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Old 11-04-2004, 01:51 PM   #16
Hanna B
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 647
Sweden
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Re: Poll: How important is running an aikido dojo as a business?

I voted "not at all important" but I must confess I do not really understand the question. Important to whom and/or what? To a person who runs his dojo as a business, it is of course of critical importance. In my nick of the woods, hardly anyone teaches aikido or other martial arts for a living, and very few teachers get any kind of monetary compensation for their teaching - it is common that the dojo pays part of teachers's seminar costs though, as a means of getting the teacher further education and more to teach. I heard Endo sensei saying at the end of a seminar, "Noone of you will be professional aikido teachers - but you are better than many strange aikido teachers out there" (OK I heard the translator but I have no reason to mistrust him). Painters who gain success often get stuck in the style that got them famous - why change a winning team? and so their progression is hampered. Teachers who do not need their aikido to make ends meet might have more possibility to take their aikido whereever they feel is a good way for development, regardless of what the customers (students) think.

I'd say the nonprofit way of running a dojo has some merits. So, importance of running it as a business? No, not really.
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