ABOUT GRAND MASTER ERIC "LIONMAN" O'NEAL, SR.

An interview from the July 2011 Masters Hall of Fame Magazine

"A MASTER OF MARKETING IS NOW MARKETING THE MARTIAL ARTS WORLDWIDE" "THE LEGEND OF LIONMAN ~ PRESIDENTIAL 1,OOO,OOO KICK CHALLENGE"

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Grandmaster Eric O'Neal, Sr. excels at everything he puts his mind to do. He's is the seven time USKA World Karate Champion (the title that Chuck Norris formerly held) and has been inducted into the International Karate Hall of Fame (with Bruce Lee) in 1988 and the Masters Hall of Fame in 2008. He's a motivational speaker and the author of twentyeight graphic novels. I feel that he is definitely the next "King of Karate"! He graciously took time out of his very busy schedule to speak with us.

I would like to thank the Masters Hall of Fame for making me a cover story and putting my picture on the front cover of its magazine. I thank its president, Daniel Hect, for all his hard work and dedication and Robert Parham, Director of Public Relations, for the great job he is doing. It is an honor and a privilege for me to discuss my career in martial arts with such a great publication.

MHOFM: How did you get involved with martial arts?

GEO: I got involved in martial arts when I was about 10 or 11 years old. There was this kid about my age from Mississippi who I roughed up almost daily. That's what we did in the Desire housing projects. One day he started spinning and kicking me, and I learned he had an older brother in martial arts. I found out where his older brother was studying and went there. The instructor's name was Geraldine Jefferson. I approached her and told her I was there to learn karate. She asked me to go, sit in a corner and wait, but I was persistent. I wanted to beat up this guy and his brother. I was excited and wanted to do something right then. She did a jumping 180 kick over my head. I didn't know what it was then, but it looked like her head almost touched the ceiling. I had never seen anybody get up with such speed, grace and power. So I ran to the corner, thinking if that kick had hit me, it wouldn't have been nice. I was like, whatever you want me to do, I'm with you.

She took me on, and I became her number one student. I beat all her other students. I advanced quickly in the projects area where I grew up. She took me to competitions, and I won. There were seven boys in my immediate family so I knew something already about fighting. I'm the 7th son. Then she took me to the Desire Community Center in New Orleans where I met her instructor, Grand Master Ferdinand Bigard. He had his top students there. Several had highranking belts. I whipped everybody there including his best student, Frank B., a brown belt, and two black belts who were twins. They all quit then and there because a white belt had beaten them. As a kid I won the All South National Karate Championship three years in a row. I stopped competing at 17 and started college.

I saw Frank after the devastation of hurricane Katrina. We talked, and I learned that he had never gone back and gotten his black belt. So I invited him to come to my school and study with me at no costs. Frank trained hard and earned his black belt in 2007.

MHOFM: Tell us about your accomplishments in the corporate world and why you left to pursue a career in martial arts.

GEO: I wanted to be a corporate executive when I was young. I used to walk around the housing projects in a shirt and tie at a very young age. My whole objective was to get out of the projects. Most kids at my age thought they could do it by being the best playing football or basketball or some other sport. Although I played basketball, ran track and field, and was great in martial arts, I wanted to be the best corporate executive. I wanted to get out based on my mental accomplishments; I feel that I had a gift.

After college at 22, I started working as the supply manager at Minolta Corporation in New Orleans. I reformed the structure and personnel of their marketing department. I purchased $100,000.00 worth of supplies that were not Minolta products. My concept was that we shouldn't be limited to selling Minolta supplies. My boss thought I was crazy. I hired and trained former male athletes and beautiful, beautiful women as sales people and sent them to the tallest office buildings in the city. They were all well trained, sharp and sophisticated. I increased profits by over 400% in less than 4 months by selling everything that we could. But there was no raise or promotion, so I left.

