Made for the Battle w/ Shannon McGurk EP 107

I'm the happily married father of 12 children and live on a farm in Virginia, but this is a miracle. In 1992, I was a broke, divorced father of a two-year-old son. I didn't want to marry again and I didn't want any more children. Today I have a strong marriage, eight sons and four daughters. Pretty crazy.

The most formative years of my adult life were in the Army. For 20 years I was an Armored Cavalry Officer and China Foreign Area Officer. I served in the U.S., Europe, throughout the U.S. Government, in The Pentagon, the Hong Kong Consulate and the Beijing Embassy. I left the Army in 2002 to start businesses but had to do it part time because I had to feed my family. I worked for Northrop Grumman, IBM, ManTech and other corporations. I got the best training in the world from the Army and these iconic American corporations. I started my first business in 2002. Business ownership is scary, liberating and addictive, but making money using your creativity and wits is life-changing. I have started several companies, but I crashed the best one in 2007 when I tried to drive it too fast. That same month my daughter got cancer and that same year my son was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. Lots of challenges. Crashing that business when I did made me look hard in the mirror and confront my life. As a husband, as a father, as a man, I wasn't stacking up. I had to learn new skills and dig deep to get back on my feet. I had to heal a lot of wounds I had caused. I had to grow, learn and improve. A lot. I think I have and I'd like to offer my own experiences to you.

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