TL;DR: After 23 years without success, I started lifting heavy weights following "Starting Strength", forced myself into uncomfortable situations and figured out how my programming (with the help of TRP) was contributing to my lack of success.

I'll lay the foundation of this post by sharing the first 23 years of my life.

I was in most ways a typical American boy. I did well academically, and played sports. I had a lot of friends, was well-known, and raised to be polite and compassionate.

Most of high school, I was a 6 foot 2, pudgy kid who lost about 40lbs every spring for Lacrosse season. I would then put it all back on. Never lifted a heavy weight.

I also went through high school a virgin.

And I went through high school frustrated and confused as to how dudes way shorter, uglier, stupider and douchier than me were hooking up with the girls I was talking to on AIM and imagining in fantasy love stories.

This trend continued into the college years, though I finally got laid once every couple of months. I dropped out of college, became a firefighter and paramedic, and nothing changed in terms of success with women.

January of 2013 rolled around and I was a 6'2 firefighter, with money, his own house, a good social life, interesting hobbies and a man. But I was still losing girls at bars to dudes who I considered well below me.

Hindsight tells me now what the problem was; I was a man on paper. In person, I was an unconfident, nervous wreck.

In January 2013, I decided to quit my annual 1-month long gym session where I would quit after a month and excuse my quitting as "I don't have time, I need my time for my intellectual pursuits. I was hamstering.

I spent 3 months with my head down, hitting the gym, and dropped about 20lbs and started to notice masculine features on my body. In complete honesty, I had never been able to produce a thick beard.. I was always producing a dirty looking beard. Within months of actively lifting (followed "Starting Strength"), I was suddenly able to produce a solid beard.

At the end of those 3 months, I met and began to date a woman 4 years older than I. And she was smoking hot.

I spent most of our relationship as her bitch, in constant fear of losing access to that FANTASTIC sex she was giving me.

The veterans of TRP will know exactly how this played out. Ultimately, she cheated on me, and then proceeded to hide it for 2 months before I snooped her phone and found out for myself.

We broke up in January 2014. I posted several throwaway threads in /r/relationships in hopes of finding some way to hamster myself back into my Ex's life. Around that time, the monthly "What subreddit do you hate most" popped up in AskReddit, and lo and behold, some stupid subreddit called /r/theredpill was right up at the top.

Apparently /r/theredpill was some den of evil, where men talk about how much better they are than women.

In all honesty, I rode into this subreddit on a white horse, with my white armor prepared to vanquish you all with my White Sword of White-Knightedness.

Such is life.

Since reading this sub, subscribing, and applying the thought processes, I have RIDICULOUSLY improved my interaction with women. Most recently, I fucked some girl in New Orleans on her bachelorette trip. She was scheduled to be standing on the altar 6 weeks later. This happened after she had been telling me about how amazing her fiance was. I only knew her first name, never got her number or facebook or anything. This all happened in a 6 hour window. We started talking at a casino, hit the party scene on Bourbon street, and then back to her hotel.

A week prior to fucking her, I participated in a drunken gang bang. I helped some super college slut ride the cock carousel, 4 dudes at one time. And her boyfriend was about 2 minutes down the road from where this happened.

After those 2 experiences, I was pretty much sold on TRP. I mean, I never thought of myself as a dude who would be part of a gangbang. Not just that, but I started it. This girl had us all 4 in a room, told us to close the door and lock it. I made the first move to get things moving, and basically acted as the director of this porn scene.

This was not the quiet, shy, shaking-nervous wreck of a boy I used to know.

And I attribute this complete 180 degree turn on 3 things:

1. Lifting. Heavy. Weights. I NEVER in 23 years felt sexy. I NEVER heard through the grapevine about girls sitting around putting me on their “I’d fuck him list.” No, I was always on the “You’re such a nice guy, you’ll find some perfect girl someday.. just not me.” List. It’s been a year, and I’m now understanding what it’s like to catch women ogling, to be approached by them.. shit, I’m still getting used to women receiving my approaches without laughing. All because I put some muscle in my shoulders and chest, and improved my posture (deadlift gentlemen, deadlift).

2. Overcoming Fears/Owning Myself. One of the worst arguments I had with my ex resulted in her telling me how big of a pussy I was. She said “Everyone knows you’re a pussy.” I knew it, too. But I thought I had been managing to hide it. I guess not. I had been in a handful of fights as a kid, and generally got my ass beat on every occasion. I generally hung out with older kids, and never had any natural ability to fight. So, for most of my life I found other men intimidating. I would back down from fights. I decided to start training MMA and regularly testing myself. I took up Brazilian jiu jitsu, and plan on competing. I also aspire to fight in an MMA fight next year. Just because I’ve been deathly afraid of fighting, I want to get in the cage with a guy who basically wants to kill me and test myself. I’ve heard Joe Rogan refer to this idea called “Self Sovereignty”, and that’s essentially what I’m working to improve. In fact, it is my second most important thing in life, next to my mission as a firefighter/paramedic.

3. The most difficult, yet easiest part: Getting them off the pedestal. I grew up on Disney movies. I grew up in a household with a present mother, and a father all too often working late. My lack of success with women led me to asking other women for advice, and being programmed by their advice. Women are princesses, and I am their white knight. Jesus, I believed in this fantasy where I slave away at work and provide everything my wife needs. I FANTASIZED about having my wife at home watching Netflix all day. I was programmed so well that the idea of providing was basically turning me on. Jesus. But alas, my most recent experiences with women has really solidified the idea that women are just people too. They’re not worthy of a pedestal, and neither am I. That’s what’s been working for me.

If nothing else, lift heavy weights.

I’ll leave you with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWUcHKAj_tc