Deca Startup Business Plan: Fill & Download for Free

Even Christians make money, Sagar... Thanks for the A2A...:):)Unless your heart is as wide and limitless as your namesake - the lovely blue ocean - your startup exists for making money - and monetization is the only way to make money out of the asset that your startup revolves around. Hence, for starters, psychologically, you should not allow your mind the luxury to even think that monetization can wait. You should start planning for booking sales on your books, lest your quarter-end P&L won't read good:):)The answer, therefore, to your question is: You can wait till yesterday. You CAN'T possibly, because you don't have cash to burn uselessly.The bigger question, however, is: why you should NOT wait for monetization? The answer is: because somebody else, with smarter ideas will soon start the hunt and may well push you out of the ring for all we know. Waiting has a high opportunity cost to it - at times life-threatening!Having preached a little, let me swivel exactly to your business and hazard a few ideas. But first, let me quickly share a little secret: that startups can monetize around TWO assets - ONE, their real thunder, and SECOND, the buzz around the thunder. Facebook and Quora can monetize via going paid; or milk the buzz that is created around their service-utility. Advertising is the way to milk the Buzz. That's the reason, online startups are going berserk after growth-hacking. They're trying to jack up the number of users, so that they can milk the Buzz that this user-base creates, and then they can start monetizing via paid advertising, like FB does.But it takes guts and excellence to monetize through your CORE idea. Honestly, FB and Twitter are very primitive, low quality social apps, and they cant ever dream of earning on their own. They can only milk the buzz.You should avoid the Buzz model, if you think you a have real solid CORE product/ benefit. And if you don't, for whoever's sake, build one, because this book business, otherwise is so cluttered, I feel I'm lost in a Kumbha Mela in Allahabad.. seriously!Buzz-based monetization models suit those deep-pocketed deca-corns and unicorns, and if you happen to belong to the humbler category of bootstrappers, you'll have to think of a strong offline strategy to kickstart monetization. The buzz can wait, in the meanwhile.

*I started this as a bulletpoint list. Then I had to write the whole story. I have always wanted to tell it but I had to wait a sufficient amount of time…I have many pro bodybuilder friendsI respect them all and love bodybuilding.R. I. P. - Dallas McCarverI will gladly tell that story but you have to read the lead up and how it all started.14…already capped delts:)BEFOREBefore steroids: 9 years of consistent training. 10–19.5 yrs old. I started at 10 yrs old with a 20lb plastic weider barbell set that my dad gave me (straight outta Canadian Tire!)Then I saw those boxes of brand new, never been read muscle and fitness, muscular development and muscle builder mags in my friends step dads garage. Keith (my friend) went inside and summoned his step dad:“can eric read these?” he said.“Eric, Take both boxes” I bought the subscription and never read any of them.” He said.BOOM!It was all over. Guitar lessons and every other activity basically went out the window. I was an adamant “anti-drug” person. I did not smoke, drink, do any drugs at all. I did no recreational drugs until I was about 21. I was that guy that frowned at all steroid users.I had this issue at some point:)I signed these two books out of the library so many times they had to eventually put a second card holder in each of them.If you can get a copy, check out the progress of the kid that is the subject. Bill Phillips was not the first guy doing “B&A’s” for publication. You can see the point in the pics where he starts taking gear:)The Gold's Gym Book of Bodybuilding (Gold's Gym Series): Ken Sprague, Bill Reynolds: 9780809256938: Amazon.com: Books - the woman on the cover doing nautilus shoulder press is, if I remember correctly, a Doctor.Absolutely the best book ever.In the back, each freaky member of Golds Gym, California that competed or was a bodybuilding celebrity visiting California that trained at Golds had a Bio in the back.It was like a little baseball card sized synopsis (arm size, interesting facts etc.) Even has the original insulin pioneer, Tim Belknap on the front (rowing dumbell).I used to remember thinking about how his physique did not look the same as the others and then putting 2 and 2 together later in the mid 90’s after reading about insulin in Peak and MM2000.Once I got to high school and outgrew the weights in the surprisingly well equipped gym we had (sutton district high school- ~800 students) I ordered a 310lb olympic