Using Real-Life Examples – Is it Fear-Mongering OR Creating Necessary Awareness?

This blog is an extremely important one as it addresses a very sensitive topic for some, and hopefully helps to clarify many misunderstandings.

Self Defence providers often use real-life cases and examples to motivate people to start training. Most of the time, there is no issue at all but unfortunately in rare cases, they are accused of preying on fear and using the misery of others to promote their business, especially when the example being given is of a crime so repulsive such as rape.

It is such a fine line that on the rare occasion, some people do get upset. We hope that in such cases, these people understand that this was certainly not intended. Nor was the motive so abhorrent as to want to purposely fear-monger for our own benefit.

It is our hope that one will take the time to read this blog and hopefully gain a very different perspective, coming from the very difficult world of Self Defence.

The importance of raising awareness

Firstly, it is important to understand that whether one works for a company as an employee or if one has their own business, all these companies and businesses are ultimately providing a solution to a specific problem. Furthermore, at times their target audience is not even aware of the problem and so it is necessary for these companies and businesses to help create greater awareness of the problem.

For example, a tuition company will help parents to better understand the need for their services which is to better prepare their children for their 11+ exams. In doing so, they will certainly highlight the real-life facts of it being very difficult to pass these exams and that most of the children do fail in getting admission into the Grammar Schools.

Now many parents who will be experiencing 11+ exams for the first time, will greatly appreciate the tuition company for helping them to be more aware of the chances of failing without proper tuition and what they need to do to succeed. But on the flip side, the tuition company can also be accused of fear-mongering for their personal gain.

How we process what we see

How is it possible that for most people, this was simply the tuition company creating much needed awareness of a significant problem but for others, the exact same message comes as fear-mongering?

It ultimately boils down to the mindset of the individual. As it is such a fine line between the two, it could be very possible that the company in question got the message wrong on this occasion, but again, it helps to understand the true intent of the company which is to ultimately help in solving a specific problem.

If one looks deeper into any company or business, one will find that each one is pitching their service or product as a solution to a specific problem. Thankfully, most of these problems are not sensitive and can be easily discussed without causing any offence, and this is where the problem lies for Self Defence companies.

By our very nature as a Self Defence Company, we provide solutions to problems that are incredibly sensitive such as bullying, being physically attacked and injured, the growing threat of being stabbed, sexual violence etc. This does put us in a very delicate situation because sadly these problems do involve misery and trauma. But the fact still remains that these problems do exist and people do need a solution.

The reality of missing important information

To make matters worse, most people are either unaware of or too busy in their daily lives to even think about the need to prepare for such eventualities. It is a fact that most people only look to start Self Defence training after something awful has already happened, wishing that they had started sooner.

So you can see how incredibly important it is for Self Defence companies to bring the awareness of these life-changing (and God-forbid at times life-ending) threats that do exist and are happening around us. In doing so, we are literally saving lives or helping to mend them.

Thankfully, most people have come to understand this and can appreciate where we are coming from. But having to deal with so many different people as our customers, with a variety of views and beliefs, it is not possible to keep everyone happy all the time. And as already mentioned, if at times we do end up upsetting someone with a specific message, we hope that they will keep these points in mind and choose to give us the benefit of the doubt.

We are incredibly passionate about what we do because we see for ourselves first-hand the life-changing results of our training. Regularly visiting schools and businesses, we also get to see first-hand just how clueless most children and adults are of these real-life dangers. Being in the industry, we also get to hear a lot more than the average person, the horror stories of what some people have been through and each time we cannot help but to think “If only they were made aware of and given the necessary training before”.

Hearing such stories of pain on a regular basis undoubtedly has an effect and is heart-breaking, after all we are also human. And out of genuine concern, it makes us want to scream even louder for people to wake up and start taking their own personal safety more seriously. So naturally, it is very hurtful when our motives are then questioned, and when we are accused of trying to benefit from other people’s misery. But here too, we appreciate it’s not somebody’s fault for thinking this way as they just don’t fully understand the complete picture of being a Self Defence Instructor. And this is where hopefully this blog will help.

Our mission is to reach out and teach

Our benefit is literally in benefitting others. We are amongst the very few services in the world that literally transforms and saves lives.

Even in our Teenagers & Adults classes, we make sure to share real-life incidents of students using their training to defend themselves or of other real-life incidents that are happening. Not to fear-monger but to give people a healthy reminder of why they are in class in the first place (because people do forget), to help them to remain vigilant and to motivate them to take their training seriously so that should they also find themselves in a similar situation, they are at least better prepared.

So to come back to the question – Self Defence companies using real-life examples – is it fear-mongering or is it creating that much needed awareness?

If we only look at the statistics, we will find as already stated, that:

• Most people are either completely unaware of the dangers or too busy in their lives to even think about taking action to better prepare themselves.
• Most people believe that it’s never going to happen to them….. until it does.
• And most people only decide to take action once something has happened to them or upon hearing of a recent incident that took place close to them.

Based on the above facts, it becomes very clear why it is so important to create that awareness as it will literally save lives.

However, Self Defence companies are damned for creating that awareness, and damned if they don’t, because doing so is such an integral part of Personal Safety & Self Defence.

So once again, we will always do our best to not upset anyone with our messaging. But if we do, we apologise and ask to kindly remember just how sensitive our industry is when it comes to the problems we are aiming to deal with, and that the message never came from a bad place or with bad intention. And most importantly, that it is very likely that the message still helped to save lives by giving others that much needed push to finally take action.

We hope that this blog was useful in getting a better understanding of our industry and the challenges that we face.

Thank you for taking the time to read it!