Author Description

After losing my corporate job in 2008, I went through the toughest time of my life. At the time, my wife was pregnant with our third child, and my monthly unemployment check wasn't enough to cover our house and two car notes. In desperation, I decided to go to a local trucking school and get my CDL. I found my first driving job a week after I graduated from school. I still remember my first paycheck, which was just $55 shy of what I was making at my corporate desk job. I was hysterical, happy, and confident that this was my newfound life and freedom, and no one would take it away from me. Long story short, after two years of working for other companies, I started my own trucking company and started as an owner-operator. In 2013, I decided it was time for me to grow and time for me to get off the road and spend some time with my kids. This was when I entered the second phase of my business life. I started to buy one tractor every few months as I was hiring great drivers who are professional, family-oriented and serious about making money. By 2016 I had 12 trucks on the road, and this is also the year when my net earning passed $350,000 mark. To me, the 350K mark was always a benchmark; why? Because I knew that was the salary of the CEO of the company I used to work for. Last year, I received a call from a business broker who asked me for a 10-minute meeting. He had brought an offer from a big trucking company, to buy my company. But I didn't even remotely think about selling my company. Instead, I was talking to the bank and was in the process of finalizing a loan for four new tractors with trailers. Once again, long story short, after I refused their initial offer, they came back with an offer that no reasonable man can refuse. I consider myself a very reasonable man. It's been almost a year since I sold my business; due to a non-compete, I am not starting any new trucking business, but they never told me I couldn't write about it, s