Category: MyBodyTutor

Literally just got this email that I was CC’ed on:

Hey Adam and Marissa,

Adam, thanks for the vacation wishes! Marissa, here’s Adam’s info. Adam, Marissa is my roommate and has a friend (Linda) who may be interested in working with you – I just wanted to give you the heads up. Marissa has been witness to my “life transformations” and is now talking you up as well. 🙂

I swear to God, no matter how big this company gets, emails like this NEVER, EVER get old. And if they do, I will stop doing this immediately because that means I have my head so far up my ass.

And just this past Monday I got this email:

Dear Adam,

I know I have been MIA lately. My apologies up front about that. Since starting your program I have learned to handle situations that come along day to day not only with food, but with simple everyday things that can take away from our motivation and add to our stress. I know I do and feel my best when I eat right and exercise to my heart’s content. However, a few weeks ago, you said something to me that changed my life.

“Don’t do things that make me feel bad. Or if something is making me feel bad, change it.”

At that point, I had been drowning for weeks. Going to the studio everyday and singing nonstop is what I love to do best but I had huge bills as a result of it and it was all piling up before me. Getting home late, not seeing my family. I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t feeling like I was making a difference. Not only in my own life, but more importantly in other people’s lives. It was time to change it.

I am about to ask you a favor. I know what I am capable of and I want to do for others what you have done for me. Being a Body Tutor would give me the greatest sense of pride because I feel that I can do it. I have reached so many personal milestones while on your program, I just wish I could help someone else do the same.

Again, emails and comments like this never, ever get old. In fact, I have every nice thing a client has said to me saved on my computer. Whenever, I need some inspiration I spend some time reading through them.

Changing lives and helping people is what it’s all about. This IS why I started this business.

I’ve talked a lot about making a difference and having meaning in my life. When I was working at E&Y, I just didn’t feel like I was making a difference or doing anything meaningful.

And it was killing me because I felt like a waste of space. I had ambition up to the sky, a ton of confidence in myself having started successful businesses in college yet not enough courage to quit my job because I was getting sucked into the system. Until I finally did. And it was the BEST thing I have ever done for myself!

I understand how writing blog posts like this might come across as arrogant. But you also have to understand my point of view.

I know what I offer works. There is not a question or doubt in my mind. (And that’s why I offer a 100% money back guarantee.)

I truly feel an internal pressure to help more people. I feel I have solved an enormous problem. And I want to offer my solution to as many people as possible.

The amazing thing is I have countless emails like this. To tell you the truth, as I’m working on my new website (I’ll tell you more about this next week and why it’s taking so long) one of the parts that is taking so long is organizing the testimonials. I have so many testimonials and emails like this that I feel are very important to share.

Again though, I am in business TO help people. TO help change people’s lives, TO get emails like this. That’s why I left E&Y.

Because when you feel good, you do good. And that’s what I help people do. I help people feel freaking amazing.

And that feels freaking amazing!

Does it involve making boat loads of money? Does it mean you’ll help millions of people change their life? Will you be famous? Are you considered successful once you have a helicopter and a Gulfstream Jet? Does it mean you’ll have ridiculously huge homes?

Or maybe it involves public service and giving back? Will you be very well respected in your field? Will people look up to you? Will you have a Ferrari 360 Modena and a few other gems in your garage? Maybe, just changing one life forever is good enough for you. Will your kids be proud to have you as a parent? Will you have every toy imaginable? Or does it mean you’ve truly made the world a better place?

What does success really mean to you?

My definition of success is to be truly, sincerely and deeply happy. But that means; I’m wildly successful NOW!?

So that means success has nothing to do with money and everything to do with happiness?! So wouldn’t that mean all you need to do is figure out ways to make yourself as happy as possible and to stop doing things that make you unhappy?

But what does happy and unhappy really mean? I think they are such overused terms these days.

For example, when I reflect back on my days of working in public accounting I say I was miserable. But I wasn’t really miserable. I just wasn’t excited. I also learned that how I made money was really important to me.

I want to do something meaningful and exciting.

But what’s meaningful to me, might not be fulfilling for you. If it’s meaningful to me then it’s going to automatically be exciting. Actually, changing people’s lives for the better is thrilling.

Excitement is the new happiness. And I believe that’s what we’re all really after…an exciting life.

At least, that’s what I’m after.

So there’s been a lot of talk on the blogosphere of a particular post written by Jason Calacanis. He wrote a great blog post about how to save money running a start up.

On the list he wrote, “Fire people who are not workaholics. Come on folks, this is startup life, it’s not a game. Don’t work at a startup if you’re not into it–go work at the post office or Starbucks if you want balance in your life.”

Then TechCrunch, wrote a blog post entitled, Calacanis fires people who have a life, which caused an unbelievable uproar.

Calacanis later renamed his post, Fire people who don’t love their work, which I couldn’t agree more with.

Here is what I believe:

I’m working. In fact, if I’m conscious, I’m working. That’s largely because it doesn’t seem like ‘work’.

If I’m doing this for fun (and I am) then I might as well be doing something remarkable/great/worth doing/worth talking about.

Otherwise, why bother? And if you’re going to join MyBodyTutor, why bother unless, you want to be part of a company that is doing something remarkable/great/worth doing?

Then TechCrunch editor and founder Michael Arrington, wrote a follow up post that I happen to love.

Arrington writes, “Startups that hire incorrectly fail. They don’t probably fail, or maybe fail. They just plain fail. You must hire the right people. In particular, the early employees must be perfect. This is more important than anything else, including the product or business idea.”

I couldn’t agree more!

Then he writes, “The most important part of hiring correctly is to not hire the wrong people. The second most important part of hiring correctly is to hire the right people. What that means is that it is better to not hire anyone at all if you can’t find the right person. And if your startup fails, all the perks, time off and general coddling isn’t all that useful.”

“So who are the right people and who are the wrong people? It’s not that hard to tell. The right people are the ones that really, really want to work with you. You can tell they’re excited to be a part of the team.”

“I’ll take the fired up warrior any day over the more experienced but otherwise meek alternative. Skills can be learned quickly on the job. But if you aren’t already the kind of person who’ll just get the job done no matter what, you’ll likely never be.

Warning signs to look out for during an interview: people who care about status symbols like titles, people who resent the success of others, people who act like they’re doing you a favor by talking to you. And people who want to negotiate salary endlessly but couldn’t care less about the stock options.”

Again, this is all so true. I want you to be thrilled to be a part of the MyBodyTutor team. I want you to be so excited you can hardly contain yourself. And I really, truly, mean that. This isn’t a game. It’s my life. (And yours too!) I’m not looking to build another me-too company. I have a vested interest in seeing my company succeed and so will you.

I have spent countless hours and dollars on my company. Hours I can’t get back. Hours I could’ve been building something else. But I chose to do this. I want to build something worth building. Something that will go down in business books.

Continue reading “To all fellow entrepreneurs, people who want to work at a start-up and my current/future employees you MUST read this!!!”