Some Surprising Life Lessons We Can Learn from His Personal Journey!

Bruce Lee who passed at the age of 33, was a martial arts legend and is credited for bringing martial arts movies to the mainstream. He is featured as one of Time magazine’s “100 People of the Century”. His short life with several twists of fate has a few lessons we can all take to heart.

If you have an advantage in life, exploit it.

Lee was born in San Francisco on November 27, 1940, making him an American citizen. After 4 months his parents returned to Hong Kong in April 1941 giving him dual citizenship in Hong Kong as well. This wound up being a blessing for Bruce when his parents sent him at age 18 to live with his older sister in the US. This was to avoid the frequent street fighting and bad influences in Hong Kong.

Lee’s father was a Cantonese opera star, and Bruce was introduced to the cinema at a young age. He appeared in several films as a child. At the age of nine, he co-starred with his father in The Kid in 1950, which was based on a comic book character and was his first leading role. By the time he was 18, he had appeared in twenty films.

Bruce was exposed to being a cinema star early in life.

Having good friends can make all the difference.

At age 13, Bruce found himself getting into a lot of street fights as a child. His parents decided to find him a martial arts instructor. William Cheung, a friend and fellow kung fu student, introduced Bruce to Ip Man, a Wing Chun grandmaster. The problem however was Bruce was not considered “pure Chinese”. He was rejected from learning because of the long-standing rule in the Chinese martial arts world not to teach foreigners. Being a quarter German on his mother's side would be an initial obstacle towards his Wing Chun training. Cheung spoke on Lee’s behalf and he was later accepted into the school.

Early 1964 Lee dropped out of college and moved to Oakland, California to live with James Yimm Lee. James Lee was twenty years senior to Bruce Lee and a well-known Chinese martial artist in the area. James Lee was for introducing Bruce Lee to Ed Parker, an American martial artist. Parker invited Lee to appear in the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships. At the event, Lee performed repetitions of two-finger push-ups, fought blindfolded and demonstrated a "one inch punch" which knocked martial artist Bob Baker backwards several feet. The tournament led to Bruce getting an audition and screen test with TV producer William Dozier. Dozier later cast him as Kato in the TV show titled The Green Hornet.

The Green Hornet introduced the adult Bruce Lee to an American audience and became the first popular American show presenting Asian-style martial arts.

Have a good side hustle and maximize it.

Bruce came to America in 1959 to live with his older sister. After a short time he moved to Seattle to continue his education. His main job at the time; a live-waiter at a restaurant owned by a family friend. Bruce decided to teach he own style of martial arts called Jun Fan Gung Fu. This was his approach to Wing Chun. Lee taught friends he met in Seattle including Judo practitioner Jesse Glover, and Taky Kimura. Things snowballed to the point where he was able to open his first martial arts school named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute.

Think outside of the box.

James Yimm Lee a friend of Bruce (mentioned above), helped him found a second Jun Fan martial arts studio in Oakland, California. According to Lee, the Chinese community issued an ultimatum to him to stop teaching non-Chinese people. Lee refused to comply, and he was challenged to a combat match with Wong Jack-man, known for his mastery of Xingyiquan, Northern Shaolin style kung fu. If Lee lost, he would have to shut down his school, but if he won, he would be free to teach white people, or anyone else.

Bruce who had won the match concluded that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential using his Wing Chun techniques. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". He started using different methods of training and constantly adapted other forms of fighting including fencing, boxing techniques and other types of martial art forms. His style which he called Jeet Kune Do, emphasized what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of getting rid of the formalized approach of martial arts, using what worked and discarding what was ineffective.

Bruce who had won the match concluded that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential using his Wing Chun techniques. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". He started using different methods of training and constantly adapted other forms of fighting including fencing, boxing techniques and other types of martial art forms. His style which he called Jeet Kune Do, emphasized what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of getting rid of the formalized approach of martial arts, using what worked and discarding what was ineffective.

Bruce who had won the match concluded that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential using his Wing Chun techniques. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". He started using different methods of training and constantly adapted other forms of fighting including fencing, boxing techniques and other types of martial art forms. His style which he called Jeet Kune Do, emphasized what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of getting rid of the formalized approach of martial arts, using what worked and discarding what was ineffective.

So in 1967, Bruce was thinking and developing an MMA fighting system way before that term or concept even existed!

Work hard, be confident and opportunities will come.

Although Lee had done a season of the Green Hornet and several TV appearances, work was sparse. Lee pitched a television series of his own tentatively titled The Warrior, to Warner Bros. which was a western featuring martial arts. Lee's concept was retooled and renamed Kung Fu, but Warner Bros. gave Lee no credit according to Lee’s wife Linda Lee Cadwell. They also cast American actor David Carradine as the lead. Producer Fred Weintraub suggested that Lee to return to Hong Kong and make a feature film which he could showcase to executives in Hollywood. America was not yet ready for a non white movie superstar. Lee returned to Hong Kong, unaware that The Green Hornet had played much success in Hong Kong. He was also surprised to be recognized as the star of the show. Lee signed a film contract to star in two films produced by Golden Harvest.

“To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities.”
Bruce Lee

The Big Boss (1971) proved to be an enormous box office success across Asia and catapulted him to stardom. He soon followed up with Fist of Fury (1972), which broke the box office records set previously by The Big Boss. Lee negotiated a new deal with Golden Harvest and for his third film, Way of the Dragon (1972), and was given complete control of the film's production as the writer, director, star, and choreographer of the fight scenes. In 1964, at a demonstration in Long Beach, California, Lee met karate champion Chuck Norris. In Way of the Dragon, Lee introduced Norris to moviegoers as his opponent. Their showdown has been characterized as "one of the best fight scenes in martial arts and film history”.

Lee began work on his fourth Golden Harvest film Game of Death, when Warner Brothers offered Lee the opportunity to star in Enter the Dragon, the first film to be produced jointly by Concord (Lee’s production company), Golden Harvest, and Warner Bros. Filming began in Hong Kong in February 1973 and was completed in April 1973. However, only a few months after the completion of Enter the Dragon, and six days before its July 26, 1973, release, Lee died. Enter the Dragon would go on to become one of the year's highest-grossing films and cement Lee as a martial arts legend. It was made for US $850,000 in 1973 (about $5.5 million adjusted for inflation today). Enter the Dragon went on to gross an estimated $350 million worldwide.

Be confident in your abilities and you may be able to do something incredible.

Though Lee’s life ended way too abruptly, he was able to transcend the film medium into superstardom. As you can see in his brief time here, he was able to do some incredible things. What can we take to heart?

- If you have an advantage in life, exploit it.

- Having good friends can make all the difference.

- Have a good side hustle and maximize it.

- Think outside of the box.

- Work hard, be confident and opportunities will come.

- Be confident in your abilities and you may be able to do something incredible.

Check out the official Bruce Lee site here.

Free PDF of Bruce Lee's Life Changing Quotes here!

Way of the Dragon Fight scene with Chuck Norris

Post originally created on Medium