At 23 years old I became a manager with ITT Life Insurance Company after getting an insurance license. Within one month I broke all their sales records. I was promoted to district manager and thereafter started my own company called Professional Marketing Consultants. Then I started thinking of new sales concepts. Their insurance linked an annuity to term life insurance. I lobbied the state legislature to have an IRA linked to term life insurance and to allow underprivileged people to open an account for $10, which produced more than $1,640,000.00 in applied premiums in one month. The parent company wanted to learn from me. I got a letter from the president of ITT and was ranked 5th in the worldwide conglomerate. The parent company asked me to close my company and lead their marketing task force. I was not interested.

After that I got my real estate license and returned to the hotel industry where I started in housekeeping at 17 years old. Now at 24 I worked as an audit supervisor and computer programmer. I helped open two new hotels: the Windsor Court Hotel, which was 5star, and Le Meridian Hotel, which was a French operation. The French gave me a lot of flexibility, and I was able to use my knowledge for transforming systems. They put me in charge of their entire, multimillion dollar computer system. I created a new system to facilitate the French accounting system working better in the American hotel accounting systems. I called it Master Control Sheet (MCS), and they are still using it today. But I never forgot my promise to go back to the housing projects and help our youth.

At 25 years old I got very ill with food poisoning at the hotel. I was in the hospital and lost 20 - 30 pounds in a few days. I had already been suffering with an ulcer, and I began to suffer with pancreas problems. I had been working too many hours and almost died. That caused me to have a spiritual transformation. I was told I had accomplished at age 25 what a lot of people had not done in an entire lifetime. So I made a commitment to God. I wanted to change the direction my life and I wanted to go back to the community and teach kids how to do what I did growing up in a challenging community. So I went back to the community to pursue martial arts full time to help our youth. This was supposed to be a 2year plan.

MHOFM: You won 100 grand championships in a row, an almost impossible feat.

GEO: I believe what drove me to be the best in my life all started when I committed my spirit to God and decided to become a human instrument of His will and purpose. I believe that in anything I strive to do God has my back, always. That is why I believe I can be the best in what I do. Faith without work is dead. As a young kid growing up in the church I understood and believed that, but I believed it more than I understood it. Therefore, as a young kid I had faith, and I was always willing to do the work. While other kids were out playing I was working and training, kicking and punching. When I became a young man I kept that same discipline and dedication.

When I returned to martial arts competition in 1986 I made a statement during an interview to Data News Weekly that I would not lose in 1987. I was a champion before, and I was committed to being a champion as an adult. So I went ahead and won over 100 consecutive championships without a loss. All of them were not grand championships because some of the tournaments in which I fought did not have a grand championship title. But, nevertheless, it was something I was very focused on and committed to doing. I was driven by achieving a set and stated goal. God is with me always, and I am willing to put in the work to make it happen.

MHOFM: Winning a World Championship in your own city must have been a great moment in your martial arts career. Please share that experience with us.

GEO: Winning the United States Karate Alliance (USKA) World Karate Championship title in my home city was one of my best career experiences. There were three people who really inspired me as a young man. Jim Kelly was one. "Man, you came right out of a comic book," was something he said that grabbed my attention. On hearing that from him, a Grandmaster who I had seen on the movie screen next to Bruce Lee, I knew, thought and felt at that moment that I could achieve all my goals. As a young man I had three idols: Jim Kelly, Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.

In 1987 I won my first idol Jim Kelly's title, the International Karate Championship, in Long Beach, California. Jim Kelly won in 1971. Then, after winning 100 consecutive titles that we talked about earlier, I was inducted into the International Karate Hall of Fame with my second idol Bruce Lee. Then I began chasing my third idol Chuck Norris' USKA World Karate Championship title for years flying all over the world.

