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Back in the 1940s, Joe Weider, who had just launched his first fitness magazine, ran into Charles Atlas at the New York Athletic Club. Atlas told Weider, "You're no good in business. Look at me. When I sell my course (12 lessons, each a dozen mimeographed sheets), I make more money than you, and I don't have to manufacture weights, ship the heavy weights or invest a lot of money."
Today Weider presides over a body-building conglomerate with sales above $150 million and more than 4,000 employees. Its far-flung operation include publishing, manufacturing and marketing of weights and exercise equipment and nutritional supplements.
Weider's five magazines dominate the field, the equipment division has an 8 percent share of the market, and the nutritional supplement business, an estimated 15 percent.
At 68 the still-fit Weider continues to expand his privately held business with an aggressive acquisition program. And last summer Weider came out with his fifth magazine called "Moxie," targeted at women 35 and older.
Underpinning all of Weider's business interests is a fervid belief in the benefits of body building: "It's as necessary as brushing your teeth. I believe in superfitness and training with weights to build a strong and vigorous body because only by being physically fit and strong can anyone achieve their full potential mentally and physically." To Weider, exercise is not a mere recreational activity but rather the heart of a whole lifestyle.
Unlike Charles Atlas and other fitness gurus, Weider said, "I never catered to laziness and quick fixes in nutrition and fitness. Selling you a sweatband won't make you lose weight. What Atlas sold might make money, but it would never make you strong, and he in fact used weights and did gymnastics."
Weider's proselytizing has paid off. Affable, engaging and articulate, Weider has turned the once ridiculed sport into one with close to 30 million adherents.
Founder of the Mr. Olympia contest in 1965, Weider also put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map. Early recognizing the potential for women body building, his magazines began to prominantly feature female body builder champions.
Weider's almost messianic sense of mission has not gotten in the way of clear-headed business acumen. "Muscle & Fitness," his flagship magazine, has a circulation of 627,000 and...