We recently connected with Stephen Vosa and have shared our conversation below.
Stephen, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I was born in 1950, by two years old I developed severe bronchial asthma. This was before inhalers – didn’t see one of those till 1962. You just had to gut it out and wheez until your body panicked and released some adrenalin which is what they would give you if you made it to the doctor in time. I out grew the illness at 14 and being able to breath was like a miracle. That set the path for being resiliant, confident, indepent with a work ethic like my parents who lived through the great depession and my dad in the Pacific for WWII. Note; these things happened to a lot of kids back then. Excuses, complaining and being too sensitive got you nowwhere with adults and helping others developed self esteem. Opposite of today, we were told words could not hurt us, and our actions spoke louder than words.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Regular full time jobs in commercial graphics were not fullfilling enough for me and though we were also under paid many good friendships were formed. My dad always said you learn more from the jobs you don’t like, this makes you appreciate the better situations later. Teaching karate classes and drawing courses had always been a part time endeavor, but now in retirement they are my main focus and joy outside of my family. I also volunteered for work in remote places in Central America on three occasions; 1971, 1973, and 1976, totalling two years of time before starting a family. These trips were to escape from the American consumer way of life and probably from myself, while finding out what real quality of life is. Having a family brought new realization to everything that had happened in earlier years with lots of stories to tell.
Teaching is very exciting when people really want to learn something from you. Students also must realize that the teacher continues to learn about the subject and how to better teach it. A teacher is a student for life on a path of no limitation. Retirement should just mean that you are out of the regular work force and not out of desire to do more. There are so many ways to contribute or put back into the world. Aging will slow us all down but shouldn’t keep us from trying.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1) Listen more than you speak- you can’t do both at the same time. 2) Work with people don’t battle them. Make them feel like we are all in it together and less ego will get in the way. 3) Be honest with yourself and others, especially employers.
My adice is; if you are not already doing these three things, start right now.
In a well taught martial art like Uechi ryu karate, the most valuable thing we learn is Respect & Courtesy and the world would be at pease if everyone did it – everyone!
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
How to age gracefully, stay healthy and not let people who think they run the world ruin it. Greed is the biggest evil. One of my employers said once “before you start something ask yourself- is it fair, and if it is not- don’t do it”
Contact Info:
- Website: http://uechi-ryunm.com/
- Other: email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Steve Vosa
