Career lessons from my (young) personal trainer

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I have a 21-year old personal trainer, Scott, whom I've been working with for about two years. He is a good trainer and knows his stuff. But that's not why I see him two to three times a week. I use him because he is a natural marketer who happens to be marketing himself.

At a birthday dinner last week with Scott and a group of his clients, talk turned to how many of us, well into our 30s and 40s and established in our careers, could learn a lot about career management by watching our young trainer. And it has nothing to do with his use of technology or some of the other ways we think young people are succeeding today. It's pure old-fashioned business smarts.

Scott is a first-generation American who was raised by a single mother and grandmother. He tested into the best schools and has held part-time jobs since he was around 14. By age 16, he was contributing to the family finances. When I started working with him, he was in his junior year of college, and this fall he'll be starting graduate school. All along, he has worked up to 30 hours a week at the gym, building a serious career out of an arrangement that could easily look and feel like a part-time gig.

Here's some of what he does right:

Act like an entrepreneur, even if you're not. Scott works for an impersonal gym, yet he treats it like his own business. When no one is there to take away the dirty towels at 6am when his first client is going to arrive, he does it. I recently realized that I don't even know the manager of the gym; if I have a question or problem, I just ask Scott. And if he left the gym tomorrow, many of his clients would probably follow him wherever he went. We work with him, and it's a coincidence that he works for the gym we all belong to.

Create your community. The birthday dinner I mentioned above is a tradition Scott created to bring all his clients together whenever someone has a birthday. {This is a brilliant example of the kind of "recurring event" I recently recommended as a way to stay in touch with people.} At first it seemed odd to celebrate my birthday with a group of strangers. But after going to the first dinner, I realized that I was now part of a group of people who all lived or worked in my neighborhood. We are a fairly random group, but we live near one another and Scott's little birthday club has been a terrific way to meet people I'd never have met on my own.

Be authentic. While my relationship with Scott began with a focus around fitness and health, I soon learned of his other interests and found ways to connect with him on those issues. We both love food and appreciate home cooking so while working out, we're often talking about what I cooked for dinner or something his mother or grandmother, both fabulous cooks, recently made. He's a computer whiz, so if my wireless Internet is on the fritz, he offers to help fix it or walks me through how to do it on my own. The same is true when I have an issue with my car, as cars are another of his passions. We talk about everything -- careers, relationships, family -- and there's a lot of trust between us. As I've gotten to know his other clients, I see that it's the same with many of them. We've been to each other's homes, met our significant others, and become friends. Basically, we like hanging out and people tend to hire people when they like to hang out with them.

These seem like such easy things to do, yet few adults manage to do them with such ease. Have you seen other young people who sound like my trainer?