Hi there and welcome to my site. My name is Jose Santiago I was born and raised in the Bronx, NYC and just like every other urban city in America, growing up there it was no easy task. I've been a chef for 27 years and the thought of ever becoming an entrepreneur never entered my mind not by a long shot. I became a chef after my hopes and dreams of becoming a professional baseball player was shattered when I broke my humerus bone while pitching during a tryout at Fordham University. As the former boxing champion Mike Tyson said, "Everyone has a plan until they get hit in face". 

I'm the second youngest of five (2 older step sisters one biological which was born with cerebral palsy and one half brother). Whether waiting on the cheese line or collecting welfare, we did whatever needed to be done to survive our current situations. 

Throughout my tenure as a chef working two or even three jobs for low pay, long hours, and really no benefits to speak of I knew that there was more to life than this. Then I realized if you want to be a successful entrepreneur you have to want it more than breathing.

A Few years later in 2006 I met my ex wife in NYC she's Canadian and she ended up moving in with me in Brooklyn at the time. In 2011 she ended getting pregnant with my first child and at that point I decided to moved to Toronto, ON due to the universal healthcare that country provides. This was a very tough decision to make not only because of moving from NYC where I grew up, leaving my family and friends, and not knowing the layout of the city at that time, but I was unable to work for the first two years awaiting my permanent residency.

 I was back and forth to NY working intermittently just to get by. While awaiting for my residency to be approved I managed to find some work out in Toronto at a few of restaurants for cash, however after a few weeks they didn't want to pay cash to much longer in fear of getting audited for tax purposes.You could only imagine the stress that came along with that. To add insult to injury my mother's health was on the downturn back home. 

Fast forward two years later I received my residency and I was able to work again. The following year my son was born, and I applied to become a Toronto city bus driver. While it was a good paying job that provided great benefits aside from what the government provided, the hours were horrendous. I was working wierd, odd oververnight hours without knowledge of the city, terrible weather, and working what's called a "split shift" , meaning because it is a safety sensitive job they limit your hours of driving. For example you would work 2-4 hours then someone would relieve you then you would come back later on in the afternoon to complete your shift.

 I barely saw my family and I absolutely hated it, it was not what I had envisioned (everyone has a plan until you get hit in the face). I wanted to live life on my own terms I didn't want to earn a living growing some else's business or dream. I wanted to create my own. This is where where my entrepreneurial journey began. 

I started researching the online world watching everyone and thing I could on the internet and YouTube on how to earn a living online. I ended up having what's called the "shining object syndrome" I purchased every course I could get my hands on , which I still have today. I ended up building six business, ( two drop shipping stores, having two products on Amazon, and two Amazon affiliate sites) through trial and error staying up late while still working a full time job I failed miserably (Well I shouldn't say I failed I learned a lot during that process). I spent close $30k in total, but I couldn't for the life of me understand paid ads and getting traffic. That's a separate course in itself. 

This is when I had to pause my dreams. I was knee deep in financial debt we were on our second home and I had a family to provide for. The doubt, stress, depression, anxiety, and uncertainty started to set in hard, but I kept pushing forward continued to work a job I heavily despised knowing that one day my time will come if I continued to believe wholeheartedly that my dreams of becoming an entrepreneur would eventually come true. As the wonderful late great American author and motivational speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer once said, " When you change the way you look things, the things you at start to look at, change". So that's what I did. I picked up again from where I left off with a new thought process and mindset not worrying about expectations just get to work and became a better me in the process. 

I slowly started to chip away by developing the mindset the American best selling author John Bytheway put forth " inch by inch life's a cinch, yard by yard life is hard". I realized that I was putting way too much emphasis on money stressing it too much that it was blocking me from making it. I pivoted and said you know what let me build a successful business the right way foundationally and let the chips fall where they they may with no expectations. Hence the site you're on now. 

I couldn't escape the words of Jim Valvano former basketball player and coach of NC State while his body was ravaged with cancer gave a speech saying," Don't give up, don't ever give up" those words still stays with me until this day. Patience is a virtue when your emotions are high your intellect is low and the reverse is even more true when your intellect is high your emotions are low. Keep your emotions in check success is not a straight line there will be bumps and setbacks along your journey just keep pushing forward. Remember slow is fast the tortoise always wins the race.

 I hope that I was able to give you little perspective or shed some light into never giving up on your dreams. Remember as Jim George an American author said, " it's not how you start, but how you finish".

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Respectfully yours,

Jose Santiago