set from the united states and my gym teacher let me deliver it to the high school as it had a loading dock. I then ordered a set of plans for what I thought was a metal power rack. It ended up being made from wood. I trained in my parents basement from that point on and did not use the high school gym much anymore…too many fools and nobody being serious.Pictured: Drying off in front of the air conditioner in my shitty apartment in Scarborough, Ontario. Bodybuilders were always broke. It costs a lot to eat 5 times what a normal person eats. The other pic is a view of my “home gym” which I manufactured from plans I ordered from the back of one of those magasines.ALMOST TO THE STEROIDSAt 18, on the way to my first long term job out of high school (new generation muscle and fitness - commercial gym/juice pit/#theydontmakemthatwaynomore) I took my first ephedrine…and that opened the gate.I had already experimented with Creatine, weight gainers, vanadyl sulphate, etc.Remember: There was no internet. You could not just look stuff up online. You could not buy steroids online. Nobody knew much about any of that at all. But….if you are the gregarious, loquacious, energetic and friendly guy like me; you eventually end up getting mentored by a national level competitor who sees how serious you are (eventually got his pro-card..yes, a real IFBB pro-card, not one from the many “wannabe” federations.)Our first conversation went like this:ME: I want to do a showHim: ok, you need to take juice. bodybuilding is juice.ME: ok.By this point I had already been researching (buying underground manuals on steroids, reading Peak Magazine and the ORIGINAL 25 issues of Muscle Media 2000 before it became junk and just an ad rag for EAS) and I had made up my mind through simple observation and logic that if I wanted to go anywhere as a bodybuilder, I had to get with the program.Pictured: Muscle Media 2000 It was already starting to suck by this issue. Supplements just became BIG money. Bill Phillips made a lot of money from guys talking about steroids.It did not take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that NONE of the really HUGE guys coming in and throwing around massive weights ever even stopped at the proshop!They didn’t take supplements at all!They saved their money and bought FOOD that went along with whatever gear they were taking.SUPPLEMENTSWhat do I know about supplements? Lots> Here is the line that I participated as CMO with along with some friends who got together and did the startup.Unfortunately one of those friends passed and we could not continue.It was sold on illpumpyouup, sndcanada, hercs and vitamin shoppe as well as a number of smaller outlets around Toronto.I don’t subscribe to supps much but if you did get to take these: amazing formulas.THE EARLY YEARS AT THE GYMWorking at a mid sized commercial gym full of bikers, steroid dealers, gassed up gym rats, serious bodybuilders and full on competitive powerlifters in the early 90’s was a godsend and also an eye openerIts where I started to see how the whole thing worked.I targeted a show.First cycle I did 8 ampules of sustanon 250 (they were original, real, pharmaceutical grade, not the junk that passes as “gear” these days and the only steroids I ever did, with the exception of specific products that you could not get from a real pharmacy source where 100% pharmacy grade, straight from said pharmacies.note: did you notice I targeted a show and then did a “bulking cycle?” I was already being mentored.The next year or so was just training and eating.I didn’t dick around with trying to do anything but get jacked. Dieting will make you skinny.And so I learned the principle of lean gains…right from the start.It makes it so much easier to build quality muscle if you feed yourself proper amounts of foods that produce MORE ELECTRONS.Did you know that anabolic steroids increase your total negative charge to a massive degree and the your mitochondria have to work overtime to sustain this?Its all about that electron flow baby.I was like a primed up pump just waiting to get turned on and pump a thousand gallons a minute.Training for all that time natural was about to pay off!Once I had done 3 cycles I entered the show I had set as the one I was going to do.I won my weight class but no overall.Pictured: These are the exact ones …Russian Cyctahoh AKA “side-a-hose’ or “sick-ta-hoes”I spent 3 years selling a lot of steroids online from Portugal where I went undercover as a bouncer which was my main occupation that put me through University, travelling all over and enjoying being a bodybuilder, and paid my taxes as an EU citizen:)I was an original pioneer of the whole online steroid supply chain and did a lot more stuff than that.I have not decided yet if I can write more than that due to the