Some people just can’t be broken. Life may knock them down repeatedly, but they keep getting up again.
Gerald Hearns, a fitness and financial coach in West Palm Beach, keeps that work ethic – that “grind” – foremost in his life.
Raised amid poverty and crime in Riviera Beach, he saw his stepfather gunned down at age 7 and has mourned dozens of family members, schoolmates and friends who fell victim to area violence.
“That kind of thing will either make you or break you,” says Hearns, 24. “I use it as motivation.”
Blessed with multiple talents – extreme physical fitness, engineering skill and entrepreneurial savvy – and a strong spiritual base, Hearns carved success out of his difficult beginnings. Now, he’s teaching those success secrets to others.
Via his Brick by Brick Academy coaching business, he passes financial and fitness knowledge on to others and mentors young people to help them “build health and wealth, brick by brick,” he says.
“The biggest part of the Brick by Brick Academy is education – financial education, fitness education,” he says. “How can we help a person grow mentally, spiritually, physically and emotionally?”
Hearns’ entrepreneurial side emerged early. He ran a lemonade stand and sold candy at age 6, later starting a profitable clothing business, Brick by Brick, a metaphor for having to work for everything he’s earned in life.
At Dwyer High School and, later, Florida A&M University and Florida Atlantic University, he was a star running back. In 2018, Hearns graduated from FAU with a degree in business administration and management and a concentration in entrepreneurship.
His dedication to giving back includes serving on the board of Habitat Housing Solutions, which recently received more than $1 million in grants to build homes for those experiencing homelessness. He has helped raise sponsorships to provide more than 400 meals to the underserved and hopes to expand that into an ongoing food distribution network.
“I am a firm believer that you can find ways to give back without being wealthy,” Hearns says. “We have people right here in our backyard who need our support.”
Currently, Hearns is on the list for NFL tryouts and is hopeful he’ll get the chance to compete. O