A NEW SIGNATURE KEYNOTE FROM BRUCE TULGAN
Strength and Wisdom
Karate Lessons for Life and Work
A program designed to build stronger leaders and stronger people through a lifetime of karate practice and workplace research.
BEYOND THE DOJO
A lifetime of practice.
Lessons for work and life.
For more than 30 years, Bruce Tulgan has studied human performance and advised business leaders around the world. For more than 50 years, he has studied and taught classical Okinawan karate. This signature keynote brings those two worlds together.
The deepest lessons of karate are not really about fighting. They are about how people become stronger, wiser, more disciplined, more resilient, and more capable of handling whatever comes next. In the dojo, progress comes from showing up, practicing the fundamentals, accepting correction, building the right habits, learning from everyone, putting aside ego, teaching others, and beginning again.
Bruce combines funny, candid, moving, and inspiring stories from a lifetime in karate with practical lessons drawn from decades of research on leadership and human performance. The result is a program designed to build stronger leaders and stronger people: people who can face adversity, play the long game, learn from correction, develop others, and keep growing over a lifetime.
The program explores
- How origin stories shape who people become.
- How deliberate practice and repeated habits make performance permanent.
- How people become strong enough to withstand pressure without becoming hard, rigid, or needlessly combative.
- How people remain lifelong learners—following the fundamentals, making lessons their own, teaching others, and beginning again.
Participants will learn to
- Examine the stories they tell themselves about who they are—their origin stories—and recognize how those stories shape who they become.
- Build mastery through deliberate practice, consistent fundamentals, and small improvements sustained over time: practice makes permanent.
- Develop resilience by learning to “take a punch”—conditioning themselves for setbacks, criticism, uncertainty, and adversity.
- Become strong without becoming hard, balancing toughness with patience, flexibility, empathy, and restraint while playing the long game.
- Deepen their own mastery by learning from everyone, accepting correction, and teaching others.
- Become lifelong learners by maintaining a beginner’s mind, putting aside ego, and beginning again.
TECHNIQUES & BEST PRACTICES
Define your dojo.
- Defining the dojo: identifying the place, routine, people, and standards that support consistent practice of a craft
- Practicing what participants want to make permanent: examining what repeated habits teach and replacing weak habits with better ones
- Learning from everyone: seeking correction, reflecting on it, and making useful lessons their own
- Conditioning for pressure without becoming hard: building the confidence and capability to absorb setbacks, avoid unnecessary fights, and respond rather than react
- Teaching one student: deepening knowledge, standards, and skill by helping someone else improve
- Moving through Shu-Ha-Ri: first following the form, then adapting it, and eventually making the principles their own
THE STORY BEHIND THE PROGRAM
A lifelong quest for strength and wisdom.
Bruce began studying karate at age seven in 1974. Today, he is a seventh-degree black belt and senior master in Okinawan Uechi Ryu Karate Do.
From 2015 to 2022, he housed and cared for one of the world’s most respected karate masters. That experience—and a lifetime of study—gives this program its personal foundation.
The program draws on themes from his forthcoming memoir, The Karate Master and Me: A Scared Little Boy, an Enigmatic Old Man, and My Lifelong Quest for Strength and Wisdom.
WHO IT’S FOR
For people ready to grow.
- Leadership conferences and annual meetings
- Executive retreats
- Manager and emerging-leader programs
- High-potential development
- Client, association, and company-wide events
Especially relevant for audiences focused on leadership, resilience, performance, learning, or change.
AVAILABLE FORMATS
Built around your audience.
Keynote · Interactive keynote · Seminar · Workshop · Fireside conversation
Available in person and virtually, customized to your audience and event.
The program experience
Personal, candid, practical, and often funny. Audiences leave with memorable stories, language they can use, and practices they can apply to their work and lives.
BRING STRENGTH AND WISDOM TO YOUR EVENT
Let’s talk about your audience.
For program customization and availability, contact RainmakerThinking. Tell us about your audience, event and objectives; we’ll help shape the program and format around your organization.