fact I dealt with people that were HUGE international dealers.I have a book in mind.After all, its been over 15 years:)911 happened and I wrapped it all up and came home after partying for a few months.Well, it was more than partying.I didn’t party much at all.I was too busy sleeping.By this point, I had developed an addiction to GHB and An amphetamine like drug called Ephedrine which is what fueled my days and nights throughout university and, with frenetic fury, the next 12 years which included the majority of my 15 year competition career.Lots of people in the fitness world are addicts.I had something to prove.Even when I was 10 I had something to prove.I’m not sure now what that was, really, but I knew it was going to be hard and it was also something that nobody else was doing.It had to hurt.I totally enjoyed the feeling of a “blowtorch burn” and would regularly push myself past pain barriers that most people would not even SMELL, let alone try.I wanted to be seen.What came next?So, I ended up leaving Portugal and going home.Kinda a good thing.I always seemed to leave whatever I was doing and move on before anyone else ever caught on and it became a popular thing ..and I was never greedy and tried to scam people or rip them off.If I had continued I would have been wealthy..but growing up religious I think made me full of guilt and I eventually could not sell “gear” anymore.Plus, you can't be flying around in planes with suitcases full of steroids anymore!Pictured: Portugal circa 2000 -> If you can’t tell who I am… How do I know if I need to wear glasses? :)BACK TO THE GYM AND THE EARLY DAYSI gained 45lb in 8 weeks on my first cycle of the “sick-ta-hoes”There was no noticeable gain in fat.I kept that weight and then added another 40lb over the 15 years I used and competed.5′9 usually walked around at 235–250lb with abs and quad definition.Tank top ready 365.No “dirty bulking” - that's just being dumbIt was EASY compared to the first 10 years!So easy in fact, that I lost most of that fire I had for training.The zeal was gone.I did some crazy workouts once in a while but in general, I just methodically went to the gym and each year, I would jump on stage and always do well.Top three every time but 3 I think. Its all hard to remember really.But the competing part was what I loved.I loved BODYBUILDING.The bodybuilding that I read about when I was a kid.The year I won my overall (yep, just a level one show…I was always having to start again because here in Canada, you can’t just qualify and then go back at the same level if you take time off. Its harder up north eh?)I was running around backstage helping people with their protan, encouraging others and making people happy in general.I mean, I always wondered why these people were competing!They were all miserable and bitter.All twisted up about a trophy.Pictured: They never make it home without falling apart. Or maybe the “loser” just smashed it. Huge Egos abound in bodybuilding. Everyone is “robbed” or “cheated” in their distorted minds.First show: cycle used-> 300mg test propionate/week for 12 weeks. Then 1 bottle of upjohn Halotestin for the final week.*as a side note: Dorian just told Joe Rogan his typical cycles. 5x what I averaged over what I would take.Pictured: first show 178 lb. missed middleweight by 2 lb.I have middle of the road juice genetics and exceptional physiologic resilience along with shape/proportion genetics.Meaning:I could take a sufficient amount of gear to get huge but not get sick while also always gaining size in every area equally and remaining proportionate.Zero acne.Zilch.If it had given me crazy zits the first cycle I would have stopped immediately.Its supposed to make you look good, not a walking puss eruption!Some people have a super strong physiology that way.Some don’t.Some have superior “juice genetics” and can blow up on basically nothing.Those are also the guys that usually have no physiologic resilience and they disappear after their first year of competition due to health issues-> liver, kidneys etc.If you want to read more about juice genetics, I used to moderate the anabolics section of Anabolic Steroids - Bodybuilding - SuperiorMuscle.com in 2003 while I was managing my friends gym in the UK.My pics and stuff are all up there in the archives along with a post I made about that whole thing. :)I noted as I was writing this that I didn’t mention I kept writing on there even after I came home for about a year.WHATS IT LIKE ON THE JUICE?Like, how did it feel?It felt freakin Amazing!At first.But later, thats another story and for another time.When you take steroids:Recovery is super fastYou get stretch marks. I grew super fast but my skin must have been amazing because I only got stretch marks where my pecs join into the shoulder. Big ones. They