Bankruptcy Sparks Transformation

A story about how hitting rock bottom with bankruptcy led to a complete transformation in how the speaker approached business and life.

"After my second bankruptcy when I was 38 years old, I was done. I screamed to God and said 'I'm done with that.' I never wanted to go back into business or be part of that world because it was painful - this was my second bankruptcy and I kept falling on my face.

I went on a spiritual sabbatical and found peace within myself. I had no desire for business. Then one day I was at a dinner party and my brother-in-law asked 'Can bathroom odor be trapped?' I felt this zing up my arm and everything went to high def. I said 'Yeah it can be, and I can do that with oils.'

I started moving towards this idea, and today Poo Pourri has sold over 4 million bottles and become a household name. But I never intended any of that - I was just following an alive idea.

I had the luxury of losing everything, and I say luxury because we rarely have that time when we have a clean slate. I was wiped out completely clean, so I was able to rebuild on something different. When I came back into business, I said I'm going to do fun things because what I know is you don't know when you're going to lose everything. And what's worse than losing everything is losing everything and realizing you didn't even have a good time.

So I decided if it doesn't feel good, I'm not doing it. It wasn't any strategy - I just wasn't going to sell out, push through, or claw through anymore. I was done, so I did it different."