Senior in high school. No internet. Never met a trainer who made money before.

Personal training was a fictional job. Something people in magazines or California had. That was my perception.

I was delusional enough to think that if I worked in the sawmill stacking lumber at Denoon’s, and then underground as a miner in the Cadiz Porthole, that the second picture was part of my future.

These pictures are 15 years apart.

I graduated high school in 1997, and that magazine — which was the highest-selling issue in Inside Fitness history — came out in 2012.

This was all based on training, diet, conditioning, and supplements… and no drugs.

The guy in pic one had the dream and was willing to work, believe, and persevere. I didn’t know if it was possible, but I was willing to give it everything I had. Because I’d already lived the life I was “supposed” to live, and it didn’t scare me.

If my dream didn’t work, I knew how to work a shovel and stack lumber. I could do it. And those jobs taught me how to work. I applied that same work ethic to my passion, and I’ve been dangerous ever since.

I stand on work and consistent behavior.