EPILOGUE — “EMPIRES RISE AGAIN”

PROLOGUE — “EMPIRES RISE AGAIN”

At nineteen, I flipped my first house. By twenty-seven, I commanded thirty-one properties across my city like provinces loyal to my banner. And on November 17th, 2025—five days before my thirtieth birthday—I sat in bankruptcy court, not as a king, not as a conqueror, but as a man wondering if I would even keep the roof over my own head.

It is a strange moment in a man’s life… when the empire he built with his bare hands hangs on the edge of a judge’s decision. Strange… but clarifying.

EMPIRES RISE AGAIN

A younger version of me would have taken offense at the mere suggestion that I’d ever miss a mortgage payment. I kept my books balanced as meticulously as a Roman general counted his legions. Every move was planned, every risk calculated. Mistakes? Those were for lesser men.

Life, however, shows no loyalty. Not to pride. Not to plans. Not to the illusions of invincibility we wrap ourselves in.

Even emperors kneel eventually — if only to rise wiser.

2012 — The First War Council

It began in 2012, when I was seventeen — an age when most young men are still figuring out who they are. But I had already chosen my battlefield. My father and I walked into the side room of El Rodeo on Williamson Road, a small place that felt, to outsiders, like a simple restaurant… but to me, it was the first war council of my life.

Every Tuesday night, we sat among older investors — men who spoke in low, weighted tones about battles fought with cash, contracts, and tenants. Their words carried the same gravity as seasoned commanders recounting campaigns to a young Caesar.

Most people tasted only the food. I tasted destiny.

2014 — Caldwell Street & The First Defeat

My first flip came on September 30th, 2014 — 929 Caldwell Street NW. I took the keys and returned to work, but my mind remained on the blueprint I had crafted like a general plotting his first campaign.

My partner, Dan Cutler, was a seasoned landlord but not a flipper. He brought the capital. I brought the sweat. Together, we charged into the project with confidence and naiveté — the worst possible combination.

Five months of grueling labor after work. Five more months of silence on the market. And then the defeat: a $13,000 loss.

“It’s a hard lesson when a man realizes he is not yet the commander he believed himself to be.”

2016 — Wilmont Ave & The First Victory

I swore I’d never touch real estate again. And for a short while… I meant it.

But destiny does not let a man walk away so easily.

In summer 2016, I received my first bonus. I had savings now. Credit cards. Experience. A steadier mind. The ambition that once burned quietly in my chest roared again.

I bought 3820 Wilmont Ave NW. Planned: $20,000 and three months. Reality: $40,000 and nine months. But this time… victory.

2022 — The Empire Takes Shape

By 2022, the empire was taking shape:

• 20 rental houses
• $80,000 cash reserves
• $6,000 monthly rental cash flow

It was steady. Predictable. Controlled.

2024 — The Peak of Power

In spring 2024, my portfolio peaked at 64 properties.

I looked over the city the way a Don surveys his territory… the way an emperor studies his realm.

2025 — The Fall and the Reckoning

Markets shifted. Costs surged. Vacancies grew.

What once felt like a well-run kingdom quickly became a battlefield of fires.

By July 2025, the empire had shrunk to 35 properties. And I made a choice no man ever wants to make:

I filed for Chapter 11 protection.

On November 17th, I walked into that courtroom with the calm of a Don facing an unavoidable war.

Bankruptcy is not the tomb so many believe it to be. It is the arena where pride is stripped, illusions burned away, and a man is forced to see himself without the armor.

I did not fall because I was weak. I fell because I grew faster than my wisdom.

But a man does not stay down when he remembers who he is.

A Don may lose his soldiers. An emperor may lose a province. But neither forgets the throne.

I survived.

And now, with the ashes still warm beneath my feet, I understand something I did not grasp in the early years of my conquest:

Empires fall.
But kings… kings rise again.

This is not the end of my story — it is the beginning of the next campaign.

EX CINERIBUS SURGIMUS
From the ashes, we rise.