Entrepreneurial drive is the principle I learned in the New Orleans landscaping years, well before I knew to call it that. It’s the thing that survived every chapter of work since. In 1998, when the landscape business stopped paying me, I trained for an Ironman to keep my head straight. I finished third in my age group. Also, the bike and the build have been the same practice for me ever since.
This post is a reframe of an older one I wrote in 2019. The story is the same. However, the lesson is the focus now, and the lesson is the keyphrase: entrepreneurial drive. It’s not a feeling. In fact, it’s a default.
The chapter: New Orleans landscaping, 1998
In 1998, my landscaping business in New Orleans wasn’t paying me. Six months without a paycheck. Two kids, ages one and three. A wife who never blinked. A mother who showed up to work alongside me every day.
I needed something to break the pattern of the day. So I signed up for the Ironman in Montreal. I had tried it in 1994 and torn a muscle in the closing miles of the marathon, sitting on the side of the road, unable to finish.
A few months after that 1994 race, a letter showed up from a stranger. He had failed the Ironman his first time too. Then he went back and finished. He wanted me to do the same. I held onto that letter for years. By 1998, I was ready.
Training like a professional through a failing build
I trained like a professional. 20-mile runs at a 7 minute pace. 120-mile weekly rides at 22 mph. Sub-hour 2.4-mile swims. The landscape business was bleeding. However, my fitness was peaking. Both things were true at once.
The entrepreneurial drive was the link between the two. Because the training was the thing I could control when the books wouldn’t balance. The build couldn’t be willed into the black, but the workout could.
What I learned: entrepreneurial drive means “don’t quit”
Three months before the Montreal race, I was hit from behind by a car on a 100-mile training ride heading to Mississippi. Broken tibia in the left leg. Ruptured muscle. The driver kept going. A motorist stopped and called 911.
I woke up the next day in a cast. Then I cut the cast off. I started training again. Water-jogged 4 to 6 hours a day in a pool. In short, I did what I had to do to get to the start line.
The result at Montreal
I finished 4th out of the water. 3rd off the bike. 3rd in my age group at the line. The 25-29 age group was the toughest field in the race that year. That moment is when the principle hardened into something I could name.
The principle is entrepreneurial drive, and the principle is: don’t quit. That is the whole sentence the chapter left me with.
Why this isn’t actually a fitness story
I tell this story sometimes and people hear it as a triathlon story. It isn’t. It’s an entrepreneurial drive story. The landscape business was the thing I was actually rebuilding. The Ironman was the proof of concept that the rebuild worked. Therefore the race was a metaphor that happened to also be a race.
Why entrepreneurial drive still matters now
Every chapter of my career since 1998 has been built on the same principle. Retail. The online years. The Whinstone build in Rockdale, Texas, later acquired by Riot Blockchain. Savrn and the AI Factory now.
The entrepreneurial drive doesn’t change. The shape of the build does. In 1998, it was lawn quotes. Then in 2018, megawatts in a Texas field. By 2026, it’s modular AI factory campuses. However, the drive is the constant.
The mistake people make about entrepreneurial drive
The mistake is treating entrepreneurial drive as a feeling. It isn’t a feeling. It’s a default. The default to keep showing up. The default to not quit when the books don’t balance. Also, the default to train through the cast.
Feelings come and go. Defaults compound. That’s the whole lesson of 1998 in one line.
The cycling lens on entrepreneurial drive
The bike is the through-line that proves the drive isn’t situational. Since 2023 alone, I’ve ridden 33,243 miles, 773 rides (audit on Strava), 607,747 feet of climbing, 1,668 hours, 20.9 Mt. Everests. The pattern is identical to the 1998 training, just on a longer time axis.
Cycling teaches the same lesson every ride. Stay in zone two. Wait. Finish. Therefore the entrepreneurial drive on the bike is the same drive in a build. Just in a body, in real time, where you can feel the lesson land.
What the bike adds to the principle
The bike adds receipts. Every ride is a measured proof of the drive showing up that day. A board meeting can be faked. A 100-mile ride in 38-degree drizzle cannot.
What I tell people now about entrepreneurial drive
When people ask me where the entrepreneurial drive came from, I tell them: 1998, a failed landscape business, an Ironman, and a hit-and-run. Then I tell them the actual lesson, which is simpler.
- Show up before you feel like it.
- Train when the build is bleeding.
- Cut the cast off and water-jog if that’s what it takes.
- Finish the chapter even when the chapter wants to finish you.
- Treat the practice as identity, not as a means to a metric.
That’s the whole thing. The race was 1998. However, the principle is still 2026.
How entrepreneurial drive shows up in 2026
The 2026 version of the entrepreneurial drive looks different on the surface than 1998. There’s no failing landscape business. The bike is still here. Now the build is modular AI factory campuses paired with the SAVRN AI Training Institute. However, the principle is identical.
I still wake up before the books are clean. Also, I still train when the build is bleeding. Then I cut the cast off when the cast tells me to stop. Therefore the entrepreneurial drive at 50 is the same drive at 25, just with more receipts behind it.
Why I’m writing this down now
Honestly, the reason I’m reframing this post is that the lesson got clearer with time. The 2019 version of this story was a triathlon story. Now it’s a principle story. Furthermore, the principle is the part that compounds across chapters.
Also, the audience for this reframe is the next builder who is six months into a build that won’t pay them yet. I want them to read this and understand the lesson is named. The lesson has a name. It’s entrepreneurial drive. So they don’t have to invent it from scratch.
What’s next under this principle
The next chapter under the entrepreneurial drive is the Savrn AI Factory build. Different scale, same posture. The bike continues. So does the build. And the principle continues with both.
Tomorrow morning I’ll wake up, train, build, and not quit. Because the pattern doesn’t change. In fact, that’s the whole point of writing this down. The principle outlives the chapter. Therefore the chapter is just the proving ground.
Updated: 2026-05-11