Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine about gym stuff, and he said something that shocked me. We were talking about the more “business” aspects of gym ownership and he said, “well that's cause you don’t run No Limits Grappling Academy like a business.”
I immediately got defensive and started listing all the things that I do and use to help No Limits function like a business, payment processors, software, etc. He laughed and said, “whoa whoa whoa relax I didn't mean it like that, what I mean is you run No Limits like it’s a TEAM rather than a business.”
That made me smile.
If you consume any of our content, blogs, Podcasts, Social posts, you’ll see they are very sport centric and unlike what you would see from most martial arts gyms. That's by design.
See, while it's true that wrestling and jiu-jitsu are individual sports on the day of a match or a competition, before that day, they are the ultimate team sport. You need the help of your other teammates/gym members helping you and sacrificing for you in order for you to be successful.
Even in my case, my experience with wrestling was less than stellar. The administration at my high school was so concerned that I was going to get injured, that they wouldn't let me wrestle in an actual match. While that definitely sucked, the support I got from my teammates who would pester the administration and the coaching staff, fight for me, and always make sure I was included was incredible.
Same thing when I started Judo and jiu-jitsu. My friends and I knew what each other's goals were, what we wanted, and we worked, sacrificed, and had each other's backs to try and make those goals a reality.
I think that's one of the most special things in the world and a culture we’re building at No Limits which is why we are constantly sharing things like our Core values, and our mission and vision statements. We want all of our athletes not only knowing what the gym is about, but eventually living and modeling those values as well.
Look. No Limits IS a business. What we do ISN'T free and the gym is open to be profitable. Most people won’t put that in black and white but.. I’m not most people.