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For David Charleston, failure is not an option. As a matter of fact, the thought doesn’t even cross his mind, even in a poor economy.

Charleston is the owner of The Orange Planet fitness club in Pleasant Hill, which opened Dec. 1. “It is very, very true that it is not easy to get something like this, of this magnitude, up and get people to buy into it,” Charleston said. “People ask, ‘Well what if it doesn’t work out?’ Baby, I jumped out of the plane; the chute better open.

“Once you’re committed, (the economy) doesn’t matter, because the reality is, I’m going and the chute better work. And who cares about the economy now; what can you do about it?”

This carefree, “roll with the punches” attitude has paid off in some respects for Charleston, who secured three nationally branded sponsorships for his new training facility before he even broke ground on the project; one with Dr Pepper, one with Scheels All Sports and another one with Anaconda Sports Inc.’s The Rock basketball.

As part of the sponsorships, The Orange Planet received 100 personalized Rock basketballs with the Orange Planet logo imprinted on them, and Scheels’ logo is painted across the basketball courts in the gymnasium.

“Any start-up company getting sponsors is a plus,” Charleston said. “The relationships are incredible; it’s more than just checks.”

Charleston said that as part of his deal with Scheels, The Orange Planet will have a presence in Scheels’ basketball showroom, will host basketball shooting contests at Jordan Creek Town Center and will be able to sign people up for camps and clinics in the store.

“My whole life has been in transition to get to this point,” he said “Everything I have ever owned in my life is on the line. I put all of my money into this, my whole entire life.

“And any time you take a risk in life, there is fear, and people who say there is no fear are nuts.”

But Charleston has adopted this fear into his business plan, taking an approach that he hopes pays off: “playing scared.”

“It is one of my business principles: play scared, because you can always, always go harder,” he said.