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An Unstoppable Entrepreneurial Journey In The Fitness World With Eric Levine

What is up, Money Masters? It’s Wade Reed here for another episode of the show. As promised I’m bringing on some interesting and exciting interviews with great business people who have had interesting success stories and challenges. The first one you’re going to hear from today is Eric Levine. Eric, Hello.

It’s nice to meet you. It’s nice to be here. Thank you for having me.

You’re very welcome. I appreciate you joining me. Just to give a little bit of background, I met Eric at an event I was at a few weeks ago in Pensacola, Florida. We were doing some training on wealth creation and what it takes to become known in the world. Eric and I had a chance to sit next to each other at a dinner. I got to know some of his interesting background. I thought this would be a fantastic person to be on because he’s such a good-hearted person, but also has had tremendous business success. Eric, if I understand it correctly, you’ve been in the entrepreneurial space and fitness industry for over 40 years. Is that right?

Yes. My father was an athlete and bodybuilder. We were brought up in Montreal. The Weider Brothers were living in my area and part of the synagogue that we went to. We became friends and my father was into that. I was into vitamins before vitamins were even legal probably. That was part of the world that I came from.

Fitness was in the beginning. I’m curious about some of the backstories. Not everyone just suddenly becomes an entrepreneur. What are some of the little stories from when you were younger that seeded the potentiality of you becoming a business leader?

 

 

From Seed Sales At Four To A Billion-Dollar Business

I remember looking at one of my comic books on the back of it. They had all these prizes that you could get, and I was starting to play baseball. I was probably 4, maybe 5. They have that one Rawlings professional-looking glove that I wanted that was on the back of this comic book, and the only way to get it was to sell packets of seeds. I asked my mother, “How do I get that?” “Well send it away. We’ll get the seeds and you go and sell them.”

The seeds came. I went on my tricycle with my horn, my ringer, all my flags, my baseball cards, and stuff. I was making as much noise as possible. I pull up to my neighbor’s, “Knock, knock.” They had to look down and I said, “Will you buy these seeds?” “For what?” I said, “This grows this and that.” “Sure. How much?” To make a long story short, it was fun being able to do that. I remember feeling like they thought these seeds were good and the value was there. I didn’t know the word value, but they wanted them and they bought them. I ended up getting my glove and I got a professional Canadian Football League football. It became adrenaline for me during these transactions.

To this day, whether it’s a very big deal or even a very small though, that transaction, I still get the juice flowing. For someone asking me, “Can you close that? Can you do that?” It still gets me going. I realized that I could do as many as I wanted. I could do it all day and get 25 bags sold or stop at five or do nothing that day, watch Superman on TV, and the next day, I go and do it. I love the fact that I had the freedom to do it as much as I wanted. Nobody told me when or what, and I felt that this was natural for me. I did not hesitate to ask for the money if it was worth the value. Those feelings stayed with me to this day. I started like that.

What age was that?

About 4.

You had this interesting entrepreneurial vibe showing up in your life, salesmanship, from a very young age, and now your current age is what?

I’m 69.

Let’s give our audience the end result at this stage of life. What has been a big event that occurred in your business life, the capstone beginning at four years old?

The biggest monetary one was when I was the third largest private shareholder in a company that we grew. My partner had 32 clubs. My partner and I had 70 clubs that we merged in Southern California. Back then, I had 30-some-odd clubs all over Asia. We merged, we kept growing, and we ended up with 475 locations, over $1 billion of revenue, four million members, 365 million of EBITDA, 20 countries, and 25,000 staff. We ended up selling for $1.78 billion about 15 years ago.

From the seeds at 4 years old to a $1.7 billion exit in a business, how does one get that far? Did you have any time in your young adult life where you were like, “I am shooting for a billion?” Tell us some of that.

I’m crazy, but I’m not that crazy. I’m halfway there. I had steps that attracted me, like the baseball glove. It wasn’t the seeds that I was selling. It was the baseball glove. It was the football that I wanted. I remember my father showing me a $100 bill and I wanted a $100 bill, this beautiful Canadian color. There was a carnival where they were giving away a $1,000 bill, the red one in Canada. I wanted that. My father took me to a car show and there was a Dino Ferrari. I want that car.

