In 2008, 9 and 10, I lost $14 million. That means that I earned $14 million. It was a very painful time in my life. It all started when I became a veterinarian and I moved up to Seattle. And my boss was not a good man. He would beat the animals in the back. I hated my job. And one day, and I had invented a radiology device, got a patent on it in college, had a little bit of money left over, and I bought a fixer upper house.

And I remember looking at it thinking, bones are like framing, electrical and nervous system, digestive and plumbing, skin and drywall. I could fix this, this. It was a lot like surgery. So I dated the guy at the tool rental store, Rex. And I began to fix and flip homes. And I made twice my salary in three months. I quit the evil job and I made that a full time gig on the side. I did surgery and the third house had an extra lot.

And this was in the 90s. Seattle really hadn't taken off yet. It was good timing. I went down to the city of Seattle and I said I would like my general contracting license, though I had no idea how to build a house. And the woman behind the desk said, honey, where's your husband or your boss? And I said, is that a requirement? And she said, no, but there are no women in the building industry. And I said, I will be the first. And so I was. I spent the next decade becoming the fifth biggest in city builder in Seattle.

I built 100 homes, about 100 homes. Very successful. Built my net worth up to $14 million. And then what do you think happened to me in 2008? We started there. I lost everything. I went into the crash with one and a half million dollars. Cash. Cash.

And I went to all six of my lenders and said, please extend my note. They were expired construction notes. I never missed a payment. They said, no, we're going to foreclose. Which I didn't understand because I never missed a payment. I was paying $75,000 every month, interest, carrying costs. And I said, listen, let me fill these with tenants. The real estate market's on fire.

The rental market. I will fill these up. And if there's, you know, if there's a vacancy, if there's bad carpet, bad paint, I have a million and a half dollars. I will make you whole. Give me a 10 year extension. And every one of them said no. And so I did the right thing. I paid everybody back.

I scalped myself. I paid everybody back and I came out with perfect credit and what do you suppose the banks, every one of them, said to me when I went back and said, I would like to start again?

No.

Very painful lesson. And what I realized after crying myself to sleep for nearly three years was one day I woke up and said, I will not be a victim. I will not wallow. I will get back up. I am an entrepreneur. I will make it again. And I reinvented. I happened to marry a horse vet.

I moved to the country where people had no teeth. I wondered what I did with my life. I raised his kids. I had to reinvent and come up with a career that I could work from home. And so it was that I became an advisor. I realized I loved business and financial topics. My colleagues did not. And I became a professor at three different vet schools, and so on and so forth.