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*Disclaimer, out of respect and at the request of the person involved they have asked for reasons of privacy to have their name reduced to only initials. It is extremely important that everyone reading this respect that wish, and help them remain anonymous through any comments or reposting of this story. Thank you, enjoy!

Day 2 Fearlessnes
Warm summer sun, fresh cut grass, sitting on a football field that was literally carved into the side of a mountain at 6300 ft. elevation. Sitting butts on the ground legs out, stretching our muscles in anticipation of what drills the coaches were going to run that day, and who was going to deliver the biggest hit during drills. Six or seven oversized high school kids stretching out sitting in a circle waiting for practice to start as we laughed, told jokes, lies and bullshitted about the day’s event of school. Those were some of my first memories of meeting BC for the first time. But the real story goes back just a little bit further than that. But only by a few weeks.

    I had just moved to South lake Tahoe in the summer between my sophomore and junior year. I was pretty broken up about the move coming into the summer. After living in a place my whole life, having known and grown up with everyone I went school with, and in the beginning of developing my athletic reputation, and having all that lost moving into a new town, a new geography and complete new set of people. I wasn’t thrilled to say the least. And for those of you who thought high school in general was cliquey, a football team can be much worse to break into. Sure, once you’re in your in. and through the hardships, pain and sometimes punishment, most of the guys grow in a cohesive unit, but you always have the one or two guys that just never quite fit it and seem excluded from the rest. I had never had that problem before, but I had heard of the Vikings, and the championships they had won, and I knew for sure they played some of the toughest teams in the state of Nevada. I was tough kid, and moved to varsity early in my last school, but, was I tough enough to play real ball with these guys? I don’t care who you are, as a 15-16 yr. old kid you think about these things, you haven’t been on earth long enough to develop a full sense of self confidence and most of the time it comes off as bravado anyways.
At the begging of each summer camp it’s customary to start off strength and conditioning training with max weight tests. Core lifts like bench, squat, power clean, etc. The big heavy power lifting actives. It not only tracks your progress through the year but lets the coach know who’s been slacking off during summer break. As we are all dong our things in the weight room trying to impress each other and most importantly the coaches, in comes BC, or the tales of BC to be more accurate, lol. As I’m going through tests and working in with guys getting acquainted for the first time, and for all intents and purposes also sizing these guys up, paying attention to who’s lifting what, to see where I stand with this new group, I over hear chatting and random stories about him, BC. You see, he wasn’t at camp quite yet. This kid was at the junior Olympics for weightlifting right now! Uh, what was that you just said?

“Oh yeah, a guy on the team went away for the summer to compete in the junior Olympics for weight lifting. See, he’s right here on the wall!”
The wall was a plaque with the school’s highest records for various lifts, and his name was high up at the top.

“yeah man, BC’s crazy strong, He did some other competitions and did so good, he got invited to some competition hosted by Arnold Schwarchenegger, and is on the US Jr Olympic team!”

“wow, that’s pretty bad ass! What position does he play?”

“D line and nose tackle!”

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck……. That’s the position I play!

BC finally came back from his competition, and for the life of me can’t remember how he did, sorry dude. But what I remember most wat that I was expecting a giant behemoth of a man child to walk through the door. But what I saw instead was a kid, maybe an inch or so shorter than me, with curly hair almost in a small white boy ‘fro, and a huge smile followed up by this thunderously contagious laugh that always comes from way down deep in his gut. And legs! This dude’s leg was the size of tree trunks, no joke.  But the most amazing thing was that as big as his accolades were and a humungous as I expected his physical stature to be his Joyful exuberant personality was far and away the largest thing in the room.

    I can’t remember exactly when we started hanging out, it just sort of happened, a lot like most of my friendships I guess. But I always remember the two of us headed up the mountains to fishing watching him ask me for a dip and willingly take a chew from my can of Copenhagen only to watch him every time make a face that made him grimace like he was eating shit. Hahahaha still makes me laugh every time.  Me playing my favorite country cd’s for him and then him introducing me to and playing all his favorite Stevie Wonder songs. Castle in the Sky was always his favorite, I never forget it, and can’t to this day listen to Stevie without thinking of him.
I didn’t recognize it as kid but BC has an old soul. I mean who other than an old soul jammed out to Stevie Wonder and James Taylor at 16 in the 90’s!

