How I Got My First Sale – Farhad Dordar

Farhad Dordar is a Platinum Author on EvanCarmichael.com – to view his articles click here. We asked him how he made his first sale – here’s what he said:

When we are young, our visions are quite different from when we are older. Though I have been on an amazing journey since I was twelve, I haven’t put faith in numbers when it comes to age. My belief that each moment of our lives is a new beginning has allowed me to possess an innovative mentality in my endeavours. I am very much deeply involved in my journey and this has made me very confident in who I am and what I have to share with my followers around the world.

In the beginning, at twelve years old, I desired the ability to defend myself. Since my father was involved in the military, I had the motivation and the courage to learn the art of military combat. At the age of seventeen I was teaching kindergarten level martial arts classes and had about 50 members including my younger brother and sister. Kindergarten three days each week was not enough training and class was growing, so I had to rent a larger gym. The gym I eventually rented already had a Tae Kwon Do national team training there three times a week. Competition with the national team’s instructor was challenging since experience was a determining factor, not our egos and words. One day I began speaking with him and he invited me to face one of his best students. Despite feeling exceptionally nervous, I quickly learned how to conquer any feelings of hesitation that arose.

During the fight I misread a faking roundhouse-kick at the expense of my face, but did not neglect to appreciate the lesson I had just been given. The redness creeping along the side of my head stirred up emotions between my students and the other coach, building tension. Cautiously, I let my guard slip a bit low, baiting the kick he was now so fond of. As it came, I orchestrated a lesson of my own. The leg-sweep proved to be more successful than I had hoped and he slammed into the hard surface and was finished. This memory will always serve me as an allegory for the chess-like nature of a conscientious fight. Not only are martial-arts exciting, but they are intelligent. There will always be risks, but this should never daunt the mind of a champion, since without taking risks the chances of success are slight.

I believe that there is a championship in life as well. Considering how frequently we encounter obstacles that require courage, self-discipline, self-confidence, knowledge and will-power, it is a process of victories and defeats. We all want victories in our lives, so we should learn to face the obstacles that lay before us without hesitation. We must own our obstacles, lest they own us.

I had experienced so many profound, valuable lessons from over 250 tournaments and ring-fights in boxing and kickboxing, that I felt it would not be fair to neglect sharing my experiences with anyone who had a mind to learn from them. After successfully learning many different styles at age 21, I opened one of the largest martial-arts schools in Tehran, Iran. By the age of 25 I had added traditional karate, tae kwon do and kyokushin kai karate to my repertoire and began representing International Top Karate Full Contact in Iran. I created the Iranian national full-contact karate team as well, essentially laying the foundations for full-contact karate and kickboxing in Iran. By that time, the Iran Karate Federation was ready to let kickboxing become a national sport in the country. I was young and lacking the shrewd business experience necessary to compete with the older guys running the martial-arts organizations. At the time, my job seemed even more difficult than winning a world championship title. There were plenty of discouraging experiences to drain my energy and tax my conscience as I built my way up.

The ability to come to Canada, thanks to my brother and the Canadian WKA president preparing my immigration papers, was an opportunity to continue my efforts on a broader scale. It was from here that I was able to grow the Sport Kickboxing Federation to a global scale. I am very proud of our programs which elegantly integrate Boxing, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Yoga, meditation, weapons ( Bo-staff, sai, nunchucks, knives, short sticks), joint manipulation, judo/jujitsu and street level self-defence strategies into one holistic style. Our system incorporates the valued training method of 12 steps and follows the symbolism of the 12 step program. Twelve is a significant number. Each year has 12 months, public schools provide 12 years of schooling and our days are divided into two 12 hour segments to name a few.

My style of martial-arts in the Sport Kickboxing Federation is based on this value. People find this intriguing and it helps motivate them to set short and long term goals for themselves. Other organizations use the value of 12 as well, but the secret of the combination comes from my life of martial-arts experience. SKF created this system with all of our qualified members in Iran and it is now used by the police and the military, as well as in 20 other countries.

With my wife and son by my side, I experienced yet another new beginning in Vancouver, British Columbia. I opened my first school on West Broadway in 1996 and faced many challenges such as learning English, Canadian culture, the economy and business. All of these challenges simply motivated further innovation in my efforts, because as I said before, obstacles are only achievements in the making. Gradually, these successes built more confidence, which in turn helped me to cull my leadership abilities and continue to improve my programs. My experiences and research in many areas such as physiology, conscious and subconscious awareness, hypnotism, self-hypnotism, biomechanics, Zen, meditation and human resources all culminated into what I humbly have to offer today. Now, as the president of an organization, I stand proudly by the values that got me this far.

I am thankful to all of my past instructors who helped me discover the qualities within myself that I value so highly today. I have a true sense of happiness in my life and I have learned that this feeling can last even when life gets difficult from time to time. I continue to enjoy facing challenges and garnering success. I believe that honest and successful people hold a more valued position in the public eye. While it is difficult to make everyone happy, once you have discovered your direction in life, the right people will choose to follow you. I am proud of all my students around the world, my masters who have trained me, all my supporters and especially my family.