I’m trying to build
a life of my own.

I was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, by my grandparents. There was love and care in my childhood, and there was also drug and alcohol abuse around me. I saw early how hard it can be for a household to have choices when money and stability are thin.

That was only part of growing up. I played baseball, spent a lot of time skateboarding, and found ways to make things with what I had. Those years gave me a taste for practice, movement, and figuring things out firsthand.

One of my first attempts at business was a food cart. I made music, performed, and put songs into the world. Right out of high school I moved to the Virgin Islands, where I started a cleaning company. I later moved to California. I ran a marathon, too. Some of these choices opened doors; others taught me what I still needed to learn.

Hospitality became a serious part of my working life. I managed restaurants, directed beverage programs, and studied wine through Level 1 sommelier education. The work taught me to notice details, care for people, lead under pressure, and make something useful together.

I studied real estate and worked around property. I sold life insurance and annuities and built an agency. Each path added to my foundation: skills, relationships, judgment, and a clearer sense of the life I wanted my work to support.

I paid off $30,000 of debt in less than a year. I also made huge gains in crypto, lost it all more than once, and had to rebuild. I’ve had periods when things seemed to be working, followed by the realization that I had not built something durable underneath them.

I’m still rebuilding. I don’t share those turns as a formula for anyone else. They made the questions harder to ignore: What remains after the effort? What do I actually own? Am I becoming more capable? And what is freedom for?

BUILD / OWN / SERVE grew out of those questions. Build the ability to do useful work. Own selectively so more of its value and more of your choices remain with you. Serve the people and purposes that make freedom worth having. They overlap; I’m working on all three.

Technology, especially AI, lets me learn, research, and make things that once felt out of reach. I’m optimistic about that. I also want to keep judgment, relationships, and responsibility in the picture. Better tools should help us become more capable, not more passive.

Over time, I want this place to hold essays, practical tools, books, music, projects, and honest notes from what I’m trying. I’m building toward a life with time for family, faith, useful work, and care for the things entrusted to me.

I’ve had trials and triumphs, and I expect more of both. I am building this too. If you’re asking similar questions, I hope you find something useful here.