I opened a gym in 2011 and I definitely wasn’t ready for it...

I was a good personal trainer, very good actually.

I also knew a lot of business theory and had run my own self employed business for 10 years at this stage.

It was a start, it wasn’t a good one, it was all I had.

I was terrified by the larger numbers in the business and it took many years to realise that adding a couple of zeros to everything changes very little about the game.

In particular it makes very little difference to the profit at the end of the month.

Small numbers in small numbers out, big numbers in big numbers out same left over.

It’s the gap that you’re trying to stretch.

Then I had to move from compelling a small number of people to come to a place to compelling a large number.

That meant learning a whole load of stuff about human motivations that I just didn’t know.

In fact one of my first moves was to try and make my railway arch look like a commercial gym. This was not a wise move.

It turns out that something closer to “preaching to the choir” was far more effective.

Then I had to learn how to GET people (employees) to do stuff. That is SO hard and I really did suck at it.

In the end it comes back to total honesty I think but most importantly with yourself. That and understanding that people want to be of value.

There is a whole load of soul searching that needs to go into the paying people’s wages thing, or at least there was for me.

Most importantly though, if I hadn’t have done that stuff I would never know the things I know now...

And that isn’t to say I know a lot, far from it, but I know more than I did because I’ve done more than I had.

I do remember knowing the theory and on reflection it’s hard to say but I think I would lean towards it begin a hinderance rather than a help.

You end up wasting so much time trying to prove it right (although not realising that’s what you’re doing) that you end up making the PEOPLE wrong.

And it’s THIS issue we are seeing so much of at the moment.

We think we are capable of greater levels of thinking than most of us are.

I know maybe TWO people that are capable of seeing all angles without living it and the chances are that neither of them are you.

They certainly aren’t me.

It’s why I coach, I don’t know the best next step to solve your complex human problems, and how arrogant is that of someone to assume they do?

The great thing is that all we have to do to move past preaching is ask questions and the humility of that alone just floors people.

Like, I’ve never done that, how does that work?

What does that feel like?

What challenges came up that you didn’t expect?

Then if we must preach perhaps it could be, something closer to, when I did THIS I learn this, but I have no idea if that’s all there is to learn about it because I don’t know what I already knew or what I don’t yet know.

What I’ve learned is that I am way less informed about EVERYTHING than I once thought I was.

I mean, look at the list of hypocrites and people being proved wrong, Churchill, Galileo, Freud, Zimbardo, Milgram, the list is endless. Good luck living up to those guys.

All we are capable of doing is figuring out the best next step and that step is almost certainly wrong in some way, you’ll definitely face judgment for it but the alternative is death.

We crucify everyone that puts their best foot forward but those that don’t die never having done anything, or anything but sit in judgment.

And sitting in judgment IS the easy way but it’s by far the most painful.

Remember that when you’re in the arena bleeding, the judges are suffering far more, they are hitting themselves far harder each time they jab at you.

That’s worth remembering I think.

Do and be judged but have the best possible life for you, or sit in judgment and suffer