There was a step by step by step. I always had a bigger goal. I’ve never had a limit on my mind. Even if I wanted the Ferrari, it wasn’t like, “It’s a Ferrari,” and it’s over. No. Ferrari was part of my setup, part of my toys, and part of my thing. I’ll figure out how to get the next one. I always had a goal. I’m very into yoga and the spiritual world at the same time. We’re in this silent retreat with many people and a yogi said, “Let’s hear what you guys do for a living.” He heard what I did. I was into yoga centers and fitness centers. It wasn’t so much that he praised me like, “So you make people healthy and happy.”

Yes, I knew that, of course, and I loved that. I got many testimonials and letters of how people’s lives have changed through what we have done, but it never hit me till he said how important that is for the legacy, karma, and humanity. He implored everybody there if they were not already in an industry or a business that was at least neutral but certainly helping people because of the amount of time and energy we put into our business. He implored us to make a shift. I was doing it with the right energy and the right passion, but it needed another little tweak. He gave me that tweak. It made me feel good even more than what we were doing.

The Power Of Energy, Focus, And The Law Of Attraction

About what stage of life was that?

Late 20s.

That’s still early on.

I had met other situations like that. I learned about yoga and meditation when I was 13 and realized how powerful it was. It’s like watching a business go through its trends. Before, waking up at 6:00 in the morning was like, “That’s a crazy, wonderful idea,” so you can get up and get a head start. That was one, then now it’s 5:00 and you do your meditation, you’re breathing, and this and that. It’s so true learning about the unseen world of energy.

Everything is energy. Money is energy, a car is energy, and apples are energy. This podcast is energy. If that’s the case, why don’t you learn how to gain energy? Retool your focus to the energy that you want to receive because it’s a two-way street. It’s a two-way flow. Whatever you dial in and send out is the only vibe that can come back. You can’t be going out of 300 miles or whatever and expect to get 900 back or 100 back. It’s an absolute science, the Law of Attraction. You call unto you what you have given out.

When you go from being afraid of it is woo-woo or whatever to understanding all signs and proving it. They were saying all this stuff 5,000 years ago before Buddha. Now, neuroscientist Dr. Joe Dispenza is saying the same words as all these great scientists today. It’s the same field of unlimited possibilities. Deepak Chopra first came out talking about East and West and how that’s aligned. If you’re an entrepreneur or anybody, why not work on both sides? The unseen magical and the reality that you think is necessary to make your business work on them, second by second, moment by moment, reality in the present moment. You need both. You’re not going to be able to do as well without either one, without either side. Get on and learn about it.

That’s powerful. I’ve had many learnings personally in that realm of the spiritual world and the field of infinite possibility. Sometimes it’s referred to as the quantum field in simplest form. I think in common language, it is the Law of Attraction. You attract to you that which you send out. James Allen, in his book As a Man Thinketh, used the phrase, “You attract that which you are, not what you want.”

Many of the great authors in business and personal development almost all say the same thing. There’s maybe a handful of rules or universal laws. It has nothing to do with emotion. It has nothing to do with right or wrong, religion, or where you’re from. It’s a universal law that’s always been and always will be, which is wonderful. You don’t want it to be subjected to if you were nice to that dog today. You want it to be exact, and it is. Only one thing on that though. Because time is relative, it doesn’t always respond at the time you think it should because of an infinite number of complexities. You don’t control it. You let it happen.

Serendipity And The Birth Of A Fitness Empire

That’s an interesting perspective. I think a lot of entrepreneurs out there, including me at times, tried to force it. We want it now.

We can do it. We are not going to give up. One of my biggest faults is not hearing the universe saying, “Go left, go right, stop, go down, go up.” I’m a driver and I said, “I’m not giving up.” It wasn’t for me. It wasn’t in the cards. Knowing when to let go, the unattachment, or move to the next universal trip is not easy for me because I am a driver. I have a big ego. I hate losing, but the other side helps me when I’m in that. I am learning better now. I’m much better than I used to be in that category.

I’d be curious if you could share a story or two about how that has played.

I’ll give you a perfect example. I used to be a child actor. I was in theater, TV, and film. I worked at Club Med for a few years. I came back to Los Angeles to be an actor. It’s not easy. I finally got a great part, my first real part. We were already rehearsing and it was going to be shot in Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I got a call from my agent and said, “I have some bad news. Mardi Gras was canceled. The unions are on strike.” I’m like Schwarzenegger. He says that he never has a plan B. I didn’t have a plan B. I was all in. That movie was going to make it for me. I had already spent all the money I was supposed to get, and I did not know. I didn’t have a plan B.

