I started my first business at 12 years old. My dream was to travel the world, speak and inspire people and of course get paid to do it. By God's grace I've never had to work a job to make it in life because of entrepreneurship. I've had millions flow through my hands only to lose it all and start again with nothing but a desire to have more, do more and be more than where I was. I've done a lot of things right and I've done a lot of things wrong but most importantly, I've learned to turn my losses into my lessons! 

It was August 29th, of 2005, when hurricane Katrina hit landfall in south Louisiana. It roared in as one of the most deadly hurricanes in history and definitely became the most memorable of all hurricanes in New Orleans, Louisiana history. 

Life was grand for me until then. I was the owner of a thriving promotional printing and marketing company with working relationships with the “who's who” in both the spiritual, religious and secular arenas of business. I would occasionally be given the opportunity to use my most passionate gift of speaking to inspire others and was well on my way to fulfilling my childhood dream of retiring by age 45 from a business that I had launched and grown from the bottom up on my own. 

Hurricane Katrina changed all of that for me and my family in ways I would have never imagined. The short version is that Katrina's landfall ushered in a season of great loss for me. Major contracts and many business relationships vanished overnight. Much like the covid 19 pandemic, so many adjustments in life and business became my new norm.

 Things were not only bad for me in business, but they got worse when my wife of 16 years was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and passed onto heaven only months later, leaving me the only parent of three pre-adolescent children. So suddenly, I was an only parent.

In addition to that, things got even worse because, with the loss of my once thriving business, now my home and cars were all being threatened to be seized due to my financial difficulties. 

Although I'm describing the most challenging and difficult times of my life, I must tell you that even though I would never want to experience those days again, I wouldn't trade the lessons learned for anything!

It was during that season that I learned to face fears head on— and I must confess, not because I was always strong or fearless, but because in most cases I simply had no choice.

The foundation of all I teach and consult from now mostly came from surviving that heart-wrenching season of loss.

If you are reading these words let me encourage you to keep moving forward, knowing that wherever your struggle is, that is exactly where your strength is being cultivated.