The $400,000 Divorce

I’ll never forget sitting on my hotel bed in disbelief that I only had a few hundred dollars in my account with no place to go. My friends and the families  had placed me in a hotel for 3 weeks in hopes that I could find a quick place to live. My annual salary was approximately $22,500 and my car was on the brink without heat.

I was in a hopeless situation and I KNEW it.

You see, I’ve always been a big fan of marriage; committed to being faithful to my spouse til death do us part and expected the same, but unfortunately that wasn’t my reality. I had a few choices to make: 1. give up and move back to Kentucky with my family, 2. plead with my spouse for change or 3. pick myself up and restart my life. My hotel stay was going to expire in a few days so I made the decision to search apartment listings and pray. I knew that my God loved me, had always been there for me and desired to be there for me now.

I found a place that was exactly what I was looking for, in the perfect price range and in just the nick of time….. here was where the rubber would meet the road.

Earning $22,500 a year was not going to sustain my newly single life, give me the finances to file for divorce or assist me with counseling, of which I was desperately in need of, so it was time use every skill &  every ounce of faith to restart my life. I took a partner job paying the exact same amount and started applying for positions with the potential of earning $45,000+. Within 4 months I was able to land a job earning $100,000 a year, which afforded me to purchase a brand new car and everything I lost during the divorce.

I was introduced to a network marketing opportunity and in just 18 months I was able to earn over $150,000 while at the same time I launched my branding and consulting firm generating over $150,000 in 12 months.

Yielding the $400,000 divorce.

Im constantly asked, how I was I able to go from $22,500 a year, living in a hotel, emotionally distraught from an unexpected divorce to over $400,000 in less than 2 years, and my honest answer is, when you know WHY you are doing it, the how takes care of itself.

You see I was hurting, badly, but I was also desperate. I knew that no one was going to be able to financially take care of me, winter was coming and my car didn’t have heat, I didn’t have furniture in my new apartment and I needed professional counseling. My why was so much bigger than the how.

I saw 3 amazing opportunities presented before me, I possessed the skills from all of my years in sales, branding and marketing to be successful, my only challenge was the pain I was feeling in my heart. I made the decision to break down emotionally in the morning before work, the afternoon during my lunch break, once a week in counseling and every night on my way to bed. Instead of bottling up my feelings, I expressed them and all other hours of the day I would spend on my job or on my new business opportunities.

Honestly, I was relentless because I had to, not because I wanted to. I needed to make sure that my financial life was stable since the rest of my life was not and as a result, the $400,000 divorce emerged.