Three Stories.
One Life Lesson.
Everything I've achieved — from MIT to a seven-figure business to a martial arts world championship — comes down to one thing: environment. The right environment with the right mentors changes everything.
From East LA to MIT
I grew up in East LA. We were poor. I didn't own a computer growing up. Most kids in my neighborhood didn't go to college — let alone MIT.
But I had something more valuable than money or connections: I had an environment that held me to a high standard. My parents, my school, my community — they all expected more from me. And when you're surrounded by people who expect more, you start to expect more from yourself.
I got into MIT. And when I arrived, I was terrified. I was surrounded by the smartest people I had ever met in my life. I barely spoke for the first two years. I was convinced I didn't belong there.
"I went into MIT as a timid, intimidated kid who barely spoke. I came out believing I could conquer the world. The environment changed me — not the curriculum."
But something happened over those four years. The environment changed me. Being surrounded by brilliant, ambitious people — people who were building companies, solving hard problems, thinking big — it rewired my beliefs about what was possible for me.
I graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. And I walked away with something more important than a diploma: the unshakeable belief that I could figure out anything I put my mind to.
That belief is what eventually led me to leave my engineering job, build a seven-figure business, and help thousands of others do the same. It all started in East LA — and it was amplified at MIT.
The lesson: You don't need to be the smartest person in the room. You need to be in the right room.
The $60,000 Mentorship
By 2009, I had quit my engineering job and was making six figures in network marketing. But I had spent $90,000 on courses and training, and I was $60,000 in debt. I was making money, but I was spending it as fast as I earned it.
Then I got on a call with a mentor named John Keel. He told me he could help me build a real, sustainable business — but his program cost $60,000.
I didn't have $60,000. I was already $60,000 in debt. But I had learned something from my time at MIT and from studying attraction marketing: the right environment and the right mentors are worth any price.
"I was $60,000 in debt and someone asked me to invest another $60,000. Every logical voice in my head said no. But I had learned that logic isn't what creates breakthroughs — mentorship does."
I said yes. I borrowed the money. I joined the program.
Nine months later, I had a $500,000 month. Not year — month.
The program didn't give me new tactics or secret strategies. It gave me something far more valuable: accountability, a high-performance environment, and a mentor who had already done what I wanted to do. He forced me to think bigger, act faster, and hold myself to a higher standard.
That experience is the foundation of everything we do at AttractionMarketing.com. We're not just selling courses — we're creating an environment where network marketers can become who they need to be to achieve the results they want.
The lesson: The ROI on the right mentorship is incalculable. Stop trying to figure it out alone.
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Start Free BootcampMartial Arts World Champion
I started practicing a Korean martial art called Hwa Rang Do in my early 30s. I wasn't naturally talented. I wasn't particularly athletic. I was a computer scientist who had spent most of his life behind a desk.
But I had a teacher — Master Taejoon Lee, the son of the founder of Hwa Rang Do — who had a gift for creating champions. Not because he had special techniques, but because he created an environment where you had no choice but to become a champion.
He didn't teach me to fight. He forced me to exhibit the behaviors of a champion — the training habits, the mental toughness, the preparation — long before I felt like one. And eventually, the behaviors became beliefs, and the beliefs became results.
"I stood across from opponents I was convinced would beat me. And I won. Not because I was the most talented, but because I had been forced to train like a champion for so long that I had become one."
In 2010, I competed at a major world martial arts tournament. I won the gold medal.
That experience crystallized something I had been learning my entire life: talent is overrated. Environment is everything. When you're in an environment that demands champion-level behavior, you eventually become a champion — regardless of where you started.
This is the same principle I apply to everything I do at AttractionMarketing.com. We don't just teach tactics. We create an environment that demands champion-level behavior from our students — because that's the only thing that actually produces champion-level results.
The lesson: You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your environment. Choose your environment wisely.
Published in Black Belt Magazine
Aug/Sep 2014 Issue
"Decathlon of Hwa Rang Do" — written by Fernando Ceballos. The article introduced Hwa Rang Do's revolutionary new 10-event competition format to the global martial arts community.
Read the ArticleThe Common Thread
MIT. A seven-figure business. A martial arts world championship. Three completely different domains. But the same principle made all three possible: being in the right environment with the right mentors.
This is why I built AttractionMarketing.com the way I did. Not just as a training platform, but as an environment — a community of people who are serious about building their businesses, led by mentors who have already done what they're teaching.