The Book
Listen. Observe. Value. Encourage.
L.O.V.E.
Lessons From a Lifetime of Strength, Faith, and Purpose
by Greg Dillon
Before the black belts, the tournaments, and the travel, there was a small boy in an old barn in southern Indiana, paying attention.
In L.O.V.E., tenth-degree black belt Greg Dillon looks back on seventy years of life and fifty-five years in martial arts to share the four principles that shaped everything he became: Listen. Observe. Value. Encourage.
From a farm community between a cornfield and a coal mine, to a wooden YMCA handball room, to competition floors and seminars around the world, Greg shows how the smallest person in the room can stand the tallest, why a black belt is a beginning and not an end, and how the greatest fights of our lives rarely involve punches and kicks.
Honest, warm, and full of hard-won wisdom, L.O.V.E. is for martial artists, parents, coaches, teachers, and anyone who has ever been underestimated. It is a book about building a stance strong enough to hold you steady when life pushes.
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Table of contents
Eight chapters
Three chapters of a life, four chapters for four words, and one chapter about the greatest fight of all.
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Growing up in Otwell, Indiana, where farm work, family, and a book fair karate book laid the foundation for a lifetime.
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A YMCA handball room, Master Tanaka, Earl Heacock, Randy Beard, and the nine-year road to a first-degree black belt.
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"He's a Dillon from Otwell. He's tougher than a pine knot." Why size is a fact, not a limitation.
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A father who taught through choices, a grandmaster who changed how he saw technique, and the discipline of truly hearing people.
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Lessons from the tournament floor, the classroom, and years as a medical first responder.
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A graduation night conversation that lasted fifty years, and why every person deserves respect regardless of rank.
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"Don't give up today. Wait till tomorrow to quit." How real encouragement meets people where they are.
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Not a tournament, but a family's long journey alongside Greg's bonus son Nate, and the gift of a stranger's generosity.
Who this book is for
For anyone who has ever been underestimated
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Martial artists and instructors
For anyone who has tied a belt and wondered what the rank really means, and for every teacher who knows the person matters more than the system.
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Parents and coaches
For the adults whose one sincere sentence, delivered at the right time, a young person may carry for fifty years.
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Young people told they are too small
Being small was a fact. It did not have to become a limitation. For anyone who has been underestimated.
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Families walking through illness
For anyone walking beside someone they love through a long, hard season, where the strongest thing you can do is remain present.
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People of faith looking for purpose
For readers who want to look back and see the connections that were invisible at the time, and listen for guidance in what comes next.