This in from former Police Chief, Mike Gillette…
“Back in March of 2000, a magazine arrived in my mailbox. And even though I had been expecting it, when it did finally show up, I was somewhat surprised by my reaction to it.
It was… disbelief. Even though I was holding the magazine in my hand, I was still having a hard time believing it. Now, one reason was because I was looking at a picture of myself on the cover. And this was something I’d never seen before.
But seeing myself on the cover was not the most surprising part. The surprising part was that the magazine existed at all.
Here’s the thing, this magazine had started out as a dream. The dream of a friend of mine; Hock Hochheim. Hock and I had similar backgrounds, but in those days he was much further along in his journey than I was in mine.
Anyway, the topic first came up as we were drinking coffee in a hotel lobby in May of 1998. Not just any hotel, but the famous Elms Hotel and Spa in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. In years past, the hotel had been a favorite party spot for gangsters such as Al Capone, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and Bugsy Moran. And it’s world-class spa facilities drew boxing legend Jack Dempsey to train there.
We were at that hotel to conduct a two-day martial arts seminar. (Since the late 90s, Hock has traveled across the USA and around the world conducting training seminars. Something he continues to do to this day.)
So it was in that hotel lobby, between sips of coffee, that Hock told me he wanted to start a magazine. A magazine for people like us; devotees of all kinds of training.
At the time, he had no idea how to do it. I mean, how DO you do it? How do you layout a magazine page? Who edits the articles? Who writes the articles? How do you pay for something like this? How do you convince advertisers to buy ad-space in a magazine that nobody has ever heard of?
I must confess that initially I had a hard time taking Hock’s idea seriously. I mean, a magazine? Magaowere produced by publishing companies, not by guys like us.
But Hock was undeterred. And over the course of the next year or so, he and his amazing wife Jane got to work figuring out how to start a magazine. He would give me updates, as they solved one problem and then the next. And as the months ticked by, it became apparent that this “crazy” magazine dream was going to come true.
And that is how, twenty-three years ago, I found myself holding a magazine with my picture on the front cover. Now, like most magazines, Hock’s magazine isn’t around anymore. But, while it was around, it was an honest-to-goodness magazine. With informative articles and subscribers and advertisers. It was even sold in national bookstore chains like Borders, Books.A.Million and Hastings Books (with 1,000s of subscribers all over the world.)
And Hock managed to do all this with a full-time staff of two. Just Hock and his wife, working out of their house. An amazing, amazing accomplishment.
So, how big is “too big” for you to dream?
I don’t think there is such a thing.” – Mike Gillette
