Who am I and What is Man's Focus
Who am I
My name is Yoan and I have done a lot in my life. I am a high school drop out, Air Force veteran, college graduate, and multiple business owner. In 2019 after 5 years of marriage my wife told me she was not happy in our marriage and that she felt as if we were roommates. To me this came out of left field, if there was one thing I thought I had no issue with, it was in my marriage. Today she lives in Chicago and I in New Jersey and while the divorce is not settled, it is imminent. This event led to me analyze my life and my focus. It made wonder what a man's focus should be in order to live the life they desire, with the health wealth and knowledge that we want to achieve.
Background
Before my wife decided she no longer wanted to be with me I had three small businesses. Two of them treated me well financially and the third spectacularly. My first business was buying and selling gold during the gold boom at the end of the 2000's. At this time I started a parallel business buying gift cards and selling them on a gift card market place called Raise. She met me right when I was shuttering the doors for those two businesses as they dried up. That is also when I started my third venture which was much more successful. It was regional waste removal company. I ran it for 6 years. At my peak in that business I was netting 250k per year. However, I was also totally miserable and dreaded waking up in the mornings. Headaches with employees, customers and family that I brought on to the business made it difficult for me to enjoy the fruits of that success. I was able to sell the business in October 2018 which gave me the freedom to not have to work for 3 years as long as I became much more frugal. The selling price was lower than a previous offer of half million I had received but I wanted out. Due to a pending law suit brought on because of a family member that I let act as a business partner that first offer was removed from the table. I was still ready to leave the business so I took a little less than half of the original offer from a different prospect.
While I was in the process of selling that business I went back to school. I have a bachelor's degree in computer science but I decided to go to a coding bootcamp since I didn't remember shit from college. With the sale of the business in October of 2018, I had some cash on hand, but my monthly recurring revenue from the financing left me with much less than I was making as the owner. I did manage to get a job in tech about six months after selling but, I was still making significantly less than I was when I owned my business.
Money problems started pile on with some back taxes that we owed plus a new apartment that I was remodeling. Before not too long our lifestyle changed significantly. Where I used to ask wife for a 20 and give her back a 100 dollar bill I was asking her for a 20 and not returning anything. Instead of going out to dinner 3 or 4 times a week we had to cook at home. Add renovations and a non existent kitchen and you have a recipe for an unhappy home. Finances took a toll on me. While she asked me to share my frustrations, I never did because short of making more money again there wasn't much to be done.
I was also going out with new coworkers for happy hour that extended into much more than an hour and showing up to work as if I was run over by a bulldozer. My health started to get worse and I gained about 20 pounds mostly in my gut. I went from having a chiseled jaw line to to a round face.
I suspect her problems where more monetary than me going out too often. When she brought up how she was feeling I stopped my hanging out. She claims it wasn't money related but I suspect it was the biggest contributor to our falling out. I could see how when one person goes from always giving to mostly taking and attitudes can start to turn around.
In hindsight a lot of the problems were temporary and related to the complete gut and remodeling of our apartment plus the unexpected tax liability. If you add not having a job for about 6 months and only living off of the financing deal of my business then you can see how there was a very tight financial squeeze during that period.
Today I am in a much better financial shape. I continue to work in tech but also started a business thats more inline with what I enjoy doing, plus there is no family involved. While it's not making me anywhere near what I was making in my last business it is steadily growing.
What is Man's Focus
Man's Focus is blog dedicated on the things that truly matter as a man. The most important things being our health, how much money we have and how much knowledge and skills we posses. This blog is me sharing my experience owning multiple businesses. My experience from when I was a physical training leader in the US Air Force and my experience in transforming my life in multiple occasions. It will also focus on my latest projects, activities and challenges on my journey to personal growth.
I will be sharing articles relating to all of these things and will discuss my current and future goals. I will also give tips and tricks on making money by growing your own business, getting in the best shape possible with a minimum time commitment and mindsets and tips from my experience and the hundreds of books I have read on everything from self improvement, marketing, business and technology. I welcome you to this blog and want to share with you this journey that you will take with me as I refocus my life, on living the best possible life with the resources and abilities given to us. Welcome my friend, I look forward to our journey!