How Creation in Tech and Jiu-Jitsu Intersect

“Jiu-jitsu is a game of counter-attacks. If your opponent gives you an opening, take it. If your opponent does not give you an opening, then create it with an action that triggers an exploitable response.1” Rener Gracie

This is the creation principle in Rener Garcie’s 32 Principles of Jiu-jitsu. I have to say it is probably one of my favorites as it focuses on innovation. 

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It starts with the end goal in mind and using targeted actions to make your vision a reality. Just as in jiu-jitsu, the tech world requires innovation. It's one of the main reasons why I love being in the tech space and practicing jiu-jitsu. There's always innovation and the creation of new objects, new software, new this or that, or new industry.

Within the last four years we've seen a boom in the development of supply chain security, automotive, AI, bitcoin currency, blockchain, etc. The list goes on. There are other areas I’m also thinking of such as space travel. I mean, this incredible! The areas that tech is expanding into and impacting through creating means that ideas are being turned into reality and industries are continually being disrupted.

We're disrupting the world and making everything accessible and convenient for the public, for business and for government. I won’t go into the government one, that’s a topic in and of itself. These could be your objectives for those who are familiar with objectives and key results (OKRs) or key performance indicators (KPIs).

Really, these are just indicators that show success and movement. They answer questions like: “How are you moving that bar? How are you moving your goal and how are you making an impact into the different spaces and then breaking that into target planning and actions?” So as a security professional, if you are trying to move and make waves in a large organization, you're going to want to make sure that everyone involved understands the end goal and how that end goal breaks up into individual pieces.

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The timeline, expectations, discussions, who is involved and so forth. These are really where your project charters and your roadmaps come in to really help share that information. But it needs to be created first, right? So, you have your goal in mind, you have your target dates, and you reverse engineer from where you want to go. This creation principle also applies to jiu-jitsu when you enter competitions. Usually you have a game strategy, and in that game strategy you have an end goal.

You want to submit to them. These are your top-level submissions; the ones you want to achieve. For me, top level submissions I was aiming for included guillotine, dar's, triangle, armbar or kimora. While I didn't know other techniques, and areas to compromise and attack from anything else I was pretty much going to be able to. I had to become creative and figure it out.

In showing others these submissions, that brought welcome suggestions because I didn't go to all the tools I had in my belt. I wanted to show that with an end goal in mind, you need to figure out how to get from point A to point B, whether that’s earning your submissions or more points, or just making sure that you stay on top. It all boils down to creation – creating the opportunity to reach your end goal. 

Similarly in the tech space, providing solutions to problems, building things that make life easier for everyone, as well as implementing security measures for businesses and individuals is grounded in creating and innovation.