Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Chuck Norris and The King Of Cool, Steve McQueen are just a few of Lee’s students. Most of what Bruce Lee did stands synonymous with extremity and impossibility, be it his iconic one-inch punch which is enough to take a grown-up down or a bizarre 2-finger push-up for that matter. The dragon, Bruce Lee, unlike most icons, didn’t keep his techniques a secret, rather he’d make it all available for people to know but the only twist was in the pricing. He’d give lessons to anybody who was desirous of learning the art of fighting and had a deep pocket. Come on, who wouldn’t want to take lessons on exclusive ways of breaking bones from Bruce Lee no matter what the price is? But wait until you know much the fee per hour would be worth in the current economic landscape.
Bruce charged a staggering $275/hour for a single personal instruction class. Yikes! You are probably going to scream, ‘it’s shockingly high’ but it gets even more intense when you know the year he’d charge that much. It was the America of early 60s, one can imagine how big of a sum it must’ve meant. A simplistic, face-making, jaw-breaking guy from China was making what many Executives couldn’t make those days.
Well, Bruce had a true trainer running in his veins. However stylish and fit Bruce was to be a Hollywood star, he never longed for the fame and luxury of Hollywood instead the man just wanted to be a Martial Arts trainer. Lee was a generous human being, in a 1971 interview, he said, “You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being.
Because, I mean I don’t want to be like “As Confucius say,’ but under the sky, under the heavens there is but one family.’ It just so happens man that people are different.”
He had envisioned the opening of a chain of fighting schools all across the US. The first location Bruce picked for his school was the parking garage in the First Hill region of the Emerald City, Seattle. Later, Bruce shifted the school from the parking garage to the Chinatown basement.
Bruce named the school as The Jun Fan Gung-Fu Institute. His efforts during the time in training center culminated in the development of a “non-classical,” hybrid philosophy of Martial Arts called Jeet Kune Do. No amazement, the school Lee started with a mix of his rocksteady will and hard work still operates in Seattle.
What Bruce paid to his teacher Ip Man is not known, but that must not have been as much as what Bruce charged from his students, at least that is what the consensus holds. Word has it that Bruce taught both his mastery and what Ip Man advocated i.e. Wing Chun. That would’ve been great two techniques in one go. But important to know, adjusted for inflation, $275 would now be around $2 grand.
To receive such a pricey tutelage, students need to carry a high profile and a superb loaded wallet. And it was exactly so, Bruce’s students were no ordinary brats. Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hollywood legend and Black Belt fighter Chuck Norris and The King Of Cool, Steve McQueen are just a few of Lee’s notable students.
However, Bruce Lee’s top students who were personally certified by him were only three: James Yimm Lee, Dan Inosanto, and Taky Kimura and to no surprise, they are believed to be the best of the best.
Bruce knew the fair distinction between being a legend and a teacher to learners. Consequently, he’d be a different person altogether with his students. He’d drop the crowns of his magnificence to deliver the best fighting lessons possible. Well, such great demonstrations of mindfulness aren’t so uncommon from Bruce Lee as he was known to be a great philosopher as well.
About kinds of students and their approach, Bruce Lee once said, “as an instructor, you must be able to distinguish between poor
performance caused by lack of ability or aptitude on the part of the student and poor performance caused by lack of effort. You should treat the first with patience and the latter with firmness. You must never apply sarcasm and ridicule.”
Besides Martial Arts, Bruce Lee had tons of other interests such as poetry, philosophy, and acting also. One thing common, Bruce’s perfection reflected in almost everything he ever too up. He had his own-developed school of thoughts and technique of making things happen his way. Every ground, he ever set his feet on, he changed the definition for better.
