Not many people can claim that they’ve found their life purpose when they were teenagers. However, Fabio Gurgel is one of them. Now a CEO and head coach of the Alliance Jiu Jitsu Team, Gurgel was just 15 years old back when he found out that he wanted to live off Jiu-Jitsu:

Quite simply, I knew that Jiu-Jitsu would be what I wanted to live off when I was at that age of 15. So, everything came very naturally for me.

I remember that there was a talk that I had with my father when he asked: „What will you do when you grow up?“ I said: “Jiu-Jitsu.”
He made me understand the size of the market and how good I needed to be in order to succeed. And I took the advice he gave me and the challenge that it posed to me. I decided to dedicate myself as much as I could, knowing that the opportunities wouldn’t be many.

He enjoyed training a lot back then. He was spending most of his days in the academy, training and helping his instructor:

I was very fond of BJJ, spending most of my days training at the academy. So, every time Jacare needed some help, I was there to help him out and assist him.
For example, he was showing the techniques on me and also had me train with beginners; in order to make them feel more comfortable.

And those lessons that I got from Jacare were probably the best lessons that I could have received as an instructor. I just got all of the foundations on how to lead the class and coach from him, Jacare.

 

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If you’re interested in learning more about Fabio Gurgel’s path, then be sure to hop on over to our full interview with him.