I grew up just north of Toronto, Canada in a middle to upper-class suburban area where some of the largest global technology companies established their Canadian Headquarters during the 80’s and 90’s including IBM, Xerox, HP, and AMD.

My Dad was a pensioned bus driver that suffered from alcoholism, and my Mom was a high school dropout that ran a daycare from our nice family home throughout my entire upbringing. Neither of my parents believed in the concept of “investing your money”.

What mattered most to my family was my younger brother’s hockey career and making every effort to get him to the NHL. Everything else including my own self development was pushed to the sidelines or at most, made a low priority. It was a confusing household to be apart and it had a lasting negative impact on my self-confidence.

Outside of my family’s home, I was inspired by wealthy relatives and friends with well-off families that all seemed to be thriving with high paying corporate careers, luxury homes, stock portfolios valued in the millions, and trust funds for their kids covering a full-ride through Ivy-league universities along with a great start deep into adulthood.

As a teenager, I tried to break free from my “anti-investing” and “hockey is everything” household, and gravitated towards the “wealthy” kids in town. This eventually led to getting intertwined with drugs and alcohol at house parties and raves, and going home to a disgruntled father who had recently hit rock bottom and was in recovery from his battle with alcoholism. It made my “coming of age” years scary, difficult, and depressing. I was excluded from the “good life” that my wealthy friends came to enjoy, and while the promise of prosperity was right in front of me, I was programmed to believe I was not worthy of it in my own life.

With most of my friends bound for University, my goal was to get there too. But my Dad wasn’t happy with my behaviour and told me I would have to pay for post-secondary on my own. Trying to wrap my head around this massive expense was hard to, so I gave up on the goal of attending University and enrolled for “Marketing Administration” at the local community college instead.

I didn’t realize at the time, but the challenges throughout my upbringing were a blessing in disguise that would put me on a path to my own meaningful destiny where I would have the chance to change 1,000’s of lives deep into the future!