First off most competitors sell gear and I’ve never known a guy who competes pass up the chance to make money. Also competitors tend to love the sport and want to bring other guys into it. The only thing as others have said is guys starting off with gear from the beginning, you need a few years natty for multiple reasons, also that plaster gold spray painted trophy is a cheap piece of equipment but some of mine are in the same case as my military medals, they represent a chunk of my life of extreme sacrifice and memories of being alone in the gym when others were out partying or not drinking for months on end watching my boys have fun. It is always worth it but the trophy is an embodiment of all that energy. Another thing I want to address is the “guys who could step on stage and don’t” often they like to point that out themselves. For me I’ve seen guys bust their ass say doin their first show or just miss the mark but did the work showed up in trucks and got scored for their body in front of a crowd. Which no matter how good you look takes courage/confidence and if someone “coukd get on stage” but doesn’t and that’s their claim to fame I have zero respect for that shit. Now if you train for you and just don’t want to compete, rock n roll-respect. But if you strut around talking about what you could do but dont- you tan up, practice posing, dry out (grind out a peak week if you will), and get up their and go pose for pose with other jacked dudes-you’re a poser. If competing isn’t for you cool but don’t tell everyone how great you’d be if you don’t have the balls to. Same guys who woulda been a Marine too, or coulda been a SEAL, NFL, NBA, MLB player if only…….you didn’t so no you couldn’t have bro bc you didn’t have the skill and or the heart.