A Real Challenge Cannot Guarantee Success
Last modified 6 months, 1 week ago.
In July of 2025, I finally decided that working as a fitness professional was too volatile to pursue as a singular profession. Moreso, I wasn’t willing to make the ethical compromises that are common in the fitness industry in order to pad my income. Even if the clients didn’t mind wasting their time, energy, and money, I wasn’t interested in taking advantage of their ignorance.
In fitness, the customer is almost always wrong, at least, initially.
I hate to say that, because it’s hard to do so without sounding like a jerk. But it’s the truth to the best of my knowledge.
My most recent challenge had been giving it a go professionally in the Big Apple.
After visiting and spending a weekend interviewing, I took a dream job working as a personal trainer at a gym in Midtown Manhattan. I was excited as could be.
I really thought it could be the big break I had worked so hard for!
I gave away or sold most of my possessions in Florida, made a few hectic trips back and forth between Florida and New York, sold my car, because no one needs a car in New York City, and finally, after a stressful week of moving and travelling, I arrived.
The remaining details are a story for another day, but after a few months, the opportunity proved to be a chimera. It was a dead-end.
A few months later, I was exploring and reading Jon Krakauer’s work, especially Into Thin Air and Where Men Win Glory.
Krakauer’s thoughts on challenge and risk gave me a new perspective on my own journey. He stated that if a successful outcome is guaranteed, then is that truly a challenge? It might take hard work to produce a guaranteed outcome, but could that be as spiritually rich and held in the same esteem as a path with an uncertain fate?
When I went to NYC, I knew there was no guarantee.
A fellow employee even asked me, ‘What makes you think things might not work out?’
I replied, ‘You just never know.’
I’m not done, though. I am not defeated…
I am just on to the next challenge. I wouldn’t have it any other way.