The Consummate Innovator
Grandmaster Wall’s most recent project has been starting the WorldBlackBelt (WBB) organization. Other co-founders include living legends Chuck Norris, Gene LeBell, Bill Wallace, Don Wilson, and many more. One of the goals of WBB is to have a place where martial artists could go to learn from the experience of others, as well as have a place for connection. Grandmaster Wall recognizes that there are a lot of brilliant people in the martial arts and it makes sense to tap that knowledge base to show beginners that there is a professional career in the martial arts. He thought it might help solve the problem of “fabulous martial artists who are great on the mat, but when it comes to their finances, don’t apply the same discipline or diligence.” Another area Grandmaster Wall thinks WBB can help martial artists is in business planning. He compares professional martial arts business planning to the planning and dedication that a white belt makes to reach black belt.

“I can remember when I was a white belt, wanting to quit thousands of times,” admitted Wall. “But I would not allow myself to. So I said, ‘OK, my goal is to be a blue belt, then a green belt and so on down the line.’ As it gets a little closer, it gets a little more realistic. For most people, the reality of setting the goal of white to black is daunting. And by the same token, going from broke to rich is daunting for most people. The first thing is understanding the basics.”

When asked the reason for such a momentous endeavor, Grandmaster Wall replied, “The focus of Chuck Norris and Gene LeBell and a lot of the other founding members, our original goal was when we are all white belts, most of us have a financial struggle, but you pay for everything. As you achieve a certain amount of fame and success or whatever and then all of a sudden, you get paid. All of a sudden, instead of you paying for things, they come to you without charge. So we thought, ‘We have achieved this level. We can give back.’ We all thought we have been blessed because of the martial arts and our study of the martial arts to have become very successful financially with our families.”

In his experience, Grandmaster Wall has found that a lot of people don’t apply the type of dedication to their professional lives that they do to their private lives, including martial artists. He has said, “[M]ost people plan their vacations much, much better than they plan their lives. They do it so natural. They figure they have so much money. They may go over their budget with credit cards and so forth, but basically will set a budget, they’ll set a goal. They’ll set how much time and where they’re going and how they’re going and so on. That’s how they should be planning their lives. But they don’t do it.” He thinks that the amazing knowledge base and resources that WorldBlackBelt can provide the modern, professional martial artist can help make business organization just as natural as personal organization.

Grandmaster Wall knows that success comes from a winning attitude as well as phenomenal organizational skills. He knows that any robot can be efficient and organized, but it’s the indomitable spirit that people have that can make them truly successful.

He mentions that he is often met with people complaining that they’re poor and their parents were poor so there is nothing that they can do. To that he often replies, “I recall the late, great Mike Todd, who married Elizabeth Taylor, did Around the World in 80 Days, stating one time how someone asked him how he could stand being rich and poor at the same time. He said, ‘I’ve never been poor a day in my life.’ He said, ‘Poor is a state of mind. Broke is temporary. Everyone is broke. Even the richest people sometimes get broke, but that’s temporary.’ So first, understanding that it is the same in the martial arts as it is in the financial area is having an attitude that is not poor; that you don’t think poor that you think rich.”

And yet, there is the other side of the coin: losing. It’s a rare, but Grandmaster Wall is human just like the rest of us. There are fights he has lost and opportunities missed, but he has a special philosophy about losing. “Losing is learning. When you are winning all the time, you’re not learning. So when you are losing, you are learning. That’s why great instructors constantly push and put you in a position when you are losing, and typically we don’t like that, and we want to improve. We want to win instead of lose. I found at the highest levels, losing is still learning.”

Working With The Dragon
Part of the reason that Grandmaster Wall is such a strong force in the martial arts is because of his important role in Hollywood. Probably the most important part of that is he starred in three of the five major American releases that Bruce Lee made. This stemmed from a very personal relationship with the amazing Lee. For most people, Lee is some mythical character on a pedestal that couldn’t have possibly been a real person. To Bob Wall, Lee was a great friend and a fun person. “I always tell people when they ask me, ‘What was Bruce Lee really like?’ I say, ‘Everybody knows about his brilliance in the martial arts and his brilliant skills. But if you took away his martial arts skills, you’d still love to hang out with him.’ He was fun, he was funny, he was bright, he was charming and he was kind. He was disciplined. He was a fanatic trainer.”

These qualities certainly rubbed off on a young Bob Wall. He and Lee became friends in 1963 and it only grew from there. It started out somewhat odd, “I had a fun relationship, actually a transitory relationship in the beginning,” explained Wall. “We were both cocky guys and said and did a lot of cocky things. … Then it developed into a teasing friendship: I needled him, he needled me.”

