Richard Amos

What are the 5 karate principles and how they could benefit any leader

Take a high-level karate master and strip away tens of thousands of hours of physical training. 

What are you left with? A human being on a spiritual path.

This path is governed by principles designed to develop an individual’s physical, mental, and spiritual being. These principles—rooted in centuries of wisdom dating back to the Shaolin warriors and to the first ancient Indian monk who came to China—create a framework that binds all traditional karate practitioners all around the globe.

In karate class, we must move from our core. On a spiritual level, our core are our principles.

As Stephen R. Covey wrote “People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them.”

I asked one of the world’s top karate instructors, Richard Amos—an 8th degree black belt—to give us an insight into the principles of Shotokan karate. Born in the UK and based in New York City, Amos lived, trained, and worked in Japan for over a decade. He’s fluent in Japanese, and trained under Asai sensei, regarded as one of the greatest Japanese karate masters to have lived in recent times. Amos is the second westerner to have completed the three-year instructor’s course in Japan as well as placing second in the All-Japan Championships, at a time when no non-Japanese had ever reached the semi-finals before.

Here are five principles he shared: