24 Nov The Day I Realized No One Was Coming to Save Me
Most people know me for what I built.
Very few know where I started.
At seventeen, the State released me from a group home.
No family waiting.
No support.
No plan.
Just a trash bag with a few clothes in it and a reminder from the staff that I would probably end up in jail.
I spent the next few months sleeping in an abandoned building in Fullerton.
Roaches crawled on me at night.
I ate Taco Bell from the trash behind the building.
The employees eventually noticed and started handing me food. That small kindness helped me survive.
My first job was pushing carts at Home Depot.
They hired me by accident because they thought I was eighteen.
I rode a rusty girls beach cruiser bike five miles to get there every day.
There was no mentor.
No lucky break.
No inspirational movie moment.
Just a choice to keep going, even when I had nothing.
That period taught me something I still live by.
No one is coming to save you.
Build your own way out.
Even if it begins with a rusty old bike, a minimum wage job, and a trash bag of clothes.
If you are in a hard season right now, I have been there.
Keep moving.
I am a 4x founder with 3 successful exits, currently working on my fintech startup. I am an unintentional contrarian that is right more often than wrong!