It was partly this friendship, as well as a partnership with Chuck Norris, that would eventually lead Grandmaster Wall into starring in movies with Bruce Lee. “I spent a lot of time with him, and actually when I did Way of the Dragon, he only asked Chuck Norris to go. Chuck and I were partners in a chain of schools at the time, and I said, ‘You’re not going to Rome without me.’ I paid my own way, got there and Bruce said, ‘Oh, you’re here. OK, you are in the movie.’ He just wrote me in. That’s how I got into Way of the Dragon a.k.a. Return of the Dragon,” he said when asked how he got started in movies.

From there he began working with Lee on Game of Death. During that filming, he was offered a part in another one of Lee’s films, the upcoming Enter the Dragon. “I took the part out of my affection for Bruce Lee, and I must say, a great cut in pay because I was making a lot of money back then and I didn’t for making Enter the Dragon,” he said about being offered the role of O’Hara. “It was a favor to Bruce, which turned out to be a favor to me. Who knew that Bruce was going to die so young? Eternally, I am glad that I did it. That is part of the blessing.”

And both of these friends had profound impacts on one another.

“In the last three years of his life, in the 70’s, I got him started on motivational tapes and books and things,” said Wall. “He had gotten me started on understanding Eastern Philosophy and was constantly challenging my thinking on the martial arts and so on and so forth. It was one of those great relationships where we both added something to the other. I had great admiration for him, great respect for him because I saw how hard he worked to get what he got. It was working out with him, being with him, training around him, going to movies.”

But this was only one of the many famous relationships Grandmaster Wall would have in the course of his long and illustrious career.

A True Partner and Friend for Life
One of Grandmaster Wall’s best business partners and friends is none other than Chuck Norris. Wall and Norris have been friends since meeting in tournaments in the 60’s. They have been business partners since 1964. They created tournaments, starred in movies – name it and these two men have done it.

When asked about his friendship with Norris, Grandmaster Wall is very frank. “It’s everything. Chuck is like a brother to me and we have been very, very close friends for forty years. He is just one of the greatest humans on the planet. If you cut him open, you’d find love and kindness and goodness. In forty years that I’ve known him, I’ve never heard him say a swear word. I’ve seen him really angry twice.” He not only praises his friend’s composure and demeanor, he also gives him the highest praises as a martial artist. “He’s a very composed, controlled, kind, generous, warm-hearted, brilliant martial artist. For forty years I’ve been training with him and for forty years I’ve been trying to be better than him.”

And like the extremely close friends they are, they inspire each other and motivate one another to reach great heights.

“For forty years, I’ve been up there training until recently; Chuck and I trained four days a week,” said Wall. “It just means everything to me. People, my wife, say to me, ‘You never miss a day of work.’ When Chuck says, ‘Come work out,’ I’ll cancel anything to come and work out. I never let anything get in the way of a workout because it is like painting with Picasso. Why would you want to miss that lesson?”

Grandmaster Wall attributes their friendship to the fact that Grandmaster Norris has been, not only a good person, but an amazing teacher and advisor. “Chuck always came to watch me fight. He’d tell me things I was doing wrong and he wasn’t my instructor at that point. … Because of him, I learned things like I used to brag about myself, which a lot of people did over the years. Chuck said, ‘Don’t brag about yourself. Don’t say all these great things. First of all, saying all these great things does not make people believe you. They believe your performance. Second of all, if you’re saying all the great things, you only leave the bad and they’ll say the bad things. Let others say good things about you.’ That was a great lesson for me.”

And for forty years, they have climbed to heights of success unparalleled in the martial arts industry. Grandmasters Wall and Norris operate some of the most successful martial arts studios in the entire country. Their new endeavor, WorldBlackBelt, is also sure to boost that success and share it with other students. But then again, sharing success and giving people a leg up is nothing new for either of these two men.

Bringing the “Muscles from Brussels” to the U.S.A.
Another one of Grandmaster Wall’s true success stories has to do with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Wall can say that he was the driving force that brought this amazingly talented martial artist to the United States and helped get him noticed.

“Jean-Claude Van Damme started writing me letters in 1983, back when he was Jean-Claude Van Varenberg, from Belgium,” said Wall. “Nice kid. He wrote me a lot of letters, said he was a great fan of mine and the late, great Bruce Lee. He asked a lot of questions, so I answered.”

It was a simple gesture of offering Van Damme, who had decided to come to America, to come and get his picture taken with Grandmaster Wall. Van Damme, who was excited enough to get to meet Bob Wall was in for an amazing shock that day.

“The day he arrived for his picture with me, Chuck Norris and the great Bill Wallace were there to train with me,” recalled Wall. “You can imagine, he came to see me and instead he saw Elvis and Steve McQueen instead of Bob Wall. He was beyond excited and Chuck convinced him to work out with us, and he did.”

Van Damme, who had already established a phenomenal fighting record in Europe, went from sleeping in his car and being concerned about just what to do to working for Chuck Norris and making a strong name for himself in the American martial arts industry. His stardom and impact in the action film genre is self-evident from there.

