Chico's Very Own
Mr. Clean Colby Ballinger is proof you do not need a college degree to be a success in life. Colby does have a high school diploma from Core Butte Charter, but as he will tell you, “I hated school. I hated being told what to do, and I hated sitting at a desk.” It just could not be explained much plainer than that. However, Colby’s discontentment with school didn’t mean he disliked learning. On the contrary, when he was just a kid, Colby began challenging himself to learn how to do whatever caught his eye at the moment. It became evident at every turn that he was acquiring skills that would benefit people’s lives. Colby attended public school into middle school, but was homeschooled by his parents thereafter. “It was a shock,” he 32
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said. “After all the years being in public school, homeschooling was a big change.” He quickly learned if he wanted to get anywhere in life, he needed to start at the bottom and move up. His first job was selling the Chico Enterprise Record door-to-door when he was twelve years old. At fourteen, he worked for a local carpet cleaner and thus, started a new, life changing career. At just seventeen, Colby started his own business, Everclean Carpet Cleaning. In the middle of all of this, Colby got involved in weightlifting. He started weight training at fourteen and entered into competitive powerlifting at sixteen. From sixteen to twenty-four, he participated in competitive events, usually entering two
to three each year. Not only did Colby win almost every competition he entered, but he also found himself breaking world records in both his age and weight category. To be sure, Colby Ballinger is a big man— perhaps better said, a huge man, standing at 6’5” and weighing in around 280—280 pounds of muscle. His personal best is a 573lb bench press and an 801lb deadlift. He cannot help but often wonder what it would have been like to play football or other school sports, but that’s a passing notion as Colby clearly had other plans on his mind. “My dad gave me the Rich Dad, Poor Dad books when I was a kid,” said Ballinger. “Being an entrepreneur has always been an interest for me.”
