Fake Heights

Every guy seems to think that being over 6ft tall is the ultimate goal. Just because it’s been dressed up by Hollywood and social media.

Height is useful for a lot of things, but being shorter than 6ft has never held anyone back in life. Some of the world’s most successful people are under 6ft. Conor McGregor is just 5ft 9, the average male height, yet has a personality larger than life.

However fake heights have us believing that we’re not good enough. At 6ft 2 I still found myself wishing to be 6ft 4 growing up. Do you know how stupid that is, that’s like waking up with $100m in your account and complaining about the billionaire next door having an extra 3 rooms than you.

I was tricked by “fake heights” that were being put out into the world to sell tickets, create an image and make you desire perfection.

What if I told you nearly every man in Hollywood and professional sports is 2 inches shorter than they’re listed!

What if I told you The Rock is really just shy of 6ft 4, Anthony Joshua is 6ft 4 not 6ft 6 and Mike Tyson was just 5ft 9. Would you believe me?

It all started with old school boxing promoters and WWE owner Vince McMahon back when WWF was all the rage. Vince and the likes of Don King had one job, sell tickets.

One way in which they did this; fake heights. Everyone wants to buy a front row ticket to watch the 7ft giant take on the 400lbs wrecking ball.

Half as many people would show up to the 6ft 5 man vs the 290lbs wrecking ball, it just doesn’t have the same pop.

As long as the athletes looked superhuman or larger than average in one way or another, the truth was stretched.

Mike Tyson was billed at 5ft11 and half in his early days, however his real height has since been revealed as 5ft 9. This takes nothing away from Mike, in fact it makes his achievments even more impressive, but those two inches could have been the difference between his career getting started or not in terms of popularity.

Vince was the master, he dressed people up to become world known superstars. If everyone had 2 or 3 inches added to their height and 30 pounds to their weight, how would you be able to tell the difference? If two guys listed at 6ft2 and 6ft 4 are stood next to each other and there appears to be 2 inches difference who would question that? In reality there’s a 6ft guy taking on a 6ft 2 guy, pretty average fight.

This theme has bridged into the MLB, NFL, Boxing, UFC and Hollywood today.

Vin Diesel walks next to his 5ft 5 wife who is wearing flats looking only slightly taller, then appears next to the Rock listed at 6ft 5 during a Fast & Furious premiere standing eye to eye?

Firstly the Rock is just shy of 6ft 4. There are pictures of him standing next to UFC Lightweight Champion Jon Jones who is a legit 6ft 4 athlete and the Rock is slightly shorter.

Still tall, but a product of Vince’s 2 inch rule. Vin on the otherhand wears height increasing boots that take him from 5ft 10 to 6ft 3, just so he can continue the show of being a Hollywood “tough guy”.

Here’s where I get annoyed. There are guys everywhere wishing they were taller, searching the height and weight of their favourite superstars who are adored by women everywhere and celebrated by men. They see Vin Diesel towering over people on the big screen and they can only imagine what it would be like to stand 6ft 3? But wait, Vin is 5ft 10 at most, that’s 1 inch taller than the average man’s height.

In “short” we’re all worrying about nothing!

Steroids and Social Media

A topic I will do a podcast about very soon probabaly with a couple of guests; 1 million people in the UK take steroids!

Using the UK as an example for the rest of the world;

There are currently 67 million people living in the UK. That’s 1 in 67 people.

Now take away all the people under 18 and over 60 who probabaly aren’t taking steroids. Perhaps 1 in 40.

Now remove anyone who doesn’t go to the gym. Maybe we’re at 1 in 15.

Lets further remove anyone with a disability, the majority of women and it probabaly leaves us with;

1 in 6 of men who go to the gym are taking steroids! Not accurate data other than the 1 million UK part, but you get the point.

If 1 in 6 men who attend the gym are using steroids you have to assume that a high percentage of models, influencers and “big guys” at every gym in the country are on steroids.

The same is likely true for the US, Australia, Canada and where ever else you live.

With so many of us training our asses off until we collapse, fueled by an influencers monday morning motivation post it makes you feel a little cheated.

More men need to realise that they have no chance of looking like the guy on Instagram if they “train harder” and “stick with it”.

The guy you aspire to look like is in the gym 3 times per day, 6 days per week and using more steroids than you’ve ever heard of.

This isn’t always the case, we can’t group everyone into the same category, however it’s hurting male confidence levels to believe that they can have the same body as someone taking heaps of steroids per year.

Steroid body transformations in Hollywood

The same rule applies for Hollywood. Anyone who truly believes that Marvel characters, the new Batman or anyone in Creed 2 isn’t juiced beyond belief is delusional.

Michael B Jordan, Jason Momoa, Ben Affleck, Gerard Butler, Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman, you name them, they’ve done a cycle or two.

Constant use of steroids is dangerous, however most would agree that doing a single cycle to get in shape for a movie set to land you $30m and world fame is worth it.

That’s exactly what actors think too, plus the pressure that studios place on them to truly look the part.

Then someone like GQ writes a “how to look like Michael B Jordan on the beach this summer” article and every young man believes a couple of pull ups and sit ups will get them there. It’s unfair, it’s untrue and rude to your audience.

Unrealistic Age Comparisons

My final argument against the male industry is how people compare achievements at age milestones.

Zion Williamson is just x years old and just landed a x million dollar contract, what were you doing at this age?

I hate these posts. Zion Williamson is a genetic freak standing at a height and weightt most people can’t possibly reach.

The question we should be asking is; how will you and Zion compare at 40 or even 50?

These days if you’re not a millionaire by 25 you’ve somehow failed. “This guy designed an app and made $10m while he was still in College” great for that guy, but we all have different paths.

Unless you have some ridiculous talent like a world class singing voice, or the ability to run 100m in under 10 seconds, chances are you’re going to struggle in life for the majority of your teens and 20’s, which is great. This is where learning is done.

The average man doesn’t achieve success until they’re close to 40, yet society makes us feel like shit if we don’t have everything figured out by 29?

Life is a marathon, it doesn’t matter who’s leading 1 mile in, it’s who crosses the finishing line first 25 miles later.

We forget this and become impatience during the building years of our lives and careers.

You could fuck up for your entire 20’s and be a billionaire at 40, which is ahead of the average billionaire age.

If you’re not an athlete, or music phenom then you’re likely going to be eating shit for 10 years until things go the way you want them to.

However, once their fame and earning potential dies down, yours could still be on the rise.

It’s like young beautiful women, at 18 they hold all the power, at 40 they’re married to a man they wouldn’t have looked at twice until they started to fade. Life is all about peaks and troughs. You make hay while the sun shines and you pull your socks up and get working when things are going bad, we all have our Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer seasons just in different orders.