Later that year, our junior year, he became one of the very few RIDE OR DIE brothers a person will ever be lucky enough to have in life. I had gotten myself mixed up into a pretty bad gang fight against a large number of guys, while standing up for a fellow friend and teammate. This fight was so intense it literally had a half time, which ironically was the school bell. To give you the shortened version (the full story will have to be in a later blog post), the school bell rang and we all just kind of stopped fighting, half from the exhaustion, but also half from the now hundred or so students standing around watching this mess unfold, there were now about 3 of us, my friends and I, fighting no less than 15 people! This is no bullshit! It startled the crap out of me to see how many of them there where when I finally looked around.  I walked into a classroom to grab a piece of paper to stuff up my bloodied nose from where I had been kicked in the face while on top of another guy. Only to come right back out to find one of the kids holding a wooden 2x4 like a baseball bat. Another friend of mine to stepped in to help save my ass from the lopsided numbers was standing in front of him egging him on to swing. At that Moment…. I see BC walking through the crowd on his way to class talking to a girl, when he realizes what’s happening, looks at us, looks at the kid, and in one fail swoop without ANY hesitation, drops his back pack, sprints in from the side and lights this kid up!!!!! He Delivered a form tackle that would make Bill Romanowski, and water boy jealous!!! Hands wrapped up around his knees, full de-cleater, with a pile driving shoulder to follow through. The fight resumed after that and it’s safe to say without the details we won that battle. And although a lot of bad came out of that scenario for me in particular. I ultimately got expelled that year and arrested with assault and battery.


I will never forget BC putting his future, and his safety into harm’s way for me.

Into adulthood we both settled down or at the very least calmed down a touch from our much younger testosterone filled youthful selves. And started attending college and working into adult life. BC eventually found his way into a school for Chinese medicine and acupuncture, (which you will read about later in his own words) and began coming home with these amazing healing techniques and skills. Practicing on me and our friends occasionally, I always loved when someone new or a non-believer would become interested enough to get on his table in interest, and of course they always came out of the room amazed that it worked, it always worked! To which he would reply, “Well of course it works, this form of healing has been practiced for thousands of years for reason.”  

After finishing schooling, he worked as an acupuncturist out of a chiropractors’ office for felt like a week before going out on his own! I’m sure it was closer to a year or just after that long but definitely not what seemed like long enough to take the plunge into business ownership, all while carrying student loans and other debts.
He called me on the phone one day super excited, his naturally loud boisterous voice booming through my phone speaker.

“Hey B, I’m gunna do it man I just got back from the bank!”
“gunna do what?”
“I’m starting my own clinic, I went to the bank got a loan while my credit is still good consolidate everything under it and am starting my own practice!!!” I’m not 100 percent sure how I going to pay all this money back just yet but I know I can make it work!!! How cool is this?!”

Truth is we all thought he was a little bit crazy taking such a huge risk so early, but he acted like he knew something we didn’t, and never showed much stress at all when talking about it. He started small, made money and then found another office, the one he is still in today, again the same story.

“Hey B! I just signed the lease to a new building, you gotta come check it out! it’s pretty expensive, really its more than I can afford, but I’ll make it work!”
“Are you sure man? What if it doesn’t work?”
“I don’t think about that, I just know that I have too, and at this point I’m locked in, so what choice do I have!”

Well he quickly grew into this new building, and even more quickly became the areas most recognized acupuncturists and Chinese medical clinics. Proud doesn’t even begin to describe the word.

Now married, with a kid another phone call,

“Hey B, !!!! Dude guess what?! I’m buying a house?!” his trademark loud guttural laugh! “this place is Amazing! The wife and and I just fell in love with it and had to have it.”

“What?!! No way man that’s epic! Congrats!”

“Yeah, thanks, it was just really a place we see ourselves growing old in, plus it’s got a separate guest room when you, or my parents, or who ever come to town to stay in! it’s prefect!” I don’t know how I am going to afford the mortgage on this place, but we has to do it!”


Again…. Same old BC. “I don’t know how, but I know I will attitude”
He is now one of the, if not THE leading acupuncturist’s in the valley, is currently running two offices seeing patients, and just told me last week he’s planning on expanding to a 3rd office by the begging of next year.

What most people don’t know, and not sure if BC himself is aware of this, but he, more than any person is the reason I am in business for myself today. I definitely was not ready financially, and definitely wasn’t a business man. But he proved to me that there’s never a perfect time to jump, you just jump. Gravity will take over the rest. And when faced with the ground rushing faster and faster towards you, if you want it badly enough you’ll find a way to land on your feet.


I have always admired his sense of confidence, so un apologetic for being truly great and masterful and something or for being himself. But he always presents it to the world in the humblest of ways. Which is one the main reasons he made this list of 30. I know that as your grow older the years and time seem to speed up, but BC seemed to gain the knowledge of this ancient art of healing so quickly and so completely, in no time at all, and it was amazing how well it fit him, in every aspect of his personality. The confidence to make a patient feel relaxed, the patience to work through their problems, the empathy to feel and identify the pain and discomfort they feel. It’s a very surreal moment in life when you walk into a waiting room to find your childhood friend being praised and thanked so overwhelmingly by someone he has helped. It makes you realize that your friend is much bigger in the world than just as your friend, just BC. And makes you feel slightly selfish for trying to keep him that box. To many people, he’s a savoir, a relief from constant pain, a light of hope when other avenues of medicine have failed to help them. It’s very humbling in the best kind of ways to see that first hand. It makes you realize that no matter our stature in life, how famous, how rich, how powerful, there will always been the great equalizer of pain. We all hurt the same, and experience the same fears of the unknown when we are hurt and don’t know how to fix it, and in times of great pain it can cripple us to a small child reaching for help. And it’s a very, very, cool sight to witness one of your friends owning the compassion, and skill set to remedy these people. And it really makes me feel truly blessed to call him BROTHER. He is so much more than a friend anymore, and will never be a friend again. He’s family, he’s blood.

