Strength and Conditioning Programs: Trust vs. Self-Reliance
Written on April 28, 2011 at 7:58 am, by Eric Cressey
Back in graduate school, an opportunity arose to invest in an up-and-coming company. At the time, I was swamped with student loans and really didn’t have the $5,000 “buy-in” to spare. However, I’d always had the “entrepreneurial spirit,” and the company was recommended by a more experienced colleague I trusted (who’d also bought in), so I decided to take the plunge and devote a hefty chunk of my bartending (grad school evening job) income to the cause.
Almost a decade later, it’s been a tax deduction for me every April, as the company has lost money year after year. The lowlight came when the vice president walked off with $80,000 to waste on strippers and cocaine, as us unenthused investors were told. Apparently, when it comes to venture capital, there are “angel investors” and “poor grad students who accidentally fund guys who like boobs.” It didn’t take me long to figure out which category I was in (although I did take time to consider that $80K is a lot of $1 bills).
I’ve learned lessons from books, DVDs, seminars, training people from all walks of life, and lifting myself – but throwing $5K down the toilet when I really didn’t have it to spare actually ended up teaching me a valuable lesson: no matter who you trust, the only person you can really count on is yourself.
This can really be applied to just about any walk of life – from business (obviously) to personal development. Every decision you make in life is really a balance between trust and complete self-reliance.
When you hire an employee, it’s because you trust that he or she will do a good job with clients and customers at the level you expect. Otherwise, you’d have to extend hours and do everyone yourself…24/7/365.
When you go to church and put a few dollar bills in the collection plate, you trust that everyone who touches that money along the way will, in fact, ensure that it goes to the right place. Otherwise, you’d have to hand deliver your donation each week.
When you go to the doctor, you trust that he or she has been educated properly and is thorough enough to give you a diagnosis that might save your life. Otherwise, you have to get second opinions – or try to diagnose yourself.
Heck, even as you read this newsletter, you trust that I know my arse from my elbow (and in light of my stellar investment story from above, a lot of you are probably second-guessing yourselves already).
Catch my drift? Your life is really a series of dependencies on others, as much as you might hate to admit it. This applies to your strength and conditioning program in a big way.
When you go to the gym, you trust that the ownership of that facility has properly maintained that equipment so that it’s not going to break while you’re using it. Otherwise, you’d be checking out each piece of equipment meticulously between each set.
When you connect with a training partner, you trust that he or she is going to be as motivated as you and push you to be better. Otherwise, you’re lifting by yourself.
When you purchase a fitness product, you trust that the author has the experience necessary to create a program that’ll deliver the results you want in a safe and timely manner.
How do you ensure that your strength and conditioning program (or any aspect of your life) doesn’t end up as a series of failed dependencies on others?
1. Review the résumé of anyone you’re considering. When it comes to selecting people to work at our facility, the résumé is something that gets you a foot in the door – much like an academic transcript or SAT score might impact college admissions. At the end of the day, how you act during an interview and perform on the job is more important to me. For you, though, if you’re looking to purchase a fitness product, check on the background of who created it. Are they training people – or have they at least done so in the past? Or, are these hypothetical programs?
2. Look for a track record of success. This might seem synonymous with checking on a résumé, but it’s actually different. I’ve known people with tremendous on-paper accomplishments who couldn’t cut it in the real world because these achievements didn’t translate to a different realm, or because their previous success had made them complacent and apathetic. Sadly, I’ve also met people who have forged résumés altogether. Do your homework by seeking out testimonials and asking around – and that’s where #3 will come into play.
3. Surround yourself with as many positive – and insightful – people as possible. Your first impression is usually the correct one, but it never hurts to have additional perspectives from those around you. While there’s no way you can ever guarantee that all the advice you get is good, consistently reevaluating the relationships you keep can be really valuable – not only in terms of making sure that you have the best advice on hand, but also in determining if you need to get someone’s negativity out of your life. Not every friendship is going to work out, not every business dealing will be a good fit, and not every book/DVD will appeal to you. The more you can “hone in” your social circle, the better the decisions you’ll make – whether it’s in avoiding the extra slice of chocolate cake, deciding to go for the PR bench press on a day when you could have slacked off, or buying book “X” instead of DVD “Y.”
