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The following article was submitted by Steve White for its informational content.

U.S. Marines' Philosophy on Becoming a Champion

by Ron Kurtus (revised 27 May 2004)

The philosophy of the U.S. Marines states that character and excellence results in developing champions. They have been very successful in transforming young men and women into responsible, confident individuals and team members.

Questions you may have on this are:

• How do they mold people into leaders?
• What is this philosophy?
• How do they pursue excellence?

Marines do a better job

The Marines can mold ordinary young people into effective leaders. The Marines seem to be doing a better job of teaching teenagers the right way to live than does the average American high school.

The Marines give Americans youth the self-confidence needed to make decisions while under the stress of battle, police action, or other engagement. Our society seems to have trouble transmitting healthy values to young people.

Set absolute standards

The Marines set some absolute standards for their people to follow:

• Tell the truth.
• Don't give up.
• Don't whine or make excuses.
• Do your best, no matter how trivial the task.
• Choose a difficult right over the easy wrong.
• Look out for the group before you look out for yourself.
• Judge others by their actions, not their words or their race.

Following these standards make a person better and proud of him- or herself.

Have a Fulfilling Life

Marine drill instructors transmitted the lesson taught centuries ago by an ancient Greek philosopher: "Don't pursue happiness; pursue excellence. Make a habit of that, and you can have a fulfilling life."

Another belief they instill is: "Knowledge is power. And power is victory! "

Being Pushed Hard

One thing the Marines do in basic training is to try to push the members harder than they've ever been pushed, and to make them go beyond their self-imposed limits.

Such experience during basic training creates a and esprit de corps or camaraderie among the platoon members. They subordinate their needs to those of the group, and all emerge with a stronger sense of self

The drill instructors tell their recruits, "Pain is good. Extreme pain is extremely good."

Emphasis

The Marines emphasized honor, courage and commitment. This is a powerful alternative to the looming this and distrust that seems so widespread among society. They also emphasize integrity.

Marine Corps discipline stresses brotherhood. It stresses that people of different backgrounds can learn to work together for a common cause.

The Marines approach to leadership is: "Concentrate on doing a single task is simply as you can, execute it flawlessly, take care of your people and go home." Those steps are an efficient way to run any organization.

Pursuit of Excellence

Young people want values but they are rightly suspicious of talk without action words are meaningless unless you live them, as well of all things that can motivate people. The pursuit of excellence is one of the most effective and one of the least used in our society.

The Marines believe that you can do anything if you have the right can-do attitude.

In conclusion

The training Marines receive not only prepares recruits for battle, but it also shapes them into self-reliant, hard-working and honorable members of a team. These are traits that should have been learned while growing up.

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PKS was started as a loose affiliation of instructors and their respective lineages after a meeting in Europe in 1998. The core people were Lee Wedlake, Gary Ellis, Graham Lelliott, and Ingmar Johansson. There are no dues and you cannot "join" the PKS. If you are training at a PKS lineage school, you are a PKS member. A PKS directory, although incomplete at this time, exists on Lee Wedlake's site, www.leewedlake.com. There are PKS schools and clubs in the United States, Australia, Germany, and England.  

The PKS crest is distinct in that it reads "Progressive Systems", and it may be worn by member schools. A PKS school is a lineage down line from one of the four aforementioned instructors, and is only recognized when in good standing. Therefore, certain former students of those instructors may not be PKS schools.  "Good standing" infers that the student/teacher relationship is intact, the school is upholding the lineage standards, and the instructors are participating in Continuing Education.