BC you sir, are the embodiment of self-confidence, fearlessness, and fortitude! I Salute you my friend, may we have many more years together!
I love you Brother!


12 Questions with BC:




Hey B, here is the answers to the questions you are seeking.  Thanks for thinking of me, I am happy to hear your appreciation of our friendship, I appreciate your kind words and glad to have been a positive influence in your life.  We are brought to together for so many reasons in life and I have always been proud to have called you my friend.





  1.  Please provide a brief history of yourself, where you were born/grew up. Or anything else relevant to your unique path that will help people understand where you came from.
I was born in Sacramento, California on July 26th 1980 at 1150 am.  My mom used to say, "Just in time for Lunch and you never stopped eating” We had a family of 4, mom, dad, sister and myself.  I was fortunate to grow up in a family with no divorce, which I never realized until much older that it was beginning to be a rarity.  My parents raised us well, not with riches and material things (as we were a very modest lower middle class family) but with lots love, tough love, structure and discipline.  They sent us to private catholic school which I never new how much of sacrifice that was for them.  They were very set on showing us the importance of school and education despite being parents who never went to college.  My dad was a self-employed wall paper man, and my mom was a stay home mother until she began working at our school as the secretary when i was in 2nd grade.  My parents took in my Grandma for the last several years of her life, she passed when I was in 4th grade.  I was thankful for having that experience, not only for another parental figure, but for us to experience the importance of family, the elderly, and a little taste of the old ways of life when families stayed close together and helped take care of one another.  She died on Mother’s Day which is a bit ironic because my Grandfather who I never met, died on Father’s Day when my mother was 16 years of age. When I was young I had my first eye surgery at the age of 4, and ended up having several more throughout my childhood.  (I was born cross eyed).  I played all the standard sports but also studied martial arts which I believe was a big influence for me later in life as I eventually became a Chinese medical doctor.

When I was beginning middle school my family and I relocated to south lake Tahoe which was a big deal at the time, not only transitioning from a catholic private school to public school, but facing the adversity of change losing and leaving home behind to create a new one.  it was difficult at first but as with all things as time went on I developed friendships and a general liking for my new home and town.  Growing up in Tahoe especially looking back now was great. very different from the big city, the small-town life really allowed for a closeness with friends that many have been with me until this very day.


  1. WHAT LED YOU TO CHOOSE THE CAREER/LIFE THAT YOU LEAD TODAY?
I touched upon this with the previous question.  I was beginning my college career and searching for something to study and choose as a carrier. I was in Oregon at the time playing some small-town college football and experiencing life independently for the first time. As much as I enjoyed health and fitness through the lens of an athlete I knew there would come a time that I would be done with sports and done with the traditional view of health (work outs and constant diets). At the time a Doctor named Andrew Wiel was writing alternative health books and becoming really popular nationally.  I read one of his books, "8 weeks to optimal health" where he spoke very highly of Chinese medicine and acupuncture. at the time, the internet was just becoming popular (back with dial up internet connection, almost seems archaic now). I did a web search and discovered there was colleges that specialized in it.  At that point I stayed focus on completing the school prerequisites to enroll and at 21,( the youngest acceptable age) I was off to become a Chinese doctor.  in hind sight my martial art influence at a young age as well as my uncle introducing me to mediation set a foundation for me to value and appreciate the Chinese cultural arts.


  1. WHAT MATTERS MOST TO YOU, WHAT WOULD YOU FIGHT FOR WITH YOUR LAST DYING BREATH?
At this stage of my life I am focused on three major things. first is my relationship with my teachers and learning and cultivating myself through his family lineage, mastery and oral transmitted teachings. Secondly is my wife and son and showing them the best life I can. Lastly my career, as both acupuncturist and a business owner.

  1. GROWTH OFTEN COMES FROM PAIN, WHAT PAINFULL SITUATION ARE YOU NOW MOST GRATEFUL FOR? OR – WAS THERE A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE LEADING YOU TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW
Difficult to pin point just one.  The hard work, dedication, accountability that I learned through my parents at young age.  the adversity of being picked on and teased do to being born with crossed eyes through childhood, moving and relocating, having different love interests and relationships that I was able to learn and grow from, and lastly, even having experienced a level of sexual abuse that kept me guarded and closed for many years until I was able to face it head on accept it for what it was and how it helped shape me.


