One of my favorite motivational quotes of all time comes from Antony Hopkins in the movie, “The Edge”.  They are stranded in the woods and he is tyring to  psyche up Alex Baldwin’s character to help him kill a bear.  Killing a bear seems like such an impossible task.  It’s fraught with danger.  It’s incredibly risky.  Unbelievable hard.  But they must do it.

Hopkins tells him – “What one man can do, another can do!”

Now, most of us will probably never be in a situation where we must kill a bear for survival.  But look at it as a metaphor.  The bear is any seemingly insurmountable task in your life.  Any goal that you long to achieve, yet seems unconquerable.  Doesn’t make a difference what it is – what one man can do (or woman, we’re equal opportunity here!), another can do!

It bugs to no end when students place highly skilled martial artists like Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, or Masaaki Hatsumi, head of the Bujinkan Dojo, or even Bruce Lee, founder of Jeet Kune Do on pedestals and hold them up as unreachable and impassible icons.  Are they great?  Yes, of course.  Are they worthy of our respect and admiration for their skill and achievement?  Hell yeah!  But are they an enigma?  Are they once in a generation geniuses that the rest of us mere mortals cannot hope to reach?  No.  Not at all.  They are men.  Human beings like you and me.  They put in ungodly amounts of hard work, study, and practice to reach the peak of their craft, but what one man can do, another can do.

Thomas Edison failed over ten thousand of times before he successfully created the first incandescent light bulb.  No, that’s not a typo.  Ten thousand.  What if he gave up after the first failure, or the hundredth, or even after the thousandth failure?  Where would we be?  In the freakin’ dark, people, that’s where!

Do you want the martial skill of a Hatsumi?

The Internal Power of Ueshiba?

The legacy of a Steve Jobs?

The money of a Bill Gates?

The body and fitness levels of an elite athlete?

The strength of a world champion strongman?

Go out and get it.  What one man can do, another can do.  Why can’t you?