In 1988 I flew to Irvine, California, in the best shape of my life to fight in the USKA World Karate Championship, ready for battle. In my first match I beat the Chinese International Champion real bad. Grandmaster Robert A. Trias, Founder of USKA, watched my match and personally came to the ring and demanded to Grandmaster John Venson that I be weighed in again because I was too big to be so fast. This went on match after match, and I'm shutting everyone out. Moving to the finals I noticed no referees were calling my points, and my opponent was scoring without touching me. This was very frustrating, and I began to show my frustration. After losing Grandmaster Venson, the center referee, told me, "You man, you're awesome. I have not seen anyone come in here and do what you did without a patch, and you got a big BLUE LION on your back. Be glad they let you compete." The same thing happened in Phoenix, Arizona, for the 1989 Championship.

I learned that the 1990 USKA World Karate Championship would be in New Orleans. While in New Orleans I began a new regimen of training as I realized I had to change my system. I was getting frustrated. I was winning tournaments, but not at USKA. I was not getting the attention and recognition from the referees and judges to actually score points. Then God revealed something to me. He said, don't worry about the referees. Don't worry about the judges. Your opponents are going to score your points from this point on. When he first revealed that to me I couldn't figure it out. He told me this in January, and the tournament was in July. It took me about 3 months to figure it out. And when I did, I shouted at the top of my lings to everybody, "I'm going to win the World Championship this year." They all thought I lost my mind. Then I began training like a beast, a regimen of 10,000 kicks a night. I would not go to sleep unless I had done at least 10,000 kicks. The concept of the judges not calling my points did not matter. What was revealed to me was this: I focused for the first 2 minutes of the match strictly on annihilating my opponent. Beating my opponent so bad that he would call my points because he wanted to get out of the lion's den. By being extremely quick and powerful with my kicks and punches while not allowing him to advance at all and get close to me, it was absolute and total domination and annihilation. That is how I ended up winning the World Championship in 1990. And I won 6 more after that for a total of 7 titles in a row and retired as the 7time USKA World Karate Champion.

MHOF: You took your talent and intensity to Mexico to participate and compete in the Goodwill Games. Tell us about that experience.

GEO: Well, the Goodwill Games were a lot of fun. I had retired after 7 USKA World Championship titles. I got a telephone call from Dr. Harold Mayle, who was very persistent. He kept saying, we haven't won the middleweight division in more than 10 years. We need you to come and represent our country. My response was, "How can I represent my country and Team USA? I didn't compete in any preliminaries, finals or whatever." And he said, "man, I just saw one of your tapes, and you don't have to go through any eliminations or anything. I want you to represent our country. I am sending you everything you will need, and I want to see you in Cancun, Mexico."

So, I went to Cancun. It was an awesome experience. I had never seen all the different countries come together, all with their flags. Competition was at its very, very best. Needless to say, I came out with 2 gold medals, one in fighting and the other in Kata. I was very excited.

I was given a special jacket that was voted upon by the members of Team USA who felt that I was the most outstanding competitor representing America. In addition to that, during the closing ceremony, when all the different countries came out with their flags, I was asked to represent America by bringing the flash on to the mighty torch. I would have to put that at the top of my list of memorable karate moments and experiences. Cancun, Mexico was very, very special to me.

MHOF: With all the successes you have had in life you have had many adversities also. Please share some of those with us and what you did to overcome them to rise above and be successful.

GEO: Well, my whole life has been controversial and a challenge. Perhaps my greatest challenge began after the massive devastation of Hurricane Katrina when I lost 37 karate schools, all my awards, trophies and other career memorabilia, 4 toy stores, and the close proximity of former students and friends. It was a most humbling experience. But, as I said earlier, having God in your life and letting Him lead you helps you to overcome. You know, because, if you think that you are "IT", then you are mistaken. I have always known that God has His hand on me and that I am one of His human instruments. For me, those successes come only when I put my faith in Him.

And I don't ask that my will be done; it is Thy will be done. When I walk through life in that manner the obstacles and adversities become a challenge. It became a challenge for me to get out of the projects. The projects for me were like a maze. I've never drank. I never smoked. I've never done drugs. I've never committed any crimes or broken any laws because all of those are obstacles. Nearly everybody in the neighborhood was doing it. But I saw it as a challenge and rose above it by becoming focused and having a goal.

