We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephen Hooper. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephen below.
Hi Stephen, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
I come from a militaristic pedigree. For example, my father was in the military for 22 years approximately. My grandparents were also in the military as well as additional members of my family. My mother taught me the value of self-education. For example, I loved math and sports, so these ideas promulgated the fact that I was a nerd when I was a kid subsequently. After attending public school for the first formative years, I attended private school throughout my upbringing. I was exposed to harsh realities in regard to my skin color.
One day, I was being bullied in class, so I asked my teacher for assistance. The teacher directed me to look at a sign across the room. The signage read, “No crying allowed.” Needless to say, the entire school was against me, and I learned, from my father specifically, that sometimes the best thing you can do is simply place your head down and work. Regardless of my emotional and mental state of mind, I was focused on becoming the best version of myself. Instead of perusing through thoughts of suicide, I focused on my education and sports.
Additionally, when I graduated high school, I was willing to persevere even harder. In retrospect, I sacrificed my twenties to pursue my dreams; these dreams involved home ownership, running a profitable business and elevating my communities, particularly locations that are related towards Metropolitan Detroit. Throughout this process, I performed 10,000 pushups in one day. Also, I performed 100,000 pushups in 6 months. Money has been raised to help children, particularly teenagers, in the effort to raise suicide prevention mechanisms.
Lastly, I salute my family heritage. I honor my parents, because without them, I wouldn’t be here obviously.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The original plan was to become a Doctor. When I was 9 years old, I broke my leg playing football. I suffered a compound fracture and the pain was the most excruciating I’ve ever experienced. I screamed the entirety of the ride to the hospital in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. During that time, I was living in Detroit. When I was recuperating at the hospital, I was exposed to certain modalities in relation to physical advancement. For example, I witnessed medicine balls, treadmills, dumbbells, and miscellaneous exercise equipment. I was intrigued by the items in question, so I dedicated my time to learning how to maximize such tools for myself and others as well.
I was performing well academically as you would expect from a former nerd in elementary school. The required courses I needed to take were physics, chemistry, pre-calculus, statistics, anatomy, physiology and human performance. I am choosing not to vacillate between the time it took for me to advance through these courses and the effort it took for the sake of this question. You would be bored out of your mind if I explained every ubiquitous detail, so I am skipping over a lot for you.
I graduated from my ideal university that I dreamed of attending, and next was graduate school, then I would become a Doctor in Physical Therapy. However, this would never occur. One day, I was attending my physics course, and I had 2 lab partners. There were 2 components of this course divided into the lecture and laboratory portion. The laboratory portion was difficult to pass because we had the hardest professor on campus. I did not want to leave my lab partners behind because I was not performing well. Instead of withdrawing from the course, I stayed and I lost everything. My decision to stay for the sake of loyalty to my lab partners demolished any hopes I had of becoming a Doctor.
Upon realization that this one dream was destroyed, I shifted my perspective and focused on what I could do in my life. This lead me to work within the commercial, community and private sectors in relation to the health, medical and wellness professions. I am glad that I went through this process, because I know what problems occur in the real world of business as it pertains to one’s health. There are many dimensions of health to which my experience has led to countless people. I have been referred to as a guardian angel, counselor and encourager to which a typical trainer does not embody these characteristics. I help men become better leaders through intense exercise, I help women lower body fat percentages and stress levels, and I help children maximize self-esteem through sports performance instruction. This entire process took 17 years for me, but I have learned that if one wants to be a master, you have to be willing to become a fool first.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
There are a litany of books that have helped me. However, I want to give credit to people that help the homeless population. Many years ago, I served with United Way, a company that derives its purpose in helping people become better in relation to their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. Additionally, there have been other organizations that I have served with such as Volunteers of America, American Cancer Society, and other groups dedicated to serving the public. I learned that if you want to become great at solving problems, then you better get to the heart of issues whereas most people are afraid to traverse. In other words, get off the couch and become adept at problem solving as if your life depends on it. I have done so for thousands of times pertaining to this subject matter, so it’s akin to going to the gym.
I highly recommend you become involved in your community, even if it’s helping to build homes so people won’t have to become homeless. Additionally, I recommend you to not waste your twenties on things that do not matter. Subconciously, you know exactly what I mean, so I don’t need to explain those details. I can tell you that it is worth it, especially if you want to live life on your own terms. Go to libraries, read at Barnes and Noble bookstores, and understand that this is cost-effective. Yes, it will hurt when you begin, but eventually the pain becomes pleasurable when you see the results. This is what I learned in my twenties.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
There are numerous physical accomplishments that I have reached. For example, I ran in a Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, Distance Runs and such like. However, the most difficult accomplishments were those that I performed on my own. I would be alone, and water would be next to me. There were times when there was no water nearby, but gravel and dirt as I persevered my way through. I don’t know exactly which would be the most difficult accomplishment, but I will let you choose for yourself from the list concurrently: I performed 10,000 pushups in 1 day, I performed 100,000 pushups in 6 months, and my first marathon was accidental.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_supersteveruns_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/supersteveruns
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-hooper-ii-50ab1a4b/
- Other: https://www.thumbtack.com/mi/rochester/personal-trainers/stephen-hooper-corporationtm-top-pro/service/313080440486854826 https://www.bark.com/en/us/company/the-stephen-hooper-corporation/Owl9m/
Image Credits
Isaiah (Zai) Johnson Photographer / Videographer Zai Films LLC 248-270-7902 [email protected] www.zaifilms.com