The Story of When the FBI Seized My Home

As an entrepreneur, I've faced my share of challenges, but none loomed larger than the fear of losing my home—a fear rooted deeply in my past.

When I was a little girl, my stepdad seemed like an ideal father figure. He was wonderful to my mom, my siblings, and me. We lived in a beautiful house, and he appeared every bit the perfect businessman—always in a suit, never drinking or smoking, nothing that was bad for his body.  But beneath this façade, was something different, he was a heroin dealer, a figure straight out of "American Gangster."

One day, when I was just five or six, my stepdad's double life caught up with him, and they arrested him. This came as a shock to my mom and she was devastated. The FBI seized our home and we were suddenly homeless. My mom tried to make it work, but it was just too difficult for a mom of 3 with small children. She moved us to Venezuela, where she was from and where we had family and we lived there for a few years. Eventually, my real dad and grandparents offered us a lifeline—a new home in the States, in the same town as my dad and just like that, Life seemed stable again.

Fast-forward a few years. I'm about to graduate high school, only to discover that our house would once again be taken from us again. I found out that when I turned 18 my grandparents were going to take the house back from my mom. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t want to leave for college but I couldn’t stay with my mom much longer. I ended up moving and again, they took my mom's home from her.

 Since we moved back from Venezuela my mom had worked for the same man for almost 15 years. He was a well-known real estate tycoon in Dallas and had a massive amount of properties. Once he was aware of the current situation, he generously offered my mom a house for the years of work she had put in with him and I felt a sense of relief again.

However, a few years later, a disagreement happened and just like that my mom lost yet another home.

Experiencing this loss myself or watching my mom go through these losses multiple times instilled in me a paralyzing fear of losing my own home as an adult. My security became my top priority.

 Years later (While my company was still relatively young), my husband and I separated. He was going to a 13-month rehabilitation and suddenly everything was up to me. As I said, my company was still relatively young, and I was unsure if It would meet the needs of myself and my two children. The fear of losing my home became a glaring reality once more and I fear was paralyzing.

The same day he left I was upset, I was sad, frustrated, and all of the emotions one could go through. So I gave myself ONE day to pout. Just one. Anything more would be feeling sorry for myself and I didn’t believe in feeling sorry for myself.

So the next day, I got up, took a shower, and washed all of the past emotions off leaving one. FEAR. And until this moment I had been afraid of fear. Now, I was inspired and it motivated me to my core. I harnessed this fear and began to use it in my favor and I kicked myself and my business into high gear.  Those following years were my most successful and every year since then has been better than the previous.

It took me 20 years to discover why I was in real estate investing. I didn’t dawn on me all those years that I was trying to save my mom, and the scared 6-year-old, the scared 18-year-old, and the scared 25-year-old that all saw my mom and my family go through this. Now, I have so many houses, I’m not scared anymore and after buying my mom a house that no one can take from her, I feel a genuine sense of gratitude and relief.

If you can learn to Harness your fears and use them in your favor, you can achieve success.

Fear isn’t a bad thing. Fear can be the only motivation you will ever need.