I was fifteen years old the first time I set foot in a real gym. The weight room intimidated me. The cardio room confused me. And the washrooms disturbed me. I had no plan to follow, no Personal Trainer to teach me, and no idea as to what the hell I was doing. I did however have a goal. And that goal was to transform my physique from a scrawny teenage boy, into musclebound meathead.
Little did I know at the time as to how much time, effort and energy it would take on my part in order to achieve the physique of my dreams. And trust me when I tell you that I had no clue that bodybuilding would be the stepping stone to an unexpected 20+ year long career in the Fitness Industry.
Bodybuilding Saved My Life
I’ve spoken many times in the past about how exercising and lifting weights regularly help steer me back in the right direction when my life was headed down a very dangerous and disruptive path. But rarely if ever have I given Bodybuilding the credit it deserves for providing me with the self discipline, motivation and notorious work ethic needed in order to achieve all of my goals in life.
When it came to starting my business, I used all the same principles that I learned in bodybuilding in order to help my business succeed. I knew that working for myself was something that I really wanted to do and I knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy road to travel. However at the time, I was as dedicated to developing my business as I had been to developing my physique. I was fully committed to the process and was willing to do anything and everything in order to take my Personal Training Business up to the next level.
Building a Machine Mentality
Look, let’s be honest here. There are plenty of reasons as to why 20% of small businesses fail within their first year of business. By the end of their fifth year, roughly 50% have faltered. And after 10 years, only roughly a third of these businesses have survived.
Our business on the other hand has survived a Financial Crisis, a Recession and now a Pandemic. I would be lying if I didn’t say that some of this was due to just dumb luck. However I would also be lying if I didn’t say that most of this was due to hard work.
Each and every time I have been faced with a challenge with my business, I’ve always retracted back to the lessons that I learned in Bodybuilding. And one of those lessons was to never give up regardless of how difficult things become. I never allowed myself to quit when I was well over $200,000 in debt a few years ago. And I never even thought about changing careers when my business slowed down a bit during the last recession. As for COVID-19, rather then looking for someone or something to blame for our enormous loss in revenue, I looked for ways in which we as a company could move forward by reinventing both ourselves and our mission statement.
This Machine Mentality that I developed was essential in order to continue to move forward and find solutions to problems calmly and rationally as they arose.
Bodybuilder Turned Businessman
I never had the genetics to become a top level competitive bodybuilder. Nor did I have the desire to take the amount of drugs and supplements needed in order to one day potentially become a Professional Bodybuilder. I was a decent amateur bodybuilder, with average genetics, who placed well at a few local shows. I knew my strengths, but more importantly, I knew my weaknesses. And even though, I continue to eat, sleep and train like a bodybuilder to this day, my competition days are long over.
These days I find myself more passionate than ever when it comes to building our brand and building our business. I still like to exercise and stay in shape however I no longer have any desire to develop the so-called “Perfect Physique”. I also find myself training my clients as if they themselves were bodybuilders. No, I don’t train them to compete on stage (well some of them I do). But I do train them just as I used to train myself when I was getting ready for a competition. I incorporate high volume, heavy lifting, and maximum intensity into each and every training session that I provide. I teach my clients how to eat correctly so that they can perform optimally in the gym and improve their overall fitness and quality of life.
I train my clients as if they were bodybuilders because my clients want to better their health and transform their physiques for the better. And bodybuilding, in my opinion, is and always will be the key to achieving both.
I honestly believe that if you’re not passionate about achieving your goals, then you will never truly achieve them. Sure you might achieve some form of success in life. However if you truly want to become successful at anything, I believe you have to fully commit yourself to the process it takes in order to achieve that level of success.
Yours in Good Health,
Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance