Stay at Home Dad Editor
Hello, my name is Erik Cornella.
I’m a network marketing business coach and mentor. I live in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, with my beautiful wife Donna and two wonderful children. It took years of doubt, missed opportunities, and terrible heartbreak, before I realized that the only way to get the things you want out of life is to apply yourself actively to achieving them — and to never place limits on yourself. Fortunately, in this age of the Internet, there is an infinite number of opportunities available to help you get started on this journey.
How it all started.
I was a military kid, so I didn’t stay too long in one place growing up. I lived in California, Texas, Missouri, Michigan, Florida, and Louisiana. After graduating high school, I joined the U.S. Army, married, and was promptly shipped out to Germany. Two years later, I came back to the U.S. and moved to Arizona, where my wife and I both worked for the State. Truth to tell, it wasn’t the kind of job that did anything for my peace of mind, much less my bank account.
I went back to school and graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Business Administration. I couldn’t wait to start over again in a new career, and of course, to build a sizable nest egg for my family. But life had other plans for me, at least for the time being.
My mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I was the only one with the resources to care for her. She lived with me and my family for two years before she died. Even then, I chose to stay at home in lieu of finding a job, since my kids were having a tough time dealing with her loss. Besides, I wanted to be available to them as they needed me. I had gotten used to playing an active role in their lives, and wasn’t about to give that up.
My wife and I decided to move back to Louisiana to be closer to her family, so we packed up our car and went, leaving behind all of our belongings to be transported by the movers. We put up our house for rent because we couldn’t sell it — the market had already collapsed. We arrived at our new home, and expected our furniture to arrive a few days later. Never happened. The moving truck had caught on fire and everything we owned was destroyed. A month later, we got hit with another bombshell: a pipe had broken in our house in Arizona, flooding the downstairs and causing major damage. So much for our plan to immediately collect income from rental fees. So much for immediate financial assistance.
That was the lowest year of my life. But I am grateful for the love and support of my family and friends, because they helped me to see that the greater intangibles of life — love, kindness, and laughter — are never lost, no matter how bad it gets.
A lesson learned.
It was time to start over. I needed to find a job that could help make up for what we had lost, build a financial base for our future, and still allow me time flexibility so that I could be with my kids.
I realized that it was up to me to determine my own destiny, because nobody else was going to do it for me.
I began by reading up on franchise businesses because they seemed to satisfy a lot of my priorities. I wanted to be my own boss and write my own paychecks, set my own schedule and give my family the lifestyle they deserved. I had had enough of being at the mercy of outside influences. I wanted to make a difference, and to do so I had to take sole responsibility for the outcomes in my life.
The franchise system had a lot of problems, so I didn’t jump in right away. It’s a good thing I didn’t, because that’s when I found a solution that had the potential to make every single one of my goals attainable.
Was I skeptical? Of course, but after having lost so much, I figured it couldn’t hurt. After all, the only place to go from bottom is up.