are scars. I had blood and puss come out of them for a few days at one point because my skin actually tore. Others get tiny micro tears the same a an obese person. Cosmetically, its not very appealing.You have lots of energy - If you know your nutrition. If you don’t, you can also be super lethargic.You deal with stress like its nothing (if you are already a balanced person..in some it works the opposite way) - Testosterone is the male stress buffer hormone.You can pretty much eat anything you want within reason and stay lean. Its one of the reasons that so many still subscribe to higher carb diets. Once they get with the program and hit some keto..thats when they get shredded. Tom Platz knew this stuff…you can hear him talk about it and going from low carb to high (carb cycling) while getting ready for shows.You just need to be consistent in the gym. Nothing fancy. Its not rocket science. I used to write down every set, rep, tempo and how long my shits where (ok, kidding on that one) and once I threw that out the window, I started getting huge. When your on steroids, it comes down to the S.A.I.D principle 100%. Feed yourself piles of calories, train each muscle as soon as its not sore and keep pushing until you break barriers…its not like natural training at all.Dose dictates size if all the other parameters are in place and consistent. Unfortunately for many, genetics dictate your actual size potential and so, many take a ton of stuff and you can’t even tell. Dan Duchaine was one of the more famous figures that took gear and never really looked like much more than a local guy that placed 3rd out of 3 on stage. I totally subscribed to much of the stuff he said though because his genetics dictated that even the minor development he did get was because he knew what he was doing…his genetic gifts were that bad (may he rest in peace.)You get out of breath easily during your first few cycles until your heart function catches up to the rapid weight gain.You gain a massive amount of strength relative to what you could lift before. I don’t care how “elite” a guy says he is in the strength department, once you hit the gas, it is a whole other ballgame. Period. I was benching 1.5x bodyweight for 5X5 before the gas. By the time I was all said and done I had done double bodyweight at just over 200 lb in competition and I could go into any gym on any day of the week and bang out three plates for 10… 315lb squats 35 reps etc.It hurts to work out. Especially if you are taking certain steroids that drastically increase red blood cell count. It is not possible to describe other than if you have had a blowtorch inside your muscle melting a huge piece of plastic while also releasing pressurized gas that almost rips your skin open; and it is also one of the reasons some people take tons of stuff and never make any gains> they look like they are in pain when they train but their idea of extreme pain is not the same as others. I’m not talking about not being able to walk the next day. Anybody can do that…just keep on lifting a light weight long enough..you will eventually be sore. Learning to go to max pain threshold due to lactic acid buildup etc. while on gear is like a personal journey that many never finish. If it was a 10 on your pain scale when you were natural, you will have to get used to at least a 15 once you start the gas and you gain any significant size.Body mechanics change. Once you hit a certain size, you start to lift differently. Not possible to explain unless you have been there.You take on a new persona. People treat you differently and therefore you really do develop a different personality than you would have. Unfortunately for many, they are scared, dark and fearful people who turn into complete assholes once they realize that the majority of people will not challenge them just because they are huge. Note: I have seen lots of guys who take steroids and are huge get taken out by 140lb “weaklings” so their logic is faulty. I was head doorman for ~ 5 years in Toronto at a popular night spot and also was head doorman at Phoenix Clube in lagos portugal for 3 years. Because I got bigger and was always friendly and able to talk people out of violence I always had a job. Brains+wisdom+brawn when needed make for a great person in general:) Too bad many magnify their “assholeness” by adding in androgens to the mix. I know guys (and girls) that are just complete jerks and should not ever take anything other than BCAA’s they have such delicate psyches.Some steroids have other uses that are not cosmetic but rather psychological; As I could get it from one supplier and I knew it was real, I used to chew up a few tabs of methyltest and put the powder under my tongue on leg and back days. Using the extra aggression from the crazy androgens made for