“What you believe is your own reality”
Hargrave was heard to say about his early years of martial arts training:
“I remember feeling at the time like I was completely unarmed, and felt a sinking sadness like I had wasted my time with my previous sport TKD training to be thrashed so easily by a Jeet Kune Do opponent.”
Hargrave’s training in Jeet Kune Do, Ju Jitsu, and Kempo Karate was hardcore and a challenge many of todays students would refuse to endure.
“I am glad I went through the training though, it made me very hardened mentally in a way you don’t find at most of today’s schools. It was an instructor training school, not a student school.”
Hargrave is about the same size as Bruce Lee and trained with very large fellow students.
“The really fun part was that everyone was bigger than me so I had to pay constant attention or get my head handed to me, and sometimes you just got your head handed to you anyway.”
Hargrave was trained from day one to be a teacher and knew the training would be hard. Unsuspecting civilian students had no clue what they were in for.
“Regular students stayed for one class and they were gone.”
“No one wants to put up with that much pain.”
“It was a joy fighting someone who outweighs you by one hundred pounds. You gotta want it really bad.”
When told by his detractors that say “a man would have to be a thousand years old to accomplish all he has done and achieve such high ranks,” Hargrave says: “I am a full time martial artist, that is my job not a hobby or part time endeavor, and I hold myself to a higher standard than most that has allowed me to excel unlike the 99% of those who start the martial arts and never attain the coveted black belt.”
“Talk is cheap, and in this world it is unfortunately common to tear down others to make up for our lack of achievements. I say be persistent and tenacious and be the one on top who takes the heat. It is a sad thing, and a wasted life to go through your life and not be able to do one thing really well, think about that for a while. Don’t be that person. Find something anything and master it! You are never too old or to out of shape to start, just make it happen.”
-Carter Hargrave