My Startup Is Crumbling, and I Have No One to Blame but Myself.
Follow this simple advice to avoid repeating the same pitfalls.
For years, I took pride in figuring things out. In building my life and career, I’d been given the reins on projects for giants — Microsoft, Mazda, Hallmark, Coca-Cola. These weren’t just clients; they were powerhouses, and I crafted the brands they showed the world, the digital experiences people interacted with, the success stories in marketing rooms.
My work was proof enough, I thought, that I understood the heart of business: how to create, how to scale, how to innovate. When I decided to step away from client work and build something of my own, something that wasn’t bound to someone else’s vision or timeline, I believed the transition would be seamless. Business is business, after all — or so I told myself.
Then life happened. For the past six years, my family has known more heartache, stress, and struggle than I could have ever foreseen. The source? Housing. What started as a hopeful journey, a pursuit of the so-called American dream of homeownership has been, in reality, a chain of painful lessons.
My wife and I wanted to build something lasting, something our sons could one day call their own. We knew the roots we hoped to set down, in our own…