an awesome workout every time. Androgens also improve nerve impulses and so you have immediately more strength. If you are not all that strong, its not going to be noticeable. But if you are already lifting big weights you KNOW when you put on a significant amount more and it is easy.WHAT HAPPENED AFTER YOU STOPPED TAKING STEROIDS?I stopped taking anabolics in 2008 after ~15 years. I had a life changing year that year:)It took me over 2 years to starve the muscle off me.I did that on purpose.I also was suffering from depression and in a clinical way.Just like Dorian Yates will tell you happened to him after he was forced to retire.But, I would not have known.How could I?I had begun to drink heavily to keep myself from going back on to the GHB and Ephedrine that had been my faithful friends for over 15 years.That, combined with the fact that I was coming off of steroids cold turkey for the first time in almost the same amount of time (come on, honestly, don’t even go there. …your on all the time. Taking HCG and PILES OF POWERFUL HORMONE MANIPULATING PILLS Like they are PEZ is not realising what type of hormonal dysregulation you are causing is just “arrested development” at work.Its because people are living in egypt a lot.In de-nile.Like Nile Co. Sustanons with the green rings on them DENIAL.Pictured: Nile Co. SustanonWHAT HAPPENED TO BODYBUILDING?Anyone wanting to look like one of todays ‘pros’ has got to be suffering from delusion.Especially if you think that its possible without copious amounts of drugs.Check out this Answer I did just recently that fits in here as a cautionary note.Eric Morrison's answer to Can taking steroids kill you?It got some positive reviews from some dude on my LinkedIn that I respect greatly so I thought I would add it in. Don’t mind the Electrons and Electron transport chain stuff. Its easy to read:)It aint bodybuilding anymore ToTo…I have not really been to the gym much on a regular basis since then except to train the odd person that insists I do that part with them along with the diet.I do stretching occasionally and am 150% all over my diet which is what dictates what you look like after you stop.Those that want to keep on “being huge” and can’t take the psychological pain that comes from shrinking down to their original size are destined to be that guy with 3 sweaters on and still wearing baggies at age 50 so people won’t realise that they are actually fat and out of shape because they never got their diet right at any point and that for them, it really was all juice.I am, and always will be, stronger than your average dude at the gym if we all took the same amount of time off and then went back in and did strength tests, lb for lb.I trained natural for 10 years like a madman.Then I did 15 with the “gas”So, If you were already strong before and have now used steroids or other PED’s for any good length of time (more than 5 years straight as an example) you will forever be stronger than you would have been before. You can’t ever say you are natural anymore.I can go to the gym, look at a weight, and put on 15lb.I won’t get into Morphogenic fields but lets just say that once you stretch something out..it can be stretched right back to that extent again with not much effort.Loafs of Bread Triceps - I had for whatever reason, super strong triceps. I may even still, hold the York University unofficial “max pushups in a minute” in Kin. 93 in total…Had to get someone to hold down my hands.I am not pro or anti steroid. - Thats a lie. I have even changed my views on this as I am learning more and more about mitochondrial health, water, magnetism and how we really function at the molecular and even better…quantum physics level. Its so much more than ATP folks.I am a realist.I say I would do it all again because whichever way I look at it, I had a lot of fun in this life/journey.I learned a lot about human behaviour and life, and I made a lot of lifetime friends.I did a lot of stuff nobody will ever be able to say they have done.I had become a real life addict and gone all the way to street level for 3 days at one point in my drinking after it took over my life once I had replaced the GHB with it completely.I could stop for a while at at time, but, you can’t drink at a job and I had been on GHB “on the job, in school, afterschool, at thegym and at the library as well as when I was “banging” whoever I was hooked up with at the time due to the need to have sex at every possible minute.Imagine going from ferrari to volkswagon beatle, circa 1944.No wonder Dorian is speaking in front of Audiences now instead of posing on the Dias.Pictured: Arnold Shwartzenneger - undoctored pictures This is achieveable to the average person with average genetics but also one who has a lot of OCD. The shape, no. The size, yes.I