4. Look for a way out; there should always be a fall-back option. You can test-drive the care before you buy it. You can find a new training partner if things aren’t working out. You can always fire an employee if they aren’t the right fit. Many products have money-back guarantees.
5. Only delegate within your comfort zone. Learning to delegate was the absolute hardest thing for me when we opened Cressey Performance and I had co-owners and employees for the first time in my life. It took some time, but now I have people doing everything – billing, scheduling, taxes, maintenance, answering the phone – that doesn’t allow me to effectively leverage my strengths: assessments, program design, and coaching. Comfort in this regard doesn’t magically happen; it’s something that develops over time.
To bring this lesson to a close, look back at my botched investment and apply these five principles to it. I didn’t even know the president or vice president of the company, and therefore never checked their résumés (#1). They’d never run a business before and had no track record of success (#2). Rather than running my idea by multiple people, I went on the basis of one colleague – who was more of an acquaintance, anyway (#3). There was no fall-back option, so with this being my first investment opportunity, I would have been smarter to go with something more low-risk, such as investing in stocks/bonds rather than a brand new company (#4). I instantly delegated everything, and to people I didn’t even know! There was no easing into it (#5).
I deserved to lose my money; I was an idiot.
To take the guesswork out of your programming, check out my new program, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel , and Move Better. I promise, you can trust me – and there’s a money-back guarantee.
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April 28th, 2011 at 9:12 am
Eric, great read. I have a similar story when I bought into a MLM company and found it to be all smoke and mirrors once they had my $, I didn’t do any of the 5 principles and basically took the word of my friend so basically I did deserve to have my money taken. Lesson learned for sure, thanks for the post!
April 28th, 2011 at 9:13 am
Eric, great read. I have a similar story when I bought into a MLM company and found it to be all smoke and mirrors once they had my $, I didn\’t do any of the 5 principles and basically took the word of my friend so basically I did deserve to have my money taken. Lesson learned for sure, thanks for the post!
April 28th, 2011 at 9:22 am
Eric,
I agree completely. Show and Go is some of the best money I’ve ever spent I must say. This should count for 10 CEU’s as well. This is a great learning tool as well.
April 28th, 2011 at 9:47 am
Eric,
You sure know how to inspire your audience. Thank you for such a profound, yet very entertaining article. You and your staff have the ability to not only capture a broad range of fitness guru’s, but the way you disseminate the information in a user-friendly manner has really developed a lot of us into the successful coaches we are today.
Thank you for everything that you have done and I am looking forward to many more informative years of Cressey material.
Andrew
April 28th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Love the candor. And most of us have similar tales to tell unfortunately.
RS
April 28th, 2011 at 9:59 am
Damn Dude now you scared the holy s. out of me! I just got into business with guys I really don’t know! I know one of 5 and that one I don’t even know that well…hope it turns out better than your first 😉
April 28th, 2011 at 10:00 am
Damn Dude now you scared the holy s. out of me! I just got into business with guys I really don\’t know! I know one of 5 and that one I don\’t even know that well…hope it turns out better than your first 😉
April 28th, 2011 at 10:02 am
Very important post brother.
April 28th, 2011 at 10:02 am
Very good blog Eric. I have found that delegating and sharing tasks is pretty difficult for me. Building that trust and confidence level up to allow others to help seems to be a work in progress.
Thanks.
April 28th, 2011 at 10:27 am
Eric,
You sure know how to inspire your audience! Thank you for such a profound, yet very entertaining article. You and your staff have the ability to not only capture a broad range of fitness enthusiasts, but the way you disseminate the information in such a user-friendly manner has really developed a lot of us into the successful coaches we are today.
