Never Give Up: 7 Life Success Tips

Get ready to learn powerful life success tips packed with practical lessons and real-world stories you can apply today.

Success rarely looks clean from the inside. It’s messy, uncertain, and filled with moments where you’re convinced you’re about to fail—right before something shifts.

Paul Bowman, Wexer CEO, sits down with Michael Bruno, Founder & CEO of Core Health & Fitness and Land America, to unpack the “accidental” journey that brought Michael into the fitness industry—and the universal principles he’s used to build a decades-long career. The stories are funny, blunt, and honest. More importantly, they’re useful.

Here are several success tips you can apply to life and business—each one anchored by a real example from Michael’s stories.

Bruno’s 7 Life Success Tips

1. Don’t Confuse A Rough Start With A Final Outcome

Early struggle can feel like a verdict. It isn’t. It’s just the first chapter.

Michael’s career started with a leap that sounds insane in hindsight: he went to China in 1988 to run a bicycle factory—with no factory experience, no language skills, and no real safety net. He admits the quality was “horrific,” and he spent years struggling. It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t smooth. But it wasn’t the end either.

That’s the point: the beginning of your story is not the conclusion. Example from Michael’s journey: Four years of misery in early China manufacturing didn’t define him—it forged him. Those hard years became the training ground that later helped him out-execute everyone else when the opportunity finally arrived.

2. Stay Optimistic And Practical

Optimism isn’t pretending everything is fine. It’s believing you can find a way forward even when you don’t see a way forward at first. A big part is your mindset.

That attitude isn’t fluff, it’s a performance advantage. When the pressure spikes, the optimist keeps moving. The pessimist freezes.

“My glass is 3/4 full. All the time.” ~ Michael Bruno, Founder & CEO of Core Health & Fitness and Land America ~

Example from Michael’s journey: He shows up to a major trade show in Germany while broke, stressed, and carrying huge personal risk—pregnant wife at home, rent not paid, no phone, no car. Still, he walks in believing something good can happen. That belief didn’t guarantee success, but it kept him in the arena long enough for success to find him.

3. Treat Everyone Like You Want To Be Treated

Success isn’t only what you know. It’s who remembers you. One of Michael’s biggest breaks didn’t come from a strategy deck or a perfect pitch. It came from a relationship he built casually and kindly, years earlier. He met a German bicycle salesman (not even the decision-maker at the time), bought him dinner, treated him with respect, and went on with his life.

Years later, at a massive show with thousands of people, Michael storms out of a meeting frustrated and directionless. He turns left in a crowd and hears his name called out. It’s the same German contact, now a fitness buyer, looking for a Chinese manufacturer.

The result? A life-changing order. That year, the contact gave him $7 million worth of business and turned his whole life around.

The takeaway is: You don’t need to network like a robot. Just treat people like people. Respect brings about compound results.

4. Keep Going Long Enough For Luck To Catch Up

A lot of what we call “luck” is really endurance. Michael’s trade show story is a masterclass in staying in motion even when you feel defeated. He describes walking out of the meeting at the show overwhelmed surrounded by thousands of people, dozens of languages, and not knowing where he’s going. He could’ve quit, left the event, gone back to the hotel, and called it done.

Instead, he kept walking and that’s when the break happened. One small decision by turning left instead of right, sparked a turning point. The larger lesson is that movement creates collision. If you keep moving, opportunities can find you. If you stop, they can’t.

5. Make Integrity Your Personal Operating System

Talent helps. Strategy helps. But integrity is undefeatable. Michael gives a simple rule that applies to leadership, relationships, business, and life. That’s not just a productivity tip, it’s an integrity standard. It builds trust. It reduces stress. It strengthens relationships. And it creates a reputation that opens doors.

“Do what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it. If you can’t, call the person.” ~ Michael Bruno, Founder & CEO of Core Health & Fitness and Land America ~

Michael tells a hard story from his bike days where he had overpromised, then the factory couldn’t deliver, people lost careers—and he hid. He describes how the hiding made him physically ill. The moment he finally stood up, called, and owned the truth? He felt free again.

That’s success too: learning to face the hard conversation instead of avoiding it.

6. Don’t Hide From Problems—Own Them Early

Many people don’t fail because they’re not capable. They fail because they delay reality. Michael’s lesson is blunt: hiding turns a problem into a prison. Owning it turns a problem into a process.

Example from Michael’s journey: When he later acquired Star Trac, he inherited major issues—he mentions tens of thousands of outstanding parts and a wave of angry customers. Even though he didn’t create the problem, he “bought the problem.” That’s leadership: stepping into the mess and cleaning it up anyway.

“Success includes the unsexy work: fixing what’s broken, rebuilding trust, and staying consistent until people feel the difference.” ~ Michael Bruno, Founder & CEO of Core Health & Fitness and Land America ~

7) Don’t Reject What You Don’t Understand, Learn From It

You don’t have to be the expert in everything. But you can’t afford to close your mind. That curiosity is what future-proofs a person.

“Never close the door because you don’t understand. Never give up.” ~ Michael Bruno, Founder & CEO of Core Health & Fitness and Land America ~

The Future Of Wexer Digital Fitness And Core Equipment

Both Bruno and Bowman discuss a simple but powerful digital idea: use digital console time where people are already watching screens while working out to teach and build confidence for beginners. The future will have digital content and tutorials on how to use equipment, dumbbells, and selectorized machines. This is especially useful for those intimidated by gyms. It’s a bridge between uncertainty and action.

Success today isn’t only about building products—it’s about building support systems that help people take the first step.

“The goal behind digital fitness and innovation is focused on how do we help the members have an experience where we are supporting them no matter what?” ~ Paul Bowman, CEO of Wexer ~

Final Success Is About Staying In The Fight

There are flashier formulas out there, but this episode lands on a truth that never expires: success is consistency under pressure.

“Never… Ever… give up.” ~ Michael Bruno, Founder & CEO of Core Health & Fitness and Land America ~

• Be the person who keeps going.
• Be the person who tells the truth quickly.
• Be the person who learns instead of closes doors.
• Be the person who stays optimistic—and still does the work.

That’s how careers are built. That’s how lives change.

Let us know if we can help you build success in your business. Email us at INFO@WEXER.COM to learn more!

More Information:

Michael Bruno LinkedIn

Core Health & Fitness

Paul Bowman LinkdedIn

Listen To Podcast 66