Be Like Water

So get this…

Have you ever come across a quotation that for some reason just seems to speak to you?

Five or so years ago I heard an interview with Bruce Lee where he said, “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle; you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”  [Bruce Lee interview clip] (For my MMA audience, Lee similarly stated that the best fighting style is “no style,” meaning one should be able to adapt to any and all fighting disciplines.)  

This really stuck with me as I, too, have always been a proponent of adaptability and “going with the flow” especially as it pertains to going through life; and this was the first time I had ever heard a metaphor so beautifully articulate my own personal dogma.  Having been the first interview I’d ever seen of Bruce Lee, I immediately inserted him into the upper echelon of my “Respect” scale. 

Fast forward to three weeks ago.  Imagine my surprise when I was reading the famous 2,500-year-old book called “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu and I came across this quote: “Military tactics are like unto water... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows… Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.”

Now I’m not one to think that anything and everything good was thought of or invented yesterday, but my internal dialogue went something like, “Wait, did that just read ‘be like water?’ B-b-b-but that’s what Bruce said. What -- ? How did -- ? Ohhhh, right, the world did exist before me.” Sun Tzu, a contemporary of both Confucius and the Buddha, was the original martial artist; at least he was the first to write a book about it.

I could write hundreds of pages about my deference for the ancients of any culture but to make a long story short, I’ve recalibrated my “Respect” scale. Not because I had to downgrade Bruce – he still had to be brilliant enough to think like I do – but because I had to elevate the ancestors who came first. I know they knew more than we know they knew.

Just Joe


Next Week:  My most recent million dollar idea... THAT WAS STOLEN!