When Justin Blas Martinez was growing up, he always had an appreciation for fitness, which soon led him to fall in love with the idea of physical therapy (PT). 2014 graduate Martinez grew eager to dedicate his life to pursuing a career in physical therapy. After realizing this passion of his during his senior year, Martinez decided that he wanted a professional career as a physical therapist because he was fascinated by anatomy and physiology.

When in PPCHS, Martinez never took classes that might’ve influenced him in his future career. However, he expresses how football coaches and teachers like Mr. Quigley and Mr. Vivollo helped enlighten him on how to work hard, maintain professionalism, and stay accountable for his work. 

After graduating from PPCHS, Martinez attended FIU as an undergraduate until 2018. Transferring later on to the University of St. Augustine, Martinez would graduate and have earned a major in health and science. Ever since then, Martinez has been working with the Action of Physical Therapy, which is an outpatient orthopedic clinic that evaluates, treats, and manages office relations.

Physical therapy is the ability to improve a patient’s quality of life and rehabilitate injuries through movement, lifestyle modification, and through education. Martinez says that PT was always a significant contributing factor that allows you to see people worldwide and hear their appreciation and stories. “I take great pride knowing my work can impact someone’s day, week, or change their lives for the better.” PT also allows those who come together to share each other’s ways on how they might’ve overcome their struggles.

Over time, Martinez would continue to hear different stories of struggles that weren’t always experienced in physical therapy. He grew to hear more stories on the paths and struggles people took to becoming an entrepreneur, stating he “[loves] hearing entrepreneurs start from nothing, and that inspires me to open a business one day .” 

Currently he works as an office manager and head physical therapist, but still believes that the ability to become an entrepreneur is a calling to him. Martinez says that he’s always had an entrepreneurial mindset, adding that his mentors have shown him the importance of being his own boss, “It’s always been a goal of mine [to, in fact, become my own boss].” Although Martinez’s plan is still underway, he is awaiting the perfect opportunity to begin his entrepreneurial endeavor.

Along the way, Martinez has encountered many different obstacles in others and noticed a lot of negativity within the PT community. Although, he ensures those who want to enter the field of PT that if you have a plan, stick to it: “Know your worth, do your job right, and always have the patient’s best interest in mind by finding a niche you enjoy working with that can set you up for financial success and have [can allow you] to have a good standing with your community.”

Martinez appreciates his work aspect and understands that he’s sacrificed a lot to obtain multiple of his goals: “My [completed] goals were to graduate, begin working, and manage a clinic.” He continues to add onto how once he finishes a goal, he soon creates a new one shortly after. Martinez hopes to in the future begin gaining traction for his mobile practice and to open a brick mortar office within the next 5 years to begin the promotion of his own business. He tries to constantly stick to his goals and attempts to create futuristic and creative goals to rule out those already completed.

Throughout his life, Martinez has picked up many skills on how to grow physically and mentally. As he helps those in need, he tries to continue to learn towards being able to help others in his own futuristic ways. After learning to grow and capture his goals, Martinez advises to “Always stick to [your] goals and [make] sure to [create] new ones when the old ones are completed.”

His feedback and words of encouragement serve as an inspiring point to those who may be struggling or think that possibly they may not be good enough. After growing on to encourage careers in physiology, Martinez tries to take an inspiring path and captivate the difficult path into becoming an entrepreneur. Not only does he want to begin the construction of his company, but he wants to be a mentor to those interested in this field to show that it is possible to achieve one’s dream.