Question 060: Loyalty

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Loyalty gives the recipient peace of mind. When you have loyal followers, employees, friends, students, etc. you don’t have to worry about life as much. Martial art instructors, especially ones that teach as a business, are always concerned about keeping students so they may maintain a steady source of income and build a system of senior students and new instructors. Student loyalty helps insure instructors will succeed.

As for the students, when they have loyalty to their instructor, school, etc., they feel as though they belong. Loyalty helps people feel needed and important. They have the peace of mind knowing that, when they are in need, their loyalty to others will pay them back when the ones they have been loyal to come to their aid.

Some think loyalty is supporting a friend, an instructor, a martial art school, a martial art organization, etc. without making judgments about the person or group’s behavior. While it may not be proper to judge a person on what he or she says, it is proper to judge a person on his or her behavior; after all, that is what civil and criminal courts do everyday.