It was raining every day that year in Los Angeles. His office was on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. I was so depressed in the driving rain. I walked from Pacific Coast Highway all the way to Venice Beach, about 20 miles in the pouring rain in January. I got to my little tiny studio apartment. I took off my boots and I lay down in a mess. I looked up at the sky and said, “Okay, God. I get it. You close Mardi Gras to show me something. What is it? I don’t have a plan B. You know I don’t have a plan B. You got to show me something else.”

I fell asleep. I woke up in the morning like Charlie Brown after losing another baseball game. I made my way to Gold’s Gym, which was about a quarter of a mile from my apartment in Venice Beach. At the time in the world, many women didn’t workout. If you were at a spa, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday would be women. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday would be men. No co-ed. At Gold’s Gym, however, it was Jurassic Park, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, and a few biker girls who were tougher than any of the guys. That was a scene. It was a tough scene.

I was standing at the front desk and this beautiful girl walked in and said to me, “Will you train me?” I said, “Me?” I didn’t work there. I said, “Where?” She said, “Here.” I looked at her and said, “Do you think this is your crowd? Are you not intimidated?” She laughed and said, “It’s culty cool.” I said, “Are you crazy? Would your friends come also?” My entrepreneur started with, “Will your friends come?” She said, “Yeah, I think so. I’m getting ready for a Playboy shoot. I need a tighten up and I think this would do it.” “Wonderful. Let’s get started.”

It was a breath of fresh air. That little tingling in my ear and I said, “That’s it.” From the moment she said that to me going over to the current owner of Gold’s Gym and buying the name for $2,500 for Canada, that all took place within an hour.

You’re in Venice Beach right now. You’re feeling pretty bad about yourself. You showed up at this Gold’s Gym and you’re going to workout. I imagine you were pretty fit back then. You’re looking the part and this beautiful lady shows up and says, “Will you train me?” The idea is generated for ownership rights of Gold’s Gym in Canada.

Yeah, for $2,500. That year, I sold half a million dollars of t-shirts and opened up my first gym in Toronto. That’s how that started.

That’s serendipitous. How could you have ever fathomed that?

My first Gold’s Gym, I changed it to Gold’s Fitness for women and men. I have a picture on my wall of my first club. I ended up with having over 60% female market. All my ads were based upon good-looking, fit women, no muscles, and no muscle men, but couples and females. I had a great PR girl who helped me. We did so many women’s shows, and the women came. We opened up a chain of them throughout Canada and a couple in Santa Barbara with one of the owners of Gold’s Gym. That’s how I started. I worked in a spa when I was 16 and loved it. My training was to have running shoes. That was my training.

I had no idea. No one trained me, but after about the second day, the manager came here, “Can you show me what you do once a guest comes in?” I said, “Why?” “They all join after you take them on a tour. Show me.” I took him on a tour and asked him all the questions. He said, “Why don’t you sell?” I said, “Will I make more money?” “Yeah.” There was a 12 chain of this. That was the first weekend of the month. There were probably 60 sales counselors. By the end of the month, I was number one. To put in perspective, a new Corvette 427, 435 was $5,000. I was making $4,000 a month at 16 and I loved it. I loved meeting people, the energy, and working out. I have four days off, and three days off. I was able to workout. That vibe got me.

Did you have any formal business management training? Did you work for somebody who taught you how to manage a business or your own business?

I have a PhD but it came from Club Med. For those who don’t know, at the time I was working there, it was the wildest place on the planet Earth. It made Caligula Caesar’s stories look like Betty Crocker’s. It was wild, but that’s not my point. My point was the resorts were three-star. The rooms were three stars at best, the food was three stars, the sports were three stars, and the shows at night, which I was part of, at best were three stars.

At the parking lot when the members had to go home, they were not going home. They’d lie down in front of the bus. They hold human chains. They’re not going home. They were hysterical crying. They’re not leaving. Doctors said, “I’m leaving my practice. I’ll be a scuba diving doctor. I’m not going back.” It wasn’t a few people. It was a majority. We touched their lives in seven days more than they had been touched in their whole life. We gave them a feeling that they had never experienced before. It wasn’t the three-star. It was how John did that or Mary did that.

