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Know You Can!

March 20, 2012

The horn blows, your mind sharpens, you prepare for battle.  Your head held high, shoulders and arms burn, hands heavy like cement blocks, each step consuming more energy than the last.  

Every muscle fiber begs you to stop but adversity has shown you that pain won’t last forever and you move forward.  You’ve been here before. Your mind sees the coming storm but knows every reaction as you reenforce that defeat, while not an option, is nothing more than a learning experience and you move forward.  You’ve been here before.

Every doubt and every weakness has been ground away by hard work and banished to an unreachable corner of your mind. As you attack, you remember every lie that said you weren’t good enough, every time you were pushed around, and every time you were laughed at.   You adjust here, change an angle there, knowing that win or lose life has trained you for this moment. You’re no less humble in victory than in defeat because you know that tomorrow brings another round.

In the end your hand will be raised.  Not because you were lucky, not because your adversary wasn’t worthwhile, and not because you came out on top.  Your hand will be raised because at some point you realized that you will never get through life on someone else’s confidence. Your hand will be raised because you stopped listening to people tell you what you couldn’t do and started believing in what you know you can do.  

Hear YOUR voice. Know YOU can.  

Live True.  Fight True.

Veneratio © 2011

Fears Worst Nightmare

March 20, 2012

Fear can be healthy and it can be dangerous.
It can keep you alive, and it can bring you to your knees.
Fear is the monster under your bed.
It’s the cage that keeps you from reaching your true potential.

You can say you fear nothing, but everybody fears something.
Know your fears as well as you know yourself.
Respect your fears, but never let them control you.
Stalk them. Become your fear’s worst nightmare…

Live True. Fight True.

Veneratio. © 2009

Getting to Know Us!

March 20, 2012

Welcome to Veneratio (Ven-eh-rah-tee-oh)!

I want use this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for stopping by! I am honored that you stayed long enough to get to know us.

When I speak with people about Veneratio (don’t forget to trill the letter “r”) the most common questions I am asked are “What does Veneratio mean?”, “How did you think of ‘Live True. Fight True.’ and what does it mean to Veneratio?”. So, here it goes.

What does Veneratio mean?

Translated from Latin, “Veneratio” means highest respect, reverence, or honor. To some, respect is about being the biggest, the baddest, or just being the best at something. To others, respect is about domination or superiority. To us, respect isn’t about always being at the top, it’s not about making people fear you, and it’s not about taking the easy way out to get somewhere. Respect is about who you are. It’s about waking up every day and moving forward because others depend on you. It’s about looking in the mirror and knowing your achievements were possible because you respect yourself. It’s about getting up one more time than you fall down.

Tagging Veneratio: How did you think of “Live True. Fight True.” and what does it mean to Veneratio?

When I first began writing the business plan and revising logos, my vision was for Veneratio to be the next great “fight” apparel company. I wanted the Veneratio brand to be seen at every major fighting event and in every arena in the world. I didn’t lock myself away in marathon brain-storming sessions or set up focus groups to analyze what would be the best tag line to attract the “best” people. When I came up with “Live True. Fight True.” I wasn’t even working on Veneratio, I was waiting to do a group presentation in an Investment Banking class. Probably the best way to explain “Live True. Fight True.” — it was like being unexpectedly slapped in the face; like the light just came on.

As I was wondering what “Live True. Fight True.” meant to Veneratio, I started thinking how and why people are respected. I hit block after block because all I could think of was the line we have all heard over and over, “You wanna get respect, you gotta give respect.” In my head I started to hear the clichés that revolve around respect and I came to this conclusion: “You don’t have to give respect to get it and you don’t have to get respect to give it. You just gotta respect yourself (living true) while believing in and standing for what is right (fighting true), not what others want you to stand for.”

What I immediately liked about “Live True. Fight True.” is that it took me in a completely different direction and removed any thought I had of exclusively marketing Veneratio to an MMA demographic. “Live True. Fight True.” helped me realize that what I wanted to produce applied to every person that has, just once in their life, struggled with something. From a newborn baby fighting to take its first few breaths to the kid who gets bullied in school but keeps going back because they know at some point it will get better. From the mother and father raising their kids in tough times to the grandma and grandpa holding hands and walking down the street. “Live True. Fight True.” is for everyone! VENERATIO IS FOR EVERYONE!