Mike Rashid's Top 10 Rules For Success

It sounds corny and cliché, but there's always sunshine after the rain. You know what I'm saying? Rain don't last that long.

You gotta know that, be aware of that. Life is a game. Life is a chess match. You gotta go into it confidently. You can't be timid all the time. Anything you put in your subconscious mind, it becomes a reality. So I tell myself constantly, this is easy, this is easy, no matter what the task is.

He's the CEO and the founder of a supplements company. He's a former professional boxer. He's the author of the Overtraining series of ebooks. He's Mike Rashid, and here's my take on his top 10 rules of success. Rule number 1 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. And as always, guys, as you're watching the videos, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. Also, as you are writing something down, it's much more likely to stick in your head too. Enjoy.

There's different types of people in this world, and one thing that we're all going to deal with is like difficulties in our tasks trying to become successful. As good as things get, you gotta have the same amount of bad that's going to try to impede your progress, whether it be people, whether it be the IRS, whether it be whatever. Something will rear its ugly head and try to block you. Now, a lot of people can't handle that shit. When you have a vision and something or someone throws a curveball, it hurts. It stings, right? It's like your baby, and now I can't put my baby out there like I want to do it.

So it really throws people off.

They get really negative. They may get depressed. They may want to stop. They may want to just go back to their 9-to-5. That's fine. It's not for everybody to push through. But for those who can push through, like he said, the difference between those who really succeed and those who don't are the ones who, when they're faced with whatever these difficulties are, they're like, I'm gonna keep pushing through. I'm gonna keep pushing through because it sounds corny and cliché, but it's always sunshine after the rain. You know what I'm saying? Rain don't last that long.

You got to know that, be aware of that.

That's something you can take with you through everything in life. But In business, you cannot stop because things are not going right at the time, because it's going to happen.

I've dealt with it.

I'm sure I'll deal with it again at some point.

So anyway, I always made sure I was the best, in the best shape. When people were in the gym, they saw how serious I was with my clients. They also saw how hard I was training on my own. So it was not hard for me to get clients. Now, when I decided to leave the gym and go independent, This was already a goal of mine. I've written out all of my goals. Writing goals are very important, is very important. I wrote my goals out and I think it was like 10 of them. And then a year later, maybe 2 years later, I went back to that book and I swear to you, everything I've written out, I hit it without even thinking about it. Something powerful about writing your goals. As a trainer, I worked my ass off. I had the worst hours starting out, 5 in the morning, you know, and I closed the gym. It's funny that I'm I'm thinking about this now because the end of my training career, I had the same hours and I was a successful trainer at the end. But anyway, I have a break in the middle of the day, but I'm working the worst, all the hours trying to generate business. So when I did, I established a very solid clientele base, a core group of people, a lot of them, and I was very, very, very dedicated to them. You know, I would get, you know, you know, all you need is one certification. I got 3. You know what I mean? Always trying to better myself, just reading, studying, and I'll always trying to be the example as well, making sure I'll never have somebody come in my gym that's in better shape than me. That was my mindset. When I expand, and this is anything in my life, I always have a lot. When you see me, you see a lot of people. I always have a lot of responsibility, and I've always had a lot of responsibility. I'm not comfortable without a lot of responsibility. Some people, it spreads them thin, but I, I just grow more. There's more of me now, you know what I mean? So I'm trying to take on more things, tackle more things. I'm strong enough to do it, you know, in every sense of the word. And I truly believe— I just know it is what it is, you know? And my mentality is like, I have a 'I don't lose' mentality. And that's what anything— that's not just like, say, a sporting event or whatever. That's just life, right? Because life is non-stop tests, you know what I mean? And we're always being put to the test. There's always challenges, obstacles, etc. And I literally don't accept any of that as an impediment, as a negative. It's like, good, this is going to make me stronger. I'm going to learn something from this. You don't have no life, especially when you're a successful personal trainer. You know, it's hard to take a vacation because you take a break, you don't train anybody for that week. That's a week further that you're going to get paid. It's just a, you know, any trainers out there, y'all know what I'm talking about. But it is a good job. It is very rewarding. You do learn a lot of leadership skills. And you got to take it serious though. But it was very nerve-wracking, very scary to step out and try to do things on my own. But you know what? It was the best business decision that I ever made. And I'm glad I did it. You know, I'm a risk taker. You got to be willing to take those risks. You got to bet it all on yourself. And believe in yourself, and you'll be all right. And listen, y'all, you, you like, when you take that risk, when you step out there and step away from that safe 9 to 5, you have to— and I didn't rely on nobody, family, friends, nobody. I just had me. You have to survive. You have to make it. You in deep water, you either drown or you swim. It's up to you. I was living fast for a while, man. Like, I've always been a very I always had a lot of force behind everything I do. I was always successful with whatever I did. So I had a period—

Were you adventurous, kind of?

