Real Humans Beat Fake Robots

While on vacation recently, my  friend Jordan  said:

“The internet is more real life than real life for many people now.”

Do you agree?

Consider this: Jordan has a friend who signed a 3-year, $90 million deal in his 20s. He’s not in the NBA. Or the NFL. Or pro baseball. He doesn’t sing or play guitar or act in Hollywood.

Online rumors say that he’s made north of $200 million in his career. 

He plays videogames.

And with his video game money, he now owns several beach front properties in Clearwater, Florida. He bought a 20,000 square foot warehouse across the street from the beach “just for fun” - it houses his personal gym, a boxing ring for his buddies, and a skate park. A few years ago he built the largest indoor Pickleball facility in Pinellas County. What else to do with his video game millions?

He makes money from a streaming service, where millions of people (kids and adults) pay money to WATCH people play video games. The viewers are not playing the game. Just watching others play.

So for many, yes, the online world IS the real world now.

Not me though. I abhor technology and the internet. I haven’t posted on social media since 2021. I MAIL my newsletters each month instead of using email.

I am a dinosaur.

And maybe I’m being left behind. No $90 million deals for me. Just a gym in Martinsville Indiana.

. . . with the best clients in the world!

I’ve been thinking a lot about money lately. And work. I recently saw an “on the street” interview where a young man asked people how their life would change if they were given $10 million tomorrow. And another young man completely flipped the script on the interviewer, saying:

If I gave YOU $10 million, but tomorrow you didn’t wake up, would 

you take it?

And, of course, the interviewer says, “No.”

“Right, so you’re saying that your life right now the way it already is, is worth more than ten million to you!”

Something to remember the next time you are feeling down . . . 

For this modern-day dinosaur, real life was seeing my sisters become All-Americans again down in Florida.

Real life was watching my boys run down to the ocean our first day at the beach.

Real life was sharing a coffee with my wife in the early morning sun listening to the waves.

Real life is working with you all at the gym, speaking in person and hearing about your life.

I’m typing this right now in Florida on my phone and I hate it. (But don’t worry, I’m NOT going to start hand-writing these newsletters. Not only would it take an inordinate amount of time, but Anna says my hand-writing looks like that of a drunk doctor.)

But love it or hate it, technology is a necessary evil.

Speaking of evil, I’ve been asked whether I’m worried about AI (artificial intelligence) and the future of the gym. I suppose that some people think AI may replace gyms, or at least replace trainers like me. 

Bollocks.

It’ll be the opposite.

I WELCOME AI because it’ll drive even more people to places like Strength School. Humans need HUMAN connection. It’s why so many people get animals - they are the closest things you can get to human connection, without the emotional, financial, and psychological costs of pairing up with a real human. I love my wife by the way.

Elon Musk’s Optimus robots won’t replace human connection. They dang sure ain’t replacing Shane Reuter. No robot can simultaneously criticize you in the gym while also making you feel better like me. You can’t program it.

Can you program a robot to be as funny as my 7am class?

Can you program a robot to be as nice as Susan Ribley or Jan Abraham or the rest of the 8am class?

Can you program a robot to be like Edwin Phillips in the 10am, who recently told me that he has Tiger Blood running through his veins just like Charlie Sheen?

Can you program a robot to give me the look that Ranae Griffin (4pm class) gives me when I ask her to do an extra set or go up in weight?

Here’s my point - 

IF AI does what the “ex-spurts” think it’ll do, it will only drive demand sky high for real human businesses and services like Strength School. In fact, I’ve even been tossing around the idea for a new rule: 

Once you leave Strength School, you’re gone for good . . . 

As Ben Settle, one of my favorite business authors says, “If the trash takes itself out, I don’t bother trying to bring it back in.”

I'm not saying that everyone who leaves is a bad client - it just seems lately like every time someone quits, I get a new client in a few months or less who is WAY BETTER than the one who left. So I’m continually upgrading. And if demand continues to increase with AI-driven desire for real human connection, why let quitters come back? 

You can have the best gym in the world at your house, with the best program ever written by the smartest trainer alive, but if you don’t enjoy, or are not motivated by, exercising on your own (or with a robot), then it’s all baloney.

COVID was not long ago. And it showed how important real life human connection really is for our species. It showed us how harmful it is to be isolated, indoors all the time, sitting in front of a TV or computer or playing video games (or paying real money to watch someone else play video games).

The fake AI robots will be COVID without the cough if we are not careful.