My Official Retirement Letter
Greetings, I'm writing this long (pun intended) overdue email to officially announce my retirement from FTM Fitness World. I will send one last email after this to explain the logistics of what it means and to introduce you to the new management team. In this email I want to review my time so far. For some, especially those who normally know me to be a very optimistic person, it might seem dark and gloomy but it's just a realistic way to show you the other side of things. Not for pity but with the hope that the new people who are taking over will be treated with much more grace, dignity and patience as we're going through this transitional period. First, I can never be too proud to say that I've created the first EVER bodybuilding competition event for men of Trans experience. On only year #2, it was on the front page of CNN and dozens of other outlets around the planet in multiple languages. I did it with $0, zero experience... only an idea and amazing people who believed in me and/or the idea. These people include you if you've ever come to an event, donated, liked/shared our pages, volunteered, or participated in any way, shape or form. Now, there are a lot of things that I have to mention that I will take with me moving forward. There were many people who belittled, discouraged or slandered my name since the beginning of this event, and basically it all came down to money. So much so that I wasn't even included in the documentary of my own business. Money was used as a reason to divide and some people used their already preconceived prejudices to believe that I was a bad person instead of trying to get to know me personally. Let's be real. I've always had an entrepreneurship mindset and money has never been impressive to me. I've never had to worry about money until I started my transition and was financially cut off. So if I wanted to be rich, I would not start a Trans related business because I know many of us are in the same situation. I simply wanted to start something that will impact the community in a good way. Many people don't know that I was homeless for a big chunk of time while all this was going on, that I still do not have any surgery and that I'm undocumented. In fact, the grant that started IATB was a grant for undocumented immigrants funded by Jorge Ramos and other entrepreneurs and philanthropists. I have many ideas that I could have proposed but wanted to do this final step of splitting FitCon and IATB to make things right for both audiences. And yet, despite me moving around every few weeks or so living out of a box, I still managed to write a book within 3 months and self-publish it on Amazon. So if you don't know me, you'd think I'm bragging... and rightly so, but I say all this to say that if you think the world is ending because you're Trans, you need to turn your TV off and wake up! The wealth that is inside of you is only killed by fear and because you listen to the wrong people. Anyone that discourages you from being the best version of yourself is either afraid of your potential or is projecting their own insecurities. I'm officially retired with a great feeling as I pass it on to the best people I could ever think of. I call it divinely ordered. And I can't wait to see where they take it. For now, I'm spending the next year putting things in order to allow for a smooth transition before I move on to bigger things. You will be seeing me around, and if you want to get in touch, search for my Professional Facebook Page (Neo L. Sandja). I am working on putting together something amazing for FitCon this year (the actual seminar/conference part), so if you'd like to meet up, not only I'll be there, but I won't be running around like crazy as in the past years :). I want us to talk about EMPOWERMENT. How can you empower yourself as an individual (not the checkmarks/checkboxes you fill out)? How can your newly empowered self empower your community? And can we work together to empower each other? So come on, do whatever you must, and show up. Book your flight, megabus, or put air in your bicycle, whatever, then let's find you an airbnb, checkout couchsurfing.org and I will even have some people crash with me (don't get used to it). Don't even worry about the website glitching (if you're a web guy, we need you to come help us fix it).... just send an email to [email protected] and say "yo, I'll be there and my name is NYX" and we'll add you to the list. Don't have the money for it? Send the email anyways! What I've always cared about is people's commitment for unity and self-improvement... not the money or the idea of money that keeps people mentally enslaved. So... I've said enough... and I plan on saying more (positive, worthwhile things) when I see you in person. I love you and I'll never give up on my community!
