Image Credit: Arali West @Araliwest
Today we’d like to introduce you to Iron Gullá.
Iron, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My dad is from Ethiopia, my mom is from Spain and I was born in Italy. That’s where my story started. We moved to Canary Islands (Spain) when I was three years old and I started playing basketball when I was eight years old. Immediately fell in love with it. So I would do whatever it took to play it, watch it or read about it. In high school, I would finish class at 2pm, go home, eat something and took an 1 hour bus everyday to attend to practice since the best teams were in the North of the Island. I would get to the facility 2 hours before practice, workout in the gym, do some of my homework and wait for my teammates. Once my teammates got there, I would do again the strength and conditioning part with the strength coach and after that, we’ll have basketball practice. We were done at around eight and I had to hurry up to get the bus. Once I got it, another hour to get back home so I will get home at around 10. Finish what I haven’t finish of my homework and then finally, bedtime. Since a young age, I dreamt about going to USA to play it and make it into the big league. So the sacrifices started early. There was no plan b, All in or you are out.
I played in the best teams of my island but soon I realized that people wasn’t take in it as serious as I was so I had to do something about it. I moved to New Jersey five years ago, when I was 18. Left everything behind, my friends, my family and my comfort zone. I came literally with a couple of shirts and some training clothes. Soon I realized that you gotta pay bills and that United States is very different from Europe. So I started working night shifts in a warehouse. I would work from 10 pm to 6 am, go home, sleep, and wake up around 1 pm. Ate something and then work out and by the time I was done with the workout, I had to run from the gym to the house to get ready for work. Everyday. In New Jersey, I learned what hustle means. I ended up moving with my friend to another house and sleeping in the floor’s basement for one month till we could get a room with a very nice family that helped us when we really needed it since we were broke and I also changed job. This time in a bakery from 4 am to 1 pm. I still got my workouts in, met a couple of basketball trainers and started training more often and improving my English. I ended up meeting a very good basketball coach that played in the University of Miami and that had play in Europe too so I started working in the kitchen of an Irish pub to be able to have some more money and afford it.
I started working from 8am to 6pm and then had to wait for the bus for about an hour with a temperature of about 10°F (-12°C). It might not be too cold for people in the East Coast but for a kid that comes from one of the best weathers in the world, tropical, all year summer type of place, when you are at the beach on Christmas, New Jersey hit me a little bit different. So after I took that bus I will get home, change and my girlfriend at the moment would give me a ride to the training facility of the basketball coach, which was about 30 mins away. To be honest last thing I wanted to do after a day like that was to train because I would literally have no energy. I wasn’t eating well, I wasn’t sleeping well and I was working a lot plus, I hated it the cold weather. But you are all in or you are out. So I would train, get home and wait for another day.
Long story short, one day I was playing and I got a very bad sprained ankle. So I wasn’t able to work or train so I had a lot of time to think about everything. Lucky me, my dad decided to move from Spain to California, and he was living there for a couple of months prior to my injury. I used my savings, bought a one way ticket to California and a new journey started. In LA, I realized about how many opportunities you can find. I kept training for a while but then I was just a little exhausted about basketball. I felt like I needed a break to maybe recharge, or just to don’t think just about basketball. I started working in restaurants, improving my English and training. I started doing some modeling jobs, and then I started getting interested in become a personal trainer. I also started making music, songwriting and singing which is something I’ve been doing since I was very young. I started writing songs when I was in middle school but I never really went to a music studio and record stuff because my head was just in basketball so I wouldn’t try new things.
I’m 23 years old now and I still live in California. I still play basketball, I think that would never change. I might go back to Europe and try and play there, it’s something that it’s been in my head but I also been making a lot of music, learning a lot about strength and conditioning and working in myself a lot. It’s been quite a journey and I’m just 23. I’m also going through a global pandemic so I don’t think it’s a good idea to make long-term choices now or to rush into things. So yeah, my story haven’t finished yet, I’m still growing, learning and improving every day. If people can learn something from me or at least take something from this story is that you should do what you want/love to do, not what other people want you to do. At the end of the day during the journey, some doors open, other doors closed, but you must be ready for whatever happens and have a positive attitude. And nobody but you should dictate the tempo of your journey. And also sometimes we don’t know what we want. That is normal, don’t be too hard on yourself. I don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow, but I’ll be ready. On the court and outside the court.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Nothing worth it has a smooth road. Some of the struggles were probably being away from family, friends, struggling with money and also the language. Learning a new culture and become confident on your decisions within that culture.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success means happiness. I used to think success were accolades or superficial stuff but that was just my ego doing the talk. For me, success is being happy doing what you love and really helping others.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Dani Arroniz
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