The experience that they got started with the GOs or the people who work there, and I was one of them. I saw Newsweek magazine talk about what a GO was. It said, “I didn’t know about Club Med. The true gypsies of the world are the GOs of Club Med, beautiful, blonde, blah, blah.” When I finished that magazine, I was making $4,000 a month. I stayed up all night and sent my resume to France because it’s a French company. To make a long story short, they asked me to go to New York for an interview.

I go to New York for an interview. There were a thousand people there, the prettiest girls and the most handsome men. It was overwhelming. They showed this movie and I was praying up. This is me, “I need to get this.” I remember getting the envelope and my hands were shaking to see if I got in. It says, “Congratulations. We’ll see you in Club Med, Martinique on April 15.”

I worked for two years at that time. Years later, I met the interviewer. He came to one of the clubs that I was at. I had done well already. I won the Oscar for the Best Entertainer of the 80 clubs every season. He was there to give me something and he said, “Eric, do you know that time when I met you and I hired you?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “How many people do you think I hired that week?” “A thousand?” He said, “No.” I said, “How many?” He said, “You.” I was like, “Give me a break. Me?” He said, “You had that wild sparkle in your eye that I knew you knew what I know you know and who you are, and you fit in with our vibe. You were the only one that did that week.” It wasn’t just a flattery. It made a mark on me.

Later on, when I opened up my clubs, I never forgot that. The people that I hired didn’t have to have education. They didn’t have to come from a wealthy family. They didn’t have to be tall, short, or whatever. They had to have that spirit and that energy. I created a company called California Fitness in Asia. We didn’t break every record by a bit. We quadruple to ten times it. We did numbers that were impossible. You walked into that club, those were before Walkman and Van Halen, and it was times ten and it was a party you couldn’t get anywhere else.

It was a brand and we were the brand. It was all about energy. We were the first. We had the best equipment and great locations. We did all that too, but it wasn’t that. It was the feeling that the members got by being part of a club they adored and were proud of. They were proud to tell and show our California Fitness Center membership. That meant they were super cool and part of an elite group of party maniacs who were getting in shape and doing good for everybody. That’s what I learned.

Let me recap. I’m getting this story for the first time. You started your chain in Canada. Before that, there was this experience with Club Med that had set the tone for the need for some sort of vibes, some sort of special experience that people needed to have. You have your chain of fitness centers in Canada.

In Canada first, and then when I got to Asia, even more so because there was no fitness in all of Asia. Here’s for entrepreneurs to hear. When I opened up my first time in 1996 in Hong Kong, I didn’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese. I don’t know anybody. If we have time, I’ll talk about how I manifested the club. The building that I saw was exactly what I had manifested in my mind or my consciousness to the T. Everyone was telling me the Chinese wouldn’t workout, women would never sweat in front of a man, and the Chinese don’t want muscles, every story. The rent was $250,000 US a month.

For this building to hold one fitness club?

That was in 1996, $567,000 today. Everyone tells you, “It’s not going to work here.” They’re smart people, the lawyers, the pr, the people that should know everything, “Go home. It’s not going to work.” I had to give a six-month deposit and first and last month. Before I got my first member, everyone was telling me, “Go home.” I pre-sold $3.6 million in 8 weeks, 40 days after I opened, I paid everything off. In that first year, we made $7 million EBITDA in that club, then I opened up in Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and Australia. They didn’t have any fitness centers except in the hotels. They didn’t even know what it was. I signed up 3,500 members, 90% of whom had no idea what they bought. It was the enthusiasm, “Let’s get started.” We were doing $100,000 US by lunch.

Give me some sense of how that selling took place and how you had the confidence to step into that business venture in another country with the language you didn’t speak.

I have average intelligence, but what I do have is instinct. I see holes, meaning opportunity. When I went to Asia, there wasn’t any fitness there. I knew if it was me, someone was going to do it, but I had the experience. I sold a big chain, which was our big sale. I didn’t want to be president. I didn’t want to work as a top executive. I’m an entrepreneur. I said, “I’ll come back. I’ll keep my shares but I’m going to Asia.”

The only thing you have to be careful of is if you see a hole or you see an opportunity at $250,000 a month, you can’t be too early. You have to time it. A year earlier, I don’t know. A year later, maybe someone else would have started. I was the first in every country. We had a club in Taipei. That was a big one. They were about 45,000 to 50,000 square feet. This one ended up being 75. It cost about $5 million and we did $13 million EBITDA in our first year for one club.

