From Homeless to 9 figure real-estate Mogul Saving Children Around the World: William Fonseca

Summary

The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex

Episode: From Homeless to 9-Figure Real-Estate Mogul Saving Children Around the World: William Fonseca
Date: December 9, 2025
Host: Paul Alex Espinoza
Guest: William Fonseca

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Episode Overview

This episode features the extraordinary true story of William Fonseca, a Miami-born real estate developer who overcame homelessness, addiction, and childhood trauma to become a 9-figure mogul—and now dedicates his resources and energy to saving and uplifting children impacted by neglect and abuse around the world. William shares his harrowing lows, his path to faith, and how unconditional love and second chances transformed his destiny. The discussion centers on perseverance, redemption, purpose, and using success to “plant seeds” in the lives of others.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. William’s Background and Real Estate Career

• Early life in Miami (Wynwood/Alapata area): Born into a middle-class family; struggled with school but excelled at hands-on work.
  • “I am a developer, born and raised in the Alapata area. Developed about a thousand doors... focused my career in neglected areas.” (02:31)
• Started as an electrician at 17 via apprenticeship; graduated night school.
  • “Just to say that I graduated, I like that. It doesn't make any sense to me.” (05:19)
• Transition to Real Estate Development:
  • Learned construction from a local builder (“Vincent”); struck a barter deal to learn the ropes hands-on (07:02).
  • Used skills and contacts to scout and develop undervalued land in neglected Miami neighborhoods.

2. The First Major Setback and Hitting Rock Bottom

• Early 20s: Lost everything due to a failed land deal scam; friends/lawyers stole his upfront money.
  • “That's where the success starts, when disaster starts occurring in your life.” (09:08)
• Coped with disaster by descending into addiction: Smoked cocaine, lost his business, became homeless.
  • “That was the beginning of the successful story. But... it involves drugs. And I started to smoke cocaine.” (10:18)

3. Homelessness & The Turning Point

• Three years on the street: Survived by any means, often unsafe, and recounts a terrifying and lonely existence.
  • “You can mimic it, but it's so dangerous and so dark. And you meet humans... I call them the gremlins. Come out at night.” (15:23)
• Formative encounter: A stranger handed him a piece of paper with an address and John 3:16 on it, leading to a church.
  • “I’m a result of a piece of paper with an address and a biblical verse. It didn’t make sense to me... I'm hungry. I don't care who John is, I don't care about 3:16.” (19:27)

4. Faith, Community, and Unconditional Love

• At the church: Fed, cared for, and introduced to genuine, life-changing kindness.
  • “If you give me a year of your life, I guarantee you that God will restore you a hundred percent and then more.” (22:49)
• Breakthrough moment: After months of being cared for, he began to see unconditional love as transformative.
  • “Never seen human beings so loving. They took me into the shower, they bathed me... it just broke me down. I started to cry and I said to myself where am I at?” (24:13)
• Mentorship from Bobby Cruz, a famous Puerto Rican salsa singer:
  • “He took me under his belt and he made me an offer that transformed my life forever.” (26:46)

5. Climbing Out, Rebuilding, and New Purpose

• Transitioned out of church rehab by working small jobs. A chance meeting at a Wendy’s led to his first builder opportunity in years.
  • “I wrote my phone number, my name on the napkin. And three months later, he called me.” (28:37)
• Back into development via neglected neighborhoods:
  • Used a creative partnership to accumulate assets.
  • “And that fifth lot took me to a thousand doors.” (30:09)

6. Revolutionizing Access & Social Impact

• Created pathways for low-income homeownership: Leveraged banking connections and community development funds.
  • “I revolutionized what the homeownership program was... let me allocate that CRA money for first time buyers.” (33:41)
• Met and married Maria: Key pillar and support through his climb and mission.
  • “The pillar of my life... there’s only two things in my life that have occurred throughout this whole story: Jesus and Maria.” (34:28)

7. The Power of “The Hump” (Rock Bottom)

• Redefining failure: Sees adversity and personal lows as the foundation of strength and understanding.
  • “Crashing and burning is one of the most beautiful things it has that has happened in my life. That's where I got my strength from.” (41:27)

8. Redemption Work: Fighting For Neglected & Abused Children

• Deep involvement in social programs:
  • Feeds/educates 650+ children a day in Honduras.
  • Funded and operates two schools/daycares in Miami for abused and neglected kids.
  • “What attracted me to Honduras? An invite... human trafficking, what they do to these kids, how they prostitute them... So I've used that hump to define who I really am today.” (46:40)

9. Philosophy on Wealth, Generosity, and Living by Purpose

• Allocates wealth to serve “fallen men” and children: Rejection of material excess for genuine fulfillment and spiritual return.
  • “You talk about interest rate... this particular action has a return that'll blow your mind.” (57:24)
• Fulfillment over material wealth:
  • “Wealth didn’t take me out of the hump. That’s one thing it could not solve.” (64:39)
• Calls on listeners to ‘give yourself the opportunity’ to reflect and step into your purpose, without fear or pride.
  • “If there’s something that I’m going to tell you, stop, think and give yourself the opportunity. That’s the biggest leap of faith you can take.” (64:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On being handed a lifeline:

  “I’m a result of a piece of paper with an address and a biblical verse. It didn’t make sense to me... I'm hungry. I don't care who John is, I don't care about 3:16.”
  — William (19:27)

• On unconditional love:

  “If you give me a year of your life, I guarantee you that God will restore you a hundred percent and then more.”
  — Unknown Pastor, as recounted by William (22:49)

• On redefining failure:

  “Crashing and burning is one of the most beautiful things it has that has happened in my life. That's where I got my strength from.”
  — William (41:27)

• On his philanthropic focus:

  “I serve humans for the benefit of just one investment that was done on me. They planted a seed. So... I help kids. Now I'm involved with kids.”
  — William (48:11)

• On giving yourself opportunity:

  “The opinion of others doesn't define the final product. Who defines the final product? It's the designer. It's God himself.”
  — William (59:47)

• A reminder of the power of small kindnesses:

  “Frank bought me a Wendy's hamburger... that $10 investment moved my heart to building him a brand new house and telling him, here are the keys.”
  — William (62:34)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:31] – William introduces himself, his background, and development focus
• [09:08] – The first major business disaster, loss, and start of addiction
• [15:23] – Survival as a homeless person and the dangers faced
• [19:27] – The life-saving moment: receiving the church address and Bible verse
• [22:49] – The transformative promise of unconditional love and acceptance
• [26:46] – Mentorship from salsa singer Bobby Cruz
• [28:37] – The chance encounter at Wendy’s leading to his re-start
• [33:41] – Revolutionizing low-income home ownership and banking pressure
• [34:28] – Meeting Maria, his “pillar,” and the start of family stability
• [41:27] – Philosophy on the role of adversity and the “hump”
• [46:40] – The lifelong impact of childhood trauma and commitment to fighting abuse
• [57:24] – His view on fulfillment and the “return” of investing in people
• [64:39] – The limitations of wealth to heal spiritual trauma
• [64:41] – Final advice: stop, reflect, give yourself the opportunity to change

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Key Takeaways for Listeners

• The power of second chances and faith: An act of kindness and offering unconditional love can redirect a life—even from its lowest point.
• Resilience forged in adversity: William sees his trauma and setbacks as essential to understanding others and fueling his lifelong mission.
• Social impact over personal wealth: Lasting fulfillment comes not from material achievements but from investing in the lives of others.
• Modeling generosity: From reinvesting his real estate wealth in schools, to tackling child trafficking and supporting at-risk youth, William walks the talk.
• Finding purpose: It starts with self-honesty and willingness to ask, “Where am I? Where do I want to be? How can my experience serve others?”

