How Mark Mastrov's Grandmother Helped Start His Entrepreneurial Career

As we mentioned yesterday, two more episodes from Season Two of “The Corp” with Big Cat and Alex Rodriguez were released. One with Stephanie McMahon, and today we are highlighting the interview with Mark Mastrov, an American businessman who is the CEO and founder of 24 Hour Fitness, and also part of the Sacramento Kings ownership group. The story of how he got his start in the gym/exercise business is nothing short of intriguing. Let’s start things off with how he became a trainer, which started with an interaction with a gym owner where Mastrov was just looking to get a work out in:

Mark Mastrov: The guy that owned the gym came over and grabbed me says ‘Hey are you here for a trainer interview?’ and I'm like ‘No I'm just here to buy a membership to stay in shape. He's like ‘Well look, I need trainers. Do you want a job here?’ I'm like ‘No I got another job.’ He's like ‘Well look, work eight hours a week, free membership.’ I didn’t have a lot of money. So, free membership sounds good. So, I took the eight hour a week job. I'd work like four hours on Wednesday nights and four hours on the weekends while I had another job and kind of fell in love with the business. It was fun. It was exciting. It was different. It was unique and I was around health and wellness. Now, I had no idea how to train somebody. No clue. They gave you a book called The Novice Principles. You read that and you are a certified trainer and all I would do is probably blow out 400 million people's backs back in the day I'm sure with the stuff that I was doing.

The phrase “right place, right time” certainly relates to Mr. Mastrov here. That along with taking chances on something he really had no intention or interest in at first. Looking back, it’s kind of crazy how much impact one small decision can have on your life. That was the case here. Although he took this job at the gym, Mark Mastrov still wasn’t 100% sold on the business. The owner from the original gym told him he was moving to LA and wanted Mastrov to move and work with him out there. But this man saw something special in the now CEO of 24 Hour Fitness and part-owner of the Sacramento Kings.

Mark Mastrov: I’m not full time in this business, I got another job. I'm not interested in going to L.A. I'm staying here. He says, ‘Well I thought you’d say that. The guy that is buying the club, he wants you to be the manager.’ I'm like, ‘Well I appreciate that too, but I got another job, I don't want to be the manager. So, he introduced me to this guy, and we spent some time, he wants me to run the club. I said I have another job. He said, I’ll tell you what. I'll make you a partner, and that got my attention and he said, can you invest $15,000 at the time in this little gym? I didn't have $15,000, my mom and dad didn't, but my grandmother had a little bit of money so I went to her and asked if I could borrow fifteen thousand dollars and she let me. So, I brought fifteen thousand dollars, invested alongside this guy and the rest is kind of history. Went from there and I can I can tell you the next steps if you want.

Alex Rodriguez: Yeah. Tell us how Grandma Mastrov went and how nervous you were. Walk us through your pitch. And how old were you at the time?

Mark Mastrov: I'm 22 probably. This is ’83. So, my grandmother was pretty amazing. My grandfather passed away very young. He passed away at 59. And so, when I got out of college, I was kind of helping my grandmother kind of keep her life together, managing what property they had, their home and their little businesses and things like that. I had a pretty good relationship with her. And so, when I sat down it was like, I have this amazing opportunity and I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to own my own business. It's a little early, but would you trust me to borrow like $15,000? I really think this could be amazing and she was like, one second, boom you got it. No problem. I believe in you. Go get it. Make it happen. So, she's the catalyst for allowing my dream to kind of come to the point of owning your own business at very young age.

Big Cat: I’d imagine you paid her back.

Mark Mastrov: Yeah, I paid it back with some nice interest and she was very happy, but she was happier for the success. And she didn't get to see the full success, but she got to see a lot of the early days and we had a lot of fun.

Incredible. Grandmas are often known for spoiling their grandchildren with candy and bringing them toys, so why not throw $15,000 into that same category! Very cool that Grandma Mastrov didn’t even hesitate in assisting Mark achieve his goal. The cooler part was how confident she was that he’d do the right thing with the money. This story also shows the positive sides to what can happen when taking a risk. At first, Mastrov was locked into his other job and had no intention of being associated with gym employment in the long run. But once he was offered to join the ownership side, everything changed. And safe to say it has worked, as Mastrov is the founder of a popular fitness center chain with more than 400 locations, not to mention he is also partly in charge of an NBA franchise.