40-year-old man, that, through an unspeakable act had caused serious physical injury to a child, I had enough and quit. Between this job and bartending nights, I was able to buy my first townhouse at age 22, and when it sold, it also finally provided me with the means to pursue my passion for big waves on the main global stage for surfing, on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Six months later, I bought my first property there, sight unseen, after finally landing a guidance counseling job in 2004. There’s a saying, “an institution that will go to the ends of the earth for its employees will find it can hire them for one tenth the cost of locals”. Guidance counseling in Hawaii was no exception, but it did afford me the opportunity to help many children in similar situations to mine, to get involved with Big Brothers and Sisters of Hawaii, and also to pursue the big wave surfing I’d grown to love. Hawaii is an expensive place, and living on a guidance counselor's salary was nearly impossible, so in 2005 I got my real estate license. I ended up helping many friends, coworkers, and military buy and sell homes, often being one of the top producing agents at my company. I bought two more houses there over the next three years, but when the market turned in 2007, I made the biggest mistake of my life. I invested all my savings with my fast talking broker, who at the time was like a brother to me, but who stole that money, just as the market collapsed. I’d bought another house at this point, and rather than give up, I converted my garage to a bedroom and rented it out, worked a variety of jobs, from sales at Marriott to sales at T-Mobile, making $11 an hour. Feeling totally hopeless, I reached out to my then real estate mentor, Gloria, who was, and still is like a second mother to me. She informed me that her son, Carlos, had built a successful auto detailing business in Orange County, and I should consider this. At her advice, I flew to Pittsburgh to learn auto detailing at Detail King, and made two other connections that have remained key in my business to this day. I
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