Читать книгу The Mushin Way to Peak Performance - Veltri Michael - Страница 10

Right after my thirty-fourth birthday, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer – and instantly I was plunged into this whole other world. I went in for surgery less than 48 hours after my first doctor's appointment. The surgery went well. And for a couple of months the news was good. Until it wasn't.

Three months after my surgery, I found out the cancer had spread to my lung and I was going to have to go through chemo – really aggressive chemotherapy, all day, five days a week. My body felt completely destroyed. And yet, even after all that, there was still a spot on my lung in my postchemo scans. So I went in for another surgery. The doctors removed part of my left lung.

Thankfully, I've been cancer free since that surgery. But as you can imagine, my life has never been the same. After fighting cancer, the idea of quitting my stable corporate job to open a full-time aikido academy didn't sound scary at all. After all, what was the worst that could happen? The school could fail. So what? It wouldn't kill me.

I became a full-time business owner in 2006. I built a very successful aikido martial arts academy. Gradually, as I developed my aikido practice and worked with students from all sorts of walks of life, I started to see how the principles of the discipline could help me – and others – become more successful in my business career. I developed a coaching and consulting practice, and these days I speak all over the world, sharing aikido wisdom with groups at conferences, Fortune 500 companies, and elite organizations such as the Central Intelligence Agency.