It was my last day in London, Ohio. As I woke up that morning, many things came rushing back to me from my past. I remembered back in 2002 when I was wearing a security guard uniform working in a small guard shack of a closing factory. At that time I was TRYING to go to school and work 60 hours per week. I was also TRYING to get strong in the gym and in the sport of Strongman. I spent eight hours per day, five days per week, sitting and watching VHS tapes of a powerlifting crews training. There was one guy named Zippy I watched who really held my interest. I really had no idea who Dave Tate was back then, but I knew who Zippy was.
I thought through the next ten years where just an average guy like myself dreamed of meeting those guys on the VHS tape that I'd memorized so many times. I envisioned shaking their hands, sitting down and eating with them, and asking them all the secrets of strength that they possessed.
I also thought about the depth of the financial trouble that my family had gone through last year. Dave Tate had helped me through that. I remembered the struggle that I'd been through this year, financially, losing everything...for the second time. Dave Tate had helped me through that, too.
As I woke my son up and carried him down through the hotel lobby and out to the car, the reality of what I owed Dave Tate and elitefts™ began to hit me. I must say that I felt a little emotional from it all. I felt sad because it was my last day. I felt a little mixed because I really did not know what I could do for Dave or elitefts™ to pay them back for all that they had done. But what was to come, once again, threw me for a loop.
I pulled into elitefts™ and Dave met me out in The Compound. We sat at the desk for a meeting that was supposed to last only a few minutes. I recorded the entire conversation and we talked for more than three hours. Yeah, we discussed a couple of training principles in that time, but to be honest, the ONLY thing that Dave wanted to talk to me about was how to improve ME!!!! This man who has inspired me as a young lifter and had pulled me and my family up more than once, just wants to help ME, again?
The three hours that I spent talking with Dave gave me a lot of insight of who he really is as a person and what his belief system really is. As elitefts.com, Inc. puts out a lot of articles, videos, banners, and cool t-shirts with slogans on them like Strong(er)™, Prepare Perform Prevail™, Train™, and Driven™, Dave is always emailing me and talking about Live, Learn, and Pass On™.
It took about twenty minutes for Dave to demonstrate that I'm an idiot. He is MUCH smarter than people think he is, and showed me about a zillion things that has improved my business with clients almost immediately. For that, my clients, my family, and from myself...THANK YOU!
At some point in our meeting we discussed my goals with lifting and which direction it was progressing. We also discussed the injury factor of everything that I'm going to be doing over the next ten years. I mentioned that I was saving up for a SS Yoke Bar to buy and ship to Cyprus. I felt that if I could box squat with the SS Yoke Bar it would save my wrists, shoulders, and elbows, allowing me to be fresh when it came time to snatch and clean and jerk. Dave looked over to one of the monolifts and said, "OK, take that one with you." No joke.
The next couple of hours was me going through the warehouses like a kid in a candy store (yes, I picked up several packages of ammonia capsules for the flight home). Ms. Lori was SO very nice to me. I was pretty sure that she wanted to see how deep she could stab me with the Thera Cane at one point, but she stuck it out, especially when I mentioned adult beverages.
I then did some more interviews with Steve Colescott while Matt Goodwin was talking about all of the schools he had visited and how his clients had impacted his life over the time that he has been with elitefts™.
I made my way back out to the compound to do some photos with Jacob Bobo.
I got the car loaded up as much as humanly possible (probably not safe or legal) and made one last round through the offices to say goodbye to everyone.
I'll have to call Ms. Ronda much more often, just to check on her and her kids.
The seven-plus hour ride home that night/early morning was an exciting one. There was a lot of time spent just driving quietly and thinking as everyone else in the car slept. Most of all, I was a bit in amazement because in four days spent with Dave Tate and Zippy at The Compound and at elitefts™, I hadn't learned a single thing about training. I hadn't discovered any secrets about anything that I'd sought out after so MANY years. Nobody spoke of a bench press secret, a squat or bench press method that was special just to them, or a special diet for gaining or losing weigh. Instead, they taught me everything about what elitefts™ REALLY is about.
They taught me the meaning of Live, Learn, and Pass On™.
The two simple words of "Thank You" don't quite sum up what I want to say, yet I can't seem to say it in a ten-page letter, either. Somehow though, I don't think that anyone at elitefts™ needs to hear anything more than just that. They do what they do, not because it is what they do, but because IT IS WHO THEY ARE!
From the front door of the offices to the back wall of The Compound...Live, Learn, and Pass On™ is exactly WHO elitefts™ IS!
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