And it doesn't mean we're changing we're living in some fantasy world, you know, by by by being all positive and pretending that we don't have problems or something like that. That's not it at all. We're acknowledging that this the situation we're in, we're owning the situation, the the adversity that we're going through. But

No. You're absolutely right there.

In particular, Yeah. Can can have a huge influence on how things progress and how how much impact you have on people and how much, abundance you end up living in in your own life for sure. So, it's not a fantasy world. It's we're still living living in reality, but you're absolutely right that your perspective is is critical to how you navigate a challenging situation and how you become your the best version of yourself.

You mentioned Jacqueline and extreme ownership.

Yeah.

And and as soon as, you said that. So I was thinking about, how you know, it's it's not like we're ignoring the problem or have this false sense of optimism or hope or, you know, we just do not feeling our feelings. And just like Jaka would somebody comes to him and says, okay, we're running low in ammunition. The enemy is all around us. And, we're short, you know, a few men and Jaco would respond good. We we have an opportunity to, fix a real challenge and learn from it and overcome. Right? Yeah. So it as soon as you frame it good, I get to face a challenge. And then the the hardship itself doesn't seem so part. Absolutely.

For sure. Yeah.

And I think you you mentioned just before, we started recording that you've faced some some challenges recently? Any anything you care to dimension?

Well, every no. Everything's been been perfectly. It's all rainbows and unicorns and butterflies for me, but for everyone else no, I'm kidding. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, you know, and and on my show, I we we don't I I always make the the, kind of caveat or disclaimer that, yes, my show is called from adversity to abundance. That doesn't mean that you you go through adversity and now you live in abundance for the rest of your life. It it doesn't mean that you don't go through additional adversity. Right? And so I've had plenty of ups and downs in my own my own life. You know, recently, within the last year and a half, we've dealt with, some some real challenges in our family. And, I won't get into all the specifics, but we've dealt with some serious issues, particularly with my son and his health and, particularly mental health. And, you know, he's fourteen. So I'll let some years go by, you know, where we can dis he can decide how much he wants to share out there publicly, but I will tell you that, around this time last year, in January of last year, when things really started to decline, significantly in our house. And, in our home, I had a lot of business stress going on at that time as well, which I think speaking of compounding, I I do think the two things are somewhat related that there was just just a lot of stress in our home in general. I have, wife and two kids. We live in Maryland just for a little bit more context. Two teenage, children, and, our son ended up going through some very serious mental health challenges. He on the autism spectrum, autism, disorder spectrum, if you will. And and, you know, but additionally, went through some some very serious, mental health challenges separate from that. And then recently we found out that he actually has a genetic condition. We didn't find this out for, about, I mean, he's fourteen And we didn't know for fourteen years that he's had this gin very rare genetic condition since, since he was in the womb. So, he was in and out of psychiatric hospitals in the first quarter of twenty twenty three. And needless to say, but I'll say it anyway is that it put an incredible amount of stress on our family. And, yeah, I'm happy to to kind of discuss some of the some of the ways we navigated that. I will I'm I'm also very happy to say that right now, as we record this January nineteenth, twenty twenty four, both the the business situation and the situation with my son's mental health, have improved dramatically. And so are we out of the woods yet? No. You know, I wouldn't say that, but, I'm just so grateful, you know, because because we did go through such a challenging time. I am so grateful, to say that that things are are stable and generally happy at home. And and, I will tell you that this is something that's, you know, we're facing a a mental health crisis in our in our country. So you know, as much as as I'd love to say my son's situation was an isolated incident and, is this just not just not the case if you look across the country. I think, the pandemic had a massive effect on kids and teenagers in a negative way, and the shutdowns. Not to get too too political there, but it it just, I think it really caused some serious anguish and anxiety and depression amongst teenagers and couple that with social media and some other you know, other factors for sure. I think we're facing a real crisis that many people haven't even acknowledged yet. And, unfortunately, for our for us at home, that was front and center. And it was extremely, extremely challenging in many ways that I won't get into, but, Yeah. I I'm just thankful that, everybody's alive and well at this point.

You know, that's it that age is it this is difficult time for any kid. Boys girls. It just it's that that's a period of transition from childhood into adulthood and no point in a human life is there are there more changes, mentally, physically, otherwise, they're socially. In such a short time frame. They are literally they be literally become different people. For sure.

And and, in my son's case, he actually didn't speak more than maybe a a word, you know, maybe a couple words, per week to us. He didn't speak for about four or five months while he was going through some very serious you know, mental health challenges. So that makes it difficult on on the parents and the rest of the family because you don't know. You don't you don't know if he's choosing this, you don't know if he meaning choosing not to speak or or or just is unable to, and and you don't know what he's going through. And he's still doesn't say a whole lot. He's he's a becoming a man of few words. He's a a boy of few words becoming a man of words. But, you know, when the the when the person going through this situation isn't able to convey or doesn't convey, you know, what they're what they're going through.

It's

very difficult to help. And, so that made it extra challenging for sure. Now that we have this recent information about his genetic condition, which I which I'm seeing as a total blessing, by the way, the the the information. We understand more now than that he really a lot of kids with this genetic condition actually never, never speak or have very serious, speech disorders. So that helps me with empathy as well, to be honest with you because, you know, it's like, okay. He's not just being a a jerk, he just can't speak right now. And so, so that, you know, there there's a lot to navigate there and and, we've been through a lot as a family. And, this is not to to have a pity party for Jamie and his family. It's just to say, Hey, this is real. You know, people might see me on social media or see see me talking about business success and and everything. And and that's great. And that's that that not that that's fake, but there are also some real challenging times, that that we've that I've personally been through, and and we've been through it at home. And, so the mental health piece, I think, is is critical, and I, and I wanna have more and more guests on my show to address that topic. I do think it's very complicated. It it has to do with physical health as well. It's not some isolated thing, but it's still kind of a nebulous topic dealing with it, you know, just mental health and and mental challenges, mental adversity is not it's a very complicated area that I think, we're only scratching the surface on. But, yeah. Anyway, it's, I'm just just very grateful, you know, to to be where we are. I think you know, one of the key takeaways, Aaron, that that I have from that situation, and and it's not a hundred percent in the rearview mirror, but One of the key takeaways is is focusing what on what you can control. And I'll give you a quick, example of what I mean. When I when when my son was in the hospital, you know, I'm spending hours and hours researching all these hypothetical all these possible situation are are drivers for this situation. I mean, so does he have does he have bipolar disorder does he have a brain tumor? Does he have, you know, does he have, some mitochondrial disorder? You know, all these rabbit holes where I'd spend hours and hours reading. And, yeah, it's great to gather information, but but at the end of the day, it's on some level, it it kinda doesn't matter because I can't control that anyway. So, you know, so so one of the takeaways was, hey, I'm not gonna have all the information. I'm gonna keep pursuing trying to trying to gather more information, but but knowing that I'm not gonna have all the information and and just take it one day at a time and and focus on what you can control, that's been critical for us at home as we navigate this this situation.

And do your best not to create hypochondria by proxy All the, all the potential, illnesses that your son may be suffering from. And I tell you when Absolutely. He's he's lucky to have parents who love him so much and they care Yeah. So much about his well-being. You know, you're lucky, to have the opportunity to, you know, put that effort in and and That's right. You show your family, your son, how much, you know, his father cares for him.