stopped once I realised the extent to which I would have to go (GH, INSULIN, DNP etc. all of which I experimented with) to get past the point I basically ended up being comfortable at.Pictured: Kids now don’t even know what is real. They see it all on the internet. Doctored arnold pics with his arms and quads distorted by the “adobe gains” as many of the internet wanna be bodybuilder pundits call it. Ronnie looks like a parody actor when they are compaired even with Arnolds physique distorted.Whats the biggest you ever got?250lb.I never tested my bf but it was under 8% with calipers I can guarantee.I wish I had had a cell phone with a good camera back then…alas there was no such thing.I was living in the UK at the time and all my wife did was bring huge pyrex bowls of food out to me while I was playing xbox (halo just came out!)My friend would pick me up and take me to the gym in the am.We would train, I would come home and start eating again and playing xbox.Take some ‘G’, hit the sack, wake up and repeat.At that point, Because I was still shipping gear all over, I had a lot of extra stuff lying around.So I decided that I would just play a game:Pictured: Typical Day in Portugal. Getting all the amps wrapped in cellophane and packed into a suitcase. The bottles with Blue caps are Thyroid. CHECK THE NOKIA! They JUST came out with a ‘retro’ version of this!Every time I walked to the end of the hallway into the room I had all my supplements and gear in, I would just take whatever shit was lying around. ie. If there was any amps sitting there “all alone”, I had to take one.I Blew up.Pictured: Arms bigger than head…DNP, TEST, TREN, DECA, DBOL…and whatever else I had laying around.I had literally spent my entire juice career taking baby dosages and measuring and marking it all down.I just learned a lesson.Its totally dose dependant at a certain point.I was already bigger than ever before in my career but that was the point where I threw in some DNP I had traded a guy for locally ( I would never buy that shit from anyone online) and I was getting leaner at the same time I was growing.It was almost how it felt doing my first cycle.Pictured: Side chest while we renovated TOP BODY GYMNASIUM - Don’t worry, I had ‘wheels’, its just really cold at Longs Industrial Estate in the UK.If I was born even 10 years earlier, I would have been a pro-bodybuilder.All you needed then was good genetics and some regular testosterone and a great work ethic. I had all in good supply.Good thing I got distracted from all that competing. I did basically one show every year but I always got distracted by other stuff.School, making money, travelling around after you make all the money.And my GHB taking got more important than the eating part as well. Its also one reason I never got Super massive because I would not eat as much as I would have due to wanting to keep my stomach empty so I could take my “G” and not have to worry about if it was going to be stuck in my stomach in a slurry of food.YOu could not calculate very accurately how long the drug would be in and out of your system and I would set my stopwatch that never left my wrist unless I was actually lifting weights.I would eat after it took full effect but I would also swap out meals with shakes and liquids so that I would not interfere with my “medication infusion” timing.I would set it in 1.5 hr countdowns so I would not forget a dose.You want to stay high and also be able to sleep when you want.This would have been the ultimate “be a complete CEO” energy stack and sleep aid.In fact, many of those types are addicted to sleeping pills and uppers.Now you know how I made almost 500 thousand dollars in 3 years.People always thought I was some scatterbrain. Well, i wasn’t when I was on GHB and EPHEDRINE stacked. Plus Testosterone.Did anyone ever tell you that Gonadal hormones 100% effect your concentration?Low testosterone even in young men is probably one of the reasons that we are seeing a rise in ADHD.Its all hormonal at the end of the day. .and even better. Its the electrons again.So, I just found a really cheap and clean way to make my own sleeping drug. And it turned into an all day every day drug.YOU CAN’T BUY GENETICS but…..Now, with “MOdern body augmentation” you need to take stock of your life even if you do have amazing genetics.You need to decide whether or not you want to wear a c-pap machine while you sleep because you have to be 300lb offseason to even consider getting on a stage of any magnitude.This is heart attack territory, every day.You can ask my acquaintance/friend and now deceased pro - Greg Kovaks. When he passed, another mutual friend called me on my phone.