Biography: Film star, philosopher, one of the greatest martial artists of all time. Moved from San Francisco to Hong Kong shortly after he was born, which was shortly occupied by Japan. At school he was not purely Chinese, and he was not British like other kids at his international school - turned to fighting to deal with bullying. Bruce Lee was 13 when he met his teacher Yip Man who taught him Wing Chun, a style of Kung Fu. He constantly had to prove himself, as he was not seen as Chinese. He developed a reputation for being street tough. He was arrested after a bad street fight with the son of a police officer. He was sent back to America. He did odd jobs, and was willing to teach anyone in martial arts. He was challenged to a fight if he lost he would have to shut his school down. His style incorporated dance, wing chun, boxing, and fencing. He started to develop is own philosophy of martial arts.
"I do not believe in styles anymore. I do not believe there is such a thing as the Chinese way of fighting, Japanese way of fighting."
- Bruce Lee
"When people come to me to learn, they’re not coming to me to learn to defend themselves. They want to learn to express themselves through movement, anger, or determination."
- Bruce Lee
Biography: Bruce Lee believed that the individual was more important than any style or system. He focused on thousands of hours of deep practice. His talents were born of the unique mix of circumstances and experience.
Insight: There is always a method to what appears to be natural talent or magic.
Insight: Genius is not born, rather it is made through deep practice.
"Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless—like
water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water
into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes
the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
- Bruce Lee
Principle: Break your preconceived ideas, and don't make any assumptions.
Principle: Be transparent, and be yourself.
Principle: Follow your intuition.
Principle: Challenge yourself.
Principle: Dissolve your ego.
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I
fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
- Bruce Lee
Insight: Success is often depth in one thing.
Principle: Aspire to greater scale and depth.
"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."
- Bruce Lee
Insight: We do not always need to achieve goals for them to be successful.
Principle: Accept a 50% failure rate with goals - then you can be ambitious.
"Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it."
- Bruce Lee
"I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times."
- Bruce Lee
Principle: Embrace practice and repetition.
"Simplicity is the last step of art and the beginning of nature."
- Bruce Lee
Insight: Simplicity is often doing without doing - a state wherein everything is effortless, clear, and simple.
"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity."
- Bruce Lee
"absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own."
- Bruce Lee
"Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."
- Bruce Lee
"It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential."
- Bruce Lee
"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you."
- Bruce Lee
"The height of cultivation runs to simplicity."
- Bruce Lee
Insight: The best and most refined things are simple.
"To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities."
- Bruce Lee
Principle: Execute.
"Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
- Bruce Lee
Principle: Keep going, and execute.
Key Insights & Principles
Life & philosophy
Bruce Lee believed in the uniqueness and importance of the individual over a system or style.
Bruce Lee focused on achieving depth through repeated practice.
There is always a method behind what appears to be genius.
Success often comes from aspiring to reach greater depths.
Goals are not always meant to be reached, but provide direction and ambition.
Simplicity often comes with effortless action.
The best things are simple.
Challenge yourself.
Dissolve your ego.
Be like water: transparent, formless, shapeless.
Empty your mind.
Do not become obsessed with things or ideas.
Embrace practice and repetition.
Eliminate rather than accumulate.
Acquire what is useful, eliminate what is useless.
