When I asked Dave Tate why he thinks elitefts has stood the test of time in the fitness industry, his answer was simple: giving. The company started 20 years ago as a question-and-answer site with Dave answering questions, and has since developed into an education site with over a million pages of content — all with the sole aim of educating those people who place training as a top priority in their life, and want to increase their strength while improving their everyday lives. elitefts is an education company that just happens to sell top-of-the-line strength equipment and accessories – not a strength equipment company that happens to provide education.
Why Give?
I get asked every week why I don’t have a paywall on my content. My response is always the same: why should I? I’ve got no right to. The concept of giving is highly misunderstood in our industry. What people don’t realize is that the reason the industry is booming now is because of the giving mentality of our generations before. Think about what Arnold did for the fitness industry in the 1970s. His true impact wasn’t realized until the late '80s and '90s, where fitness began to boom, and personal training became a recognized career. Think about what Louie Simmons has done for powerlifting. All the experiments he was carrying out in the '80s and '90s only came to fruition in the 2000s. The powerlifters now are all reaping the benefits of Louie’s work, even if they don’t realize it.
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The seeds planted now by elitefts aren’t for the present. It’s for the future. It’s so that we can educate the next generation on everything we’ve learned, and for them to pass it onto the following. It’s a continuous cycle.
It’s Our Duty
When I was starting out in the fitness industry nearly 10 years ago, I spent all my time reading everything I could get my hands on, both in the form of physical books and in free content on the internet. It was sites like elitefts.com that I’d spend hours on, learning all about programming, training methods, and different approaches to lifting. As I’ve developed my training philosophy over the years, all this content I’ve consumed, learned, and applied to my clients and myself has helped form an integral part of it. I’m always so grateful for the strength coaches that came before me. They’ve helped me fast-track my learning, and taught me to avoid the same mistakes they had to learn the hard way. That’s why it’s now my duty to be able to relay my own experiences to the next generation. It’s a value to the earth, to the planet, and to everyone out there that I need to provide. I’m always reminded of a quote from the excellent book The Go-Giver, by Bob Burg and John Mann: "You give, give, give. Why? Because you love to. It’s not a strategy. It’s a way of life."
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To give isn’t a marketing strategy. It’s not a business model. It’s a duty and a way of life. A responsibility of us as humans to be able to make the world a better place. While we may be talking from the fitness industry, this is everything.
Who Receives the Value?
But aren’t you devaluing yourself?
If you give all this information away for free, why would anyone pay?
Don’t you know your worth?
These are questions I get asked all the time. I’m sure Dave’s been asked this more than a million times over the past couple of decades. The problem with this question, though, is that it’s looking at the concept of value through a straw. All the talk of devaluing assumes that 100% of the value is in the hands of the receiver. When I spoke to Dave about this, his explanation was simple: "If you give someone a gift, you feel good, right? So is the value in the hands of the receiver only? No. If I give you a gift, should I care what you do with the gift I give you? Should I care that you throw the gift away? No. If you read an article on elitefts about a product, and then you go buy from our competitors? Should I care? No!"
The value of giving isn’t only in the receiver. There’s a positive aspect for the giver, too. It’s what makes us human and different to all the other species. Giving has its own unique joy, and the value is for both of us. Giving is like forgiveness: it’s a gift you give to yourself. It gives you permission to let go of the grief or adversity that someone has put you through. When you forgive, it’s for you.
Giving is the same. Never forget the value to yourself.
Live, Learn, Pass On
I’m a firm believer that we’re all on this earth to help each other; we’re all connected in some form within the universe. When we do something that benefits someone else, it provides fulfillment and makes us feel good. It allows us to be at one with the universe and find purpose amidst a world of chaos. As human beings, we live through the experiences life teaches us. We then learn from these moments, whether it’s positive or negative. And ultimately, we pass on. This allows us to engrain what we’ve learned, because what we teach, we master, and what we master, we excel at. We live, learn and pass on.
Circling back to the original question to Dave about the longevity of elitefts, it can be best summed up by the following quote from St. Francis of Assisi: “It is in giving that we receive.”
Akash Vaghela specializes in transforming the bodies of city executives, CEOs, actors, physique athletes, and regular people who want to be in the best shape of their lives. He blends scientific knowledge, evidenced by his first-class sport science degree from the University of Birmingham, with the practical experience of successfully competing in both powerlifting and bodybuilding, to generate maximum results in minimum time for his clients. Akash can be best found on Instagram (@akashvaghela), on Facebook, and on his website at www.rntfitness.co.uk. You can contact him directly via email at info@rntfitness.co.uk.
