Posted 7 days ago

The Origin to NNG: My Journey

I didn’t come from money.
I came from survival.

I grew up watching my mother fight to keep the lights on, stretching every dollar just to get us through another week. Those early years planted seeds and made me hunger not just for financial freedom, but for a better way of living. A way to protect my family, create choices, and break the patterns I see around me every day.

When I discovered real estate, it wasn’t through a seminar or some big mentor.
It was on the street level hands on, gritty, real.

But the turning point didn’t come from success.
It came from the valleys.

THE VALLEYS THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

In the early days, spring of 2001, we paid our demo crews in cash. That was the way things worked in the neighborhoods we were renovating. But one afternoon, after paying out the crew, everything went sideways. A botched robbery. Wrong people. Wrong intentions. Wrong moment.

That’s the day I got shot.
Five times.

Five bullets.
Six months down.
My entire life paused.

When you can’t move, you have no choice but to think.
When you can’t hide behind “busy,” you face yourself.

And in that valley, I learned two lessons that changed the trajectory of my entire life:

Your circle can either elevate you or bury you.
Who you surround yourself with determines your future.
If you don’t build passive income, one unexpected moment can erase everything you’ve worked for.

That moment should have ended my journey.
Instead, it clarified.

It sharpened my focus, strengthened my purpose, and lit a fire in me that made me unstoppable.

So, when I stood back up, I came back into real estate with a different mindset driven, disciplined, intentional.

That same year, fueled by purpose and clarity, I fixed-and-flipped 35 properties.
Not to flex.
Not for the ego.
But to prove to myself that the valley didn’t win.

2008 THE SECOND GREAT TEST

Just when life felt like it was climbing again… the market crashed.

2008 was chaos.
People were losing their homes left and right.
Banks weren’t helping anyone.
The entire industry was in panic mode.

But this time, I didn’t run.
I didn’t fold.

This time, I leaned in.

I pivoted into the debt game.
I learned how to become the bank.

While the world was collapsing, I was quietly learning about a new side of the business understanding capital, structure, risk, leverage, and how to build resilience into every investment.

That moment not only changed my business…
it changed my mission.

FROM SURVIVAL TO STRATEGY THE BIRTH OF NNG

As I grew, so did the vision.

I didn’t want to just flip houses.
I didn’t want to chase transactions.
I didn’t want volatility to determine my future.

I wanted to create a system.
A vehicle built to generate cash flow today, create growth for tomorrow, and give investors access to real, tangible opportunities that perform in every cycle.

A hybrid strategy combining alternative assets designed for both cash flow and long-term appreciation all inside one ecosystem focused on disciplined execution, strategic acquisition, and meaningful community impact.

That’s how NNG Capital Fund was born.

Not as a fund, but as a philosophy.
A model built on:

Deep market knowledge
Cycle-tested experience
Operational excellence
Real risk management
And a genuine commitment to improving the communities we invest in

Today, NNG manages multimillion-dollar portfolios, creates quality housing across multiple markets, and partners with accredited investors who want smart, secured, strategic returns.

But the mission goes deeper than money.

It’s about the impact.
It’s about access.
It’s about taking communities from complex to community, empowering residents, and creating upward mobility.

It’s about showing people, especially people who came from where I came from, that your starting point isn’t your destiny.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

Every peak I’ve reached came after a valley.
Every breakthrough came after setback.
Every strategy I use today was forged in real life, not in a classroom.

That’s why I’m passionate.
That’s why NNG exists.
And that’s why I still wake up excited to do this every day.

Because my journey didn’t just build a business
it built a mission.

A mission to create wealth, build communities, and leave behind a blueprint for anyone who wants to rewrite their own story.