It's interesting and inspirational to see that people trying to help others are still rewarded for their troubles and work.
A Victim Treats His Mugger Right
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.
But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.
He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.
"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."
The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"
Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.
"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.
Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.
"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"
"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"
Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"
"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.
Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.
The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.
When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."
The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."
Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."
Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."
"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."
In the martial arts, my teacher has taught me that there are many levels of awareness that people possess in which to practice their art, alongside many levels of skill that are attainable with the proper training and dedication to practice.
- Level 0 - Bad guy throws punch, you don't even notice, you get hit
- Level 1 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, you get hit
- Level 2 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, you duck, but get clipped
- Level 3 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice and get out of the way
- Level 4 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, get out of the way, and have time to hit back
- Level 5 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, get out of the way, block and counter
- Level 6 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, time slows down, you have More time to block and counter.
- Level 7 - Bad guy throws punch, you notice, time slows down, and you have time to intercept with a direct attack
- Level 8 - Bad guy is about to throw punch, you notice, hit him first.
- Level 9 - Bad guy is thinking about throwing punch, you stop him with words but back up your words with proper body structure so that you have TIME to intercept the intent should he continue.
- Level 10 - Your awareness is strong enough that the bad guy never tries to attack you in the first place.
- Level 11+ - You're awareness and skillset is strong enough that you convert the would be enemy into a friend and ally. The conflict is over before it starts, and it's as if it never existed.
Some day I'd like to reach the skillset and awareness levels that would allow me to stop fights before they're even thought of. I do still honestly want a method of business that is truly a win-win with mitigated risk for the clients, and a strong upside for everyone. So I'm still in training to find the answers to the financial side of the picture, the martial artist side, and the ability to truly help others in my lifetime.
The problem is that the only way to truly experience a deeper sense of peace, you must understand the exact opposite to find the real meaning. Something else is that any self-made truly successful trader must lose a few accounts to learn the life lessons that allow them to become successful. I believe that failure is an ingredient in the learning process to reach enlightenment. That being said, both failures and successfulness are only temporary, and only the test of time in the end is a fair measure of one's worth. It's not the disasters and successes measured against one another to dictate the value of your persona, but how you handle both sides of winning and losing, and to what degree you're willing to stand up for yourself and others.
Reaching the Infiniti Point is not just a monetary goal, but a life worth goal as well. Something worth striving for. Perfection itself is just an illusion, eternally traded upwards and reinventing itself as time goes on. Therefore in the end, the journey doesn't stop.
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