From Setback to Comeback: Choosing to Rise Every Time

One of my favorite sayings in martial arts is: “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”

Now, my kid recently pointed out the obvious flaw—if you fall down seven times, you only get up seven times. You don’t get an “extra” rise. Effin’ duh. But even with the math error, I love the message.

Because it doesn’t matter how many times you fail. What matters is that you choose to get back up.

The Stoics had a similar belief: “It is never too late to do the right thing.” They also remind us that we can always begin again.

Missed your sobriety goal? Get back on the wagon.Failed a performance target at work? Put in more effort next time.Skipped a workout? Start again tomorrow.

Life constantly knocks us off track—but that doesn’t matter. Because we always have the choice to start again. And again. And again, until it sticks.

Now, failure still stings. Losing hurts. Missing promotions, blowing opportunities, letting people down—those things suck. But what defines us is how we respond to disappointment.

I’ve opened five karate studios in my lifetime… and closed four of them. My last one collapsed during COVID. I wasn’t prepared, and it broke me. I lost confidence, trust in myself, and nearly my desire to continue martial arts altogether.

For a while, I walked away.

Fast-forward to 2024. After four years of bad habits, too much alcohol, and nearly wrecking my marriage, I was given the chance to try again. And this time, I did.

It wasn’t a miracle comeback. My new studio didn’t blow up overnight, and my online business didn’t explode. I had to grind. My wife jumped in with me, and together we built something new: a functional fitness gym alongside a karate program.

It’s not perfect, but it’s growing. We’ve fought, struggled, even had to pick up side jobs to make ends meet. But through it all, we kept choosing to persevere. Every single day, we made the choice not to settle, but to build something better.

And that’s the lesson: true failure only happens when you stop choosing to rise.

No matter where you are, no matter how far you’ve fallen, you can choose to get back up.

Again.And again.And again.