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Where to Find More / Get Involved

• Schools: Wynwood Daycare, Miami, FL
• Email: As mentioned by William, Paul will share his email for those seeking to connect or collaborate.

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“Living life by design, living with your core values— that’s a powerful thing, man.”
— Paul Alex (59:34)

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This episode is rich in testimony, transformation, and practical wisdom for anyone seeking hope or purpose beyond adversity. William’s radical transparency and humility create a moving, actionable blueprint for personal and community level “leveling up.”

Transcript

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[William]

I'm right in the path of this place where all these people are trafficked. You see a lot of kids that are taken for the sex industry and it takes me back to that store where I worked as a stock boy for 25 a week. Would tie me up and touch me in a walking cooler and I didn't have anybody to go to. Homeless on the final stretch of my three years, they reached out of the window and offered me a piece of paper with an address and scripture verse. Knock on the door of this place and this guy opens the door trying to convince this cat that I need five bucks to eat and this guy wants to feed me. But I want the five bucks because with a $5 rock, I can just, boom. Cure myself for the next five seconds. That's an everlasting year. You're chasing that devil. The guy tells me, if you give me a year of your life, I guarantee you that God will restore you 100%. And then more. They took me into the shower, they bathed me. Never seen a human being so loving. All it took is was somebody to give me that unconditional love. I've decided to dedicate my life to helping others.

[Paul Alex]

Hey, guys, and welcome back to Love all podcast. This is Paul, Alex, and today we have another phenomenal guest, guys. But before we get into it, I just want to say thank you for the 4 million downloads that we had previous this previous month. Back in what month are we in, Emilio? September. Yeah, so we're in September right now, going into October, guys. So we're expecting about 5 million this this month. But because of you, we've ranked top three in all categories and number one in business, guys. So we're gonna be bringing in phenomenal guests to hear their stories so you guys could get inspired to level up in your life. So today's guest, he is a Miami local, actually, from the. He's seen the Wynwood district area through all its stages and I can't wait to interview this guest. He goes by the name of William and William, welcome to the show, brother.

[William]

Thank you for having me.

[Paul Alex]

No, absolutely, man. So, William, let my audience know who you are and what is it that you do right now.

[William]

So I am a developer, born and raised in the Alapata area.

Developed about a thousand doors in my career, mainly focused my career in neglected areas. Most my colleagues got to do a lot with fallen men.

People with issues.

Access. How do you provide? Why, why don't you want to just be in this particular area? So I'm a pioneer from the windward, the allapat of the overtown, Liberty City area. So that's, that's mainly my main focus. And I've been at it for 27, 28 years. Literally after a thousand doors, I kind of like hung my gloves and involved in ministry.

So my background is faith. After turmoil that occurred many years ago. So.

Being or given the opportunity or my calling being in neglected neighborhoods, spiraling out of control, falling, getting back up, devoted for the past 25 years, the reach to help others, men that are fallen.

[Paul Alex]

I love that man. Love that. So you're, you're faith based and now you're going into your beliefs to help other people. So let's talk about your humble beginnings. Okay. How did you end up getting into real estate?

[William]

So.

Mainly it's just the environment you're raised in.

Your community.

Access.

Kind of like not satisfied with no. It's like no is a very powerful word. Not, not satisfied with the interpretation. But if you tell me no, then I need to find out why and why. Takes me to, to being curious. So mainly my career started in that type of neighborhood. Neglect the neighborhoods just because my colleagues decided to go to Coral Gables in upper scale neighborhoods. And that didn't make any sense to me.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah. And at what age did you get into real estate?

[William]

So I'm an electrician by trade, so I got into the construction business at 17. I did an apprenticeship program.

Not very good at going to school at all. At all. I just couldn't, I could not dissect in school. A teacher trying to teach me how to use a calculator when I didn't need one. So for me it was like, nah, you're going to stress me out, so I'm just going to get out of school. So I did an apprenticeship program that led me to the building industry and that took me into the development.

[Paul Alex]

Wow. So at 17 years old you got into construction. Did you graduate high school?

[William]

Yeah, I graduated out of night school.

[Paul Alex]

Night school.

[William]

But just to say that I graduated, I like that. It doesn't make any sense to me.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah. Because some of the best entrepreneurs that I've met, like they've had a hard time either at school or they've excelled. It's either or. There's no, like, medium.

[William]

Right. It's like, it's like you're telling me to read this whole book and I don't need to go through the whole book. It's just give me a piece of the book and I can just tell you the whole story. And if you can't dissect that, then I'm not the proper student, so let me just walk out. So for me, it was like, okay, I'll do night school because it's part of the apprenticeship program. I'll go and I'll BS my way through it and that's it. And just get it done.

[Paul Alex]

Taking imperfect action, brother. I love it. I love it. Would you say you're more of a visionary guy or implementer?

[William]

Well, I'm a pioneer, so, yeah, it goes hand in hand. Yeah. How can you go into a place that's highly distressed when nobody wants to be there because you're going to get killed or there's a lot of dope going on? It's like. It's a challenge. It's a challenge.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah. No, absolutely. Okay. So 17 years, you get into construction. Did you end up having a mentor while you were doing construction?

[William]

No, it was just an opportunity to look at these particular areas with a different lens. And I just like somebody invested in me and looked at me and said, well, I don't see that fallen man in you or that fallen human. I see something else in you. And I said, well, you don't have a crystal ball. I don't know who you are. And it's the same thing. I looked at a particular area not too far from where I was born, and I saw so much potential. It's, it's, it's ratify 95, it's got downtown Miami. You incorporate, you're. You're born with that.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, no, absolutely. So you end up getting into the construction game. And then how many years were you doing construction before you started getting into the next level?

[William]

So I had a successful electrical business for many, many years. And across the street from where I lived, it was so I lived in Cutler Ridge, in an area that a big developer here in Lennar at one time or another had developed the area and had left scattered lots. And there was an old man there, Vincent was in his 70s, and he would build these cookie cutters. And that kind of attracted me. And I used to go out to the field, you know, 5, 30, 6 in the morning till around 2:00 o', clock, and I mean, I struck a deal with him and I said, look, listen, if you can just teach me mechanically how to do this, I'll go ahead and I'll give you my time on the weekends and in the middle of the day, and you don't have to pay me, and I can learn how to. How to run with it. Yeah, yeah. That was the biggest gift I love. Beautiful.

[Paul Alex]

And then what happened next, I take off with.

[William]

With. With that particular scene. And since I'm. Since I'm living down south, I spot an area where it had potential to erect probably a couple hundred homes. If you did the entitlements right. If you did the rezoning right. But you needed one key thing. I had a successful electrical business, and you have the liquid to. To do the transition, to do the acquisition. Now you've got a little bit of time and training in the building industry, and you're an electrician, so you've got a lot of knowledge in the interpretation of construction documents. And what happened was I put my eye on this particular parcel and.

I bought into what was the disaster that took me to success, the intent to buy this parcel, to erect these homes, you need the upfront money, is what they call.

The upfront money, to go to the bank and get the construction loan. And you dump all this ton of cash into escrow. And these are your friends and their attorneys, and they bail with your money.

[Paul Alex]

Wow.

[William]

And there it starts. That's where the success starts, when disaster starts occurring in your life. And that took me down the path where made me who I am today.

So I bought into that particular scene, wounded, up, broke, and instead of folding and attaching to the law, I decided to liquidate, make everybody whole. And Wanda, broke.

[Paul Alex]

At what age were you?

[William]

So you're dealing with 21 22.

[Paul Alex]

So at 21, 22, everything just goes to shambles, man.

[William]

It starts. It starts.

[Paul Alex]

So. So that was the beginning of, like, the bigger issue.

[William]

That was the beginning of. Of the successful story. But one of the things that I like as I go around the world or around the country speaking and uplifting fallen men, is that everybody comes now into your life and they want to see what's already done. I call it the result. It's the process nobody wants to talk about. They see what's there. So that takes me to.

A relationship that takes me down a path that it involves, obviously drugs. And I started to smoke cocaine.

[Paul Alex]

Wow.

[William]

Yeah. Wow.

[Paul Alex]

So would you be able to walk us through? So at 21, 22, you're going through all these Issues in business. And I always say this. You know, when you're like a true entrepreneur, a true entrepreneur, and you have employees, you have assets, you have, you know, cash flow coming in and then something massive happens, like your first critical incident in business, it really shows who you are, like how you handle pressure.

[William]

So. So for me, for me, the opportunity of edifying or lifting myself up on the impact was not an option. Yeah, it would. That. That wasn't an option. It wasn't on the table. Yeah, I couldn't have asked for it today. As, as a result that it has, I. I would not. I would not change anything. The wounds are there, the war stories are there. It's what helps me communicate or transmit the message of kind of like dictating the result. Just because you're in the rut doesn't mean that that's where you're going to stay. So for me, that particular moment.

Was there an exit strategy? Yeah, for sure. Did I take it? No. I needed to allocate value. The knowledge was there, so you can't strip me of that. But I wanted to look at the other side of the fence. I just had no idea what was on the other side of the fence, which I've got a good saying, God doesn't call capacitated men. God capacitates you. So I had no knowledge of that was going to happen. So as that turmoil kicks in, you get into this relationship, there's this component that's going to spiral out of control and it's going to put me in a very unique area. It's going to put me in an area where I'm going to acquire a penthouse. The most beautiful penthouse I've had. I had it for about 37 months under the 17th Avenue Bridge waterfront. You couldn't ask for a better position there. There I met the most interesting human fallen men and women. The talent that was embedded in these humans was amazing. And I gave myself the opportunity of allowing me to be there till somebody actually came with what I call a tract. It's a piece of paper that had two folded hands in the front. It had an address in the back, and it had a verse.

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Now. What delays the blessing is the disobedient not allowing that particular hump. So I speak a lot about the hump. What does the hump do for you? It directs you in the right way. If you give yourself the opportunity to look at the hump. The hump is full of treasures. Success obviously comes from that disaster. You allocate value to that particular disaster. You're going to look at that hump. Heads full of treasures that turns out to be the human that you are today.

That hump took me to that particular human. They reached out of the window and offered me a piece of paper with an address and a scripture verse. Homeless on the final stretch of my three years, I started walking towards that address to ask for money. I hadn't slept in probably a few days because you can't sleep under a bridge. You can mimic it, but it's so dangerous and so Dark.

And you meet humans that are actually. I call them the gremlins. Come out at night. I mean, it's like, wow. The environment, the dynamics just change.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah. Yeah. So you've seen both sides of the world.

[William]

I've seen not having anything coming from a middle class family where my dad had two jobs. So my dad was a. He was a union delegator for the hotel industry in Miami beach when Miami beach was a different scene.

A brother going to medical school and the firstborn. Everybody's gonna focus on the firstborn. I'm the black sheep of the family, the middle one.

And then the younger sister. And we're being cheated out of this whole scene and everybody's focusing on paying my brother's tuition and hey, we're out in the cold and who are we? You know, Chop liver. So coming from that environment to taking that leap of faith, to going out and becoming an entrepreneur and experimenting with the public, with the private sector and launching that campaign to taking me to being homeless is like, wow. If you were to make me another offer to change time. No, not in a million years, buddy. I would not take you up. What an experience. It. It's actually the component that makes me who I am. So I don't come from a wealthy family. I come from a middle class family.

So they're gonna cut the light today because we got to send $20,000 up to my brother's medical tuition. That kind of environment. And what are we. I got to put rubber bands on my, on my socks because they're slipping down because the elastic is torn out. That kind of a scene. So I mean, I come from that environment.

To taking that leap of faith to. If you can't handle the conditions in my house, I'm the head honcho. And if you don't like it, well, you got to leave. And I'm going to take you up on the word. And you're 17 years old and you're leaving home. And what's the effect that's going to happen when you're 17 years old and you're leaving home? All you're going to do is crash and burn. Crash and burn, Crash and burn. So that's non negotiable for me. There's no money. There's nothing that you can offer me to change that because I wouldn't for nothing. It's part of who I am today. And those are my wounds to others. But those are. That's where I found success in the rut, in the gutter. That's. I call it the hump, that's where success lies. Because without the hump, you can't tell the story to have a beautiful result, man.

[Paul Alex]

I, I feel like I resonate with you so much, brother, because, you know, I'm hard headed. So, so I had to go through my humps, you know, throughout my twenties, throughout my teenage years. You know, the very first time I actually wanted to become an entrepreneur was at 18, all the way up to about like 24. I was actually in the nightclub industry and not a lot of people know that, but you know, I was very decently successful in the nightclubs for that age, brother. I was bringing in, you know, good amount of money. If I had the right mentor, if I had the right person to tell me like Paul, instead of using that money to go to Vegas, to go spending on girls, to go buy the cars, to go live that lavish lifestyle as a kid, which we see it a lot here in Miami, right, with the kids, man, I'd probably be in a different space right now. But at the end of the day, you know, I went back to the nine to five, man. I went back to corporate America because I remember my parents telling me like, hey, give up on your dream, give up on your dream about owning a nightclub and go back to that nine to five, right? Security, right? That, that, that nice umbrella. So with that being said, brother, so you go through this turmoil, you go through this hard times, what happens next?

