I remember when I decided to make a go at personal training.

I didn’t have any certification, but trained task force guys at a local gym where I was training myself.

A man approached me when I was working out and asked what I was doing.

He said he noticed how I trained myself and liked the way I worked.

Over the past few months, as he saw me in the gym, he eventually got up to asking me if he could train with me.

As I got to know him, I found out he was on the police force, not a regular cop, but on the emergency task force unit. He really liked the results he was getting, and his friends and coworkers where taking notice and started asking him about his training and what he was doing in the gym.

He proposed that I start training a couple of his colleagues from the force as well, and the rest is history.

The men from the task-force worked hard, and they were aggressive, which dovetailed right into my personality.

This is when I got into personal training seriously. I walked into a LA Fitness and asked to apply for a personal training position.

The guy, and I will never forget this bald fucker, asked: “What type of certification do you have?”

I said: “What? Come again? I don’t have any certification.”

I didn’t even know these things existed at the time. I told him that I currently trained some elite task force agents. With a fucking smirk on his face, he said: “You must have a certification to do personal training at LA Fitness, and the certification must be one of high standard! Not some cheap meathead course, we only hire high-level trainers here.”

Dude, what don’t you understand? I train some of the baddest men on the planet!

Looking back some twenty years, I should have thanked him, because that encounter lit a fire inside me that burned like a raging inferno.

I had to be the best personal trainer, and dominate this profession, so that one day I could shove my many certifications up this guy’s ass!

So I need to thank him for lighting that fire that keeps my studying like a maniac, striving to better myself, and looking at my craft and this industry with a critical eye.

Now I’m in a position to make a small difference in the lives of the people I touch.

And I am forever grateful for that.

I studied my ass off and I still study my ass off to this everyday.

The moral of this story is: use roadblocks as a way to dig deep and smash through them.

Believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to achieve or fail.

Fuck average!

I wish I could see that fucker today so I could shake his hand with a smile. Maybe he’s looking for a job 🙂