And it goes directly against conventional wisdom.
“If I would have known how ruthless & how much red tape is involved in business before I started, I’d have never started one.
My initial ignorance was precisely what fueled my growth.
The fact that I didn’t know what I didn’t know allowed me to sell out purley on my passion.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I look back and laugh at how ignorant I was.
I knew NOTHING about taxes, insurance, LLC’s, marketing, savings, nothing.
I was operating a gym in the basement of a home in an HOA’d subdivision.
And every day after school my entire street would be lined with cars.
Many of them, teenagers, with flowmaster exhaust kits on their trucks and cars.
How and why my neighbors put up with this is something I’ll forever be grateful for.
I’d train the hell out of my clients, collect cash or paper checks, and then every week or 2 I’d drive to the local bank, and insert my checks into the ATM.
I had no bank ledgers, savings plans, nothing.
I used to write my “client list” and “schedule” on a yellow legal pad and scribble it out when things would adjust.
I didn’t have a cancelation policy.
People stuck me for thousands of dollars.
I remember doing the math one time and had I collected on everything that would have been owed to me, I’d have been $100,000 wealthier in my early 20’s.
That’s being stuck for a lot of coin as a now “big kid”.
But I didn’t have contracts, stipulations, or policies.
All I had was passion.
Pure passion to love, serve, and share my gifts with others.
Despite being as disorganized as I was, the (infinite number of) limitations, not having a storefront, a business degree, or a marketing team..
I still made it work.
And the reason I believe I made it work was because I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
One could argue that had I been more organized I would have been more successful, but another argument could be made that had I known “all that went into it” I probably would have been paralyzed by analysis.
And knowing myself, especially at that age, the ladder argument would have been true for me.
While my story and advice goes against conventional wisdom, and now, believe it or not, owning a gym business consulting firm, I do encourage folks to utilize strategies to cut learning curves.
However, and I’ll believe this until the day I die, no business tip or strategy will ever be able to top unrelenting passion.
