I have been a passionate entrepreneur since launching my first business at the age of 19. With my first IPO reaching a market cap of some quarter-billion dollars in my 20’s, I quickly learned how to take a good product idea and build it into a multimillion dollar enterprise. I also have learned the hard way, not ti take failure personally. Since then, I have been an avid investor in technology startups around the world. I have not ever really kept a job for very long. I am sharing some of my stories to help entrepreneurs live a balanced life.
Hitting the Iceberg
It took a couple of years for RCMS to find its way, and just when it did, the economy tanked. It was 2008. Every bit of debt we had got called in, and I was given thirty days come up with it. I had personally guaranteed a huge chunk of that debt.
For the next year, I worked my tail off to keep the company going, constantly spending the night in my office. We were always only one step ahead of disaster and bankruptcy. I was barely able to generate enough business to pay my team and our rent. Investors phoned every day, screaming at me about their losing bet on us. I should have shut down RCMS immediately when things went south, but I refused to give up, believing I alone had the superpowers to turn it around. I gained weight, drank too much, and never saw my family. I had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a decade earlier at twenty-eight; my health deteriorated from work and stress.
