Be the Kung Fu Panda

“In Kung Fu Panda, how does Po end up becoming an awesome Kung Fu fighter? How does he shift from being a fat slob to a master who defeats the villain Tai Lung?" 

There is something in Po that was familiar, his journey was one I have read in the biographies of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, people I wanted to emulate. But, what was with the Kung Fu Panda I wanted to emulate?

To be the Kung Fu Panda, watch Kung Fu Panda. But if you haven’t here is a brief summary by Eric Weinstein, mathematician, economist, and managing director of Thiel Capital: 

When the kingdom is threatened by a kung fu student of great ability who’s gone wrong, all that the kingdom can muster is the usual collection of over-trained students. They fail, and so the turtle (master) recognizes that the panda is the only one who can save the day. All the turtle has to go on in choosing a successor is that the panda has innovated one silly thing, which is to turn a fireworks cart into a makeshift rocket to jump a wall. And so from this humble beginning, the magic unfolds. And it’s really about the magic of how one self-teacher leaves a successor and solves the problem. 

I used to be bad at accounting. The P&L statement was my kryptonite. In school, I remember standing by the classroom door as my teacher remarked: “Better not take the paper, a fail would look bad on your certificate.” He essentially gave up on my ability to learn. A question popped into my head: “Aren’t you supposed to teach me?”

That experience left a deep impression, what was wrong with me that I wasn’t good enough to even take an exam? I was trying. I really was. I attended extra classes in math during and after school, yet I was still bad at accounting. I would often get the wrong answers, wondering how it doubled everyone else. But I realise something now that I didn’t at 16 years of age. I didn’t have the ability to teach myself.

As a Singaporean, I’ve likened my country to a corporation, with its main product its people. There is pressure to succeed and do your ‘part’ by being a cog in the wheel. Education is therefore highly prioritised and students learn mainly from institutions that house teachers & academics. This system churns out professionals that are hyper specialised to provide innovation and development in their chosen field. 

However, there has been a shift in how people are learning. This has given rise to a group of people that are as qualified to run organisations and be innovators without following the traditional learning methods. The drop-outs that have become the rock stars of business. 

Enter the Dragon (Scroll)

Ok, great. But how does that make them more like Po? Your answer lies within the fabric of the Dragon Scroll.

The Dragon Scroll is believed to be a manual that holds the secret knowledge to great power. After being declared the Dragon Warrior, Po was deemed the only one able to read it and he would be able to defeat the villain who has come to destroy the village. But when the scroll rolled open, it was blank. Nothing. There was no knowledge transfer, no transformation.

To the conventionally trained high achievers, this stumps them and they decide to evacuate. But during the evacuation, Po is dejected. His father notices and decides to share the secret ingredient to his noodle soup... “Nothing. To make something special you just have to believe it’s special.” The bulb in his panda head lit up. Being himself was all he needed to be special and recognises that there was no need for a knowledge transfer. He proceeds to face the villain head-on, emphatically defeating him.

I have been fed the hope that by obtaining the Dragon Scroll, I could unlock the secrets to success. But the unravelling of scroll after scroll led me on a quest for more scrolls. I have signed up for course after course online, barely finishing any of them, thinking that I didn’t derive value from them. No knowledge transfer.

But as I have realised, the method of 1 to 1 knowledge transfer is incomplete. We have never seen a genius leave a successor. Steve Jobs didn’t leave behind a Steve Jobs 2, Elon Musk didn’t learn from another Elon Musk. They came into their own through self-teaching and learning what they felt they needed to succeed.

The Internet is the Dragon Scroll and part of the learning process, not THE learning process. It was when I understood the real world usefulness of accounting that I was able to eventually do it. Which led to me handling the accounts of the businesses I operated. 

Baby You’re a Firework (Rocket)

Self-teaching is by no means the key to success. Another aspect that led Po to be the Dragon Warrior was his high agency.

That was what Po did. He did not blame his father for his lack of opportunity. He didn’t give up when the arena was closed. He used his creativity to improvise a firework rocket, jumped on and flew headfirst into the arena. And thus, he fulfilled his dream of becoming the Dragon Warrior. 

I’ve been in Po’s pawsteps, looking up at the arena walls that represent the barriers to entry we often encounter, and my barrier was stacked with low agency bricks and plastered with mortar of laziness. When I started my own business in a foreign land, I had plenty of reasons to fail. I had never taken a business course. Never been in Myanmar. Never operated a cafe. I was low agency. 

Me

There was no reason for the business to succeed. The only way was to build my own fireworks rocket and propel myself over the walls of the arena. But first, I had to create my own fireworks. I had to gather the gunpowder, fuses and rocket shells and if you’re like me and this was your first time building a rocket, you’re in for a treat. 

It was exhausting and confusing, but I was determined to make the most out of my opportunity. I’ve been comfortable my whole life and it was time to take a leap out of my comfort zone.  As an introvert, I networked like hell to learn from other business owners. Teachers gave up teaching me, so I taught myself Burmese. When suppliers wouldn’t lower the prices I went to the source. There, I haggled even more with the lady at the market, who would greet me with “you again!” 

I had to go from a low agency mindset to a high agency one to succeed. This led me to double my cafe sales, opening another restaurant and heading an events department for a company. 

Peace in the Village

Read the stories of successful people and you would see the silhouette of the Dragon Warrior between the pages. The thing I admired in Po and what I wanted to emulate from the great minds of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and Po was their skill of self-teaching and the high agency mindset. 

The resources we have are endless but just like the Dragon Scroll, it is powerful but incomplete. The special ingredient is our will to be better. To feed ourselves a unique diet knowledge. To teach ourselves a skill. To be obsessed with achieving a goal. You may very well see your own reflection in the Dragon Scroll.