That’s remarkable.

In my third year, we did $100 million US in revenue in just that 12 months with $37 million profit in that 12-month period.

To the average entrepreneur, that’s almost unfathomable to hear those numbers.

It would have been to me if you would have told me that I know what the best clubs do in America, Canada, and Europe, and you’re going to tell me you’re going to do 25 times that. People don’t know anything about it. We did. I had Cindy Crawford as my spokesperson. She’d only done Revlon and it was like, “Join California Fitness, my club.” She has the perfect body, is not intimidating, is world-class, world’s number one model, everyone aspires to have her and to look like her. She came with me all through Asia, every cover, every magazine, every TV, everything you can imagine.

Building A Fitness Brand: Atmosphere, Branding, And Customer Experience

We then had Pamela Anderson when Bay Watch was super huge. She did the same thing. I’m very aware of marketing trends, feelings, vibes, culture, and branding. I’m very big on branding and the resoluteness to keep the brand to what your customers expect. I’m very strict on that. I’ll give you a story. I’ll tell you the power of branding and the power of the human touch. When I opened up in Singapore, it was a gorgeous club. That’s one I built from the ground up, a beautiful staircase, and about 40,000 square feet. I was killing it, doing $5 million US a year. All of a sudden, it started to go down.

And here is my brand. My brand was, I created the CDs with a disc jockey and you had to play those, those five, which are marked today and up to vide from last month, nothing two months ago. And that’s all you played. That’s it. I marked every single stereo with a red mark, nail polish. You couldn’t play the volume lower than that. Above it, no problem. On the TV, it was MTV, Fashion TV, or sports. Done. I get in Singapore this big ground floor entrance with doors that should stay open.

Nobody knows that I’m coming. I show up unexpectedly and the doors are shut. Instead of keeping it open, now someone had to open it. The music you couldn’t hear. When it is open, you should be hearing the music all the way on the street. I get to the receptionist, but there’s no receptionist there. Guess what I can’t hear. No music. It’s on a whisper level. I go around the reception. I looked at the TVs and the one I saw was two 80-year-old women cutting papaya.

By that time, the word was out that I was in the club. Do you know the wrestler Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan? I pretended that I was one of those guys. I jumped over the reception like a maniac. I started flying at the equipment and throwing it overhand onto Orchard Road, the main street in Singapore. It scared the hell out of everybody except for me. I called a staff meeting and fired the district manager, the manager, the head receptionist, and the operations manager in front of everybody. I said, “You broke the brand.” Now that’s okay. That’s a brand story.

I stayed for the next 30 days. This was from 1999 to 2000. With me being there instead of the manager being there, we did $300,000 more that month than the previous month. I put in a new team and they continued that vibe until maybe a year or so later. It happened again, but once you create a brand that you’re satisfied with, you protect it. That’s your hiring. That’s your level of volume and every aspect. It’s everything. It’s the ground floor entrance and windows. Are people working out in the windows? It’s the colors. It’s everything. It’s your hiring. When you hire, what do they look like? What’s their attitude? Are they extroverts or introverts? Is she going to be on the phone? No. You know she’s not like that.

Once you create a brand that you’re satisfied with, protect it.

What I’ve learned when I’ve opened up in 21 countries is that people are people. I don’t care what your eye looks like, the color of your hair, skin, whatever. We all want to feel great. We all want to feel a successful and happy family. We all want the same things. When you can go into who your customers are and your business is based on what they want, not what you think they want, you’re going to be successful.

Protecting Your Brand: Maintaining Standards And Culture

Many in our audience are going to recognize that maybe they’ve been dishonoring their own brand that they’ve allowed some of their team members to dishonor that, and they’re going to have to let them go. Help them have the courage. How do people fire?

My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, had a spa business doing very well. She had to fire somebody. She said, “How do I do it?” I said, “It’s simple. Go over to Elva and say, ‘Elva, I got some great news’. Elva will say, ‘What’s that?’ ‘You know all the time you’ve been complaining you didn’t have enough time to go with your friends and family. Now you do. You have as much time as you want. You’re fired.’ ” I usually do that. It’s different now with all the rules and regulations. You have to break a lot more today.