[William]

So now I'm hooked on Dova. I'm homeless and I'm on my final stretch of looking at this little piece of paper. So I'm a result of a piece of paper with an address in a biblical verse. It didn't make any sense to me. It said John 3:16. I said, I'm hungry. I don't care who John is, I don't care what 360 means. I don't, I don't care about these little hands. So I've gone from a middle class family to a successful businessman. I've gone into the rut. I'm not a very good thief, I'm not a very good crook, I'm not a very good criminal. So mainly my survival mode was what kicked in. So people misunderstand when they look at society that some people are actually not given the opportunity to live. They're actually obligated to survive. And that's two different things. It's two different worlds. Now I'm coming from learning how to survive into this little piece of paper. I'm going to go down Flagler Street Here in Miami. And I'm going to head to 35th Avenue. There a church and it's all closed and it's fenced. And I say, well you know what, I'm going to knock on the door and I'm going to ask for five bucks to eat. And if I don't get five bucks to eat, there's going to find, I'm going to find something here because I'm jonesing, I'm really jonesing. I'm smoking coke, I'm free, basing cocaine and I'm broke. It's a three dollar bill, I'm a hundred pounds wet, I haven't bathed in about three days and I'm done. I'm literally heading towards destruction. More at a mode where the only thing that actually kept me from shooting myself was.

Maybe it's just because I'm brave or maybe I'm, I'm a coward. But at the end of the day, that particular scene didn't kick in. So I knock on the door of this place and this guy opens the door and I tell the guy, after I had jumped that five foot fence, I go to the door, I knock on these two big doors. 3501 West Flagler. It used to be an old Christian church. Now the Brazilian bought it a few years ago. Now I'm in front of this white headed dude and I'm telling the dude, I'm trying to convince this cat that I need five bucks to eat and this guy wants to feed me. But I want the five bucks because with a five dollar rock I can just boom. Cure myself for the next five seconds and go on that mission again. And if you were in law enforcement, you know that that's an everlasting. You're chasing that devil, you're chasing it, you're never going to get that satisfaction. But now I don't come from that environment, but I'm in that environment and I'm trying to dissect this thing. Why am I wanting this more than food? When this guy walks out and I go on the back, on the back parking lot, this is a huge Property. It's on 35th and Flagler. You can go there if you want. Brazilians have a church there. But anyway, I look at this prayer chain, what I understand now, it's a prayer change, but there's these old ladies just chanting and I'm sitting, they asked me to sit and they're talking about this cat that's going to walk into these doors, that's a self made successful millionaire, that Is dragged like a mop all over the street and is fallen. And I'm looking at these people and I'm thinking what is this? Are these people into witchcraft? What's going on with these? These are Puerto Ricans. That's why I love Puerto Rican so much.

[Paul Alex]

Makes sense, makes sense now.

[William]

Now they're chanting all of this stuff and the guy comes out and tells me he wants to talk to me. He sits me down. I could never, I'll never forget it. It's one of the most beautiful scenes I've seen. I see a bowl of rice with chicken, rice, arroz con pollo. I looked at it and I said damn, I'm gonna take him out. But I'm still chasing the $5. The guy tells me this is the exact words that the guy told me. He says if you give me a year of your life, I guarantee you that God will restore you a hundred percent and then more. I said damn.

It'S either the streets or I'm going to take this cot and when this cop makes me the next offer, I'm going to jack them and I'm going to go to the pawn store and I'm going to go and run to the shoeshine boy and he's gonna sell me my dope and I'm run. But something happened at that instant, Paul. It transformed my life forever. So forever. I'm heading up to Chicago next week and I'm gonna go and talk about John 3:16 because it's not that particular scripture, it's the meaning behind it, it's the unconditional love. He says if you come, stay here. And every day at six in the morning you open the temple, you vacuum and you clean the toilets and you take the trash, God will restore you. And I said oh boy, this is the biggest scam.

I took him upon it. I went to a ranch, three days they cleaned me up. Never seen human beings so loving. They took me into the shower, they bathed me. Knocking related When Jesus washed the disciples feet, it just broke me down. It just. I started to cry and I said to myself where am I at? I'm out on homestead. Three days into this mission, on the third day, boom. The cat calls me back, says look, listen now I want you to stay here for real. And every morning at 5 o' clock you get up to the altar and you pray. What am I going to pray for? Goes restoration. I said I'll try. If you teach me, I'll try. So the component to success has to do with giving yourself the Opportunity. So I gave myself the opportunity to choose between the street or that roof where it didn't rain and I wasn't going to starve. And I could get new clothes and clean clothes. Pretty sure they came out of the goodwill, God knows where they came from, donations.

Or anything. All the Rolexes, all the cars. You're making all this money on a monthly basis. You come from a housekeeper to cleaning toilets, and you're. And you're. This is not any better than what it is, because now I feel like I've made a commitment and I'm here, and how do I bail? So on one of the nights, I decided to go to the basement. And I go to the basement and there's this studio, recording studio. And I looked at the walls and they were full of plaques. They were all gold records. And I looked at the name on the right record, and it was just the whole wall was full of these gold record. I go, there's somebody here that's a musician. This is a recording studio. I'm gonna rip off all these instruments or maybe that keyboard, and I can probably score Twenty Dollar Rock or whatever, whatever. And every time I grab the guitar, and every time I grab something and I put it on the door, I wouldn't want to take it. And I would go around the block and I would wind up in the same parking lot. And that was the opportunity that I gave myself. So we're all born with the same opportunity, but the result cannot be the same. So I gave myself the opportunity to listen to somebody and humble myself. And when I looked at the name, I noticed he was a Puerto Rican salsa singer, famous salsa singer. And he took me under his belt and he made me an offer that transformed my life forever. He said, if you allow yourself.

To allow God to redirect your life and put you where you need to be, because the knowledge that you've acquired in such a short time, just imagine if you do it for the kingdom of God. I said, this is a bunch of gibberish. This is a bunch of storytelling. I'm not going to buy into this, but I'm going to give myself the opportunity. And I started to look at failure as success. I started to look at all that situation of hunger and smoking dope and being homeless as part of the successful story. And I took that leap of faith. And when that year clocked on, I said, well, what am I doing now? Am I going to seminary school? He goes, you're insane. You're not going to become a pastor. You're not Going to do none of that. You're going back out there. He says, what do you need? I says, well, I need an apartment. I need a car. No apartment, no cars. You can come back here and you can sleep in this side of the building. They used to be called winners.

There I met a couple, Albert and Carmen. They fed me every day. Every day. Used to go out to Flagler, grab the bus and go out to make $7 an hour. And I looked at the owner of that electrical company. I said, damn, if you only knew that. I can poke your eyes out with just my tongue. I can rip you. I can do it 10 times better than you. You're lousy at what you do.

And one day I'm walking into a Wendy's. So that's my favorite meal. I don't care what it does to you, I'll always eat a Wendy's hamburger. Always. Forever. I think I had one, two, three days ago. Forever. And sitting down at the Wendy's restaurant, I heard a conversation. And I dropped into that conversation. And that guy was talking about building. He needed a builder.

And I knew what Vincent had showed me, and I knew all of these components into this story. And I wrote my phone number, my name on the napkin. And three months later, he called me.

