How Bruce Lee, A New Immigrant At 18, Became An International Icon In Just 10 Years

And the mindset that made it possible

No doubt Bruce Lee made a name for himself in film and in martial arts. He also modeled how to break through any barrier to your dreams.

It’s incredible how much he accomplished in so little time.

Given that this wasn’t the age of the internet. Also, he was only a teenager when his family sent him away to a distant country with just $100 to his name. And he was a minority, alone in a foreign land.

Yet his persona and his ideas became known worldwide in just 10 years.

How did he do it? What were the ‘secrets’ to his success?

He had absolute conviction in the power of ideas

In a letter he wrote to Pearl Tso, a family friend, he tried to express the ideas and convictions that drove him and his vision of the future. He had a difficult time expressing it in words.

He wrote, “Dear Pearl, This letter is hard to understand. It contains my dreams and my ways of thinking. As a whole, you can call it my way of life. It will be rather confusing, as it is difficult to write down exactly how I feel. Yet … I’ll do my best to write it clearly.”

He says, “Ideas are what America is looking for. Ideas have made America what she is, and one good idea will make a man what he wants to be.”

Then, grasping at concepts and struggling to give Pearl a concrete explanation, he says, “I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized [by] this dominating force, which I hold in my hand.

Whether it is the Godhead or not, I feel this great force, this untapped power, this dynamic something within me. This feeling defies description, and [there is] no experience with which this feeling may be compared. It is something like a strong emotion mixed with faith, but a lot stronger.”

To say that he had a sense of destiny or a belief is an understatement. This idea or force was his locomotive engine, and he had a hard time describing what it was.

We can call it faith, or destiny, but in essence, it’s the conviction that nothing can stop you from achieving your purpose.

This is the letter where we get the famous “pebble” quote; he says, “When you drop a pebble into a pool of water, the pebble starts a series of ripples that expand until they encompass the whole pool.

This is exactly what will happen when I give my ideas a definite plan of action.”

He was biased toward action.

His ideas didn’t just live in his head; he acted on them.

He didn’t wait for opportunities to fall into his lap, and he didn’t wait for the right circumstances.

He saw an opportunity to start martial arts schools, but the scale he envisioned required a higher level of competence.

He confided, “There are yet [many] long years ahead of me to polish my techniques and character. My aim, therefore, is to establish [the] first Gung Fu Institute that will later spread out all over the U.S. (I have set a time limit of 10 to 15 years to complete the whole project.)”

Bruce had innovative ideas. The fact that they were long shots or that no one had ever done them didn’t deter him. Instead, he began to put his plan into action and watched where it led.

But, interestingly, what he accomplished was far greater than his original dream.

Key takeaways

We all live with self-doubt. Sometimes it's from others around us who don’t “want us to get hurt,” or most of the time, it’s from ourselves.

It says, “Who do you think you are? Keep your head down; don’t aim so high; you’ll get knocked down.” Or whatever the logical reason is.

But you can do with a whole lot less self-doubt and a whole lot more conviction about:

• Your God-given destiny
• Your resilience
• Your ability to figure things out

Don’t let the naysayers make you say nay.

If you’re afraid of falling, remember that you’ve been falling even before you knew how to speak. And if you didn’t fall, you'd never learn to walk.

But now that you know how to walk, it’s time to learn to fly.

And that requires a leap of faith. You can’t do it by connecting the logical dots in your head.

It’s supernatural and immaterial. It’s the stuff that connects you with your Creator — the stuff that Bruce had a hard time describing.

It’s in your gut, your heart, and your spirit.

He pivoted when circumstances changed

Bruce began to put his plan into action and build his martial arts studio.

While he was giving a demonstration at a martial arts tournament, Bruce was discovered by a Hollywood producer, which led to a role in The Green Hornet.

This was Bruce’s first pivot. He recognized that film was a faster way to accomplish his goals.

He told his friend Dan Inosanto, “I can educate people faster through film than I can by writing a book or opening a hundred schools here in America.”

So he redirected his efforts toward film.

However, after a short stint in Hollywood, he found that the racial barrier there was immovable. This led to his second pivot.

He went to Hong Kong, where his first films became hits. Eventually, Hollywood recognized his marketability, and suddenly, the doors were wide open.

“Pivoting” is a modern term, and it wouldn’t be what he would call it, but it’s exactly what he did. His famous “be like water” quote embodies his philosophy in life and in martial arts, which is to be fluid and adaptable to the circumstances.

Key takeaways

• Make your plans for the future, but be flexible. Things may change for the better, or there may be another way around a closed door.
• It’s funny how different pieces of the puzzle show up once you start down the road.

He created his own opportunities

After The Green Hornet was canceled, he searched for other roles.

However, by refusing to play roles that were Hollywood caricatures of Asians, he found that there were very few scripts that depicted Asians in a positive light.

He realized the only way to find good roles was to write the scripts himself.

This eventually led to a script being presented to Warner Brothers that would later become “Kung Fu.” Originally, the intent was to have Bruce play the main character.

Of course, David Carradine eventually got the part because Hollywood wouldn't accept an Asian as the main character.

This last setback was a confirmation that the opportunities were not available in Hollywood, so he decided to pursue opportunities in the Hong Kong film industry.

Finally, this was when all the pieces fell into place. Oftentimes, a setback is only a blessing in disguise.

In closing, what road will you choose?

Bruce chose the road “less traveled.” He had no model to follow because there was no one else before him.

But he had absolute conviction about the future, even though he didn’t know exactly what the final form would look like. And he took the next step he knew to take and pivoted when he needed to.

I would say he’s a glass-half-full kind of person who doesn’t take defeat as an answer.

In closing his letter to Pearl, he encourages, “Probably, people will say I’m too conscious of success. Well, I am not. You see, my will to do springs from the knowledge that I can do [it]. I’m only being natural, for there is no fear or doubt inside my mind.

Pearl, success comes to those who become success-conscious. If you don’t aim at an object, how the heck on earth do you think you can get it?”

“Well, I gotta keep it going, keep it going full steam Too sweet to be sour; too nice to be mean Well, on the tough guy style, I’m not too keen Trying to change the world, I will plot and scheme”

~ Beastie Boys

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