Again, thank you for all your diligent and passionate work and I am looking forward to many more informative year’s of Cressey material.
Andrew
April 28th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Great post, Eric.
April 28th, 2011 at 11:15 am
Great post! So much good common sense but then…common sense is not always so common. Gives me a lot to think about. Thanks for the great blog…I always look forward to reading.
-David
April 28th, 2011 at 11:53 am
Even “idiots” have a right not to be “robbed” or subjected to unscrupulous people. There is a difference between investing in the market and investing with Bernie Madoff one is a legitimate risk the other is a scam.
April 28th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Eric,
Very good read. I think many of us can relate in one way or another. Most of us (dependent on how long one has been in the industry) have been to the school of hard knocks. Much appreciation for letting us know that our mentors have experienced the same set-backs and adversities.
Keep up the good work, we all continue to benefit from your insight.
Jerry
April 28th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Eric,
I found myself in the same boat, when I invested in a company that was doing major research for Aids.
Like yourself, a very close friend invested in it and for that reason alone, I also invested in it.
Yes, it’s been a wonderful tax loss! OUCH! LOL!
And more importantly…a very critical lesson.
DO YOU RESEARCH and TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!
Thanks for sharing.
Arlene 🙂
April 28th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Coincidently I have always “trusted my GUT instinct”. There is about 600 billion live cells in our gut – and the one time someone else suggested I do something that I knew in my GUT didn’t feel right to me, and they worked very hard to convince me that
I should step outside “my box” and take a risk, well you can imagine the outcome, just as my gut instinct said NOT to DO it, I did it on the basis of someone else’s stupidity and listening to their manipulations to convince me otherwise. Go with your GUT – it knows. Duly noted, sir.
April 28th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Great read Eric.
True to anything in life.
April 28th, 2011 at 11:00 pm
“The best indicator of future performance is past behavior”…
April 30th, 2011 at 9:02 am
You are always posting useful information.
Thank You!
May 3rd, 2011 at 7:54 am
Very interesting post Eric, thanks!
August 13th, 2012 at 10:10 am
One company comes to mind…..Enron
August 13th, 2012 at 10:16 am
As the saying goes, “To thine own self be true, then thou canst be false to any man.” Works today as it has for thousands of years. Thanks for your intelligent posts, Eric. You are fantastic.
August 13th, 2012 at 10:59 am
I have only two criteria for when I pay a coach;
1) They were once a high level athlete, at the highest levels of their sport. Will score more points if they won some sort of championship or were on a winning team.
2) They have an immediate and obvious list of people who they have coached who have achieved a high level of success in sports. And not ‘success’ in exercise, in actually winning something, some sort of organized sport.
There are WAY too many people these days following their dreams ‘coaching’ people. I wont pay them. If you are a coach and do not meet the above criteria you will not get my money. There is frankly too much information out there to pay someone hundreds of dollars a month to teach you something everyone has free access to. Agreed a set of eyes is helpful, but not necessary. If you are rich and lazy, I guess paying someone to tell you how to exercise is ok.
August 13th, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Great advice once again Eric, this is the type of material that should be taught at high schools and university’s, better yet, passed down from father to son.
The older you are the more you’ll be able to appreciate and relate to the aforementioned points.
I’m only 20, but I found over time that as my goals and ambitions started to become more defined it brought me more clarity, purpose and focus to my life.
Furthermore, it has led me down those avenues which have enabled me to find role models and key figures in my life that I’ve learned a lot from. People who are going to help me get to where I want to be, not just in terms of goals and success, but also spiritually and mentally through solid relationships and guidance.
In the process it also really magnifies those negative people and forces in your life (that friend that never pays you back, the energy draining girlfriend, the shitty boss and co workers ect)which are preventing you from getting to where you want to be and are sucking the life out of you in addition.
Time and experience are often the best teachers.