Michael Baird

Dear Grandmaster Amanda Olson, I sincerely wanted to congratulate you on this prestigious accomplishment of 9th Dan. That is so awesome. In our industry, so many people start, then quit, others stay for a while and indeed life gets in the way and they have to drop out. If memory serves me correct out of 1,000 new students that join a Martial Arts School worldwide, perhaps maybe two will stay long enough to achieve Cho Dan. The percentages even drop more so for those staying long enough to reach fourth dan, Master Level. I believe it is something like 1 in 10,000 people who join will stay long enough to reach Sa Bum Nim. If we break that down even further, if the math is correct, perhaps only 1 in 1,000,000 students that join in our profession would share the passion and have the intestinal fortitude or as we like to call it ” Shim Gung” that Spiritual Drive, that keeps one individual coming back day after day, year after year, even decade after decade, when life gets in the way. In closing, once again congratulations on this huge accomplishment. One that is indeed very well deserved.