It's easy to give in to your weaknesses. It's easy to let those define you. It's easy to fall and stay on the ground. Getting back up isn't easy, and sometimes it's hard to find a reason to get up when you feel defined by your weaknesses. If you've found yourself on the ground with all the odds preventing you from standing up, you might want to read this story. In fact, what is holding you down may lead you to finding a passion that will build you into someone you never thought you could be. The man behind this story is named William Ogden, and he has done just that. His successes were a result of a situation that only those who have experienced can understand fully. Although it's hard to admit, these situations can affect someone for the rest of there lives and truly can leave a self-esteem permanently tarnished. They blind us from realizing we have the ability to be and achieve whatever we put our minds too. The extent to which bullying can negatively affect someone is truly unfortunate. However, according to Bill Ogden, bullying is what gave him the motivation to achieve his dreams.
It all began in his middle school years, around 7th grade. We all remember the bus stop being a place to gather with your friends in the neighborhood before heading off to school. However, for bill, it was a nightmare. A group of individuals he referred as "the burnouts" would ride his bus to school. They were older than most of the kids by a few years, and they used this to force their will upon their fellow schoolmates. Constantly he was threatened with getting beat down unless he gave them money and often he would get jumped on and punched without any warning. The saddest part about it was the bus driver enabled this to happen day by day. After so many days of being robbed of his money, the "burnouts" eventually bought an 8 track player with the cash they had stolen and placed it on the school bus to listen to music. Every day Bill had to get on that bus and listen to whatever music they chose to play on the 8 track player bought with his money. Their abuse was so intense and demeaning that eventually Bill felt as if he was in "fight or flight" mode every time he rode the bus. For a while he was helpless to this abuse.
Upon arriving to high school, Bill was still experiencing this intense bullying. To be in the amount of stress he was in just couldn't continue. He realized it was time to do something. Over the summer before school started, Bill took his first step in doing something about the situation he was in. His father had a weight set, and Bill's first workout ever was moving the weight's upstairs to his room in the attic. He began cutting grass to earn money and bought himself a weight lifting magazine to learn how to start lifting. He began eating so much food that eventually his parents started making him buy his own food and keep it separate from the main cabinets. During that summer Bill did nothing but trained hard. He decided that he was taking no more abuse and if no one else was going to defend him, he'd defend himself. That summer was the beginning of a journey that has led Bill to be in the position he is in now.
On the first day of school, Bill walked to the school bus as usual. The "burnouts" were still there, but Bill had planned something no one would have expected. It was time they were held accountable for the damage they had done. This time, Bill wasn't taking any bullying whatsoever. As Bill expected, the "burnouts" were surprised to see the new and improved form he had taken. No longer a pushover, Bill had made a statement for himself just by arriving to the bus stop. Usually as he walked past, the "burnouts" would knock his books out of his hands onto the ground. This time, that didn't happen. In fact, Bill walked straight up to the biggest guy who had been bullying him constantly and said, "You owe me money." The "burnouts" would smoke cigarettes at the bus stop every morning, and Bill decided he was done getting smoke blown in his face. He ripped the cigarettes out of this bully's front shirt pocket and they spilled onto the ground. This would never happen on a normal day, and being humiliated by someone he usually bullied regularly was not something this bully was prepared to accept. He pushed Bill in response, but that didn't do much at all. However, the push that Bill gave back was all that was necessary to end this bullies reign over him and the rest of the kids at the bus stop. Bill pushed this bully so quick and hard that he flew through the local library window shattering it completely into pieces. Bill didn't intend to do this but it had happened, and stunned, he got on the bus to head to school. Immediately he stood up and told all the burnouts to get to the front of the bus. After seeing what Bill had done to their biggest guy, they listened resentfully. Bill took the 8 track player they had bought and smashed it. He put out the cigarettes they were smoking on the bus and stated from that day forward that these bullies antics were no longer allowable on this bus.
After school Bill was called to the office for his actions and ultimately was told he had to apologize with his parents to the kid he had pushed through the window. However, this wasn't the end. Bill knew of another bully on the bus who he had to set straight. This bully was so frightened by Bill that he fled off the school bus at the end of that day in attempt to evade any confrontation. That wasn't happening. Bill jumped out of the emergency exit of the bus and halted the bully in his tracks. He expected to be in a fight that day, but his courage earlier at the bus stop had given the bullies every reason not to mess with Bill anymore. The bully did not want to fight Bill, and Bill walked home with no bruises having received no beating. That day truly left an imprint on Bill to the point he remembers it vividly till this day. In fact, the library that he had sent the bully through a window into actually became his own gym one day. His passion in lifting weights that had given him the ability to defend himself ultimately became his lifestyle and career path. He became a teenage bodybuilder and joined the military out of school. After leaving the military, Bill answered an ad in the paper for a job at a local gym. There he worked for this company, even living on the property, as a gym manager responsible for handling and teaching people how to use the equipment. He eventually found himself working a full time job earning a minimum wage of $3.35 at a gym. Although it was a struggle, he was very passionate about fitness and he continued to push his efforts towards that as a career although it didn't necessarily pay the bills.
One day he sold a kid his first gym membership by the name of Dave Wright as a Christmas gift. Dave Wright eventually grew up to own that gym, turning it into Wright's Gym where Bill now works as the gyms personal trainer. Throughout Bill's career he stuck with his passion and ultimately it has led to his current success as a personal trainer and even a world record holder in a very difficult lift, the strict curl. All of this he can attribute to those bullies who tormented him day to day. He took the awful situation he was in and made it a motivator to work hard on himself. He will be the first to tell you that he is actually thankful for those bullies as rough as that sounds. That motivation led him to find something he truly loves and now uses as a way to help others who want to better themselves. Doing something you love as a career can be hard to imagine in today's world, but those bullies led Bill exactly to that spot, doing something he loves as his career. Bill has been a major inspiration to those he works with, and his knowledge and wisdom has helped so many achieve their goals not only in the gym but across life. Hopefully his story gives others struggling a sense that they aren't alone in their struggle, and they truly can turn a negative into a positive. As Bill says, "if you get lemons, make lemonade."
Here is a message from Bill to viewers who read this story. He is a man of faith and sends blessings to everyone.
Here Dave Wright, owner of Wright's Gym, gives a quote on how he met Bill Ogden.
Dave Wright talks about Bill as a trainer and asset to his gym.
Bill Ogden demonstrates the strict curl with a whopping 135lbs
This is Wright's Gym where Bill Ogden does his personal training
A look inside Wright's Gym in the main weight lifting area.
Here is the primary area where Bill will work with individuals he personally trains in Wright's Gym