A Story Untold
Today I was driving to the gym, and all I could think about
was growing up in the mountains of North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Mountains can be quite
unforgiving at times. When you grow up
there poor with a single mother, things can be even tougher. This was my situation growing up.
I had hopes and dreams.
Man did I ever, but at times those dreams seemed light years away. I had a great mother. She taught me to be a man to be strong. However, when it came to hopes and dreams,
she was more of the ‘be realistic’ type of mom.
As a dad, I get it. You want your
children to live an easy life. You know,
I want my boys to grow up, get married, and raise kids. It’s only natural.
The thing is that I am not a normal mountain man. I wanted to experience the world. I wanted to experience new cultures and new
countries. I wanted to live an
extraordinary life. I figure that we
only get one life, and that life can be pretty darn short for some of us. I have never wanted to grow old and talk
about what could’ve been. I have always
dreamed of lying in my hospital bed telling my children and grandchildren about
all of my adventures.
I am telling you this to set the plot of the story. This is a story of encouragement and
hope. I hope that this story resonates
with some of you out there right now dreaming to do something amazing,
something extraordinary. This is the
story of a friend that changed my life.
One human changed the course of my life.
I hope that all of you will learn the power of friendship from this
story.
In 7th Grade, I was at a hometown Varsity
Football Game kicking it with my friends.
It was at this game that I met a guy named Kevin Jones. I call him KJ now. He was in the 9th Grade and quite
the big shot in my books. He was having
quite the spat with some of the guys from the rival school, and he came looking
for backup. Unfortunately there were no
takers except for me this short little 7th Grader. I am not saying that I am some sort of tough
guy, but for some reason KJ has always been able to make me feel stronger and
more confident.
Just because I had his back that day, we have been friends
ever since. Sounds trivial, but in the
mountains a friend like that is worth all the gold in the world. Fighting is a way of life up there. It’s like a part of one’s youth that is
simply unavoidable. I fought several
times in my lifetime in the hallways of the high school with the teachers and
principles simply looking on and cheering.
That can be a scary time in a child’s life. I remember experiencing a feeling of
hopelessness several times knowing that a bully was gunning for me and know
that there was no way out.
So I learned to fight.
I decided that I would never lie down for anyone, and that trait has
helped me so many times in my life. I
guess that you could say that this scary environment is part of what made me
who I am. I learned to face my fears
head on. You learn to put your fears
aside and simply handle things. Did I
win all of those fights? No way, I won most,
but dang it there was some tough dudes in the mountains. As I grew up, I became pretty dang tough, but
I owe most of that to KJ. He saved me in
a time that childhood almost killed me.
KJ grew up even poorer than me with a single mom and two
siblings. KJ was extraordinary in my
book from the very beginning. He was
born with ability that he has used to become the CEO of a $100,000,000
company. Wow it sounds crazy to say
it. He had an old red Honda Civic for a
first car that barely worked, and now he lives in a mansion in Southlake,
TX. Extraordinary!
That ability was leadership.
He could make anyone better at anything.
He can find a talent in someone, and he can convince that person to turn
that talent into something extraordinary.
He gave me confidence, and he made me believe that anything is
possible. However there is something
more that he did.
There were some things that happened in my childhood that
are not so good. I am not going to talk
about those things here at least not now, but it was rough. One day some really bad things happened. There were some things that happened that
some people don’t bounce back from. There
were things that happened that shouldn’t happen to a child, but they did.
One day I drove to KJ’s house. When I got there, I was crying. Yeah that’s right I was crying. I am not sure why that’s so hard to admit,
but it is for me. I was crying like a
little girl. That friend held me until I
fell asleep crying on his shoulder.
Sounds weak, but without that friend I would never be here telling all
of you this story. I would either be
some drugged out junkie in the mountains or dead.
When I woke up, KJ looked me in the eye and he told me that
the mountains could never contain us. He
explained that we were living in a season that would pass. He told me that none of it was real. It was just a glimpse of our reality that we
would someday change.
It was because of him that I believed that I could play
college football. It was because of him
that made me pursue my dreams in Colorado with weightlifting. It was because of him that I became a
three-time World Champion in powerlifting breaking world records along the
way. He gave me the confidence that I
needed to take my athletic ability around the world.
Because a young man chose to love and be there for his
friend, I can now write blogs like this and books that thousands of people
around the world buy and read every month.
It’s because of him that I can meet weightlifters from England, and they
go on to tell me how their countrymen use my programming. I’m not The Rock or anywhere close, but I
live a pretty extraordinary life because Kevin Jones saw something in me when
no one else did.
In 2018 I am sure that a lot of you plan on reaching goals
and dreams, but there might be something more that you want to consider. Maybe in 2018 you will help someone else
reach his or her goals. Maybe you will
believe in someone that needs someone to believe in them. Without KJ there would never be a Coach
Mash. Without KJ there would never have
been a Team Mash Mafia or Mash Elite Performance. Just think, because one young man helped
another young man, thousands of people around the world have been
affected. It’s crazy really.
So if you really want to leave this world a better place,
maybe helping someone that needs you will be that change. Often I think that I love being a coach
because it allows me some many opportunities to return the favor. That’s probably why I get so frustrated when
people don’t take good advice. I just
tell myself that it only takes one person to alter the course of history. KJ did it for me, and now I try to do it for
my athletes. You can do the same.
I am thankful for Kevin Jones. I love that guy more than I can explain. I simply don’t have the words to describe
someone that is like a brother, father, and best friend all wrapped up in
one. This blog is my way of letting the
world know what this man did for me. KJ
I love you and your family. I owe you my
life. Maybe just maybe your story will
spark something inside of someone that alters to course of the world. You for sure altered my world, and for that I
am forever grateful.