I remember I had this all-staff meeting and had a new guy. I was talking about guest passes and why they work. He stood up and said, “I don’t believe in guest passes.” There were about 500 of my staff there. I said, “Can you stand up? What’s your name? You’re from the home office, aren’t you? How long have you been in sales, a few days? You think after a few days, you know more than the team?” He said, “I don’t believe that we should do that.”

I said, “That’s wonderful and you can leave now because I don’t have time to watch you and follow you if you can’t follow and understand the brand, and open up doors for everybody to try it. I don’t have time. We’re exploding. We’re opening four countries this year. When I hire 3.000 staff, those staff are going to buy 100 homes for their families and their grandparents. I don’t have time to teach you why negativity doesn’t exist in California Fitness, so leave.”

Those are some of the things you look back and maybe you were too tall for whatever but when you got your entire life on the line and everybody that was working with you needed that and they bought into you. I said, “You do this. I hire from within. I promote from within.” This is what she did, and this is what he did. This is the house that they bought. This is the car that they get. This is the bank account. I’ll do that if you do your part.

Nothing could be more powerful to your team than proven people who have been in the same position that they are. They knew nothing. They showed up, I need a job and now they’re regional manager. Now, they’re making $1 million a year, here’s what they’ve done, and they fall the game with the right type of people. They had the right attitude and here you go. When you’re looking for a teacher, you want to find a teacher who can say, “Here’s my team, this is how great they are now. This is what they’re doing now. Look at them, they’re so great. They’re better than I am. They’re better than this and they’ve done that.”

Nothing could be more powerful to your team than proven people who have been in the same position that they are.

The other question you asked them was, “What have you done? You want to teach me. What have you done?” Schwarzenegger has biceps, I’ll listen to him for biceps. Many times, we have advice for entrepreneurs. You’re asking the wrong people for advice. Don’t ask people who have never made it that are great intellectually. They have a degree but they’ve never had to pay the rent. They never had to face not being able to pay payroll or the rent or bill coming out of nowhere that devastates them or government law changing everything on them. You need a teacher that has gone through it. That’s exactly what you want. Let them tell you what they’ve done, who they’ve taught, who their teacher is who their teacher’s teacher is. That’s who you want.

As you were saying before, entrepreneurs will ask for advice. Don’t ask for advice unless you’re asking someone who’s been through it in your industry. When I started that spa, I cleaned whirlpools and swimming pools. I learned everything, cleaning, reception, personal training, and every aspect of the business. If you want to get into a business and new business, let’s say it’s fitness, go to your local chain, go through their training, spend six months a year. Feel it. If it’s what you love, that’s how you learn, by doing it. Don’t just jump into it. Thousands of people said, “I’m going to open up a gym.” That’s like saying, “Let’s do a brain surgery together.” It will not going to work.

They don’t know a thing about it. They don’t know how to run a fitness business. You’re saying to get in, dive in, and be a part of the organization before you start something.

First of all, see if you like it because you’re spending most of your life in it. If it’s something that you’re good at and you feel this is right, that’s my recommendation. You got to do that. Don’t open up a business until you’ve explored a similar business. You may change it. It’s a similar business for at least a year if possible.

Don’t open a business until you’ve explored similar businesses.

The Changing Definition Of Wealth

This has been fantastic, Eric. I appreciate your time. I have maybe two questions to wrap things up. This is the Wealth Acceleration Podcast. I like to get my guest’s perspective on the word wealth. How do you define wealth? How has that changed over your lifetime?

Wealth does change over your lifetime. My first baseball glove, I was the wealthiest person in the world. That thousand-dollar bill, I was Elon Musk. As you mature, you realize that there’s got to be a balance. I’m talking for me. You have to have the balance of paying it forward, karma, doing good for what you know is important for humanity, for animals, for children, whatever it is. It’s not about religion or anything. It is who you are and how you want to give back. To be able to be wealthy would mean to be able to be free to give anywhere you want at any time, any amount, do anything that you want, have a balanced spiritual life, physical life, emotional life, and a charitable life that makes you pay it forward and give back.

 

You want to feel good about yourself. That’s wealth. My wife and I adopted 48 children in this slum in Thailand. Father Joe’s Mercy Center was the name of it, the worst slum. The angel of a priest, an Irish priest, had this orphanage. The stories that I heard were beyond what I could say on the show, but he was stuck with it from babies with umbilical cords left on his door and now he brought them up, and now they got their PhD in Norway on scholarship. Now they’re teaching at the orphanage. You become part of that.

