“The game should be bigger than the player. Organization should be bigger than employees. The purpose should be bigger than you and me.”
Introduction
Dr. Anand Modi’s story is a tapestry that charts the way of threads of loss, reinvention and a will unyielding to serve. Born in Pyay, Myanmar, in 1982, Dr. Anand Modi was barely six when his family fled political uncertainty, arriving in Mumbai with little more than hope and each other. In those days in the not-so-distant past, he wrestled with language barriers and the oppression of displacement, even from a young age as a child in a foreign land in jammed-up classrooms he began creating the resilience that became his calling card in life.
Adolescence brought another transformation: once a slight, unassuming teenager weighing just 38 kilograms, Dr. Anand discovered strength—first in weightlifting, then in entrepreneurship. At the age of seventeen, he started a protein-supplement venture and dealt on event passes at Mumbai’s hottest locations while learning in real-time the art of persuasion and excitement of creation. In his early twenties, he opened his own business, People’s The Power Gym, an inclusive, individualistic fitness model which thrived in six cities and created — (ISSA) International Sports Sciences Association now renamed as LIONEL University — Certify of Fitness training system, specialized in Sports Nutritionist.
However, his aspirations extended beyond barbells and bench press. Conscious of the fact that physical health and stable housing were two pillars around which the community thrived upon, Dr. Anand got into the business of real estate redevelopment. He convinced hundreds of families to rebuild the dilapidated apartment complexes through his companies, then signed up for a bigger cause: slum-redevelopment in Kandivali, where he worked his way through a difficult political arena and provided houses to more than 100,000 people. In all of his projects, he wove together threads of entrepreneurship, negotiating skill, and thick empathy.
The ultimate furnace came during November 2018 when he nearly suffered a massive stroke that posed risk to not only his businesses but even his identity. Dr. Anand, comatose for days, left aphasic and with right-hand paralysis, faced the prospect that he may never again speak, walk or think with his right hand. Unfazed, he took up the long course of rehabilitation, relearning basics through Zoom, re-wiring his neural cabling, and refusing to accept “impossible”. Returning to the professional arena got the better of him and changed his perspective: he introduced ANAND MODI INSPIRZZ WISEOWLZZ – Disruption for redevelopment industry, INSPIRZZ MULTIMEDIA, MIB REKOVER DISCOVER, an online facility for survivors of brain injuries, and BANAO KKAMAO, a coaching portal for entrepreneurs working to re-emerge after setbacks.
Today, Dr. Anand is a world educationist and community leader. He lectures in negotiation and leadership at elite institutions, counsels governments on social impact projects, and remains on the cutting edge in both fitness and real estate. His story is not a tall tale of incredible successes but a saga of perseverance, community, and purpose. Born of upheaval and rife with detritus, Dr. Anand’s arc, from childhood displaced to life devoted to uplifting others, also reminds us that seemingly indomitable, true strength is forged in adversity—and that, however low one falls, each of us carries the power to rise again.
Phase 1 : Roots of Resilience
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
Dr. Anand Modi’s story begins in the prosperous city of Pyay, Myanmar in 1982. His earliest recollections are the sound of wild heavy downpours of monsoon rain on the thin roofs of his family’s modest home, the merriment of neighbours carried on alleyways and the fragrance of spiced lentils cooked over open fires. But underneath these textures of childhood, grew an ever-increasing unease: political turbulence was fast enveloping the country, trapping Dr. Anand Modi’s family among so many others into a clutch of perplexities.
When Dr. Anand was six years old, his parents, Prem Kumar Modi and Sumitra Modi, made the heart-rending decision to leave everything they knew behind. With only a few suitcases and a handful of photographs, they boarded a ship bound for India. The trip was itself a test of endurance: weeks away from shore, packed living conditions, and a never-ending pang of homesickness. Young Dr. Anand clung to his mother’s sari, his eyes too big in his wide expressive face, taking in each new murmur of sound and feeling, but never fully knowing why the soft murmur of Pyay streets had been replaced by the thunder of the Arabian Sea.
Getting off at the Mumbai station in 1985, the Modis disembarked from the home turf without saying a single word of English, Hindi or Marathi. All they owned that had true value was an unshakable faith in education. Dr. Anand was enrolled, the same year, at Utpal Sanghvi School, and his initial years in the classroom were marked by silence. While his classmates babbled away in torrential Marathi, he sat stone-faced undergoing a shrimp-bucolic of his tongue, ensnared in sounds not his own. Simple greetings felt impossible; every mounting attempt to ask for or raise his hand to ask a question crystallized his alienation.
But shortly thereafter shifts began. Dr. Anand found the magic of observation; he observed how the lips were morphed into shapes representing each vowel by the teachers and friends repeating phrases until words flowed naturally. At home, he was taught everything through chores his parents made lessons of. “Darwaza” for door, “Paani” for water, “Kitab” for book. Every night young Dr. Anand wrote letters into the dust of their one-room apartment, vocalising the letters over and over until they sounded like he was confident. At the end of his first year in college, he’d be answering questions in class with every word he pronounced, pleasing his teachers.