[Paul Alex]

Wow.

[William]

I had no idea that I was going to wind up in Little Haiti. But now I'm in a $1,500 white Econoline van. When it passed 30 miles, the front tires would shake. I said, damn, this is not getting any better after being in a Bentley. I don't know, there's something weird with this picture. And I walked into a guy's life. His name was Jerome. And Jerome said, I'll sell you the lot for fifteen hundred dollars.

I'll hold the paper on it. And when you're done with your project, you make me hold 10% interest on the land. It balloons in 12 months. And I went back to my hero, my dad. So my dad was a union delegator, had a lot of political connection, a lot. My dad was a very well sought individual because he rattled people's cage. If you wanted to become a commissioner in this particular area, you'd go and get my dad and he'd make it happen for you. That's how much he pulled. I went back to dad and I said, I need your friends from the building department. I walked in with a set of plans. So this individual that called me said, 50% interest and 50% of the profits. I said, I'll bite. He said, I'll control the money. I'll launch you.

And we're going to have a beautiful relationship. We did till the fourth house. Fourth house had stashed all my money in a lunchbox. I still have the lunchbox. It's a Barbie launch lunchbox. And in there I stashed enough to buy the fifth lot. And that fifth lot took me to a thousand doors.

So I focused in neglected areas. That particular scene took me to focusing on why is this area neglected? Why is it that we identify success.

By the size of your pocket and not the size of who is willing to dedicate a little bit of time of their life to uplifting you? So I will never have the finances to compensate this human, this famous salsa singer. His name was Bobby Cruz.

[Paul Alex]

Wow. Shout out to Bobby.

[William]

Shout out to Bobby if you're forever.

[Paul Alex]

Forever watching this man.

[William]

Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

So from there, what age did you get your fifth door, your fifth lot?

[William]

So in.

2001, 2002, I started to build into little Haiti.

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[William]

By that time I had already.

Analyzed what it would take me to corner that particular market. My passion, not knowing it, not giving myself the opportunity, is in giving access to, to those neglected because of whatever condition that they have, whatever demographic, whatever culture they come from.

I decided to use some of the contacts that my dad had left behind to give me access to homeownership. Now I am into giving access to people for lack of funds, lack of credit. And I revolutionized what the homeownership program was. I found out that most of these people, nothing against them, most of these people that get parachuted, that are executives, hold a large sum of money in their financial institutions. CRA money. They don't like to disclose it. It's for first time buyers.

I walked into a bank in Coral Gables and I said, you know what.

I'm here to let you know that if you do not give me access to that, I'm going to the Miami Herald and I'm going to disclose those $30 million that the feds gave you for first time buyers. And I looked at homeownership with these eyes. If you're going to give me a Section 8 voucher. Thousand dollars, 1,500. Why don't we allocate that CRA money for first time buyers. So using these contacts, I wound it up at the, at the building department again into community development. And there we, we got access to community development money for the end user. Not for me. Now I'm in my fifth house, I got a little bit of money. I've hooked up with an amazing woman, the pillar of my life.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah.

[William]

Wow.

[Paul Alex]

The pillar. Why would you call her the pillar of your life?

[William]

Because there's only two things in my life that have occurred throughout this whole story. Jesus. Because I come from an environment where I need to touch and feel to believe. Now I've taken the leap of faith of buying into this story. If you give me a year of your life now I've bought into the story that God is going to restore you. But they're not giving me the components of why somebody would allow themselves to be hung in that fashion. What is the purpose behind that? For me I've identified it as unconditional love. Meaning I'm going to do something for Paul, but I don't expect nothing in return from Paul. So I'm going to plant this boatload of seed that I'm getting capacitated into people's lives that are just looked at inside just because of the condition. Because either they smell bad, they look bad and people want to just reject them just because of their condition. It's like we're going in society today through a situation of identity. So when I was 10 years old before my dad poisoned me, honestly, because he was the one that poisoned me with alcohol. So I'm allergic to alcohol. So I'm not, I don't condemn anything. I just, I'm allergic so I don't want to be around it. That's a choice I've made for the last 20 plus years. I've recognized that I'm allergic to it. Same I'm allergic to cocaine. I'm allergic to certain components in my life that I've got to steep. So now I've identified that the worst enemy is me. So I've got to get grip of it. So I'm into, into this whole situation. I'm building these houses I've got three or four houses under my belt, I've got a little bit of cash, and I walk into a dealership and I buy a Jag.

I'm in a Jag again. It's a little beat up. It's not. It's not a good looking, but it's a Jag. So I'm going down to Palmetto and I see this blond chick and there goes the old William. And roll down the window and start talking the horn, start asking this chick for the phone number. She's rejecting me. She's resistant. So I throw the Jag and I pull her over and I'm in the middle of Palmetto. I bumper to bumper, and I reached over and I asked her for her number. And he listened out, no number. So I gave her and I dumped it into her seat, wrote in a paper, dumped it in her seat, and she called. One of the things that was magical for me in selecting. So that's another thing that I found in my life, that choosing is of key component. It's an instrument that we use on who you sit and dine with and which fights to pick. So I'm selective in those aspects. I select who I want to sit and talk to and I select what fights I want to pick. So I'm very selective.

[Paul Alex]

I love that.

[William]

So in back in our days in Key Biscayne, we've got a strip of big pine trees there, and people go there to raise the temperature and get kissed and do all this kind of thing. And I'm taking this chick, Maria, the love of my life. Oh, my God, Maria. Wow. And I'm. I'm talking to Maria. And the first thing that crosses my mind is that I've been in a situation without a relationship for a year. So I've done that sacrifice so that I can redirect my life and taking somebody off. I want to call him my mentor with not so many words. I want to call him somebody that gave me what I call agape, which is the unconditional love of God, which is not expecting anything in return. He said, when you get back on your feet, I'm not even going to want. Nor the mops, nor the brooms in your closet. And I said, whoa, mind blowing. This is a ministry. Most of these ministries are in for the cash. This guy's a movie star. This guy's a salsa singer. This guy has really surrendered his career, breached the contract in that label to serve and to go and serve humans and preach the gospel. And what do you know? I'M there talking to Maria and I can just feel the Holy Spirit just ministering to me and tells me, talk to her about me. And I said, talk to her about who? And I gave her my testimony. And when I started to tell her where I had come from.

She started to cry. And I asked her the question again a few days ago. What allowed you to use those specific lenses to see a little bit further in my life.

Than what you actually were looking at? You were looking at somebody that was getting off again. And I invited her to a party. Party's on Sunday. It's at 11 o' clock in the morning. It's going to church. So we went to church. I usually get down and I meditate a little bit and I pray and I thank God for this particular experience. And when I looked up, she had her hands raised at God and she was praising God. And I said, this is the chicken.

[Paul Alex]

She's the one.

[William]

She's still the one. I took her to an auction tax deed, because I bought a lot of tax deeds. And I told her, let's go to the auction. You've never been to the auction. I took her to the tax deed auction. And on the top floor was the place where you get married and applied for a marriage lesson. I says, this is the opportunity of your life. Let's get married now. Till this date, I've been married with Maria, very happily married.

