Contract with major supplement company… $100,000

Prize money from last major body building show… $75,000

Annual take from guest posing stints… $40,000

Amount saved from having strippers give you lap dances for free… $200

Running into jr. high class bully at Ralph’s pulling food stamps out of dirty jeans… PRICELESS!

Is body building as glamorous as you once imagined? Is it all that, or is it all that and the bag of chips you never bargained for? Does it read like a “Mastercard® Priceless ad” or does it read more like this:

Annual personal training salary… $30,000

Money from nude posing stints… $5000

Last cycle price… $10,000

Monthly rent at beachside apartment… $2000

Credit card debt when personal training was slow… $5000

Guest posing -minus clothes- for gay men to buy food, and earn additional $10,000 for attorney’s fees to beat recent steroid charge… PRICELESS!

If you’re one of the legions of out-of-state body building disciples (READ: out of state - lives in any other city than Venice, CA) who believes that the portal way to stardom, fame and a busload of cash lies just within the city limits of Venice, CA, then this article is mostly for you.

But let’s get something straight right from the start…

No one is trying to dissuade you from following your dreams in body building, whatever they may be. After all, had Tiger Wood’s father discouraged him from rabidly pursuing the links as a tyke, he might be trapped in suburbia with a former Miss Peoria, have 2 bratty kids, and make $40,000 a year selling shower curtain rings! And had someone rained on Ronnie Coleman’s body building parade ten years ago, telling him he had no future in body building, he might be only a slightly intimidating cop-on-the beat who hangs out at the local Road Kill Café on a Saturday night rather than the body building superstar he is today. 

Yes indeed, the chasm is vast, and when you look at things in those terms it’s amazing that anyone makes it to super-stardom or even simple, garden-variety, success. How small the margin between success and mediocrity, right? One small decision made differently might impact an entire future. Yet, despite the odds, some do make it up the body building ladder of success with one hand tied behind their back. Just remember, however, it can work both ways. 

More likely, you’re probably the second guy in the ‘priceless comparison’ - the guy who wants so much to live the body building lifestyle that he goes into debt doing it.

On the outside, it appears to family and friends that you are able to support your body building hobby of competing twice yearly and your mother is proud. You look better than 95% of the population, you get to live near the beach, you date a pretty blonde girl with a tight butt and big boobs, and you appear to have everything together. To the outsider, you are a success. Hell, to a lot of America, you are the ideal. But that’s just on the outside. But are you?

Take a look a little deeper below the surface and you’ll see a guy, perhaps like yourself, who’s living so hand-to-mouth that he can barely afford to get by without fracturing a law or two along the way. He’s so focused on maintaining that body building lifestyle - that body building dream - that he is looking the other way when he’s popped for dealing steroids or caught by his peers with his pants down in a photo taken by an amateur gay photographer. Think these are the worst of it? No way. The worst tragedy of all occurred when all of the other opportunities of life came… and went… and never came back again while you doggedly pursued something in body building that you may never achieve in your lifetime.

Here’s the truth: There’s never anything wrong with pursuing a life-long body building dream, provided you know the risks and trade-offs you are bound to experience along the way. If you can understand and accept these, and know that there are no guarantees in body building or anything in this life, but you still want to give body building a shot, then go for it! You will be the type who will lose nothing by pursuing body building as a career, and will probably walk away from it with some great stories and a lot of self-esteem you didn’t have prior.

“Hmmm… med school, a future salary of six figures, and membership to an exclusive country club? Or a $24,000 contract with Acme Supplements??  Let me think about that for just a minute”

However, if you are among the type who considers most of what you pursue as a “sure thing” or feels surprised when long shots don’t come in at the gate, then you’re probably one of the legions of guys pursuing body building who are in for a rude awakening. If you understood how few men make it to the top of the heap of body building - even with great genetics - you’d probably think twice about putting all your eggs in one “body building” basket. Be careful, you may be the guy who wakes up at 40 and bitterly asks himself if he’s ever going to drive anything better than an ‘89 Toyota Celica because you chose to pursue body building so long ago.

See, the single biggest travesty of all isn’t the guy who bets the farm and loses, or drives a Celica at the age of 40. There’s nothing wrong with that. The tragedy can be found surrounding the guy who instead of body building could have had the mansion, the farm and a penthouse apartment overlooking the park, and bets them all on something that has questionable odds in the first place. We all know the guy, the one who was in the middle of medical or law school, a month away from finishing a master’s degree, or some other “real world” accomplishment, and ends up dropping out to pursue a goal of……? professional body building?? What the

Think it sounds far-fetched? It isn’t. There are more than just a handful of people in the body building industry who have given up lucrative career paths, at the last minute, in order to experience the body building lifestyle. The truth is, these are the ones who are least likely to succeed. In fact, these body building folks number greater than those who are actually competing - and struggling - in the local, national or pro body building ranks! They are the constant gym fixtures you see training, taking drugs, and just hanging out in the gym for hours at a stretch. They bypassed a real career to pursue an elusive career in body building. For what purpose, only they know for sure.

