One of my businesses was called Viking 101

In some ways a huge failure, in others my greatest success. At it's beginning it was about simplicity and skill mastery. 

I had some questions that I wanted answer to. 

I'd spent so many years in the traditional gym system I needed to test all of the assumptions that are hidden within the model. 

Was accountability really necessary for habit building and physique change? 

Was reps, sets, load, important or could that be trumped by skill learning and fun? 

Most importantly, could you define a set of values around a business and have people embody those to the extent that they take ownership over their own results? 

I had an empty warehouse with viking memorabilia all over the walls due to Warhammer being played there on weekends. 

Combine that with having a Danish wife and calling it viking101 made sense. 

I pulled together all of the old school equipment that had been used for thousands of years. Ropes, kettlebells, Indian clubs, rusty old dumbbells, planks of wood, balls. 

I then started to define what viking101 was all about. 

No posers, no egos, no complainers viking is for the misfits who want results. 

Vikings deny themselves nothing, if they want to drink they drink, if they want something to eat they eat it. But they know they'll only have energy for the game if they eat quality protein and vegetables at every meal. It's up to them, how do they want to feel? 

Vikings find their physical weaknesses and work on those first. 

I marketed from these, I programmed from this, I provided a simple nutrition programme system based around this concept. 

I had recently had a second child and taken on a couple of staff at my other gym and in hindsight it was a daft time to set up a second premises but the warehouse was being provided by a client for a price I would never get again. 

I recruited a friend Dean Kelly to run the programme with me. He was a beginner in this type of training but the very embodiment of the values I wanted viking to have. 

I once saw him attacked by two bouncers twice his size for reasons that still aren't clear today. 

He gently incapacitated them both lying them carefully on the floor unable to move as if he was putting two already sleeping children to bed and didn't want to wake them. 

He was humble and 100% ego free with a love of fitness and the people that wished to better themselves that I haven't see before. 

I say was because Dean sadly lost his battle with cancer earlier this year. To be mentioned at his funeral was both unexpected and one of the greatest honours of my life so far. 

Together we took on a group of 20 misfits in all and we and they genuinely loved it. 

The results we saw though were staggering. 

We had no rules, just the 3 principles. 

After a month we realised. People were actually competing with themselves. Beating their own efforts, beating their own attendance records and even becoming more confident people. 

It was a month before I asked anyone about their nutrition. I was amazed at the answers, they had just taken the principles and put them into their own lives in a way that worked for them. 

In the absence of rules and accountability people think for themselves and unless it's life or death people always prefer to think for themselves even if they don't know it. 

After 6 months I realised the £5,000 set up cost was going up. I bought in Luke to help run the place too but I wasn't putting the time into marketing that it really needed. 

10k down I decided that at the end of the year I would close. The announcement shocked the Vikings and amazingly they fought to keep it going. 

In truth I didn't want to give it the time and money that would be needed to help it grow. I was enjoying evenings with my family for the first time in 3 years and didn't want to give it up. 

The things the members overcame or put up with in order to keep it going taught me a lot about what people will do for something they believe in and how much people care when you create something authentic. 

Most importantly I learned that we can achieve extraordinary things when we define what's important to us and that wealth is all about relationships, if we lead with relationships we can build a life we love. 

For all that stuff that stands in our way, love is the answer. Not in an esoteric way but in a ruthlessly practical way. 

Like, what things do you love to do and what would you love to create and how do you love to feel and who do you love to be around? 

There are always ingredients of course. Fitness needs movements principles, diets require food principles, businesses require a value exchange.

But ultimately, love is both why you do it and how you do it. The more clear you are on what that means to you the more fun you'll have on the way. 

There is never any guarantee of success so there's only one decision to make if you ask me. 

Would I rather fail at something I loved doing or would I rather fail at something I hated doing. 

Seems like a daft question but it's amazing how many times we choose a journey we hate. 

Just my thoughts, could be wrong 

Ed Ley