[Paul Alex]

How many years?

[William]

So I've got Maria since 2002, 2003.

[Paul Alex]

So, yeah, so about 23 years, my man.

[William]

A beautiful, beautiful relationship. There's no secrets. Very transparent. Knows everything. So there's nothing that anybody can go to Maria and say, look, listen, we know this about William because she knows it all. So that helps.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, 23 years of marriage, man, that's. That's a beautiful thing, brother.

[William]

Beautiful.

[Paul Alex]

All right. And then now you were able to go ahead and rebuild yourself again, and you're on your path to building these thousand doors.

Anything in between that you think you can think of that happened that dramatically changed everything for you? Did you get into any critical incidents? Did something in your life shifted or did you hit a milestone?

[William]

No, it's. It's basically what it is, is the understanding of the hump. So I'm always going to be an ambassador of that particular scene. It's got to do a lot with my faith. So my hero of the faith talks about that. All moments of tribulations are momentarily. They don't last forever. They're momentarily. They're there for a purpose. And at the End of the day it produces glory. So I know that when I'm on the hump, I just got to be cautious because the hump is a very tricky place to play. The hump is. There's so much, there's so much treasures in the hump. The hump allows you to. To look from.

The top down to see what the surroundings, what took you to the hump. People have a misunderstanding of what. Crashing and burnings. Crashing and burning is one of the most beautiful things it has that has happened in my life. That's where I got my strength from. I didn't get my strength from being successful. I got my strength from crashing and burning. Obviously my crash and burn was catastrophic for my life because it put me in a particular situation, which I'm grateful for that. But. But all dynamics, all situations that do occur, Paul, in my life are, have a purpose. It's all purpose driven. I don't, I don't find myself with the largest stuff. So I lost my hero on Earth, which was my dad. That, that, you know, you want to look at, you want to look at your parents as, as these individuals. For some they're good people and for others they're evil. For me, my dad was an evil human being because I didn't understand him as a communicator. So for years. Just because he was a bad communicator doesn't mean that the message was wrong wrong or the metros was, wasn't the truth. You just, you rebel against that and you, you know, you twist it to benefit you because everybody wants to tell the story as to.

You want others to view it. No. The more transparent you are in the hump, the better it is. You, you're, you know, you have control. How long you're going to be at that hump. It's your personality is the me factor that doesn't allow you to leave that hump. For me it was like, how catastrophic can it be if I was nowhere and then up on the hill and then boom, you're back on the ground. And even worse than zero, you have to understand that the foundation starts under the earth. If you don't find firmness, if you don't bore and find rock, you're not going to be solid. You're going to be always shifting. So the hump is always going to be full of springs in the bottom. You're always going to be shaking. Is to watch it when you think you're firm because you're going to fall and hurt yourself. What is that? That catastrophic Scene does for me. It gives me the opportunity to view and allow me the opportunity to say what got me here. Stop. Think. How do I wiggle out of this situation versus allowing my emotions that don't edify. My emotions don't do anything for me. It just distorts. It's a phantom, it's a figment of my imagination. It'll last a fraction of a second, disappears, the emotion is gone. I don't, I don't. My life doesn't revolve around that particular scene. What happens is you tell a story as transparent as you can with the evidence that overlays the result. If there is no result, there's no evidence of a result. It's not a good story. Yeah, right. It's a make it up story. It's a. It's like Harvey the Rabbit. It's a figment of your imagination. It doesn't list, Boom, you made it up and that's it. No, you need the evidence. When I go and speak, I need somebody in the audience because you're always going to have somebody question it, get up, raise, question it. There's the evidence right there. I learned the pillar. My wife, she's seen it, she's heard it from others. You testify, you raise the dead. That's the evidence it impacts. That's the message.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah.

[William]

So what happens is I encounter this relationship with this woman that I'm thinking with my emotions as this is going to take off the temperature here. She's a pillar. Now we're going to start this venture in neglected areas and we're going to start helping people that are categorized, neglected, marginalized.

They'Re being labeled. So let me toss this whole picture around and let me recreate this program. So I'm going to get you in with subsidiary money, the ones that you guys want to use to bail out. And I'm going to make you a homeowner instead of being you a tenant.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah.

[William]

So I revolutionized that industry and I impacted neighborhoods and now they've turned out to be amazing neighborhoods. There's a beautiful picture.

[Paul Alex]

I love that. I love that.

[William]

Beautiful people impacting just human beings. That's what I'm in it for. Because it all it took us was somebody to give me that unconditional love. I'll tell you the story again quick. I don't want the brooms or the mops in your closet. All I want to use you as a testimony that I planted this seed in your life and look how you shine. Yeah, that's nothing in return, right Just imagine how much he shines. And you can't even. People don't realize. It's like when you walk into a room, you can just look and scan and you can tell who's who. That's revelation. That's discernment. That comes from. From the spirit. You know, it's like if I want to get into your pocket, if I. And I can tell the loudest one is the weakest point in the room. I mean, you know, I can rattle your cage all day long because I have not lost the knowledge. What I've done is I've turned the tools that have given to me. One of the tools that has been very important in my life is what happened when I was a little kid, when I was molested. That was one of the things that impacted me the most of not having any adult figure, mom and dad to talk about that.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, it's huge.

[William]

Yeah. So I'm writing a book and I was just telling somebody about that book. It's just like I built a School in 1990 to help my dad with a vision to serve the community. And I just bought into them. I bought them back and I closed them down. I remodeled them and I just opened. I opened them back. And these particular schools are packed to capacity. But what's interesting in that book, it was missing that particular phase. So it all starts at your childhood. I know for a fact that everybody is born with an opportunity, but the result cannot all be the same. So now I'm looking into childhood behavior. So for the past 15 years, I've been looking at supporting ministries or being part of. I feed 650 kids a day in Honduras. What attracted me to Honduras? An invite. I go to Oropoli. It's on the border of Nicaragua. Human trafficking. What they do to these kids, how they prostitute them. How do you feel when they tie you to a chair and they touch you and you don't have no one to go to? Yeah, then you go. Then you have an identity problem. So I've used that hump to define who I really am today. Obviously, my vision that's given by God to me is not financially futile. I don't do it. I've got plenty of money to do that. So I serve humans for the benefit of just one investment that was done on me. They planted a seed.

Reaped. So. And I communicate the same effect to humans. I help kids. Now I'm involved with kids.

I've got two schools in the Wynwood area, Wynwood Daycare, that obviously that Particular scene is attracting kids that are in bad situation. I'm dealing with dcf, yeah. Misplaced child parents that are abusing their children. So I've just scholarship a bunch of kids to bring them in free of charge. I'll fund it myself. At the end of the day is like, why is my right hand gonna know what my left hand does? I'm not in it for the mount, for the money. I've got plenty of that where that came from, so why not reinvest it into that into humans? So I'm here to impact. So nothing's really shifted. But I've learned that even though Wall street does make a lot of people wealthy and healthy, the kingdom for me in helping humans has a better result, percentage wise. I'm here to impact. I travel out of my pocket, I speak out of my pocket. I want nothing in return. It's a model based on a crusade that I went. Another individual that called me, it was 2,500 people called me from the stage and said, you with the white cap, you with the white cap. I'm hiding there. I go up to the front of the gun. The guy tells me, look, listen, I know for a fact that God will restore you. But when God restores you, he's going to call you back in. So I'm receptive. I've given my opportunity that I've gotten more out of helping others.