It’s not just the money. It’s the reward. Every month, you get a little letter about what they did, their grades, and this. That’s what wealth is for me, and do what I want. I want to go to the Maldives for six months, “See you. Don’t call me. You’re not going to find me,” or if I want to buy that. It’s the freedom to do what you want to do. That’s what wealth is, and it changes.

Thank you for your perspective on that. I’m curious if there are any particular laws or principles you view are the most important in life and business.

Universal Laws And The Importance Of Self-Image In Achieving Goals

There are so many that can be used in business, the Law of Attraction, the Law of Visualization, and the Law of Manifestation. They say to fake it till you make it. I don’t agree with that. The real word for that is to become the end result now. If you want to be CEO, act as if you’re the CEO now. Wear the CEO’s clothes. Wear the CEO’s shoes? Get to the place at CEO time. Believe that you are that now. Why does that work? The first thing that happens is your self-image starts to take on that persona. I am the CEO. My shoulders are like those of the CEO. I eat like a CEO. I wake up like a CEO. My friends are that of a CEO. My golf club is where CEOs go. I am a CEO.

If you want to be CEO, act as if you’re the CEO.

Your self-image starts to say, “You are a CEO.” Those closest to you, your wife, son, daughter, or whatever, you are a CEO. They start to take it and it keeps going like a pebble in the water. The ripples go all the way to the source, then the universe will give you the opportunities based upon the vibe that you created as a CEO. Now the universe can give you a CEO opportunity. If you say, “I’m this low, but one day,” you’re sending a weak vibe. You need to have the vibe as if. Acting as if it’s already up and you’re already that person. That’s a fabulous law to remember.

I love that. Thank you. I share somewhere things a lot. That idea acting as if is so powerful. Be the person you aspire to be today. The last question. As you look ahead into your life, I’m sure you’ve thought this through a lot, given you’ve had such a beautiful and interesting life and a wonderful business life. Wealth as you defined it is being a lot more than just money. What legacy do you hope to leave both in your fitness business life and your family life and to the world in general? What do you wish most to leave behind in this world?

People who know me know that I’ve lived a colorful life. I remember I read the Calvin and Hobbes book about a little boy with his tiger. That’s who I was all my life, Calvin and the little boy with his tiger with my imagination. My imagination was my savior. I quit school when I was 14. I didn’t have that, but my imagination was pretty great. As I mentioned earlier, I have been into yoga since I was 13. I’ve been to India many times. I got married in the Himalayan Mountains, initiated into the longest line of yogis and the Himalayan masters.

When I had all these clubs, yoga was dead. Twenty-three years ago, yoga was dead. It was dead in America. We had many clubs. We have one class every week. Two people would come with weird issues. Yoga was dead in India. It was dead everywhere. I remember waking up one day saying, “What are we going to do?” I went to India. I found a dozen yogis, third-generation real yogis, vegetarian. They were yogis. They weren’t yoga teachers.

I brought them all the way to Hong Kong, cleaned them up, got them visas and everything. Yoga is dead, remember. I opened up a 30,000-square-foot facility in downtown Hong Kong. Also about $200,000 a month. Within 60 days, I was putting through 25,000 people a month, all doing yoga. We’re not yoga teachers. We’re yogis. To tell you the truth, at that time, there was prejudice against Indians in Hong Kong. Indians were not considered anything. They were not welcome. We blew the doors of that. I opened up all over the world, and then yoga caught on like a forest fire. It couldn’t be better.

Going to LA, there are not just 1,000 yoga studios with every style. Millions and millions of people are better off because of it. I’m not saying I invented anything. I didn’t do any of that, but I helped reignite it and I know that makes the world a better place. People who practice yoga are nicer than they were before. They’re more conscious than they were before. They’re healthier and they spread that beautiful higher consciousness, which I think in my own little way I helped. That’s it.

 

That’s amazing. Thank you, Eric, so much for joining me on my show. I wish you a wonderful life and I’m sure we’ll see each other around in the near future.

Yes, we will. Thank you for having me. I had fun.

You’re welcome.

 

Episode Resources

• Eric Levine
• As a Man Thinketh
• Wealth Acceleration Podcast