I grew up without a father. My mother raised me on her own. No brothers, no older men around, no one to show me how to become a man. Everything I know, I found out the hard way or worked out alone.

So I went after what I could control. I built my finances. I turned my health around and put serious work into my body. From the outside I looked like a man who had it handled, and I believed the lie most men believe. Build the career, build the body, and the rest takes care of itself. They don't. I had the income and the physique and women still looked straight through me. The ones I did get close to, I held on too tight. I gave too much, too fast, and I couldn't walk away even when I knew I should. For a man who had control over everything else in his life, it was a humiliating place to be. I felt weak. Invisible. Out of my depth in the one arena that mattered most.