Perfect day to share a bit more of my story, how I lost 3/4 of my net worth in 3 months, and earned it all back again, PLUS MORE!
You see. I used to be an overly trusting person with very few boundaries. I thought if someone I trusted referred me to someone, then that person must be trustworthy as well (even if I never met them before!). Or if I knew someone or worked with someone for many years, I put that person in a “trust for life” category, since they hadn’t ever screwed me over in X many years.
I got hired at 20 years old by NBC as a television news reporter (before I even graduated college, and yes I still got my degree.). After several years in the TV news business, I was burned out and needed to make some real money. I got into the pharmaceutical sales world and became quite successful at it. By 25, I was already making 6-figures. So I saved, invested, saved some more, and followed the wealth strategies I teach all of you.
I was worth 7-figures before I was 30. CUE THE DRAMATIC ?… In Sept, I was a millionaire and by the new year, I was knocked back to where I was 5 years prior. It took my breath away. I thought I was on the right track and entering the next big level. Was I broke, no, because my protocol for building wealth has protections in place to prevent street living. Imagine 75% of everything you ever worked for starting at age 13 (yes my mom made me work at 13 ?), was gone practically overnight and there wasn’t a damn thing you could do about it. Whether that’s $1000, $10,000, or $1,000,000, it’s not pretty.
The “how” of this story is at the beginning of this post. I didn’t have good or even basic boundaries and I put blind trust in someone, meaning I didn’t do my own due diligence on the person, their skills, reputation, etc… I trusted them because I trusted the person who referred me to him. Well often in life our biggest lessons are expensive and painful AF.
After a month of wallowing in self-pity, I was determined to make that money back and much more. I knew I couldn’t create the wealth and freedom I desired from working in corporate pharmaceuticals. Although the pay was great, the cost was also great! The pressure was so high, I was always getting sick; sexual harassment was the norm, and by that I mean multiple times a week #metoo; if I wanted to keep climbing the corporate ladder, that price would go even higher.
So in spite of being terrified to leave what I knew, my gut told me it was time. I started my own company, my rules, my vision, my goals, on my timeline. Within 3 years, I made all of the $ back I lost, and more importantly I gained a sense of pride and empowerment that I lost in that corporate jungle.