Early in my career, money was confusing which lead to a series of bad decisions and one major debt that became emotionally devastating. Here's some of the things I did to pull myself out and why generosity REALLY does build wealth.

I majored in Computer Graphics while working at Blockbuster video in the early aughts and was fortunate not to accumulate loan debt with the help of my parents. After college I got my first job in New York City at a music mastering house where I made about 30k a year with benefits. As a young kid with an arts degree, it seemed like a lot of money. So from about 2004-2008 things were a bit of blur. I had a series design jobs that were pretty unfulfilling. I got fired from one job because I won a music video award and my boss was pissed that a co-worker sent an all company email congratulating me. That's when I realized I needed to make some series changes.

I went freelance full time from 2009-2013 as a music video director where I achieved some great success but was pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. And because I didn't have much financial guidance growing up, I made a series of bad financial mistakes. The first big mistake was that I ended up owing the IRS 8k in 2010 because I didn't file correctly. I didn't have an accountant and the previous year I made 50k from a Sprite commercial which didn't get filed. Next I made a bunch of indie movies without a distribution plan so I had to pay back my investors through freelance work. It was a great experience creatively but an awful experience financially. And the worse financial mistake I made was when I was persuaded to purchase an investment property in New Jersey in 2012. A series of unfortunate events also transpired during this time such as vandalizing of the property by the tenants, their failure to pay rent and damage from Hurricane Sandy.

In 2013, I decided the life of freelance was just not stable for the lifestyle I wanted for my family. So I had to get humble and ending up working as a Senior Video Editor at PopSugar. Eventually, I worked my way to a more lucrative role as Creative Director of Marketing Video at Complex Media in New York City. Shortly after, a new, even better opportunity arose and I relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan in July of 2015 where I was hired as Senior Media Producer, at a new startup called Duo.

I decided the property back in New Jersey had become a liability and I informed my former business partner and his attorney that I wanted out and to look for a suitable buyer. I was verbally promised this would happen urgently but it wasn't. This effectively began to hurt my credit score and jeopardize my chances for buying an actual home for my family. This would begin months of frustrating back and forth communication between my former business partner and the attorney handling the property who continued to promise that they were close to a payoff and communicating with the bank on my behalf. At one point I considered taking legal action against my business partner but thought the expense of legal fees and going to court in another state would create even further turmoil.

Finally on February 1, 2019, the property was sold for $342,000 after numerous delays. Thankfully we avoided a short sale or foreclosure. At this point I already transferred ownership to my business partner’s associate who handled payment of all fees including the bank loan which was still under my name. I did not receive any payment from this transaction. All I wanted was to get this off my name and not cause any further damage to my credit score. Shortly after I received a Satisfaction Letter from the bank and my credit score finally rebounded back up. Without a doubt, that was the most stressful and emotionally draining process I ever dealt with. I made a mistake during a vulnerable time in my life as a freelancer and trusted people close to me who I believed had my best interest at heart. They did not. I was also out of state with my attention focused on my work at Duo Security which lead to lots of wins and equity leading to a $2.35 billion acquisition by Cisco Systems in 2018. Now that we are a part of Cisco, going from 700 employees to 77,000 employees worldwide, there are even more opportunities for promotions and equity incentives.

In 2019 I was finally able to purchase a house after a very stressful loan application process because of my previous credit ding from the investment property. Since I didn't qualify for a conventional loan I had to do a portfolio loan with a 7/1 adjustable rate mortgage. Today I have no other major outstanding debts other than the mortgage. I increased my credit score by paying all of our bills on time. We live modestly and below our means. We prefer to live in a small house because it is more energy efficient and with less cleaning and maintenance required.

I watch a lot of Dave Ramsey and Graham Stephan videos and right now we’re on Baby Step 4, growing our retirement funds. Although we live modestly we live a very generous lifestyle such as advocating for community engagement in Ann Arbor where I run the annual A2 Tech Film Showcase that highlights diverse voices and perspectives in film. I also create fundraising movie events for local non-profit teen center, The Neutral Zone and have recently joined the Board of Directors at the historic Michigan Theater, one of the finest movie palaces in the United States. Dave Ramsey is right. Generosity builds wealth. Good karma rewards you when you serve the community. All I had to do was stop chasing get rich quick schemes and top chasing the illusion of what I thought I wanted to be because I was constantly comparing myself to others. I had to focus on becoming generous.

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