How Perseverance Leads to Triumph | Greg Plitt’s Rules for Success in 10 Minutes

He loved fitness ever since his dad brought home a gym in the 6th grade. He's been an actor, spokesperson, and model for various commercials, brands, and causes. He's one of the most recognized and motivating people in the fitness industry. He's Greg Plitt, and here are his top 10 rules for success.

How you see it, whatever the truth is, your perception on how you see that truth outweighs it 10 to 1. So it's a motivation and why you're doing it, you know, it's in the journey of getting in shape. It's a long, long run, right? The person who's standing at the end with their hand raised isn't the person with all the genetics. It isn't the person with the most potential. It's the person that has the greatest perseverance, that's always willing to get up. The difference between a champion and a loser is that, you know, they both fail. It's that the loser allows the failure to stand for life. Where the champion, even though he gets knocked on his ass, finds the fortitude to stand back up, reface that endeavor until it becomes in his favor, until he wins. That's the difference. Champions get back up and do it again. And the difference between someone that's successful someone's a spectator here, is that a person that's successful, you know, they believe in themselves so much and their belief overrides any crowd's disbelief. You have to be a student of the game. You have to know what nutrition is, what supplementation is, why you're training. You can't be a blind squirrel trying to find the nut every day. Meaning you have to know what you're doing. In order for your body to change, it starts up top with the greatest muscle. Why you're doing what you're doing. If you're not a student of the game, then you don't understand the ins and the outs of each daily operation. Success has nothing to do with potential. It's all about the perseverance of somebody. That will override any endeavor. If you throw shit against the wall, eventually something will stick. You guys that have this potential, don't have this potential, you know, that shit dies. What continues to last forever is the perseverance to always show up. That's what champions do. Every single champion is the same as every ordinary person. The only differential is that they show up to the event every single day. They see failure as a learning curve. They welcome failure. You learn more from failure than you ever will from success. So showing up and getting knocked on your ass, finding the intestinal fortitude to stand back up and reattempt face that endeavor is gonna be the overriding factor that makes a difference. How do you know when you're doing those things? The small things in life add up to those big monumental things. When I say the small things, it's a character building block that your name means something. You hold value to your name. If you drop trash on the ground, you pick it up because that's your responsibility. You hold value to yourself. When you shake someone's hand, you look them in the eye, you give them a firm handshake because you're here for a purpose. Everything you do, you do to the best of your ability. It doesn't matter what you're doing, it's the fact that you're doing it, so therefore it means something to you. That's gonna build a legacy. 'Cause you know, the title out there doesn't mean shit. You win the title, fine. That title will not get you another title. What you're trying to build is legacy. You know, footprints behind you that are left for motivation for someone else to follow. Legacy is built daily through the character, through the willpower, the code of conduct within somebody. And that's the perseverance, showing up every single day. That will always achieve your goal. It doesn't matter what you're born with. It doesn't matter your potential, how much, you know, silver spoon or money you have. All of that can be attained if you show up and you're willing to to risk failure for success. I went through the life in the military and sports, and I always used the gym for some means. It was never about fitness modeling. I just had a passion for working out. Every time I hit struggles or I was stressed out, I always went to the gym to find solidity there and to work through any kind of stresses. So naturally I got in shape, but it wasn't for fitness modeling. It was for military and sports. And then later on down the road, an agent agency saw me and said, "Hey, you should take some pictures." I'm like, "I'll try it." And that's how this was born. But it wasn't the starting— I didn't start out set out for this. It just ended up coming through passion and the love of the gym. I could teach you whatever, you know, but when you go out there and you try it yourself and you fall flat on your face, that's where you learn it the most. Because the next time when you fall, you learn to catch yourself, and that's a lesson you never forget. So everyone wants to war game it, man. Everyone wants to sit back and what is— and before they start their journey, they want to plan it out and war game it and war game it. Just get going, man. Get going. You're learning along the way. And some people want to be a fitness model, so they're trying to figure out all the fitness model stuff to be a fitness model. But you just fall in love with the passion. I know a lot of people that started out to be a fitness model, but that wasn't their real passion. But they didn't know until they started it. And now they're like the photographer, the editor, or an actor coming up to LA that now is a great producer or director. You don't know what the field is. Just get going and figure it out, you know? And then the truth will surface. Action causes reaction. If you stand still in a sedative state, if you're a pond and it's sedative, what grows in there is algae and mosquitoes. No one wants that. But if you have a current, a fountain or something, it's like an oasis. People want to come and look at it. Your life has to be moving the same way. When you guys are sitting on the couch or wherever you're watching this, to take that first step towards greatness is very hard. That's the hardest step of everything, that first step, right? That first step towards greatness is hard. What's a lot harder is when time expires in life and you look back on your life knowing you could have been great. That's something you can't control anymore because time's run out. I had the greatest job in the world. It's a job where