Well, I was never scared to take risks.

Right, right.

So I had a period when I was taking the wrong kind of risks, you know? And my lifestyle—

What do you think kind of led to that? Like, just kind of hanging around the wrong dudes, the wrong people?

You know what?

It's just my— just being stupid, man. Just like—

Like being young and just—

Being young and stupid. Thinking you're crazy. I was raised in a really good family. My father's a very intelligent person. Like, I refer to his quotes and wisdom all the time. So I was raised, I was raised well. But I just got to a point, man, yeah, I guess the people who was around me, I had a bunch of parasites and leeches around me and, you know, I liked it for whatever weird reason. You know what I'm saying? And I went through it.

Yeah, some people are attracted to that kind of thing.

Yeah, so, but I learned my lesson and I corrected my ways. I had to go through a lot. Like being homeless type shit, you know what I mean? And almost losing my freedom and you know, I went through a lot and I kept my head up, I persevered. I didn't lay down to my problems. I handled them, I faced it and came out just so much better. I got so much to give people now because I did go through it.

Well, a lot of it makes sense now that I'm hearing you saying it 'cause the way that you talk is kind of stern and straight to the point. And so it's like, wow, the guy kind of speaks powerfully. But it's because you've been through it.

Yeah, exactly.

You dug yourself up. You grabbed yourself by the bootstraps and were able to persevere.

I got taken to deep waters and swam back. I've had other people in deep waters. I swam out there and brought them back numerous times. So I've been through a lot. And I feel like that makes me so fucking strong. I got to a point, it was like a crossroads where I was like, lay down and die and be a loser. And my kids look at me in disgust, or do something with my life. So I did something with my life. So I wrote out a plan. This is something that people, that you gotta, you gotta do, you gotta take serious. There's a saying, I don't know who said it, but it's, I heard it from Nas. It says, people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. So basically everything is a process, right? So if you or I won a million dollars, we can go get a million dollars is no different than making a sandwich. You hungry, you make a sandwich.

What do you do?

Get up, you walk to the kitchen, get your bread out, you go through a process. It's the same thing with, uh, becoming successful and whatever you want to do. So, or whatever your goal is, you figure out what that process is, you do your research, you ask people, and then you make a plan, you write it out. Confident people get a lot further in life than people that are not confident. It is what it is, because a confident person will step out on his own faith and try to do things outside of the norm. You know, a confident person will take chances that a non-confident person won't. You know, I'm not saying be arrogant. I'm not saying be an asshole, none of that, because I don't like people like that, you know. But being confident, there's nothing wrong with that. You know, I got a sports background, most of y'all do too, you know. I used to box. I'm gonna go in the ring confident as fuck to let this guy know that I'm trying to knock his head off, you know what I'm saying? I want him to know or think in his mind that I know for a fact that I'm gonna knock his head off, you know what I mean? That little mental intimidation is gonna go a long way in that particular fight, in that boxing match, you know? And that's life. Life is a game. Life is a chess match. You gotta go into it confidently. You can't be timid all the time. Time, you know. I'm not saying just leap out of the frying pan into the fire in every situation. You got to be smart and calculative. However, if you don't have that confidence, you know, it's some wolves out there. They'll tear you apart. It's dog eat dog sometimes, you know. And people, just like animals, humans can smell fear. They can see a timid person. A lot of people don't want to go into business with a timid person. A lot of people can't trust a timid person. A lot of people don't want a timid person to have their back. They don't want to be a team with that person. I lift, I lift pretty much 5 days a week. I lift probably about, my sessions, sometimes it could be 30 minutes, sometimes it's 90 minutes. So it just, it varies. And also guys, you know, I've been lifting since I was a young guy. Like I started, I think I started actually lifting weights when I was 12 years old. We had those concrete weights with the plastic, that covers it and, you know, the sun kind of cracks the plastic and every time you do a curl, a chunk of cement falls out so the weight's imbalanced. One thing I can say about my lifting regimen is I am very consistent. I can't think of a time in my life that I haven't been training. And that's— every group of friends I've ever had, I'm the ringleader when it comes to training. Like, everybody's training 'cause I'm around. So I've been lifting forever. I'm thinking about making the hardest thing look easy. So if you ever around me when I train, a lot of times I'm psyching myself up. I'm like, this is easy, this is fucking easy, this is a fucking warm-up, give me more weight. I say that to myself and I believe it, you know. Anything you put in your subconscious mind, it becomes a reality. So I tell myself constantly, this is easy, this is easy, no matter what the task is. Now, you take that, it's bigger than the gym, okay? This is a direct parallel to life, to everyday situations, whether it be work, school, relationships, facing a conflict, okay? When you consciously put yourself through a difficult task, say like a really difficult workout in the gym, when it's, when it's something positive for you, you constantly put yourself through that, you will be able to, like, outside the gym, handle any situation because you develop that mental toughness. It's way more than physical, and that's what I try to get across. My training, the way I train, is, yeah, I want to be physically fit, I want to be strong, I want to be healthy, I want to look good, but also I want a strong mind, okay? I tell people all the time, train your mind as hard as you train your body.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because JP asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did you learn today from Mike that had the biggest impact on you? What message really stuck with you that you're going to immediately apply somehow to your life or to your business? Leave it down in the comments below and I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Vishal Singh. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book. Your one word and making that fun YouTube tribute video. I really, really, really appreciate your support. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