Always Striving for ExcellenceGrandmaster Wall has not rested on his laurels by any means. He continues to innovate and push for greater achievements in the martial arts industry. This year he has joined with two other great leaders of the martial arts industry to become one of the hosts for the 2005 Martial Arts Leaders Summit in Orlando, FL – October 14-16. Grandmaster Wall thinks it is going to be a totally new type of martial arts industry gathering because, “You are going to have John Graden (Martial Arts Teachers Association) and Grandmaster Y.K. Kim (AMS) and myself, and several others that will be contributing in a way that is focused on improving financial skills.” His focus, like with WorldBlackBelt is to create an environment where martial artists can tap into the knowledge of some of the top martial arts leaders from around North America.

How did these three powerhouses in the martial arts industry get together? Grandmaster Wall said it was a very fortunate set of circumstances. “John [Graden] apparently mentioned me to Y.K. Kim and I had already heard things about the Grandmaster from people like Pat Burleson, who met him many, many years ago and had great respect for him for his physical skills as well as his business skills.” From there it was just a matter of time before they decided to form a totally new kind of martial arts convention.

And Grandmaster Wall has nothing but praise for his co-hosts. “[Y.K. Kim] then became an investor in WorldBlackBelt and bought ten of the school memberships. So he has put his money where his mouth is. That’s what I respect about him. … He steps up and does the work, he gets involved. It has been a very interesting development of a friendship. Of course, we all have this in common, respect for the martial arts, passion for the martial arts. You can’t be around someone like Grandmaster Kim and not get excited and get a kick out of him. He’s a dynamo, he has enthusiasm written all over him; it oozes out of him. You enjoy being around people like him, and John’s the same. … I think John Graden being involved is a real plus to the mix because I think he is one of the real outstanding leaders in the business aspect of the martial arts.”

Besides these three greats there will be other exciting names in the martial arts industry including Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Don Wilson, Kathy Long, and many other extremely successful martial arts business men and women. Grandmaster Wall is positive that the Martial Arts Leaders Summit will be a galvanizing event for everyone involved.

He said, “I believe that no self-respecting school owner would want to give their students less than the best. Each of us knows, that are running a school, that we have to be so many things to our school. We need to have skills to keep our students growing. But we need to have psychological skills so we can keep the enthusiasm and help the students get through the downs that will inevitably come to all of them.”

Ever the teacher, Grandmaster Wall still has advice for new school owners and potential professional martial artists. He suggests that the 2005 Martial Arts Leaders Summit can really make the difference for them. He urges them to realize that the martial arts is no longer a cottage industry.

“There are well over twenty seven thousand schools,” said Wall. “That’s a lot of schools. When I wrote the first Who’s Who? back in 1975, there were five thousand and twenty three schools. In a matter of [thirty] years, you’ve gone from well under a million to well over ten million active martial artists.” He explained how to be successful in an industry that is constantly growing and changing by saying, “You need to be constantly training to improve your physical skills, but you need to improve your psychological skills and your business skills. … Each of those people should be coming to the [Leaders Summit] with the attitude that they are willing to share. Everyone has a different skill set. Come with an open mind, come with a mindset that you want to come and contribute and help the whole improve. That’s what [the Leaders Summit] should be about: all of us getting better.”

Looking Towards the Future
Grandmaster Wall has no plans of stopping anytime soon. He looks towards to future with great enthusiasm. When asked about the future, he said, “The future of martial arts is great. … The martial arts will continue to grow because the martial arts, properly taught, is about respect, it is about character, about discipline, about honor and certainly gives you skills to protect yourself and your family.” His goal is to share his knowledge with as many people to continue the indomitable spirit of the martial arts. He sees amazing growth, “where today we have ten million active martial artists, I am anticipating twenty million, thirty million, fifty million, a hundred million. … The future is bright and the future is huge.” Grandmaster Bob Wall’s main focus is to influence as many of those millions in the future as he possibly can.

A Brief Thought in Closing
“I can first say congratulations to the industry,” exclaimed Wall. “There are so many bright, inspirational people out there. Every time I pick up a magazine or go to a martial arts event, my respect goes up. The depth of knowledge and the depth of skill is intriguing. Of course you have the negative side, the self-promoted twelfth- and thirteenth-degrees. I think those folks should be embarrassed.

“But the reality is there are so many good folks. I am now particularly excited to see the rise in female martial artists. I just think this is an incredible improvement and it’s great for women. … I would say you are in a great industry, you want to see it grow, keep contributing, keep improving. The industry is definitely making me proud.”

To that Grandmaster Wall added, “I hope that the promise of the future inspires people to attend the Martial Arts Leaders Summit. It is an opportunity not worth missing.”