A story about overcoming failure and achieving success against all odds

 

PHASE 1 GROWING UP POOR

Born May 16, 1983 in Cleveland Ohio

Grows up poor and watches parents fight about lack of money

Realizes family is poor when father can’t afford to buy a hamburger at McDonalds

Gets idea to be a restaurant reviewer and eats around town for free

Buys candy in bulk and resells it at school starting first profitable venture

Invests profits in baseball cards and learns about supply and demand

Becomes homeless and lives in a industrial garage

Gets first and only job making pizzas at italian restaurant

Visits wealthy relatives in NYC and sees what financial freedom looks like

Quits job and spends entire savings on investment books

Becomes disinterested in school and starts reading books on the stock market

PHASE 2 TRYING TO ESCAPE POVERTY

Starts first business buying wholesale merchandise and reselling it on eBay

Starts trading stocks with eBay profits

Marches into Merrill Lynch and gets unpaid internship to learn more about investing

Loses money trading stocks and doubles down on eBay business

Launches several new product lines on eBay and expands business

Gets 100 to 150 checks in the mail every day from eBay sales (before paypal)

Becomes one of the youngest eBay PowerSellers

Starts skipping school to work on business

Reads business books instead of text books when he does go to school

Gets told by teacher he’s going to be a loser for not paying attention in class

Drops out of high school to pursue business full time

Buys first investment property

Expands eBay business to 6 figures in annual revenue but hits a glass ceiling

Searches for larger opportunities

Starts estate sale business and hires 2 friends as first employees

Finds limited upside with estate sale business and decides to close it

Starts sign manufacturing company

Builds up sign company to 6 figures in annual revenue

Buys eBook on how to make money with affiliate marketing

Teaches himself HTML and builds first affiliate marketing website

Focuses on affiliate marketing and shuts down sign company

Becomes largest web hosting affiliate in the world

Creates first info product teaching affiliate marketing

Meets business partner and becomes 50/50 partners

Creates first SAAS product, a website builder for affiliate marketing

Gets recognized by #1 Adwords expert for running most creative ad on the internet

Builds info product company to 8 figures in annual revenue

Helps launch artificial intelligence chat software company

Out of the blue business partner leaves the country and does not return

Becomes depressed from loosing best friend and business partner

PHASE 3 EXPANSION BUILDING ON SUCCESS

Closes company and launches new business with former attorney

Starts market research company connecting large companies with survey takers

Invests in a nursing home and loses entire investment

Launches company selling online courses & information products

Expands company to 27 online courses and 300 employees

Grows revenue from online courses and information products to 8 figures annually

Online training courses company gets sued by Ohio attorney general and settles for $35,950

Sells online courses and information products company and takes some time off

Launches e-commerce book store

Struggles to get traction and ultimately shuts down company

Continues to expand real estate investment portfolio

Starts a web hosting company

Launches multiple web hosting brands and expands to 300,000 paid customers

Meets future wife at web hosting company

Grows web hosting company to 8 figures in annual revenue

Wins “Online Marketer Of The Year” award from Digital Marketer

Leaves day to day operations of hosting company to focus on other ideas

Helps build school in Africa with friends Stu and Amy

Launches new website “a personal timeline of your life”

Facebook launches “timeline” and destroys business model

Starts computer backup company

Struggles to get the technology working and shuts company down

Buys domain for 500k and creates a website builder SAAS company

Invests 7 figures in SAAS company and loses it all

Expands real estate investment company acquiring more properties

Learns about SEO and builds SEO software company to 7 figures annually

Leaves day to day operations of SEO company to focus on other ideas

Launches photo sharing app and website

Gets a little traction with photo sharing site but not enough for viability

Decides to shut down photo sharing site and moves on to next venture

Launches website security software company

Company struggles to acquire customers at a profit

Shuts down website security company and takes some time off

PHASE 4 FOCUSING ON VALUE AND CONTRIBUTION

Marries wife Rachel

Buys RV to go on cross country road trip

After road trip tries to rent RV and finds there are no good solutions

Starts thinking about the idea of a peer-to-peer RV rental company

Starts herbal supplements company

Builds herbal supplements company up to 8 figures in annual revenue

Steps away from day to day operations in herbal supplements company

Helps launch new media blog and takes it from 0 to 100,000 daily visitors in 30 days

Finds co-founders and launches first version of peer-to-peer RV rental website

Goes on reading binge and has personal breakthrough

Decides to remove everything that doesn’t align with goals and focus on one thing

Goes all in on RV rental business and sells or gives up equity in all other companies

Decides to self fund and bootstrap RV rental company

Starts to liquidate investment properties to fund RV rental company

Has first child

Continues selling off investment properties to fund RV rental business

Bootstraps RV rental business to profitability

Grows RV rental business to 8 figures annually

Simplifies life and sells 90% of personal belongings

Builds RV rental business into the largest in the U.S.

To be continued….

BUILDING SOMETHING BIGGER THAN MYSELF

SELF DISCOVERY

LEAVING A LEGACY

OVERCOMES THE ODDS