Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Wilson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Backstory:
I was born and raised in Westfield, New Jersey, where I lived, attended school, and was a Boy Scout until I turned 18 and entered the United States Air Force in 1987 as a Computer Programmer.

I was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi from 1988-1994. In 1992, I sustained a near-fatal motorcycle accident in Ocean Springs while on my way home on Fat Tuesday.

I spent the next 10 years rehabilitating from that devastating injury. I met his wife Tricia, now a School Psychologist for the Pascagoula/Gautier school system, in 1995, and we were married in December of that year.

In 1999, I began studying Traditional Japanese Jujutsu in Laurel, MS under Archie Foster. I attended class there for a year until my wife took a job in Baton Rouge, where we moved to and lived for 13 years, raising our three children David II, Grace and Gabriel. I started studying jujutsu again in 2002 under Robert Carver, a former Marine, and continued studying there the rest of the time we lived in Louisiana.

We moved to Vancleave in 2013 after my wife’s parents’ ill health and advancing age made it clear that they needed her nearby. I began teaching jujutsu at local venues that would allow me to teach students without having to charge them for lessons. My instructor never charged students for classes, and I wanted to continue the practice to honor his memory.

I taught for two years at Gulf Coast Judo, then for a year behind Bodyquest Gym in Gautier, and finally for a year next to maCnarB’s gaming store, before I ran out of places that would let me use their space. I was forced to move my classes to his yard (in November), then when that didn’t work out, I renovated my garage and used that for the next year.

During that time, we finally sold our house in Baton Rouge after 4 years carrying two mortgages, and my wife suggested that they use some of their 3.3 acres and build a building that would serve as the forever home for their dojo.

And this was my big risk: spending my entire life savings ($150,000) to build a home for my hobby.

It didn’t start out that big of a gamble. The original estimate was that it would cost about $35,000 (pre-COVID costs) to build a 40×60 stick-frame building. I knew a contractor who told me that, while I could not afford him to build my dojo, he employed people who were in corrections (paroled offenders) and recovery, and they would be knowledgeable enough to build such a structure AND willing to work for $10/hour cash, which was the only way it could be done for that price.

So, we began construction in February 2019. When I say that every single facet of the project went disastrously wrong, I am not indulging in hyperbole. The ground proved too wet to support a building, so the 10” of red dirt we planned (and could afford) turned into 3’ of dirt. We were forced to engineer and build a French Drain system around the building site to pull the water out of the soil, and dig a drainage ditch that spanned the entire length of the property for the water to drain into.

I could not afford a professional crew to pour and work the slab after all the money we spent on dirt work, so my workers did it for me, and they severely messed it up. There were deep cracks and ridges in the concrete, they did not place the anchor bolts properly to hold down the walls (so they had to be removed and replaced), and the slab itself was not level (8” difference in height from the tallest to the shortest portion).

When it came time for the framing to begin, they messed that up, too. They placed the studs on opposite sides of the X, top and bottom, so each stud was leaning 1.5” to the side and had to be hammered back into place with a sledgehammer. They framed in the windows and doors to the exact dimensions instead of leaving ¼” gap, so they were too tight to open and close properly. They built the headers hollow and they needed to be replaced.

Nightmare fuel.

And it was around this time that the neighborhood decided to fight me for permission to teach my martial arts program out of my own property. It would take even longer to tell that tale, but it went from them giving me overt permission before I started construction to showing up en masse at the Zoning Committee and Supervisor’s Board meetings to try and get them to deny me permission.

During that process, I met with our County Supervisor (Randy Bosarge at the time), and he convinced me that establishing a 501(c)(3) nonprofit would be the best way to secure the support of community businesses and locate grants to allow us to perform our philanthropic service of offering free jujutsu lessons to those who could desperately stand to benefit from it: disabled veterans (like us), special needs kids and adults, and Law Enforcement Officers.

We’ve been a 501(c)(3) now for the past 5 years, and the grants never materialized. Up until February of 2025, we were offering completely free lessons to everyone, with donations gratefully accepted, but this year it became painfully obvious that this was not a workable business model.

We partnered with AmSpirit and CoCard to offer credit card processing, and that allowed us the freedom to begin charging a pittance ($60/month) for classes, which is about 1/3-1/5th of the cost of other commercial schools in the area, and we offer two tiers of scholarship program to anyone that requests: ½ price and completely free (with donations). This gives us a “program” that we can offer to local businesses to support us and our students, by allowing them the opportunity to set up monthly autodraft out of their business account (credit or debit). It not only helps support us, it gives them a tax deduction at the end of the year, AND serves as a marketing advantage as we place their business card in our monthly newsletter.

It’s pretty much worked out better than I could possibly have imagined. We have a gorgeous building that’s perfect to train in, and gives us the venue to offer other services like our free monthly Movie Night (now on its 30th iteration) and exercise equipment that our students and others such as disabled veterans can take advantage of for their own physical fitness and well-being. Since Feb 1st we’ve added about 10 businesses which are participating in our scholarship program, which is about 1/6 what we would need to be completely solvent but it’s a step in the right direction. And although our adult class waxes and wanes and could always use more students, our kids’ class right now serves 12-14 youth who would never be able to afford martial arts classes otherwise. We’ve seen some incredible success stories among them, from ones on the spectrum who were barely verbal when they came to us, to those with ADHD who have learned to focus and listen to instruction.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I covered most of this in the backstory, but here goes:

We teach Traditional Japanese Jujutsu and also offer other services to the community, such as our Free Monthly Movie Night, access to our Oculus 3, exercise equipment/massage chair, and Veteran Services such as free assistance with VA disability claims.

We’re the only official 501(c)(3) nonprofit jujutsu class on the MS Gulf Coast, and most likely the only one within 100 miles or more.

Traditional Jujutsu is amazing for building physical and mental resiliency, and is especially useful for helping those with anxiety disorders/PTSD as it gives an atavistic outlet for frustration and despair in a supportive setting. We even formed a DBA called “Grappling with PTSD” to support those with anxiety disorders who may be looking for an alternative/adjunct treatment modality to conventional therapy.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My entire jujutsu/dojo journey has been a study in resilience.

When I began learning, my body was still horribly broken from my life-threatening accident. I couldn’t walk without a cane, and every movement and motion was agonizing. I was also nearly 300 lbs.

Just learning jujutsu was painful, frustrating, and difficult.

I’ll put it in a way that I feel illustrates the struggle properly:

When I started learning jujutsu in Baton Rouge, I was attending classes 3x a week (Mon, Wed, Fri). I discovered that my leg was so painful when training that often that I could not physically walk on the days in between. So I started skipping the Wednesday class, but it was killing me so much that they were in there learning something that I could not that I decided at 33 years old to have my knee replaced so that I could attend classes 3x a week.

Meanwhile, I now have students that don’t bother to come if they are sore from last class.

The struggle is real.

Combine that with the incredible misery I endured to get the building built and permission to teach out of it, and it all forged me into the resilient person that I am today.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start?

I had some money set aside from when my parents passed away. I luckily invested it in AMD when the stock dropped to $2.80/share, and had built it into around $35,000 after a couple of years of playing around with it.

We also had a kitchen/bathroom insurance claim that allowed me to set aside some of the money that we got for our kitchen being nonfunctional during that year of construction.

Lastly, I draw Social Security disability, and that allowed me some breathing room to pay for things like mats, and insurance, and other costs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.msjujutsu.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heiwashinkai/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeiwashinkaiMS

Image Credits

All pictures were taken by me, or I am the only one visible in the picture. All my students have signed waivers including a media release.