  1. WHAT DRIVES YOU OUT OF BED EACH DAY? WHAT REALLY MOTIVATES YOU TO DO WHAT YOU DO?
Initially just the idea of being successful and having a career that is fulfilling, rewarding and I could make a good comfortable living. Now it’s almost easier in a way because I have a family that I need to support and care for.  And lastly but not the least by any means is the discovery of self and striving to allow my true self to be express and realized which largely comes for the influence of my teacher and spiritual practice.


  1. FEAR CAN BE AN EQUALLY GOOD MOTIVATOR, IS THERE ANYTHING IN LIFE YOU ARE CONSTANTLY WORKING AWAY FROM? (I personally strive and work to keep myself away from mediocrity and the fear of blending in with the masses)
I don't carry much fear, at least I don’t think so or maybe willing to admit. but the emotions I try to avoid and stay clear of is self-abuse, self-destruction, and perhaps a lack of self-love.  I think these things are themes I have carried with me for many years, dating back to childhood.  But with the guidance of my teacher and spiritual focus on bettering myself and life these strong feelings have been chipped away and are not the powerful over whelming emotions I once lived with.


  1. IN THE QUITE MOMENTS ALONE, WHERE DOES YOUR HEAD/HEART GO? WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF IN YOUR PURSUIT?
Who am I, what and why am I here in this body, in this time and with the people I am around. what does it mean, if anything at all and will I ever truly see me or accept me for who I truly am.


  1. IF TOMORROW WAS YOUR LAST DAY, WHAT WOULD YOUR LASTING LEGACY BE, WHAT DO YOU HOPE IT TO BE? DO YOU HAVE ONE RIGHT NOW?
Still too young to have a legacy, nor do I really think of striving for one, however if or when I am ready to die. I hope my son will acknowledge me as a good father and my wife loves me just as much when we first met, now and when we are old and ready to let go of this life.


  1. WHO IN YOUR LIFE HAS HAD THE GREATEST IMPACT?
There have been many people who have touched my life along the way, parent’s teachers, coaches etc. but now my teacher for sure. I have been a student for 6 years now, and my life has improved and changed in so many beautiful ways. it’s hard to explain to most but it’s an experience that perhaps I have had before or at least have been seeking for quite some time. Crazy, but maybe even lifetimes!

  1. WHAT ARE YOUR CORE VALUES? EVERYDAY LIFE IS TOUGH, AND WE’RE CONSTANTLY FACED WITH DECISIONS. WHAT FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS GUDE YOU?
That's a tough one I suppose just because it can be answered many different ways and one could right pages upon pages of this proud topic.  I guess I will say this.  my teacher recently gave a lecture to us students during our Chinese New Year celebration. 1). to accept that my life is impermanent and that each moment is precious and our time here on earth is limited so enjoy it. 2) accept there is only one thing in life that we can control and that is ourselves and how we choose to accept our suffering and respond to how life unfolds for us rather than controlling and going against life or the Way of Life, and 3) to be able to accept that when things go wrong or things are not how we want them to be or someone or something is harming or making our lives difficult that we can look inwardly and accept the responsibility of our own doing in cause the circumstance we so eagerly want to push away and blame others or quickly justify with delusional excuses.


  1. LASTLY, IS THERE ANYTHING LEFY ON YOUR LIST OF TO DO’S? WHAT IS THE BIGGEST ONE YOU NEED TO ACCOMPLISH? WHATS LONG TERM FOR YOU?
I don't have a bucket list per-say. my life is two focused on the basics things of family career etc. I just hope one day to still be a student of my teacher and to have allowed myself the ability to simply follow, trust, and be ok with no control. I hope I can retire young with a good amount of money to be comfortable. I hope I can sit back one a day and truly appreciate the simplicity and beauty that life has offer us. I also would like to see my son successful and help be a grandparent one day.  I Know it’s not flashy, but to be content with eating, sleeping and shitting.


  1. USE THIS SPACE TO PROMOTE ANYTHING YOU ARE INVOLVED WITH, SUCH AS CHARATIES AND ORGANIZATIONS. OR ANYTHING YOU FEEL WENT UNASKED YOU NEED TO GET OFF YOUR CHEST
Not sure, But just as I begin to speak, as the questions unfolded. I have to give credit for my life and my happiness to my teachers.  They are incredible, I know it’s not common in the west or even in modern times to fallow a teacher and lineage, but I without hesitation can say without them my life would not be same. it would be full of way more suffering and I would not be as healthy and happy as I am right now answering questions and living a simple basic honest life.

Hopefully this is helpful to you and others, Hopefully I was able to meet the expectations of your vision in creating this idea.

Let’s talk soon buddy

 
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