I went from the bankruptcy meeting room

My post was eliminated in 2006 from a nine -year career as an investment director of a mortgage company that I helped to start. It was my dream work.

We bought our dream house the previous year – a four -bedroom area in the suburbs. A girl graduated from the university and we had just started university. My parent loan for them was $ 36,000 for the first two years.

I was not yet worried. I wanted to enter sales in 2003. It was now the moment, so I became a loan agent for the same company. I started to create my business and I managed well.

Suddenly, you couldn’t give money. I went from nine loans per month to zero. The mortgage crash from 2007 to 2009 decimated the economy and the life of my family.

Everything has changed very quickly

I actively networked with local chambers of commerce and civic groups. Networking is a key element in starting and establishing commercial relations.

I presented my seminars on the objectives of “objective of objective” to the boards of directors and companies. I wrote a chronicle on loans for a local real estate magazine, I attended several chamber events and directed a chamber networking group.

I got friends with a Coffee News franchise owner and I loved the business model. I used my 401 (K) to buy a franchise selling advertising to local businesses to start another flow of income. I could also use it to announce my loan agent business. While the recession continued, however, restaurants, my main distribution channel, began to fail, companies have stopped investing in marketing and sales fell. Now, I’m worried.

I started applying for jobs and contacting people I knew in mortgage technology companies with whom I had worked before. I was offered a position with a seller with whom I worked in my previous role. I loved the business. During the salary negotiation, my recruitment manager called and said that his largest mortgage client had failed. All hiring was frozen.

We had to file for bankruptcy

Now I felt desperate. The word “B” kept me standing at night. My parents have filed for a twice when I grew up, and I swore that I would never do it. I would never put my children through it. I promised myself.

I found a part -time job as a bakery clerk at Fresh Market near my home for $ 9.00 / hour. While working as a bakery clerk, I continued to create my mortgage and coffee creation business. My wife, at the time, refused to get a job.

I was trying to reach both ends, but we have never done it. The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have become my breakfast, lunch and dinner. We used credit cards to buy necessities. The invoices increased, our limits were reached and in 2009, we had to file for bankruptcy. I was emotionally devastated.

We lost our house and our credit trunk landed. We moved from our dream house in an apartment of 400 square feet basement on a horseshoe.

I had to call my daughter and tell her that I could not continue to pay for her college, and we had no house for her to go home. It was the saddest period of my life as a father. She said she was fine and intended to get an apartment with her friend anyway.

I couldn’t give up

I felt depressed, but I couldn’t give up. I did what I needed to provide my family. I started studying new online skills: programming languages, new technologies and social media. I started a blog to share my “life on the ranch”. I published my curriculum vitae everywhere online. I kept a positive attitude, believing that I could reinvent myself and prosper again.

In 2010, I closed my businesses and focused on the fresh market. I applied for a full -time bakery manager and I was accepted, winning $ 16 / hour. It was not much, but I survived the recession and I would start to build my career again.

Six months later, my network and my message from Curriculum Vitae drew the attention of the recruiter, and the First Republic Bank of San Francisco hired me.

I excited our car and took my wife, kicking and shouting, in San Francisco, leaving this chapter behind.