Line of Departure

I went to West Point. I played lacrosse. I commissioned as an Army artillery officer and deployed twice to Afghanistan. When I came home I did what most people do after the military. I followed the next step that seemed logical. Got a job. Became an ROTC instructor.

I was good at it. I cared about the cadets. But something was building underneath. A slow, growing disdain for waiting. For permission. For the idea that my time, my income, and my future were all in someone else's hands.

During COVID I was told that my job could absolutely not be done remotely. Two weeks later I was doing it remotely. Six months later we were still remote. Every cadet graduated on time. The thing that was impossible turned out to be completely fine.

That moment crystallized something I had been feeling for years. The system is not designed for your freedom. It is designed for your compliance. And the only way out is to build your own way out.

I got out. I built a real estate portfolio. I built a hospitality company and sold it. I started School of Grit on Veterans Day 2023 because I wanted to give the next generation the blueprint nobody handed me.

My life paralleled Robert Kiyosaki's in ways I did not expect. He went to Kings Point, commissioned into the Marines, deployed to Vietnam, got out, and built the Rich Dad Company. I went to West Point, commissioned into the Army, deployed to Afghanistan, got out, and built School of Grit. We were both committed to the same thing. Helping the next generation become financially literate and free.

My parents were teachers. Good people. Good lives. But the world they navigated no longer exists. A pension, a steady job, and a 401k do not work the same way anymore. The economy changed. The rules changed. Most people just have not been told yet.

You are reading this because you already sense that. You feel the pull. The frustration. The knowing that something better is possible but not knowing exactly how to get there.