“Eric, did you hear about Greg?”Me: “heart attack?”She said “how did you know?”Me: I did not even know he died. But I was waiting.I was right.It was a heart attack.One of the first Insulin+GH+Anabolics Polypharmacy pioneers was dead.Pictured: Random guy wearing a ‘forced-air’ system. Insulin Resistance causes Sleep-apnea by the way…you don’t have to be fat.Its not bodybuilding anymore because its no longer just juice. It all changed in the mid 90’s with the advent of…the internet! You get the picture.I stayed in the scene because it was literally my business (eventually I got in an ad and then later, the same company hired me to do athlete relations and physical transformations for them. I even did the “GNC Roadshow” as a public speaker for the company when it was launching a new product line.DO I STAY OR DO I GO?Once I had hit the provincial level and talked to a very good friend that is also an IFBB pro I hung it up.He said the truth and I did not want to be doing what I did in the UK for a few months for a few YEARS.I did not feel super amazing during that time.Pretty cool, I managed to get where I did on 400mg/wk of 1 or 2 drugs combined. Guys getting into it now hear what I used to take and they just laugh.Picture: no photoshop needed. Wasp waist, wide clavicles, medium-small bone diameter. No direct ab work produced those abs. NO PHOTOSHOP! That was 20 years of pumping-iron. The only time I ever missed more than a week or so at the gym was when I had a pulmonary embolism after flying between multiple countries after gaining 35lb after one of my shows in early 2000’sLots of my pics look like this: as I don’t have any other copies except what I can find from forums where I blanked my face. This was a great way to advertise my “product” after all. p.s. You are looking at what Mcdonalds/burger king built that year. My good friend who was HUGE (5′9 315lb, 500+ bench etc. etc.) and also had competed said to me one year-> you never eat enough. You look better when you eat junk. So he took me to Mcdonalds after every workout we did. That was the year I won my overall I do believe:)Mcdonalds Sault St Marie Ontario circa 2007- post workout - R.I.P my best friend in adult life.I have friends that have passed from being too heavy for too long. I have friends that have passed because they started down the drug path along with the steroids (opiates and alcohol are bodybuilders faves.) and could not stop. I know guys who just can’t stop even after they get major injuries (usually joint and tendon related) and have ended up almost crippled for their efforts. Many if not most that are taking steroids and not even competing are doing so from a place of pain and fear. I wish them all the best and hope that they can one day escape their fears. Steroids will only make you a bigger more scared person with a big suit of armour on. I also know lots of well adjusted guys that take moderate cycles as well as some huge ones and they are super successful in every area.If you are just wanting to be fit, healthy and get a girl: you don’t need steroids. If you want to be above average in the gym, you don’t need steroids.If you want to be a world class ifbb pro bodybuilder and you have decided that its your lifes purpose…you need steroids and a lot of other stuff…along with a big income or a sugar daddy that takes care of you because its EXPENSIVE now. I never spent any of my hard earned money on steroids. I made money from bodybuilding and selling steroids and it paid for my lifestyle including the steroids I took myself.Whether or not you actually turn pro will be a matter of genetic selection. There are now SO MANY using that its an even bigger pipe dream to think you are going to be Mr. Olympia.A better avenue monetarily would be to start a youtube channel, say you are natural when in fact you actually have shitty genetics and create a huge following doing stupid shit online and ridiculing people who have WAY BETTER genetics than you and are taking the same amount of stuff and BLOWING YOU AWAY. Oh wait, thats already being done. :)I will always, for the rest of my life have an affinity for bodybuilding and as always, a great new prospect will come along that I will advise and help on their way with secrets that only one who has been there can know; Usually they quit because I don’t blow smoke up their ass and they are not even CLOSE to being serious enough.I won’t be taking anything like I did when I was competing again because I have so much more stuff to do now including helping out regular folk with addictions and habit change with which I can now definitively say I am an expert if there is such a thing.So long steroids, and thanks for all the fish.CF - 2017Pictured: This is what I look like after fooling around at my friends gym for a few months doing circuit training.Edit: Found this…from an ad I appeared in for Nitro-TechHoly moly! I did not think that it was going to go like this