If you don't have a goal, then get rid of anybody around you who doesn't have one. Because I can guarantee you, if they don't have a goal, then you surely won't have one either. I don't share, and I don't hang around people who aren't going anywhere. You have to surround yourself with winners if you want to become a winner. My thing was I didn't have winners around me so I created winners. Just like my karate school, everybody in my school was a champion. Mostly you have someone who is good, or 2 or 3 people who are good at a school. I bring 50 students to a tournament, and all 50 of my students are coming out winners. They dominate. That is my brand. My brand is like, win, win, win, no matter what, win. That is what we do. We win. That has been the brand of BLUE LION since 1986. And we continue that brand today.

MHOF: THE LEGEND OF LIONMAN and the 7 KURODOS are your creation and put you into yet another arena that you have succeeded in. How did the idea of LIONMAN come about, and what are your plans for the character?

GEO: THE LEGEND OF LIONMAN came about because every time I fight I roar like a lion. And in competition I wore lion outfits, lion gees, lion decorations, because I fought like a lion.

I was doing sleepovers, and I did them about 4 times a year. I did them at my karate school to keep kids off the street. New Orleans was like the crime capital of the world, and I had thousands of kids in my program. So around Halloween and other different holidays, for me to keep the kids off the street and keep them safe, I would have sleepovers.

I did not like to talk about myself a lot growing up because I had low selfesteem. You don't do that when you're in the hood. You know, I mean, that is not a good thing.

So, let's say I wanted to share with the kids during a sleepover what it was like in Guatemala when I won the International Championship. Rather than me saying to the kids that I won in Guatemala, was captain of the team, and talk about I did this, I did that, and I I I, I created this character called LIONMAN. That made it a lot easier for me to communicate and talk about myself and talk about the things I have accomplished without using the "I" word so much. So when I sat around and talked about this character called LIONMAN everybody got excited. None of the parents would leave. They would sit there and listen until 2 or 3 in the morning. And I'm looking around thinking, y'all supposed to be somewhere else, having dinner together or something. You have to embellish the story and add some fantasy. You must remember, I started out doing this thing as something for the kids. They would be intrigued, and the parents encouraged me to start writing all this down.

First I started taping my stories while training, and after I finished training I started writing them down. And before I knew it I had written 28 books. There are 4 series with 7 books in each series. My plans right now are to get all my books in digital content. They are going to be ready for the smart phones. And LIONMAN is going to be the super hero of the future.

We just hired the artist who did Batman for DC Comics. He is coming out with a whole brand new look for 2012. We're going to do some really unique and creative things. One of the things about LIONMAN is that he is the master of education. He's going to be unique and different from any super hero that you've ever seen before. We are already working with Japan. We're working with India. So LIONMAN is going to be an international super hero. We are really excited about the future of LIONMAN.

MHOF: Who are your idols in the martial arts world?

GEO: My idols as a kid are actually my idols right now. Jim Kelly is number one. Bruce Lee is number two. And Chuck Norris is number three.

There are a tremendous number of martial artists who I admire, but as far as being an idol, those are the three who I set my goals by to achieve. And those are the 3 gentlemen who I believe have done the most for martial arts. I admire Jackie Chan, Jet Lee. I also admire Billy Blanks. I admire Taimak and Michael Jai White, and there's Grandmaster Kareem Abdullah and many more. But when you say the word idol, I think the word idol is very powerful. An idol is someone who has succeeded and been consistent for years on in terms of who they are, what they believe in and what they have accomplished. Those three men have done a lot for the martial arts world, and 30 - 40 years later they're still in the top three when it comes to idols. So, Jim Kelly, Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris are Grand Master Eric O'Neal's idols.

MHOF: You are a great inspiration to many children and thousands of martial artists. What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

GEO: The advice I would give them is you have to have faith. Faith without work is dead. Whatever it is that you believe in, you have to ascribe to that, understanding that everybody's footprint is different and unique. So following behind me would not necessarily end with a good result unless that is already a part of and set in your footprint.

