Disclaimer: This article presents my personal opinion. While you may disagree, that’s okay.

I don’t need everyone to agree with me.

“ Harden the f up”

Before you begin reading this monologue just know this is my personal take on this subject matter and you may not agree with it, which is entirely fine by me. I don’t need to be everyone’s buddy.

When you are an apprentice at a restaurant, what are you expected to do?
I can answer that for you, from the bottom.

I was there, carrying trays of dishes bussing around clearing tables, trucking them into the dishwashing area, and washing their dishes one by one, rinse and repeat for months with no end in sight, a busboy.

After you pass that creed you may get promoted to be a waiter or bartender assistant, memorizing hundreds of ingredients, menu composition, polishing glass after glass and pushing that wine sales until you are deemed worthy to step up to a lead waiter or head bartender.

To sidestep all that and go straight to a head chef position? Pipe dreams sunshine ☀️

I came from a generation of hard work, grit, and humble beginnings. Both of my parents worked several jobs to keep things afloat in the household, sometimes that means dad would take a job overseas and we don’t get to see him for long periods of time.

As immigrants, we are accustomed to surviving in harsh conditions.

Race was a factor, and language was a barrier, but none of that mattered because we understood the necessities of this journey.

I can clearly recite all the racial slurs we received as kids growing up in this lovely land and sum.

Most of the time I take it on the chin ( sometimes literally) and keep moving forward. This continued life lesson taught me that I need to work twice as hard just to prove that I’m capable and clear any lingering doubts or stereotypes.

But it’s never enough, and it can get mighty exhausting.

Once in a while when you do get somewhere decent they will harangue you with something else, label you an outcast, and force you to play high school cliques, the cooler kids rule.

These days, the cool kids want a trophy regardless, participation trophy, best hairdo trophy, and nice butt trophy. Give me a break.

When I started personal training, we picked up the phone and made 100 calls per night to complete strangers, traveled all around town grafting potential new clients, and perambulating the entire neighborhood scouting for businesses.

The entire original SPARTA BOOTCAMP crew was made up of 100% of strangers we proselytized on the street! No referrals, slick Facebook ads, just plain old-school hustle and a little bit of charm.

I’m still up for a hustle anytime, anywhere.

Aspiring fitness professionals, do you honestly have what it takes to be successful in any industry?

Are you willing to sacrifice paid hours for seemly “ a waste of time” to learn from veterans who take you under their wing, showing you the path forward but asking you to start from the bottom?

Or, do you think any of the menial, start-up work is beneath you

That just because you studied this or that in an academic establishment, you are above the natural order of a business.

You don’t want to start as a busboy?

And when things get a little hard, you want the world to know you are hurt, mamma will take care of you, it’s easier to get into a canon ball position and weep on the side of your bed.

Because all things will get easier just by sobbing loudly.

You can even cry to your academic institutions, who will sympathize with you as you confide.

Because the institutions are businesses, and your custom matters to them.

“ How you do anything is how you do everything.”
I’m a firm believer in that, if you are a coach, the first thing I want to see is how you work out, particularly, how you respond to my workouts.

My mission is to facilitate positive changes through daily mental and physical challenges.

If you are unwilling to be put through the paces and prepare for the changes, how can you facilitate changes in others?

If you cheat through your reps or time, how can you inculcate your philosophy onto others?

If you skip doing the basics, how can we trust you with anything else?

A lot of people like to loosely throw around the word “integrity”, for me, integrity is about living a life that you are bound to live.

To not mince your words and live through your true self, to understand that your word is bond, and when you say that you will do something, you follow through to the end, that is integrity.

To flake, ostracise, to place blame on others whilst hiding behind fictitious facades is anything but integral.

All this yarn may seem old school and antiquated for some, even perhaps offensive for the sensitive types in this new era.

I’m just speaking my truth, you don’t need to agree with it, I’m no politician, and like I said, I don’t need to be everyone’s buddy.

DJ
逸仁

SPARTANs live here