Family support and encouragement are a couple of things that are extremely valued for success. The hunger to succeed and fear of failure work in tandem, but it is the unsung heroes that make a legend in the making, a phenomenon. This wasn’t the reality of the bodybuilding beast who fairly dominated the 90s. From a broken childhood to a dominating bodybuilding career, six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates has lived it all. 

In 2018, Yates was featured in an interview with London Real where he revealed the painful journey he traveled to become a powerful bodybuilder. In the absence of a father and living a somewhat nomadic life, Yates looked inward for inspiration.  

It didn’t come easy to Yates

Dorian Yates A.K.A. The Shadow didn’t have a regular childhood. He lost his father at the age of 13 and relocated to Birmingham with his mother. Shortly after, his mother remarried, but unfortunately, her second husband died soon as well. The times were tumultuous when his mother left the city again. But only this time, Yates decided to stay. Now, being without parents, life was no piece of cake. In the backdrop of the memory of the stranded man that he was, Yates revealed what he felt during those times in 2018.

What was obvious was that Yates never had a close-knit family. In the interview, The Shadow said, “My father died at 13. I came from nothing, I felt like nobody gave s**t about me. Nobody’s trying to help me.” While his father was alive, the former kept an arm’s distance from Yates. However, after his father’s demise, the lack of stability rocked the Yates household. 

Interestingly, Dorian Yates embraces the pain he endured throughout his childhood and teens. He believed it is the pain that fueled his energy into success. He confessed, “I often think if there was a Dorian who had a nice stable family, and support and encouragement and a pathway to that into this career or that career. Will Dorian Yates the bodybuilder exist? No, I don’t think so, man. I mean, I put myself through some f*cking pain and some s*it, and I needed fuel for that from somewhere.”

From the doorway of struggles to the steps of success

After his mother left Birmingham, Yates got into a troublesome group of friends and ended up in prison for six months. While many would presume that it was a dark experience for him, in truth, it served as an eye-opening phase of his life. In fact, his imprisonment stood the test of time as Yates’s discovered his road to success within the bounds of his cell. 

Far from being in trouble throughout the days spent in prison, Yates collected himself to soar through the hardest climb of his life. In the words of the six-time Mr. Olympia, Yates revealed his experiences in an Instagram post of recent and stated, “It wasn’t until I got into prison and discovered my talent for bodybuilding that changed the trajectory of my life.” Later, as he came out, he had nowhere to live. But that didn’t deter him from his righteous path. He kept pursuing bodybuilding until he became one of the best. 

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The Shadow hit the rock bottom in his life and sprang back up with equal ferocity and volume. His is a life to learn from, don’t you think? 

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