Jamie's Story

I have just recently moved to North Carolina and I am
trying to start a school here. This past week I had a
demo to try to get people in NC interested in the
Bujinkan.  Well at 700PM no one showed up.  I waited
till about 715PM and then I left.  I was discouraged. 
I went home and started reading more of the NINPO book. 
I got a call from the people at the gym asking me to
come back and give another demo that evening.  I said
no, and that it was a waste of time to plan something
and not have anyone interested.  I went back to reading
the book.  I got another call 30 minutes later asking
me to please come down to the gym and give a demo for
several people that were there.  I again said no and
that I would not be renting the room for training.  I
went back to reading the book.  At around 900pm  I got
a call from the owner of the gym.  He asked me to set a
time and he would get the word out.  This is a "small"
town in NC and some people are a bit red-neckish and
backward.  I told him that I would teach a class on
Thursday night at 700pm.  If no one showed by 715 I was
gone and not to bother calling me again.  I went to
bed.  Thrusday came and I taught the class.  I had 13
people.  I was asked after the class by the local
police dept to teach their officers for three weeks. 
The guy said ,"If you are going to be teaching this
stuff to the public, my officers need to know how to
defend themselves against it."   The things I showed
were knife fighting and how to get out of police locks
and things like that.  Well the Police Officer was an
official for the local police department and he said
that this Ninja stuff was nasty and that if people were
going to be learning it in this small town, his
officers needed to start taking this art so they can be
safe.  There are 35 officers in the County plus 12 jail
staff.  The owner of the gym (also an officer) told me
that I would pay no rent on the 2000 square foot room
until the end of May and that he was dropping my rent
to $200 a month.  He ordered mats and a few weapons for
my class to start with.  He thanked me and I went home.

I started reading the book again and saw where Sensei
had waited for the movie people and then left when they
didn't show on time.  You wrote in the book that Sensei
had stated that if you have a conviction about things
and stick to it people will respect you.  After reading
that and looking at the situation of this past week. 
Sensei was right.  I stuck to my word about not going
back to the gym.  I scheduled another demo and people
showed up. Then the people I dealt with treated me with
respect and offered to assist me in getting my classes
started.