and all the votes etc. I thought a few views might transpire but there is some great feedback already and some pm’s that have been awesome as well.Here is an answer to a great question I already recieved.And, here is what I answered.Thanks for the feedback and the questions Bryan! *when you read my answers imagine that I’m always smiling, genuinely sincere and in a good mood and I’m speaking in an excited way…REALLY! Ask my friends. It was like that before for the most part since I can remember -> so read and smile because except for some really seemingly “shitty” times which now seem like a blink of an eye, at the end of the day I believe I ended up right where I want to be.Why did I stop? I read a book. Xmas of 2006 I think. It was called the power of NOW. One of my family members gave it to me. I got a little ways in and then threw it on the shelf and never looked at it again. ‘What a bunch of garbage” I think was my thought process…I remember telling my ex - “Fuck Silvia Brown and all that spiritual crap - when we die, we go into the ground and thats it”. Existentialist to the max.xmas 2007..someone gives me “A new earth” - awakening to your lifes purpose. BOOM! It was like a light went on and would not go off. I had never really sat down and contemplated ANY of this stuff. It had already started to happen though. I could not sell stuff anymore. I remember having a pile of stuff still at my house and being broke after I quit working for ‘the supplement company” and my wife being mad and saying “why don’t you just sell all that stuff”? I was like “ I CAN’T, I can’t even look at people in the eyes anymore. Thats NOT ME.”I just woke up one morning in 2008 and I stopped going to the gym and I didn’t take another shot. Sporadically for about 1–2 years I tried to start again. It was like I was not supposed to be doing it anymore:) My marriage of over 6 years dissolved rapidly and by 2010 I was divorced and working for a friend up in Northern Ontario driving a truck. Its like a western: I even lost my dog in the divorce. (smile right here, this is not a sad story and it never will be) I did that for 3 years and it took that long for me to drag myself out of what I can now call - because I went through it and came out the other side- “depression”. For those 3 years I lived on my own, drove truck while I was awake and if I was at home and a weekend was on the horizon I would drink myself to sleep. I even had a couple of girlfriends over that time but my full concentration seemed to be on destroying myself. I even did a year under “the anabolic doc” which my friend that I was working for FORCED me to do, haha. He was awesome (my friend) and Its way to complex to tell more than that here:) I did not want to do Test replacement therapy for the rest of my life and I know enough about hormones etc. to know that FUCKING AROUND WITH THEM is the best way to keep them messed up. So I finally just said to my friend. I’m not taking the pills or the test. I just have to let my body heal and its going to take time. That was in 2012. I have not touched a pill, needle etc. since that time. I am getting this itchy feeling again to go and train and its been a gradual buildup. I’m fully functional in every way and physically when I hit the gym I am loving the feel of a natural pump. You can’t “force” these things and my main focus is on longevity, mental health and LOTS of other stuff.I am in the process of going back to university (AGAIN haha) and beginning the steps to getting my counselling psychology degree so I can help others that continue to struggle with drugs, alcohol and other issues that they can’t get a handle on. :)More info from yours Truly on Steroids: Eric Morrison's answer to Is muscle size lost after steroids?Eric Morrison's answer to What are considered real steriods?Jan 8 2017 edited - added pictures and some contentedited - added contentedited - added contentedited documentJan 9 2017 edited documentJan 10 2017 Edited Document - added content and picturesJan 11 - added pics and content/answered commentsJan 12 - added some links at the bottomFriday the 13th - added some lucky content. Already a great day. Thanks for all the great comments and asking questions! I will make some of them into separate questions after a while.Sunday Jan 15 2017 - Added more content (Q&A), added picsJAN 20TH added pics and editsAdded link to my first Online Interview on a well known fitness site! Talking about muscle building and biohacking along with 30 (!) other health and wellness experts including a few TV celebs and PHd’s! It is here in my profile. I am using part of the proceeds to GO BACK TO UNIVERSITY and finish my degree…but in Coucelling Psychology so that I can help out those addicts that did NOT get better like I did….Link at top of my profile:)