“As I’ve told people all over the world, we can’t build a strong company without a sound foundation. When I started in business, I didn’t have anyone to go to for advice. I worked for six health clubs that went bankrupt. I learned a lot by watching what not to do. The true answers to moving a business and a life forward, I found in books and tapes, and I built my business from the knowledge I gained. In one of those books, I read the quote, ‘If you help enough people get what they want out of life, you’ll get everything you want out of life.’ It was written by Napoleon Hill and because I believed so much in what he wrote, I accepted it as truth and decided I would always do my best to help other people get what they needed. Whether that is to help people get in better shape and improve their health, or gain a better understanding of how to improve a business, if GHF can help, we’ll help. It’s that simple.” — Joe Cirulli, Owner of Gainesville Health & Fitness centers.
Finding Your Purpose
Most people look at a gym as a collection of rooms full of equipment, but to our staff GHF is much more than that. One easy way to find out the value of a company to your employees is to pose the following question — “What would the impact be on our customers and the community if next week you found out we would no longer existed?”
Look at the reaction from your staff. Whenever we have posed this question at GHF, the initial reaction has always been one of sadness. But the question you may ask yourself is, “Is it because they will no longer have a job?” We have never heard anyone refer to concerns about themselves — we have always heard them refer to the people’s lives that have been changed due their relationship with us. Their concerns were with the members. It is such a great feeling when this happens. It shows you it’s more than a job, it’s a passion.
Years ago when we first asked this question of our management team, we followed it up with another question — “Why does GHF exist?” The first answer was fairly straightforward; “To provide a facility for people to get in shape.” Then we asked the follow-up question, “Why is that important?” The second response was, “To help people lead healthier lives.” They were then asked “why” five times until we finally figured it out. And this is how we developed our reason for existing, or more aptly put, our Core Purpose, which is, “To create an experience that helps people get the most out of life, while inspiring them to become their best.”
To become a great company we have to have a larger purpose. For us, fitness is the tool we use to help our members, but we want to create something much larger than a workout. We want you to want to be with us, to be part of a great experience — a place that makes you feel better simply because you’re here. We want you to become the best you can be as we work to make ourselves the best we can be.
“When we first started the process of defining who we were, I came across an article in the Harvard Business Review. It was called ‘Creating Your Company’s Vision’ and was written by the well-known author, Jim Collins. When I read his article, I realized a lot of things may be clear in my mind, but may not be clear in everybody else’s minds. I decided we needed to get together and start discussing things so that everyone would be part of defining our vision, mission, core values, core purpose and culture. Once I finished the article I remember thinking it would take around eight hours to complete. How wrong could I be? Working on it diligently, it took us six months. Eventually we involved the entire company. At that time we had approximately 300 employees.”— Joe Cirulli, Owner of Gainesville Health & Fitness centers.
Shawn Stewart is the Operations Manager at Gainesville Health and Fitness Center. Contact him at shawns@ghfc.com