Sad as it may seem to the outsider, this guy is convinced he’s traded his vocation for a more promising future in body building. Is it steroids that jacked his head up so badly? Or is it just that he wasn’t doing what he wanted to do in the first place and got out in the nick of time? Who knows! The point is, my dad dropped out of dental school at the last minute, because he didn’t want to peer into juicy, decaying mouths for 40 years. But that didn’t mean he lost his mind and headed for the gym for a 500 pound squat instead! Even if someone had told him that there are people in body building with lucrative contracts, driving Mercedes, and dating the country’s most beddable women, it’s doubtful that he would have actually taken the leap. But some do.

Oops! Someone forgot to tell these guys that hardly anyone making a living at body building today, live idyllic, supreme lives. In fact, less than 5% of those making any money at body building - what little there is in comparison to other sports - live truly celebrated, wealthy lifestyles. Sure, Flex Wheeler has always driven nice cars. So have Paul Dillett and Shawn Ray. But does anyone know how the pros live the rest of their lives? Are their homes palaces? Castles, maybe, but only figuratively speaking. They do well for themselves, certainly, but not without jockeying for income from many different sources.

Typically, a pro in body building counts his income from three or four main categories: guest appearances, contracts, personal consultations, and if he is lucky, from the almighty competition dollar. If you’re among the top in body building like Ronnie Coleman, Kevin Levrone, Chris Cormier, Flex Wheeler or Shawn Ray, you probably make decent money and can provide a good life for yourself and your family. Mercedes, Jaguars, Hummers and Beemers are likely possible purchases for you.

If you’re in that second, and by no means “shabby”, tier in body building, counting guys like Dexter Jackson, Gunter Schlierkamp, Tom Prince and Jean-Pierre Fux, you can also command a decent living, though perhaps not as flashy an existence. Still, you can actually consider that you’re making a living as a pro in body building and it’s a dream of many to be in your shoes.

If you’re in that mid-range in pro body building that includes guys like Dennis James, King Kamali and Bob Chicherillo, you make a living, no doubt, but still struggle and need to supplement your income in other ways until you either break out (like Schilerkamp did) or find a lucrative body building business in which to retire comfortably. Still, people in this group can consider that the body building lifestyle has given them a certain amount of return on their long-banked blood, sweat and tears.

Those who place out of tenth at most of the shows, aren’t getting paid a dime by being up on the body building stage. Still, they may make some money by representing a body building supplement or body building apparel company, and might make a relatively good living not in body building but as a personal trainer. They aren’t quite in demand enough in body building to make more than about $5000 per year in personal appearances, and probably don’t drive a new car. This isn’t a tragedy, but they are borderline hobbyists and actually need to have an income in addition to being a pro in the world of body building.

Thinking of making a career as someone in the national level body building? Excuse me, what career would that be?

Then there are guys like Ronnie Coleman, who started his career in body building, by having a career in law enforcement, and continued to work at his chosen profession despite a sideline career as the top dog in the body building world. This is probably one of the most impressive and puzzling moves by anyone in pro body building. Not only did his decision to continue as a cop indicate that Coleman is humble and keeps his feet firmly rooted in the real world, it’s also indicative of a guy who knows that body building, no matter how glorious it can be, has a short shelf life!  It’s also a good bet that he wouldn’t have been shattered had he not made it to the level he has as a pro in the world of body building.

This certainly sends a strong message - or should - to those who are considering pursuing body building as a sole career choice. That message should scream: Have a back up plan! The chances of you making it in body building in the future, is a total and complete long-shot, no matter how many “yes” men surrounding you say otherwise. Having something else to love about life other than body building is probably the smartest thing you could ever do for yourself - not only because it means that you aren’t putting all your eggs into the body building basket and hoping it will feed you and yours for a long time, but because it means that you have a healthy perspective on what success and failure can afford.

There’s something to be said for being hungry in life - for risking it all in the name of fame and fortune. But that isn’t realistic for too many lives, especially in body building. The more realistic picture is something of a compromise. It’s the guy who takes 2 years off from higher education to see what body building has to offer him, but then heads back to the university campus before he’s 30 when things don’t work out because he sees that he doesn’t have a chance at making it past the local level in body building. It’s the guy who trains nights and weekends, while maintaining a full time career, who reaps the many benefits of body building and fitness, competition and accomplishment, not the one who stands idle in the gym parking lot, packing away food that he can no longer afford to buy.

Think body building is for you? It may well be. You definitely owe it to yourself and others to find out for sure before you move on. After all, you may have the potential to pack on the size of a Ronnie Coleman, or easily step into the shoes of a genetically sublime Flex Wheeler. But if you’re not of that body building caliber, have a back up plan and accept with grace the fact that not everyone can be a superstar of stage.