New Jersey strongman Stanley Pleskun is profiled, warts and all, in the award-winning film documentary Strongman. Pleskun runs a small, struggling scrap metal company and uses “Stanless Steel” as his performance and stage name during his public feats of strength. He’s been a professional strongman for several decades and has appeared on dozens of local and a few lower-tier national television programs performing his tried and true routines of bending, lifting, pulling and enduring.
Try as he might, Pleskun has not yet become a household name, and his prodigious feats have not brought him riches or fame. Call him delusional, call him insane, call him hopeless - he does not waver from or alter his course. He believes he is the strongest man in the world at his certain feats - bending coins; bending steel; holding back small planes from take-off; and supporting trucks on his chest from a prone position, among others - and he believes that he is destined to become a household name.
His ambition is secondary to his hard work along the journey. Pleskun is known for his breath-taking, frightening levels of intensity. The fantastic feats he performs are as real as the flesh and blood he sacrifices during each performance. There is nothing tricky or fake or contrived about his act. He’s blue-collar through and through and his feats are legendary amongst the small yet rabid world of strength aficionados.
The documentary filmmaker said, “There’s something beautiful about a regular guy living his life as best he can while doing extraordinary things.” Like Pleskun, you too are special and capable of inhuman feats. He may not become famous or rich, but his reward lies in the effort along the way. It’s not the destination, it’s the man you become during the journey. Pleskun holds fast to his dream no matter the frustration and disappointment and despair. He has a mission in life, and he devotes his life to its accomplishment in spite of the gap between his dreams and his reality. Are you willing to make the same commitment?
From October 2010, http://raising-a-man.tumblr.com
Try as he might, Pleskun has not yet become a household name, and his prodigious feats have not brought him riches or fame. Call him delusional, call him insane, call him hopeless - he does not waver from or alter his course. He believes he is the strongest man in the world at his certain feats - bending coins; bending steel; holding back small planes from take-off; and supporting trucks on his chest from a prone position, among others - and he believes that he is destined to become a household name.
His ambition is secondary to his hard work along the journey. Pleskun is known for his breath-taking, frightening levels of intensity. The fantastic feats he performs are as real as the flesh and blood he sacrifices during each performance. There is nothing tricky or fake or contrived about his act. He’s blue-collar through and through and his feats are legendary amongst the small yet rabid world of strength aficionados.
The documentary filmmaker said, “There’s something beautiful about a regular guy living his life as best he can while doing extraordinary things.” Like Pleskun, you too are special and capable of inhuman feats. He may not become famous or rich, but his reward lies in the effort along the way. It’s not the destination, it’s the man you become during the journey. Pleskun holds fast to his dream no matter the frustration and disappointment and despair. He has a mission in life, and he devotes his life to its accomplishment in spite of the gap between his dreams and his reality. Are you willing to make the same commitment?
From October 2010, http://raising-a-man.tumblr.com
RSS Feed