Personal training is a very, very rewarding job in more ways than one. You can make decent money as a personal trainer, but it's not about the money. It's about really changing these lives, like touching lives. I had people— I had a woman who I helped. I helped her lose 100 pounds. She was like this— she was an obese, morbidly obese, and when I was done with her, she was a hot fit chick. There was an old guy, I love this guy, he was in his 70s, very, very sedentary lifestyle. With him, it wasn't about the lifting weights. We did a few things for resistance training, but, you know, I threw some boxing gloves on him and held mitts and it gave him life. He loved it. So you find what these people want to do, you find something that works for them, something that's going to keep them healthy, alive, and vibrant, and then you run with that, you know. So it was very rewarding in that sense.

But like I said, overproduce whatever your role is. Do more. I don't care if you work at McDonald's.

Do more.

Because what you're doing is you're making yourself important.

You're not going to be the guy when budgets need to be—

when budget cuts are on the table, your name is not even going to be in the conversation. Like, no, we need him. Everybody else, you know what I mean? And you're developing an impeccable work capacity and ethic which if you ever do become your own boss or manager or whatever, you already have that achievement unlocked already, you know what I mean? So that's something that you definitely want to do. So overdevelop.

And I tell people it's about being a winner, you know. My, um, my supplement company is called I'm So Alpha. I didn't come up with that, you know. I would put stuff out like pictures and videos and stuff, and like people would just hashtag like, that's Alpha, so fucking alpha. We love that shit. It's just a mind state, right? So, and when I say that, like, people think, oh, that's super arrogant and cocky. It's not. There's nothing wrong with being confident, for one, because when you are legitimate, when you really, like, qualify yourself in whatever field you're in, you know, and you handle business, you got the work to show for it, why not be confident? You know, some people mistake that for arrogance or cockiness. I'm not about I'm not about that. You know, I'm about being confident though. I can't help it, you know? So you conduct yourself in a certain way. So it's a whole lifestyle that I push with the type of training that I do. You know, it goes into my everyday life. I can't help it. You know, that's why the company's Iron Soul Alpha. I hashtag and I got shirts that say Alpha as fuck. It's like, I'm really gonna fucking do this. You know what I mean? Whatever it is, anything, like any kind of challenge, I'm like, I want to do it. I want to do it. Oh, that's hard? Yeah, I think. Okay, let me do it. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna do it harder, and I'm gonna, you know, add more weight, and I'm gonna do it. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, it just mentally, it sets you up for life to be a winner, because I'm all about being a winner. And I'm not talking about on stage. That's not really winning, is it? You know, it's not a competition. You're just getting judged by people who don't lift. You know what I'm saying? So winning in life, winning in life is like Like, winning in life is like, you know, your kid is struggling in the subject. You figure out a way to get him up to speed. You know, you got an argument with your girlfriend or your boyfriend. You're not gonna let this person walk away unhappy. Like, y'all gonna figure it out. You know what I mean? That's winning in life. You know what I'm saying? There's a conflict at work. You handle it. You step up and handle it. You're winning at life. You know what I mean? And that's what it's all about, being a winner at life, at everything.