Bowflex

a lETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF

Kilen, You are 18 and are now enrolled in college. The majority of your life you have always been the small kid in school. However, I want to tell you that’s all going to change. Pretty soon you are going to discover you have this hidden drive within yourself to succeed.

You decide to pick up a pair of dumbbells for the first time at 19 from your parents garage. I know you haven’t lifted a weight in your life but hear me out. You quickly start understanding the world of fitness and love everything about it. You will be a 118 pound kid drinking protein shakes on campus and having people look at you wondering “does that dude even lift?” Brush their opinions aside,You know where you are trying to go. A few months will go by and you will be making progress just from lifting dumbbells in your room. No gym. No trainer. Just you.

You are going to continue to work in a warehouse through college.  I know right now the guys you work with are poking fun at you every chance they get.  But overtime they will realize you can take the heat. You work hard and don’t complain. You will earn their respect and they will feel like the brothers you never had.

Before your 20th birthday your dad is going to take you to the Bowflex store so you can buy your first set of 1090 select tech dumbbells. You will be so excited but also feel a little weird because half your bank account has depleted, but this is why your dad taught you to save. You will continue to train and do whatever it takes to reach the goal you set out for.

When you are 22 you will have taken your body weight from 118 pounds up to 175 pounds. You will be open about trying women’s tank tops on. You will graduate college in the fall of 2012 and Bowflex will give you a shot in a sales position. You will be the youngest rep in there. It’s going to be your first big kid job and you will feel more than ready to go.

You are going to meet some amazing people at this company. A lot of them are going to be lifelong friends. Over the next few years this company is going to allow you to get your entire life setup and get a jump start in life. You will be very appreciative and never forget that.

You will finish number one in sales volume your first year on the floor. Selling over 11 million dollars at Bowflex during your tenure. You will be actively involved in new hiring training to maximize sales volume for new reps. You will assist upper management in developing a grading platform for all reps. You will be a consistent and top producer. You are going to learn more about yourself and discover what you want out of life. However, even though you will accomplish all of this, you will realize it’s not these small milestones that are keeping you there. It’s the people. You will fight for them as much as they would fight for you.

When you are 27, Bowflex and you will part ways. Not in the way you would have hoped, but life doesn’t work like that sometimes. You will leave feeling more disappointed in the missed opportunity than the outcome. But I want you to know you tried in the most professional way possible to produce positive change.  You will ask yourself a lot of questions, you will feel like you let yourself down. But in the end you will realize it doesn’t matter. What matters is the relationships you built, the friendships you formed and knowing you gave it your all for Bowflex. You will wish your peers and the company a busy and successful holiday season.

You are going to move on feeling like you are the small 118 pound kid who is 19 again, with his whole life ahead of him. Only this time you are chasing after a much bigger goal. Some of your peers already know what that goal is. I would love to tell you, but life is sometimes better with surprises. It’s going to be a process. It’s going to be challenging. It will for sure be a longer road. But I will tell you; this is what you were born to do. Here’s to you Kilen and all the people you are going to meet along the way. Go out and make it happen!

MURPHY OUT