Frequently
Asked

A man with humble beginnings. No silver spoon. No head start. Bad student, not particularly charming, not the smartest in the room. What I had was ambition, grit, and a pain tolerance for the long climb — an obsession with building something out of myself, creating a legacy for my name, for my family, for the people I love.

I was able to build wealth. I made massive mistakes along the way — more than once. I have won and lost fortunes. And not one of those losses has broken me.

Right now, I’m in a rebuild. This site is part of that.

Wild success rarely teaches you much. Failure teaches you almost everything.

I’ve taken serious hits — financially, legally, publicly. One of the primary ways I’m rebuilding is by starting a software company that helps large enterprises communicate better with their customers. And throughout all of it, I’m documenting the process. Studying what it means to fall completely and come back.

What can we learn from others who’ve done it before? What lessons transfer? What doesn’t? That’s what this is.

People who’ve had a massive setback. A seemingly inconsolable failure. People who’ve hit rock bottom — maybe more than once. People who made a poor decision. Sometimes bad things happen because of poor choices. Other times life just isn’t fair.

This is for everyone who landed on the wrong side of luck — through their own doing or through unintended consequences. If you feel like you’re someone who can never come back, I want you here. Let’s bind together, learn from each other’s failures, study the failures of people who came before us, and figure out how to keep building.

The sword doesn’t come from an easy life.

To make a blade, the iron has to be heated and hammered. Forged. It’s only after going through that process that you get something worth having — something sharp, something durable, something real. You don’t get better without difficulty. Failures and mistakes build us. They don’t break us.

That’s what this community is. People who’ve been through the fire, who believe in getting better — physically, mentally, spiritually — and who are willing to do the work. Iron sharpens iron. We sharpen each other.

I’ve been fired three times — twice by large financial institutions, once by a leading tech firm.

I built a small amount of wealth and lost it. Then I started a company from nothing — an idea and a PowerPoint — and took it to tens of thousands of dollars in daily revenue. On paper, I was worth eight figures.

A lapse in oversight and judgment sent me to federal prison.

Now I’m on the other side, and I’m rebuilding. Follow along to see if I learned anything. To see if there’s something here worth learning — what to do, or maybe what not to do.

If you’ve never taken a risk in your life, had a perfect family, a perfect upbringing, and everything has generally gone your way on a fairly even path — this isn’t for you.

If you’ve never had an error in judgment, a lapse in discretion, a bump in the road, a bad relationship — by all means, your high horse is waiting. Ride off into the sunset. I wish you all the best.

This house wasn’t built for you.

If this speaks to you — if you read this and think, “that sounds like me, I can relate to that” — then join the newsletter. Follow along on this journey. Watch how the story progresses.

This is a live build. The outcome isn’t decided. But if you like a good comeback story — the little guy, the underdog, the person who probably shouldn’t make it back — then stick around.

Find me on Instagram and TikTok at @BuiltByFailures.