Our Approach
GROWING UP IN the late 5o's and early 6o's, I learned the value of hard work at an early age. Both my parents worked full time jobs; my dad worked at Kaiser Steel in Fontana CA, and my mother worked as a full-time grocery checker at Billy & Bert's Market, a local grocery store in San Bernardino CA. Both worked extremely hard and put in lots of hours. After observing them over the years, I realized hard work was all I'd ever known and was taught.
Observing them paid off because my entry into the business world started at the age of 12 when, besides my parents' house, I began mowing lawns for my neighbors and soon built up a nice clientele. I used the family lawn mower and tools to do the jobs, and bought additional tools as I could afford them. My earnings were $.75 cents to $1.25 per house. I did this from grade school into my high school years, and became successful as a young person.
While in grade school, my biggest struggle was that I was skinny, very white skinned, and my ears stuck out. So I'd often get picked on and sometimes bullied by other kids. They'd call me, "albino," "whitey," "carrot top," and a host of other names. I'm pretty sure I heard it all, and I hated it.
I learned it was hard for me to get picked-on but it was even harder watching other friends of mine go thru it also, mostly because I've always been a protective type of person .
Our Story
Our Approach
One thing that helped me during this time was that I was a fast runner, and very athletic, which allowed me to get into sports. As you can imagine, once you get into sports and become good, you immediately go from the "out" crowd to the "in" crowd. So by this time, all my peers thought I was cool because I was a good athlete. I played football, ran track, wrestled, and learned to box. In high school, I was on the varsity wrestling team and even wrestled out of my weight class at a few events. So not only was I now able to stand up for myself, but was able to fight for others that were being bullied and harassed.
One of my favorite movies is "The Equalizer," with the main character portrayed by Denzel Washington. I love that movie because it's a picture of how I feel when I see others constantly mistreated against their will, and they need someone to come to their rescue. I've always had this passion to go "head to head" with the people who would extort and/or abuse others.
Being in sports taught me the value of coaching. I'll never forget my varsity wrestling coach, Jack Stahlheber at San Bernardino High School. He was rock solid and I learned so much from him. Not only did he instill in me the constitution to go face to face with my opponent, even more he pushed me to enjoy the kind of results that I wanted to enjoy. At times, he'd push us so hard I thought I was going to die, but it made me even stronger and helped me to achieve the success and confidence I wanted as well.
Moving into my professional career into the financial services world, I've carried that same passion for others because what I saw were some of the same things; people were constantly being taken advantage of over and over again. "Financial bullies", as I refer to them, abounded everywhere; from the media giving people wrong advice to the financial companies pushing products like life insurance, annuities, and investments into everyone's situation whether they needed it or not, along with the IRS which was draining people's cash flows everywhere I'd look. I'd see people continue making bad financial mistakes, relying on their own bad advice, and/or unwilling to listen to an experienced coach. One of the hardest things for me is to watch somebody who I know and care about, who won't take advice, trying to do their own thing. One example in particular was watching my uncle, who not only got bad advice, and sought the wrong advice, but just wouldn't listen. As a result, I watched him go to his grave, a complete financial train-wreck, broke, in his mid 8o's.
This is the passion I carry into everything that I do now, because in many ways I'm still a "fighter" for my clients. I stand up for my clients against the IRS, against the financial companies, and against the misinformation everywhere. This is the reason I do what I do. It's the reason that I created a highly-specialized knowledge base and unique process to make sure my clients are educated, and move forward with confidence and peace of mind. It's the reason I write articles and books, the reason I do public speaking, and the reason I'm doing all I can to train my adult children so they can teach the next generation also.
GOD has truly blessed me with all that I've gained and have learned, and I’m humbled by His favor.