Live the Adventure—Before Life Passes You By In the late 90s, I used to spend my evenings at a Borders bookstore on Westwood Boulevard in L.A., now it's a 99 Ranch Market. Back then, I was still trying to figure out who I was. I’d browse the shelves for wisdom—business, philosophy, martial arts, leadership—and linger in the café long enough to sip two cups of coffee while pretending not to be lost in life. I wasn’t pretending well. But there was one person who never seemed lost—Birgit. An...
1 day ago • 5 min read
Life Blueprints: Why You Need to Begin with the End in Mind Ancient Wisdom on Building a Life Worth Living Before You Start Living It The Day I Discovered Life Needed Blueprints For over three decades, I was fortunate to work on some truly remarkable construction projects. I helped build a five-story tall clean room for manufacturing space satellites and its adjoining sound stress-test chamber. I worked on the live action Nokia theater along with the retail and adjoining hotel for the civic...
2 days ago • 10 min read
The 50/30/20 Life: How to Work Hard, Play Hard, and Build Your Future Without Burning Out Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Balance for Sustainable Success The Roller-Coaster of Unsustainable Hustle For most of my twenties and early thirties, I lived by what I thought were iron-clad rules of success: "Give 110%." "You can rest when you die ." "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." I was on a constant roller coaster—sprinting at full throttle until I couldn't sprint anymore, then crashing...
3 days ago • 8 min read
What You Fight, You Make Stronger: The Warrior's Paradox of True Power Why Fighting Back Often Creates More Problems Than Solutions Island Fighting and Family Feuds Waikiki and Diamond Head crater Growing up in Hawaii as a Chinese-American kid, I lived in what everyone called the "melting pot of the Pacific" and the "land of aloha." And for the most part, it really was. Hawaii had this beautiful blend of cultures, languages, and traditions all coexisting in relative harmony. But people are...
4 days ago • 8 min read
The Iceberg Principle:Why True Success Is Built on Everything You Can't See Success is an Iceberg - @SKMurphy The Master's Struggle Back when I was training for my first black belt in Hapkido, I had this one Korean instructor who, to put it mildly, he and I had a love/hate relationship. It was actually a perfect opportunity to practice Hapkido principles both on and off the mat—learning to redirect his energy instead of meeting it head-on. We were close in age, but there was a massive...
5 days ago • 10 min read
The Price of Everything: Why Everyone Wants the View But Nobody Wants the Climb Ancient Samurai Wisdom, Modern Reality, and the Cost of Getting What You Want A Red Light Revelation I was sitting on my motorcycle at a red light, just another Tuesday commute, when something caught my attention. A young woman was crossing the street with her male companion, and as she walked directly in front of me, I couldn't help but notice the stark contradictions in her choices. She was significantly...
6 days ago • 10 min read
The Shadow in Your Strength Ancient Wisdom from the Yin-Yang Symbol and the Art of Dynamic Balance The Fireman's Paradox For over thirty years, I prided myself on being the "fireman electrician." When electrical fires were popping up on construction sites, when systems were failing and chaos was erupting, I was the guy they called. I thrived on the adrenaline, the stress, the high-stakes problem-solving. I loved sweeping in, diagnosing the crisis quickly, and saving the day with fast,...
7 days ago • 8 min read
Make a Friend Out of Fear: A Practical Guide to Turning Anxiety Into Your Greatest Ally The Day I Stopped Running From Myself Picture this. A scrawny 13-year-old kid literally taking the long route to his locker because there's a group of popular kids standing near the direct path. That was me. I'd rather be late to class than risk the possibility of awkward eye contact or, God forbid, having to say "excuse me" to get past them. I lived in what I now call the "fear bubble"—that invisible...
8 days ago • 12 min read
Why Most People Struggle in Life—and What to Do About It The Illusion of "Doing Your Best Under Pressure" A couple weeks ago, I was talking with one of the baristas at my favorite cafe. Great kid—smart, professional, reliable. They're working their way through school, pursuing a career path they actually care about. Everything about them says: "They've got a shot." But then they said something that stopped me in my tracks. "I procrastinate a lot," they confessed, a little sheepishly. "But I...
9 days ago • 13 min read