Because the evidence there and I've got anything and everything that a human could want. It's just that I'm in a phase of my life where I only want what I need, not satisfaction of my wants. I like the cars, I like the houses. I like all that I like. But it's not a priority anymore. That's not a task. The task is perforating those fallen men. So I've decided to dedicate my life to helping others.

[Paul Alex]

I love that man. I love that. And what are your future plans for helping the community and, you know, helping other people?

[William]

So now I've encountered a situation with dcf. There's a lot of misplaced children. I was telling the story earlier today. I just got approached by dcf, Department of Children and Family. There's an Amber alert that's about two weeks old. Guy stabs the mom. They're doped out, they're working out of adulthood. He stabs the mom, takes the kid, goes down I95 north. Helicopter's chasing him. There's an Amber alert. Boom. She shows up at my place, tells me about this little kid. She goes, do you know about the story. I go, no, I'm not familiar. I don't really keep in touch with those things. Well, one thing leads to the other. She calls another DCF police. So they're actually the police.

They'Re just into extracting kids from dysfunctional homes, abuse, sexual abuse. So I'm very heavily into that.

She starts telling me the story and I tell her, look, listen, the building next door is open.

The building next door is going to go under a massive remodel. Can I give you a spacer? She goes, well, I've got 500 cases. So now that door swung open. So now I'm going to start working with kids that are misplaced because I hate the fact of foster homes, future plans stay with the Honduras ministry. The human trafficking portion gives me a little bit of acid indigestion. I don't like the concept. I understand more the human, the child development stage, because I gave myself the opportunity to look at that aspect, that where it starts. And believe me, I can actually look at a kid and tell you what's going on at home.

The abuse, I see them all the time with the makeup. I have to deal with that on a daily basis. So I've given myself that opportunity to launch a massive campaign, weave myself into. Into humans that, that are representing that sector, that. That's powerful. When I go to Honduras, I mean, it's rural, I'm right in the path of this place where all these people are trafficked. And in those things, you see a lot of women that are taken from there for prostitution. You see a lot of kids that are taken, snatched, that are used for the sex industry. And it takes me back to that walk in cooler where the butcher at that store where I worked as a stock boy for $25 a week would tie me up and touch me in a walking cooler. And I didn't have anybody to go to. So that impacted me. And I was just. It's a chapter in my life that I'm very expressive, I express myself. I'm telling you, it raises the dead because I go to these places and it's the parent that's with the child in the community, and I'm talking to the parent. And I know for a fact that when you drink that half a bottle of rum, you're touching your child and you're crying and you're molesting your child. And that has impacted my life in such a positive way that I've decided that my wealth will get buried into that. This is not. This is not a financially stimulated Thing. I've made a commitment with God and my wife that it will stay in that environment.

Result. I have a daughter, Alex. She's an attorney, very smart. Now look at the story, how dysfunctional is and look at the result as to how the love has catered to allow her the opportunity to be a successful lawyer, beautiful wife. So the result can be modeled in the eyes of the communities and the public that's being neglected. You're just not giving your time and the opportunity to feed this hungry community of the possibilities that you can get out of that rut you're in. And I've decided that that's a fight I want to pick. So I picked it. Is it hard? Yes. Yes. I never thought that being a man of faith, being a man of an advocate of the gospel or preaching love was going to be easy. I thought it was going to be hunky door. I thought it was a listen, the negative died. It's going to be a breeze. No, it just got narrow and spinier and bumpier. It's like, wow, how much tolerant can you be to being in these places where all these kids, all these humans are destroying themselves? How can you neglect people? You know, this is around 4 in Chicago because there's a lot of need in Chicago and I was invited out to Chicago. But sometimes we tend to walk through the 70 and there's a diamond in the rut, but we don't know what potential is that diamond. When you polish it, here it is in front of you. Paul. Paul. I was trash and garbage. Stunk like a dog. Even worse. Sorry for the dogs. I stunk three days smoking cocaine. How. How can you smell? I mean, you smell like chemicals. You don't brush your teeth, you don't bathe. And somebody sat with me and said, if you give me a year of your life, I can do this. So I bought a ranch. I fund places that feed. That's what took me to Southeast Asia, because I wanted to know. I go to. I've been five times to New Delhi. New Delhi, people want to fight about domination, denominations of faith and stuff like that. I go to a place that feeds 350,000 people a day. Buddy, they're sheiks. That's a. Wow. 300 for free. 350,000 people a day. Just imagine.

[Paul Alex]

People, man.

[William]

Just imagine feeding 650 kids for pennies. What does that do? I just bought.

10,000 thermal to thermometers to ship them out. Pennies. Ship them out. Ship them out with batteries. What an impact.

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[William]

Try [e-mail] copilot 500 pairs of sneakers every November. 100200 bicycles. These kids have never seen that. What does that do for me? My wealth grows. It's the best return. People talk about interest rate. People talk about the returns on hedges. And so buddy, this, this, this particular action has a return that'll blow your mind. It's not grabbing to go broke. No, it's. It's knowing how to allocate value to what matters. Does that makes any sense? The return is huge.

[Paul Alex]

For me, it has been fulfillment. Fulfillment's everything in life, man. You know, I've been there where material things does not do anything for me anymore. So at the end of the day, you do have to find your fulfillment. You have to be passionate about what you want for yourself in the future. And if that brings you fulfillment, brother, because.

You know, it builds you up, especially from coming from a hard place like you have, dude, that's what I'm talking about, brother.

[William]

So I think so at the end of the day, it's that type of investment. What do you say with somebody and talk to them? They can transform. We were sitting with a cat about a month ago, says I have an intimate relationship with my bathroom. I lean on the tile, I take all my clothes and my bed is my toilet.

I take. My wife does a lot of collecting with clothes. We ship them out to South America. I mean a lot of clothes. She washes them, irons them. And I live in a unique place surrounded by salt water. So that, that tells you how humble we are in that aspect. And it's not Flashing or. Or wanting any credit for it. But the guy just tells me, look, listen, if it wasn't for this particular moment, I was about to put a bullet in my head and I said to myself, wow.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, wow. Yeah.

[William]

So that moves me. Everything else? No, yeah, I'll pass. That's coming in for that, buddy. Yeah, for the long haul.

[Paul Alex]

That's good, man. You found. You found peace, man. You found peace and you're enjoying life. You know what I always say, living life by design, man. You're living life by design now.

[William]

I love it.

[Paul Alex]

You're living with your core values and what you believe in, and that's a powerful thing, man. So what would you say for the listeners and the viewers that are listening to this right now, how do they find their purpose?

