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Constructing a New Life
Gary Heavin knows what it takes to succeed, but only because he has failed so spectacularly. He was doing quite well financially, then went bankrupt. He even did a stint in jail.But now, at 51, he heads up Curves, the fitness chain he co-founded 15 years ago. With four million members working out in 44 countries, Heavin still thinks big. His goal, he often says, is for Curves to become "the McDonald's of fitness." Already, there is one Curves for every two McDonald's in the United States.
Growing up in Texas in the 1960s, Heavin dreamed of becoming a doctor but ran out of money before he finished college. Together with his brother, he opened a fitness center, as the sweat equity partner. Then 20, Heavin knew he had found his calling. "From the first day I walked into a gym, I loved helping people." The brothers decided to cater exclusively to women ("they smelled better and didn't have anger issues like a lot of bodybuilding men") and renamed it Women's World of Fitness.
The business took off. Within ten years, they had opened 14 gyms. Then things started to crumble.
The clubs offered extras like pools, tanning beds and saunas, which took up a lot of space and meant high rents. Few places outside Houston had the population to provide a female membership base large enough to pay the rent. So the brothers opened the clubs to men.
Turned off by the change, many women left. Within a decade, the business was bankrupt. Heavin lost his house, his cars and other possessions, and his wife divorced him. Five million dollars in debt and unable to meet his child support obligations, he spent three months in jail.
While incarcerated, he read the Bible and stories of great people who had bounced back from failure. "I gained wisdom from my personal experiences," he says. And he decided to use that wisdom to construct a new life.
By 1990, Heavin had met and married Diane Piller. Together, they decided to open a new type of gym. It would be for women only, but there would be no male-oriented workout machines, no saunas or showers. Instead, they would offer a simple 30-minute aerobic and hydraulic strength-training circuit in a comfortable environment.
Such stripped-down facilities would keep overhead to a bare minimum, enabling them to open in small towns that might not have been able to support a conventional health club.
The Heavins sank $10,000 of their savings into opening the first Curves in Harlingen, Texas, in 1992. To break even, they needed to sell 100 memberships in 90 days. Diane did that in the first week. "Curves made exercise fast, convenient and affordable," Heavin says. (In most areas, membership is $29 a month.)
Three years later, he recalls, "we had two clubs, and we were earning a quarter of a million dollars a year. We didn't need to go to work!"
He realized, though, that what he loved most -- helping women -- was really all about his mother. "I was teaching a weight-loss class in front of 100 women, and I caught myself subconsciously scanning the crowd for the face of my mother." Doris Heavin had died of a stroke when Gary was 13, the culmination of a lifelong struggle with obesity, high blood pressure and depression.
"We were helping hundreds of women, but millions were suffering with weight-related diseases like diabetes. They needed what we had to offer."
The question was, should he and Diane put their hard-won security at risk to reach even more women? "I knew the pain of failure. But I'm ambitious, and I had faith."
Franchising offered a way to limit the risk. To test the idea, he chose Paris, Texas. "I ran a $250 ad in the paper announcing that a Curves franchise would be coming to town and that a representative would be there on a Thursday to interview prospects." Eight people showed up. Heavin settled into a restaurant booth at the local Holiday Inn, ordered a glass of iced tea and began the interviews.
Eight glasses later, he had three promising candidates. "I told them to call me Tuesday morning if this was something they still felt right about." Heavin was sound asleep when the phone shrilled at 6:30 a.m., Tuesday. Stephanie Armstrong couldn't wait to convince him that she deserved the job. Twelve years later, Heavin says, "the club is still doing great."
Heavin continued to run inexpensive ads and drink gallons of iced tea in small towns all across Texas. Soon Curves clubs were sprouting up everywhere. In 2006, Curves opened its 10,000th club -- in Paris, France. All 10,000 are owned by women.
Heavin often thinks of his mother and imagines talking with her about what he has accomplished in 15 years. "I let her know that the tragedy of her death is now helping millions of people," he says. "And she smiles."
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