I want people to be the very best that they can be, and that is what I tell every one of my students. I have one student who is one of the youngest presidents of a bank in the country. One is a worldclass choreographer. Many are in law enforcement. Many are ministers. I can go on and on. My students are phenomenal. I am proud of each and every one of them.

I never shared with my students that I want them to be like me. What I want them to do is be the very best person that they can possibly be. And I want them to be a human instrument so that God can use them and be a blessing in what God has set forth for them to do. I am not setting a path or chart for someone to follow me. I am setting a path and chart for them to be the very best that they can possibly be.

MHOF: What can we expect from Grand Master Eric O'Neal, Sr. in the future?

GEO: I have always considered that to be whole there has to be body, mind and spirit. That is the essence of what martial arts is all about. And for me it is the pursuit of maintaining that and making sure that I complete my journey.

The first parts of my life as a young man were all physical. Body: becoming the very best that I could possibly be. I think I've accomplished that by setting goals and achieving them. So those things were accomplished.

Mind: as an accountant and computer programmer, marketing executive, real estate license, insurance license, executive for a couple of Fortune 500 companies, and exceeding at the highest levels of business by building one of the most successful martial arts schools in the world. 37 locations, over 30,000 students, and over 100 black belts show the mental side.

Now I am headed toward the spiritual side. And that is elevating the world to understand how powerful martial arts are. That's why I created THE LEGEND OF LIONMAN and the 7 Young American HEROES. To show people that martial arts are not just sports but actually a way of life. It brings people together of different nationalities from all over the world. When I was a young man growing up I met my first Asian person and became friends with the first Caucasian all at a karate tournament. And I did that while living in the housing projects. When my friends talked about people of other cultures I could not talk with them. I knew people of other cultures, and I did not feel the same way that they felt. I had an opportunity to engage with them, and they were my friends.

That experience allowed me to have my best friend, Attorney Jose Conseco, and another good friend, Gen Fukunagu, CEO and President of FUNimation Entertainment. So those experiences brightened my life. My next mission is to help transform the lives of others. I will be doing that through THE LEGEND OF LIONMAN~THE SEVEN KURODOS and THE LEGEND OF LIONMAN~7 Young American HEROES. My mission is to build this brand that I have that I believe will build multicultural relationships at a higher level in America so people can better understand each other and grow and make America a better and stronger place. My vision is to take LIONMAN not only throughout America but also throughout the world.

MHOF: How was your relationship with the Disney Martial Arts Festival?

GEO: My relationship with the Disney Martial Arts Festival was very powerful. We have been able to partner since 2009 and created something that was different and unique. And that is LIONMAN~7 Young American HEROES. Having the final competitions at Disney has been a tremendous experience for the kids. If you go to our website you will be able to see the 7 young kids showing their talents. Now we are in negotiations for our TV show for these kids as well, and we're working on getting them at the White House.

The Disney Martial Arts Festival also helped with my 20city tour throughout the country. We auditioned the best karate students in each city, and the top kids went to Anaheim, California, and competed to become the 7 Young American HEORES. We are now working on the competitions for 2011 and 2012.

MHOF: What is going on at the White House with "Let's Move" and the President's PALA Challenge?

GEO: I am fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to represent the United States of America as a national advocate for the President's Challenge program in support of First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative.

Right now we are planning for having

"THE LEGEND OF LIONMAN ~ PRESIDENTIAL 1,OOO,OOO KICK CHALLENGE"

across the country all at the same time after making a pledge in support of the President's PALA Challenge. We are focused on the Guinness Book of World Records, and we want to set this record. Kindly refer to our website, www.TheLegendOfLIONMAN.com, for more information. We want the entire martial arts community to be involved in this historic event. It is a blessing to be a partner with the President's Challenge Program and to support this Administration's efforts to improve the nation's health and physical fitness.

MHOF: Thank you Grandmaster O'Neal. It has been a pleasure!