“Do the Right Thing,” A life story lesson from Jiu Jitsu Sensei Yaniv Rosenberg

This last Monday night, at YR Jiu-Jitsu, the dojo feels like a tide pool after a stormwarm air, soft light, bodies cooling on the mat.
Drills finished. Sparring done.
Breath replaces movement.

We sit around Sensei Yaniv Rosenberg
the way travelers gather around a small fire—
quiet, tired, open.

He looks at us, and in the stillness he says:

“Awesome training, guys!”

Everybody claps.

Sensei looked at us for a long moment. Then he said:

“It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing.
It’s never the right time to do the wrong thing.”

No technique.
No demonstration.
Just a story.

The Test

Years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma,
Sensei walked into a cold room at a bank—
the kind without cameras,
without witnesses.

Under a table,
a bag.
Inside: diamonds.
Thousands of dollars in stones.

He was broke then.
Desperate.
The kind of desperate that makes wrong things look reasonable.

He stepped outside, heart pounding.
He called his father.

“Dad, what do I do?”

A quiet answer:

“You already know.”

And the line went dead.

So he went back.
Handed the bag to the manager.
Asked him to write everything down.
Left empty-handed,
but not empty.

The Return

Two weeks later, his wallet disappeared into the hurricane wind.
Gone.

Until a brown envelope arrived—
wallet untouched,
cash untouched,
everything returned.

Months passed.

A call from the bank:

“We found the owner.
She wants to give you $2,000.”

He refused.

Because the moment of truth had already happened.
And truth doesn’t need a reward.

The Lesson

Sensei looks around the circle.

“Maybe it’s money.
Maybe it’s someone’s partner.
Maybe it’s a position that isn’t yours.
Whatever it is—
walk away from what doesn’t belong to you.”

He pauses.

“When you build that kind of character,
life notices.
Blessings find you.
Quietly.
Unexpectedly.”

The room is silent.
No one moves.

Jiu-Jitsu teaches technique,
but it also teaches this:

When pressure comes,
be unshakable.
When nobody is watching,
stand straight.

When choosing who you want to be—
choose the one who returns the diamonds.

Because in life,
as in Jiu-Jitsu,
the path is simple:

Do the right thing.