[William]

I think.

When the vision gets distorted out of anxiety or out of emotions, it's just stopping and giving yourself the opportunity. Like I did. I gave myself the opportunity to just look, just look for a minute and see what actually had value. Did I want to stay in that situation or did I? I'm in this situation, but I have not given myself the opportunity to reach out to somebody that. That can help me. At the end of the day, it has to do with giving yourself the opportunity to stop and think for a minute. Is there this where I need to be? Is this my calling? Is this what I'm all about? And that defines a lot. It gives you a better understanding. It's called the hump. Anybody that's got a distorted vision, it's like I say, I used to be blind. Now I can see. The message really has to be with giving yourself the opportunity. Yeah, you have to give yourself the opportunity without prejudice, without. See, see, see. Paul. The. The opinion. The opinion of others doesn't define the final product. Who defines the final product? It's the designer. It's God himself. It's giving yourself. Looking at yourself in the mirror, taking an inventory. Is this where I wanted to be? I looked in the mirror and I said, do I want to be with a glass pipe? Do I want to be a millionaire again? And if I do want to be a millionaire again, what am I going to do with it? Am I going to buy 20 cars? By the way, I like cars. I love cars. But that has nothing to do or it or doesn't interfere with my calling. My calling is something that I've recognized that has to do with defining what my purpose is, is. And when you look in the mirror and you take an inventory, you look at where you are now. Where you want to be? I designed it. It's tailored. It's like going and getting my suit tailor. I designed it. I don't want to be here anymore. That's not what's. What's called a purpose. I want to be here. Do I want to be wealthy? Yes. What am I going to do with my wealth? I'm going to do the same thing that they did with me. I'm going to inject it back into the kingdom where I know it's going to edify and uplift others. How is the return? Am I going to go broke by doing that? Well, let's give it a shot. So I gave myself the opportunity and the more I injected into that, tell you a long story short, the reason why I like Wendy's is because one night I was hungry and a guy by the name of Frank approached me and I said, frank, I'm hungry. I was already living at the church and Frank approached me and bought me a Wendy's hamburger. So I'm always going to eat that Wendy's hamburger. Thanks for Dave.

Frank, after many years in recovery and after many years in ministry, is going through an accident. His house burns down, no insurance.

And the only thing that I couldn't, that I, that could cross my mind is that day when he fed me that double stack burger and he had the opportunity to sit and talk to me. And when Frank identified that it was in a Miami Springs hotel with his children, I could always remember that hamburger. And I said it took probably $10 for me to look at that case. And I looked at it and I said, I'll build it for you. He says, yeah, but I got no insurance or I got no money. So an 8 or a $10 investment moved my heart to building him a brand new house and telling him, here are the keys. So does it have a return? That was his investment. So what's my investment?

The opportunity that I gave myself to look at life. That the knowledge of building a thousand units and becoming a multi, whatever. Because we know that if we built a thousand units, you know that the numbers are huge. What does that do for me? Am I going to give it back? Am I going to leave it behind? Am I going to find a truck big enough to take it to the grave with me? Am I just going to live it, give it to my daughter? Because my daughter is a lawyer. She doesn't need the funds. She's well off. So what am I going to do? I'm going to invest it in humans. So at the end of the day, what are the returns, the fulfillment, the transformation, what transforms? I can look at somebody that I went to Chicago three weeks ago that was sleeping in his four wheel rubber condo and actually grabbed him and said here, go and rent yourself an apartment. Now he lives in an apartment, now he's furnished. The same thing was done to me, so why not do it to others? So is the investment in Wall street healthy? Yeah, it's beautiful. The return is beautiful, the money is beautiful. But it didn't take me out of the hump. That's one thing it's could not solve. The riches the wealthiest could not bail me out.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, yeah.

[William]

It took time and word of wisdom to give me the opportunity to look and take an inventory and say to myself, this is not where I want to be. So if there, if there's something that I'm going to tell you, stop, think and give yourself the opportunity. That's the biggest leap of faith you can take.

[Paul Alex]

That's powerful, man. That's what we call the level up guys. Will, where can my audience find you, brother?

[William]

So one of my conditions in my walk is that because of my personality I didn't want to be nor invited financially motivated and I didn't want to become a superstar. So that's got that component. It's just that unfortunately in age we declined. So I've been around the world, we've traveled Southeast Asia over five times. So we've done a lot of crusades around the world. And as time has declined, I've looked at this possibility of this particular scene.

So I've created a room with the missing components.

I own two schools. I've got an email. I know that if I were to sell my story, I can become a superstar and there I'll crash and burn again. So I'm not going to do that. I don't want to become a superstar. Have I thought about.

Creating something to give me more exposure? I've given myself the opportunity to explore that. Because being a dinosaur and wanting to have human interaction at a physical level has limit that. Yes, I got an email you can expose. You got a phone number? I will expose that. I'm a 24 hour dynamic human being. I'm always out to serve human beings. I own two schools in the Alapata Wynwood community. It's Wynwood Daycare.

Paul, you can publish my email if you want. I would love that because if it's got to do with helping others, but I've always been.

Humble enough not to want to become a movie star. I don't want to become a movie star.

Because of what I've seen in miraculous ways, how I've been able to fuel my vision without having to receive anything in return. That's the unconditional love, the part that I struggled with a lot. Unconditional love is something that you give and don't expect anything in return. So I struggled a lot with that because you're out in the business, in the secular world, wanting to buy real estate and get money in return. And that's all fine and dandy. I love it, it's beautiful. But this particular sector of my life is planting seeds in people's life and the return, it's a transformation. So, Paul, you can expose my email. I mean, I've already said the Wynwood daycare, you can go wynwooddaycare.com send me an email if you want. Paul, you can publish my number. It's going to blow up. I love it. I love it. But yeah, I've limited myself to that.

[Paul Alex]

I love that. I love that. Living life by design. We got Will over here, guys. From going through adversity at the age of 17, starting construction guys, to transitioning from construction to then going ahead and investing in real estate at 21 to 22, to lose it at all and then to gain it back again. Now to go ahead and actually find his fulfillment, which is helping others, building schools and giving back to the community and his faith. Shout out to your wife, Maria. She's a gem. Dude, 23 years of experience. Much, much respect, brother. This is. I'm a year and a half into marriage, about to have my first son.

[William]

Beautiful. So.

[Paul Alex]

So it's a beautiful thing, man. I'm excited. But with that being said, guys, if you guys enjoyed this episode and you guys actually want to get ahold of Will, I'm gonna go ahead and drop his email down in the description below. Make sure to go ahead and check in with him. He's based out of here in Miami. He's a wonderful man, wonderful story and it's gonna inspire literally millions of people throughout our channels and our platforms. With that being said, guys, we are currently top three in all categories on Apple podcasts and currently number one in business because of you guys. I want to thank you guys o here to serve and to help you guys level up every single day. Make sure to leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcast and on YouTube. Guys, we are here to level you up. This is Paul, Alex, the Level up podcast. We'll catch you on the next one Peace.

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Hello listeners. This is Anne Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I tag all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.