Everyone Loves Victory. Few People Respect the Journey
I have been living in New York City for over sixteen years. When I moved here from a small village in Israel, the NBA felt like a different world.
One of the first things I wanted to do was go to Madison Square Garden and watch the New York Knicks play. I did not care who they were playing. I did not know the players. I just wanted to sit in the arena, hear the crowd, and experience something I had only seen on television.
I invited several people to join me. Almost nobody was interested.
The Knicks were struggling. The team was not exciting. New Yorkers had other things to talk about.
I went anyway. During one of the breaks, I caught one of the T-shirt giveaways. After the game, I offered it to some of my friends. Nobody was jumping to take it.
Today, the city feels different.
The Knicks are winning. Everywhere I look, I see children, parents, and older New Yorkers wearing jerseys. Social media is filled with highlights and people saying they always believed.
I understand it.
There is something exciting about being part of a winning moment. There is nothing wrong with celebrating success.
The people who stayed with the Knicks through the difficult years experience this moment differently. They remember the seasons when the team was hard to watch. They remember the bad trades, the disappointments, and the years where being a Knicks fan required patience.
The victory carries the memory of everything that came before it.
The Bandwagon Effect Is About More Than Sports
The bandwagon effect is often treated as a criticism. I think it is more interesting than that.
It is completely reasonable to doubt a new company, a new person, a new athlete, or a new investment. Nobody knows the future. Good judgment requires skepticism.
But there is a difference between waiting for evidence and waiting for certainty.
Every meaningful achievement has a period where the outcome is still unknown.
SpaceX is a good example. Today, it is easy to look at Elon Musk, reusable rockets, and one of the most successful private companies in history and think the outcome was obvious.
It was not.
There were rockets exploding on launch pads. There were financial risks that could have destroyed the company. Many people believed private companies had no place competing in an industry dominated by governments.
The people who supported that vision during those years experienced the success differently from those who arrived after the results were already clear.
That does not mean they were irrational. They evaluated the risk and decided the possibility was worth the investment.
The same idea applies to a sports fan who stays through losing seasons, an entrepreneur building a company, or a student walking into their first Krav Maga class.
The result can be enjoyed by everyone. The experience of creating it belongs to those who lived through the uncertainty.
Building Krav Maga Experts Before There Was Proof
I understand that experience personally.
When I moved to New York, I had an accent, limited resources, and no connections in the industry. I started Krav Maga Experts with $500 and a clear belief that self-defense should be practical, responsible, and accessible.
Nobody owed me their trust. I had to earn it.
The early classes were small. There were times when the mats were nearly empty. There were financial pressures and moments when continuing did not look like the obvious choice.
Today, people see KME with hundreds of students, multiple locations, corporate programs, media recognition, and a strong community.
What they do not see are the years when every student who walked through the door mattered. The years when every decision carried weight. The years when there was no proof that the school would become what it is today.
Those years were not a waiting room before success.
They were the years that built the foundation.
What Self-Defense Training Teaches About Human Growth
I have been teaching Krav Maga for more than twenty-five years. I have watched thousands of people walk onto the mat for the first time.
Almost none of them arrived confident.
One student could not finish the warm-up during her first class. She was embarrassed and almost did not come back.
Three years later, she was teaching that same warm-up to new students.
I have seen that story repeat itself many times.
The students who develop the most are rarely the ones who start with the most natural ability. They are the students who keep returning when the progress is slow and when the results are not yet visible.
I always say on the mat: you are what you do, and how you do it.
The confidence people admire in an experienced student was not built in one dramatic moment.
It was built in ordinary classes.
It was built on days they were tired after work, days they felt frustrated, and days they wondered whether they were improving.
The fastest way to learn is slowly.
The Difference Between Watching a Story and Living It
The New York Knicks may win a championship. Millions of people will celebrate, and they should.
But the person who stayed with the team through twenty years of disappointment will feel something different when the final buzzer sounds.
They will remember the seasons when there was no reason to celebrate. They will remember defending the team when others laughed. They will remember staying connected when there was no reward for doing so.
That is what the bandwagon effect misses.
The people who arrive at the celebration are not wrong. They simply did not experience the years that gave the celebration its meaning.
I have learned the same lesson watching students at KME, building my business, and even watching a basketball team I barely knew when I first arrived in New York.
The confidence, success, and strength that people admire are usually built during the years when nobody is paying attention.
Maybe the greatest value of being there from the beginning is that you do not only witness the result.
You become part of what created it.
Do something amazing,
Tsahi Shemesh
Founder & CEO
Krav Maga Experts
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