The moment you have been waiting for is finally here!
Last week, James had the privilege of sitting with Ray Amanat on the first ever guest episode of the Premier Edge Podcast, and his story is one of the most powerful examples I’ve come across of what it actually looks like to build something meaningful out of something painful.
Ray is a martial arts and safety expert with over 45 years of experience, and he shared his experience and how he got to where he currently is.
Like James said at the beginning of the podcast, “I’ve been doing business long enough to know that behind almost every successful business owner, there’s a story that doesn’t start with confidence; it starts with fear, doubt, a situation that felt impossible, or a version of themselves they had to leave behind before the business could even begin”
Let’s take a look at some of the points Ray shared on how he moved from failure to success.
- Your Pain has a Purpose
Ray didn’t grow up feeling like someone who would one day build businesses, lead nonprofits, and train thousands of people in confidence and self-defense. He grew up as a target; severely bullied at school, unsafe at bus stops, unsafe in hallways, and dealing with emotional and physical abuse at home. He spent his early years in an environment that gave him very little reason to believe things could be different yet he has become an incredibly successful business owner helping others find their strength.
Most business owners focus on their circumstances and unfair situation and so der how they’d ever become successful and relevant. Ray’s story has shown us that your pain has a purpose and you can grow a business training people in the area you once struggled with.
And as a business owner, you need to remind yourself of this and have the courage to keep showing up for yourself and your business every day. Business requires courage; the courage to bet on yourself, to keep going even when it seems like you have nothing to show for your efforts.
- The Willingness to take Rational Risk
At fifteen years old, Ray made a move that most adults would hesitate to make. He took legal action to remove himself from an abusive home situation and go live with his father. Think about that for a moment. A fifteen year old, with no guarantee of how things would turn out, deciding that the situation he was in was not the situation he was going to stay in, and he took steps in the direction of that decision.
That decision is the seed of everything that we celebrate today. If he had remained in the abusive situation, he probably wouldn’t be where he is today but he chose to take a risk for a future he could only dream about.
This is such a profound lesson for every business owner. You need to know when to pull the plug on certain decisions or relationships that do not serve your business. You may find yourself in certain relationships that put your business at risk but you choose to hold on to that relationship because you’d rather not hurt their feelings.
And sometimes this risk can be beyond this. It can be you choosing to walk away from a well paying job to grow your own business, or saying yes to an opportunity even when you feel unprepared.
Whatever that decision may look like for you, you need to know when to take calculated risks for your business.
- Building a Business that Outlives You
By the time Ray was twenty years old he owned a martial arts school, and that was definitely remarkable. However , this business was centered around him; he had his name on the sign, his reputation at the centre of everything, and if you’ve been in business for any length of time, you already know where this is going. If you must build a business that will outlive you, then you must give that business its own identity.
A personality-driven business works beautifully right up until it doesn’t. It works while you’re healthy, energized, and fully present, and feeds off the strength of your personal brand. However it creates a limitation where the growth or fall of your business is dependent on your personal growth, and this can be quite limiting. Ray recognized that, and intentionally dismantled his existing structure to rebuild something bigger than his name.
As a business owner, this goes without saying, build what will outlive you. Build something bigger than the limitation of your personality.
- Being Resilient and Adapting With the Times
Everyone remembers COVID and the effect it had on businesses whose success depended heavily on physical interaction.
Ray’s business was not left out of this, and like so many business owners, he watched something he had spent years building get pulled out from under him almost overnight. The in-person model that his entire operation depended on was no longer viable, and he had to rebuild and restructure all over again.
Here is the part I want every small business owner who is reading this to sit with for a moment. Ray had already overcome a traumatic childhood, he had already built a business, rebranded it, and evolved it into a nonprofit serving his community. And then he had to start over. Again. And he did.
Out of the wreckage of that forced pivot came Self-Defense Pros, his current training and consulting company. He looked at what the world actually needed now and built something that fit; he developed specialized seminars for elementary school children, for women leaving abusive situations, for people with special needs, for seniors with limited mobility. He took forty-five years of knowledge and repackaged it into something that could reach people the old model never could.
That is a very specific and practical illustration of what resilience actually looks like in a business context, and every business owner needs to learn the art of resilience in business.
Ray’s journey from a bullied and fearful child to a confident mentor, entrepreneur, and community leader isn’t a blueprint you can copy point by point. But there are truths in it that apply regardless of what industry you’re in or where you’re starting from.
Ray started in about as difficult a place as a person can start, and he built something extraordinary. What you came from is real, and it matters, but it is not the final word on where you end up.
His story also shows us that many successful people have felt and experienced fear, but they have chosen to grow from it, and have gone on to build great things for themselves and others.
The Premier Edge Podcast
The Premier Edge Podcast is officially live and Ray Amanat was the first guest we had on the show. As you certainly can tell, his episode is one every small business owner should listen to; not because his path will look anything like yours, but because hearing someone talk honestly about where they started, what they lost, and how they kept going anyway has a way of putting your own challenges into perspective.
The Premier Edge Podcast is built for business owners who want to learn from the real experiences of people who have actually done the work. It’s a place where we will have honest conversations with seasoned entrepreneurs about what it actually takes to build something that lasts.
And I invite you to subscribe to the Premier Edge Podcast so you don’t miss a single episode. Every conversation is a chance to pick up something that could change how you think about your business, your challenges, or yourself. Click on this link to subscribe to our channel and share the link with at least 5 people.