School days at Utpal Sanghvi served as an arena to build Dr. Anand’s resilience. He plunged into the very subject—math puzzles—that became an open challenge to buckle down on, history lessons brought under the glass of such a distant world and awed him by itself with poetry. By 1991, Dr. Anand was doing well academically and socially; he was captain of the chess club, star of the annual play, even leading morning assemblies with eloquent delivery. From every tiny victory, from raising his hand, to chanting a poem, to solving a difficult equation, he whittled away at the insecurity that he had carried from Pyay.
Phase 2 : The First Ventures
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”
At sixteen, Dr. Anand Modi weighed only about 38 kilograms—feeble, bashful, and recalcitrant to the ghost of that first grade alone at an Indian classroom. But as in his lean frames and where hesitation predominated in his smiles was delineated the outline of his next metamorphosis. An accidental meeting with a classmate’s weightlifting method implanted the thought that strength—physical and metaphorical—might transform one’s destiny.
A local gym not too far from home in Juhu, Andheri was where Dr. Anand’s entrance into fitness took place. He raised a ten-kilogram barbell, with trembling hands, under the gaze of an trainer, Mr. Raymond Misquitta. The first endeavour threatened to collapse his knees but the rush of achievement—of lifting weight that previously could never have been lifted—yet put a spark in him. He came every day, with cumulating loads, and wrote down every repetition in a worn notebook. Each sound of clink of iron was verification: If he could physicalize himself, perhaps he could spiritualize himself too.
The gossip about the new sickly fellow’s sudden success was heard in school hallways. His teammates mock-challenged him to arm-wrestling games; friends wrote down bets on the length of his dedication. But for this boy Dr. Anand, the real competition was between him and the boy he once was. By the end of 2002 he had doubled his body weight, worked his muscles into shape, and developed a reputation as the “underdog with iron resolve.”
Dr. Anand instead saw an entrepreneurial opportunity and did not lock away this evolution. He observed the scarcity of inexpensive protein supplements in suburban Mumbai markets and, with the savings accrued from extending part-time courses, procured whey protein by reaching a small local manufacturer. He rebranded it into basic hand-stamped sachets and sold the sachets at school canteens. His pitch was not only practical but also very personal: “This made it possible to gain muscle when feeling weak – let it do the same for you as well.”
The packets were sold off the shelves. Teasing students now lined up to place orders. Encouraged, Dr. Anand expanded his offerings: high-energy bars made at his home kitchen, custom training plans written on cheap paper. He even bargained with Mumbai’s party promoters to provide supplement coupons in event passes, a novel crossover of health and nightlife that presented some, to start with, but then built increasingly.
By mid-1998, Dr. Anand’s small venture was turning a tidy profit. But beyond the financial gains, he had discovered two lifelong lessons: the power of solving real problems his community faced, and the confidence that comes from creating value. He ploughed all the rupees back into better packaging, quality testing, and marketing collateral. Although it started as a teenager’s sideline gig, it grew into a prototype for People’s The Power Gym—an idea that would be formalized five years later, with a goal to access and transform fitness for everyone.
Phase 3 : Building People’s Gym
“Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.”
Dr. Anand Modi in 2002, at the age of twenty, was at the crossroads of possibility. Recently completing his Bachelor of Commerce and carried away by the success of his teenage venture in supplements, he questioned himself with a solitary question: was the transformative power which had taken root inside him in that sticky close Andheri gym capable of being made global in order to elevate entire communities? And there appeared a seed of People’s The Power Gym – an idea that would sprout in six cities and transform suburban Indian fitness culture.
The earliest iteration was humble: a rented 5000-square-foot building in Evershine Nagar, Malad – West with equipment and a handful of free weights. Dr. Anand spent all his savings on remodeling the floor, placing salvaged mirrors from a defunct dance studio, and had bright posters printed with the mantra “Strong Body, Strong Mind.” He ran group classes to draw new faces into his program – basic circuits with the addition of resistance bands and bodyweight exercises, leading and explaining every session individually, correcting form personally, giving encouragement, building rapport.
Still, Dr. Anand had realized that passion could not survive without growth. He explored the subtlest outcomes of market research, visiting fitness hotspots in Mumbai, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Chennai, and Pune to scope membership plans, class options, and services offered. He conducted surveys within the local communities, highlighting barriers to regular exercise such as intimidating gym climates, baffling equipment, and non-refundable membership fees that disappeared into nowhere when interest waned. With this in view, he sharpened his vision: People’s The Power Gym would be friendly, reasonably priced, results-focused with transparent pricing, and have a community-oriented approach. During this journey, he also learned how to manage members and employees from different languages and cultures.
In 2002-2004, he started the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), now renamed as LIONEL University, certifying fitness training and specializing in Sports Nutrition. The program was based on structured progressive resistance training, cardiovascular conditioning, and tailored nutrition advice. It was designed to be scalable across locations; a five-phase membership curriculum that includes standard workout plans, turn-key video demonstrations, and progress-tracking worksheets. Trainers received intense certification as they learned not only exercise science but also motivational coaching and rapport techniques with clients.
The brand philosophy came together around three pillars: Accessibility, Accountability, and Achievement. Accessibility meant a flexible membership regimen—a drop-in pass of ₹200, a three-month package with free group workshops, and family plans encouraging whole households to join. Accountability was maintained through monthly progress reviews of exercise and nutrition intake. Success was celebrated through community events—ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association), now renamed as LIONEL University, Certify of Fitness Training—with friendly games and transformation shows where participants shared their success stories.