At Thirty, My Marriage Fell Apart and I Struck It Rich

On the brink of bankruptcy, I no longer had the strength to turn things around. I could only watch helplessly as the company I had built with my own hands became a plaything in someone else’s hands. The day the whole enterprise came crashing down, everyone joined in to kick me while I was down.

My friends turned against me, my wife betrayed me, and the taunts and insults cut into me like a dull knife, carving away at my flesh.

I was past thirty, and I had tasted the bitterness of reality. At last, I understood the warmth and coldness of human nature: money was the real bargaining chip that determined whether a man could win the world.