Bury What’s Killing You. Become the Man You Needed. I’m writing this from a couch in a trailer. I’m 43 years old. There was a time when I owned 15 properties and had millions of dollars. I had built the life I’d been chasing since I was 12 years old, pushing a lawnmower around the neighborhood, hustling to make money. I came from a broken home, and somewhere along the way I created a blueprint for happiness with two things written on it: MAKE MONEY. BUILD A FAMILY. I believed if I accomplished those two things, I would be happy. I got them. And then I lost them. Today, I’m more than $1 million in debt after spending most of my life avoiding debt. I’ve lost money, properties, relationships, people I loved, people I respected, and pieces of the identity I spent decades creating. I’ve been betrayed. I’ve been spit on. I’ve been pepper-sprayed. I’ve been arrested. I’ve watched people and institutions I thought would stand beside me turn their backs. And I’ve experienced pain so deep that my human mind just wanted the pain to stop. Yet I’m still fucking here. This morning I woke up on this couch and asked my soul: What do you want from me today? And the answer became the title of this book. DON’T PULL THE TRIGGER. I’ve known men who aren’t here anymore. Something happened to them that felt impossible to come back from. The pain became bigger than their ability to imagine another future. And they made a permanent decision during a temporary chapter. I’ve thought about the people they left behind. I’ve thought about the hole their deaths created. And after experiencing my own darkness, I understand something I didn’t understand before: The pain can become unbelievably real. You can be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone. You can have people telling you everything will be okay while knowing they have absolutely no idea what is happening inside you. You can lose the person you thought you were. You can lose your money. Your relationship. Your children. Your reputation.