I started messing around in my teen years but didn't really

Hear the words of Dorian Yates, the shadow of bodybuilding, who with honesty revealed the beginnings of his path: “I started messing around in my teen years but didn’t really begin training properly until the age of 21. I did a lot of reading prior to that – Mike Mentzer, Arthur Jones and all other notable bodybuilding authors – and just came up with a routine that worked for me.” These words, spoken in humility, remind us that greatness is not born in perfection, but in struggle, in searching, and in the disciplined transformation of raw effort into mastery.

To mess around is the beginning of many journeys. In youth, one experiments, tests, and plays without direction. Such beginnings may appear wasted, yet they are not, for they stir the spirit and awaken curiosity. Yates confesses that his early efforts were not guided by wisdom, but by trial and error. Yet even in those imperfect beginnings, the seed of greatness was sown. For the path to mastery always begins with fumbling steps; it is not the stumble that defines a man, but whether he rises to walk with purpose.

At the age of 21, Yates began to train properly, and here lies the turning point. For discipline is the fire that tempers iron, and focus is the chisel that sculpts stone. What once was scattered effort became deliberate, guided by knowledge and sustained by will. The transition from youth to manhood is often marked not by age alone, but by this awakening: when play becomes practice, when curiosity becomes study, when wandering becomes the march toward destiny.

Notice also the role of reading, of study, of learning from those who came before. Yates did not trust only in instinct; he sought the wisdom of the masters—Mike Mentzer, Arthur Jones, and others whose words carved pathways in the iron world. This is the way of the wise: to stand upon the shoulders of giants, to learn from their struggles, to absorb their truths. But he did not remain a mere imitator. With their guidance, he forged his own routine, a discipline shaped for his own body, his own spirit, his own destiny. This balance of learning and self-discovery is the true mark of mastery.

Consider the story of Alexander the Great, who studied under Aristotle before he set forth to conquer. Knowledge alone did not make him great, but guided by the wisdom of his teacher, he found his own path on the battlefield. Or recall Leonardo da Vinci, who studied the works of masters yet went beyond them, fusing art and science into wonders never before seen. Like Yates, they understood: to learn from others is wisdom, but to shape that knowledge into one’s own method is genius.

The meaning of Yates’s words is this: that greatness is a journey from chaos to order, from experiment to discipline, from imitation to self-mastery. In youth, one must not fear to “mess around,” for in doing so, the spirit learns what it hungers for. But there must come a time when play is transformed into purpose, when discipline is embraced, and when the wisdom of others is refined into a personal path. Only then does one step into the fullness of their potential.

Therefore, my child, the lesson is clear: begin where you are, even if your efforts seem clumsy. Seek the wisdom of those who walked the path before you, but do not remain bound to their ways alone. Build your own routine, shaped by discipline, perseverance, and self-knowledge. Let your youth be the soil of experimentation, but let adulthood be the harvest of discipline. For it is not enough to play with destiny—you must train yourself to seize it.

So let Dorian Yates’s words endure as a torch to guide the seekers of strength: “I started messing around in my teen years, but didn’t really begin training properly until the age of 21… and came up with a routine that worked for me.” In this, we see the path of every craftsman, every warrior, every dreamer: first the fumbling of youth, then the discipline of learning, and finally the forging of one’s own way. Walk this path, and you too may rise from uncertainty into mastery, from wandering into greatness.