The three golden rules to personal security
I tell my students that the three golden rules to personal security are think like a criminal, keep a low profile, and always have an escape route.
Think like a criminal: Put yourself in the criminal’s shoes and think how you would rob or kidnap yourself, how would you break into your home or hotel room.
Keep a low profile: Do not draw attention to yourself, consider what you wear and drive, and don’t be loud and rowdy. Don’t tell strangers too much about yourself - especially anything to do with your personal security. If you are trying to impress someone, use a cover story.
Always have an escape route: Make sure you know how and have the means to get out of your location to a safe area. Know how to get out of the hotel and have the means to get out of the city or the country and how to get to a safe location.
Use of force is a last resort and should be avoided at all costs - fighting is for amateurs. You want to do everything possible to identify and avoid any potentially hostile situations. Unlike the movies, street fights are not glamorous, and when guns are involved, people are going to be killed, maimed, or paralyzed. In reality, someone will be going to the hospital or the morgue, and in most places the others involved will be going to jail.
You need to have confidence in your ability to be able to handle hostile situations. Once you have identified that you are going to have to deal with a violent situation, you need to quickly work out your strategy and put into operation your counterattack.
There are three elements needed to win a confrontation: surprise, speed, and aggression. If you can combine two of these elements in your counter attack, there is a greater chance you’ll be successful.
Surprise: This is the main thing that you require. Surprise will give you the edge in all confrontations. If the criminals don’t expect you to attack them, they won’t be ready to defend themselves.
Speed: Your actions need to be fast and decisive, no hesitation!
Aggression: Aggression will always beat fancy techniques.
You must have an offensive mindset, not defensive. You should always keep a low profile, do whatever you can to avoid problems, but if put in a situation where you have to use force, the bad guys will be totally overwhelmed.
Remember, fighting is for amateurs — you just end the attack!
Keep your head down and keep the faith,
Reno
