About
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