In 2003, I lost it all.
My business failed. I had tons of debt. I had no income. I couldn’t afford my apartment rent.
To make matters worse, I was newly married and expecting my first child.
My sister offered us her basement to live in until we turned things around.
I say I lost it all because at the time that’s what it felt like. But looking back, I know I was still pretty rich – my wife loved me, we had a child on the way, and I had family willing to help me by opening their home to me.
But at the time, I felt like a massive failure. I went from being a successful entrepreneur and business owner to selling my old toys on eBay just to buy groceries.
I was greatly humbled.
And for a little while, I wallowed in self-pity.
But I had responsibilities so I picked myself up and took the first sales job I could get: car salesman.
I was hungry – literally – and selling was the fastest way for me to control my own income.
Plus, I believe in forward momentum. I could easily have stayed home, sending out resumes, and hoping the perfect job would hire me.
But then I would have been stagnant. And I knew that if I wanted my life to change, I had to take a chance and create forward momentum.
Nothing changes if you keep doing the same thing.
Once I was moving forward, I knew other opportunities would open up.
And they did.
I worked in that car dealership for six months and learned all about the auto dealer world.
So when an SEO position opened up in a scrappy startup digital marketing company – who happened to be working with a lot of car dealerships – my experience was a perfect fit. I had performed all my own SEO with Image Cake and on the Mohegan Sun website. Now with car dealership experience, I edged out all of the other SEO applicants.
A couple of years later, the scrappy start up agency was bought by ADP, the payroll giant, for $50 million and suddenly I’m running the digital marketing for thousands of dealerships across the country, as well as ADP’s B2B payroll division – over $400 million in marketing.
In just a few years I went from massive debt and living in my sister’s basement to making multiple six-figures, a beautiful house, and enough freedom to live life however I wanted.
And in many ways, my experience with success humbled me even more. It was my faith in God that helped me realize that if I got up and got moving forward, that God would open up opportunities for me, just like He does for all of us.
Please share with me your own turnaround stories – how did making a single decision to take action to help you change your life?