I get to put out what I do, what I love to do, and help to inspire people to do what they love and achieve things. I come to these expos and people wait 3 hours or even— or drive 10 hours or a plane, and they wait in these lines and they come to me and they say, thank you for everything you're doing. You've really saved my life. You're a huge motivation, a huge difference. And they don't understand how much that means to me. Because that's the greatest thing in life. That's the legacy that you actually do something to leave an impact towards others. And there's no greater honor than that. It's not until I come here and someone takes time out of their day that gives value to what I do. You know, they use it to transform themselves, to give belief in themselves, to change their life, to become the person they've always wanted to be. And they come, they share that, and they thank me for that. But the thing is, it's their sweat on their shirt, not mine. I just help them believe in themselves. And to have a small impact in a betterment of their life, man, it just humbles me so much. And so that's why I think I have the greatest job in the world because the return on investment is not a monetary value, but it's a value that builds legacy. It's not the dog in the fight that matters, it's the fight in the dog that matters. Same with you. It's not your genetics or your potential. How bad do you want it? Going to the gym, it's not about like checking the box, did, you know, paid my dues today. I go in there and I find it's self-discovery, you know. It's like there's something about that 8th rep when you can't do it, you know, of who you are. When you're pushing, you're trying to get it up, and do we just quit? Do we just rack it? Or do we rack it, drop the weight, and keep going for the burn? Or do we get someone to spot us? Who are we in that adversity? Do we push past it? Do we try to get more out of it or do we settle? Do we say words like good enough? And if you do say good enough, you're in trouble because you don't know if you have enough until later. So I always say if you never use terms like good enough, tomorrow you'll always have enough. So I like to leave it all there when I work out and that way no matter what happens later in life, I know it's not because of my shortcomings done today. You know, those 3 reps I could have done, Is that the difference of me being successful later? I don't know. That's why I do those 3 reps so I never have to wonder what if. How do we stay motivated, guys? One, get a partner. Champions come in pairs of two because they battle themselves into perfection. A partner is not only an asset to you on the physical side but also the mental side. Meaning, when you guys are coming home from work or something, or maybe the wife is just yelling at you too much and that's driving you into a migraine, or the kids are just, you know, it's just one of those days, you know, the boss is on your ass and you're just like, fuck, man, I just need to go to the bar or something, you know. Well, if you have a partner, your partner's gonna be calling you, hey, man, you ready to hit gym, you're like, dude, man, I just had a long day and everything else, I'm just not feeling it, man, I'm not going to the gym, you know. And so you let him down. Now we can all fool ourselves and bury the real truth inside of us of why we're not going, right, and kid ourselves for whatever reasons of these excuses that mean nothing, but we'll give them value, give them weight to make us not go so we can fail on our own account. But you gotta be a really low To fail on somebody that's relying on you. Very few people would do that. When you make a commitment, a verbal, written commitment to somebody, your word should mean something to them. When they call you up and say, "Hey, let's go," and you're like, "Dude, man, I'm not into it, man. I'm not into it." Wow, so you're not into it. Not only affects you, but also affects someone else's state. No. What's gonna happen is that guy's gonna pull you into the gym, drag your ass through the workout even though you didn't want to, and by expending that energy in a tired state, you're gonna come out of it with a sense of pride, relief, you know, newfound energy. Wow, man, that felt good. Now you can go back into your problems that you didn't want to go to the gym because they're overwhelming, and you can look at them differently. Now all of a sudden you're going to see the problems with solutions because your mind's in it. You're thinking smarter. You're thinking more of the glass half full instead of half empty, you know? And you're going to find remedies and solutions to those fucking problems. Makes for a better day. Combine that for a couple of them, good week, good month, good year. Also, a partner is really key because you're going to hit failure, right? The partner is going to have you do forced reps, 3-4 reps. This is going to push you past failure where you're going to feel that high, "Wow, I just fucking did it." You're going to feel that pump. You're going to feel alive. On top of that, you guys are going through the same workout routines, right? Now, Person A, let's say Joe, is going to go to Person B, John, and say, "Man, I'm not really feeling it, John. Are you feeling it?" John might be like, "Yeah, man. I'm totally feeling it." Joe will be like, "Wow. Well, John, do you know what I'm doing wrong?" "Yeah, I think you're doing it this way." "Let me try that." "Oh yeah, now I feel it." So you guys can push and pull off each other on what is working and what isn't working so you can find the mental strength. Or you're like, hey man, John, you know, hey, I'm really feeling this, but you know what, I'm not seeing the results as much. You know, what's your diet like? What are you doing? Well, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. And you guys start comparing each other, you know? And you guys start feeding off what is working and what isn't working because you guys are a team. Partners are essential, guys. If you don't have a partner, you really can't push yourself past your current limitations into those forced reps and failures. And drop sets and everything else to really get the most bang for the buck. Okay, partner. Must get a partner.

Thank you guys for watching. I made this video because Elias asked me to, so if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do for you.

Hi, I hate him.

Thank you for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.

Believe!