed be the greatest marksman in the land.

They searched and searched until they finally found the man who shot these arrows. 'Tell us, dear sir, how did you become such a great marksman?'

"I will tell you, first I shoot my arrows. And then I go to the tree and I draw a circle around them. This way I am guaranteed that my arrow is always perfectly in the middle.'

"And so it is with me" said the dear rabbi, "First, I have a story, and then I find a lesson that matches the story I already have. This way I always have a story, an analogy, to match the lesson I am teaching."

And so it is with me as well. I do not start with the goal of selling anything at all.

I begin with the story.

Years ago when learning Israeli combat shooting my instructor told us, "Whenever I hear about a terrorist attack, I get down and do 50 pushups, and I tell myself I must be stronger, I must train harder".

His reaction to the bad news of yet another attack triggered the need to train harder. When I come across a story, or hear about an attack I feel the need to do something about it. Fifty pushups is nice, but it is not enough. I want to reach out, I want to tell the world about it. I want to motivate and inspire people to take action. And so...I write.

I write because I must write, I write to reach out and shake people up to do something about violence and hatred. I write to inspire you to do something. And then, when the blog is over, I ask myself, "I have written a blog, they have read it, but what now? What will they do now? Perhaps I have inspired them but I have not given them any guidance as what to do next, what to do with this inspiration".

And then I think, I must encourage them to train, to come to Israel, or to join IKI and get our training clips, or to purchase a DVD. I must take whatever inspiration that they may have at this moment and channel it into something constructive. Making you feel is not enough, I must make you act, on your own behalf.

If you are not training I want to encourage you and your family to begin training. If you are already training I want to encourage you to train harder. If you are an instructor I want to encourage you to be a more motivated teacher. This is why I write. To share, to inspire, to motivate.

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