Dean grew up in a trailer park with working-class parents and built a collision shop, towing company, and real estate portfolio by 25. His sister warned him he'd lose everything if he kept dreaming, but he chose to leave those businesses anyway and pivot to selling his knowledge instead, a decision he calls the scariest moment of his life.
Chapters
Has there been a decision that really scared the heck out of you but changed everything?
I grew up in a town of 5,000 people. My father worked in a collision shop. My mom cleaned houses and cut hair just to barely get by. They were divorced when I was 3. I lived in a trailer park with my mom for a while until we couldn't afford it anymore and we moved in with Grandma. That's what I came from. Decided not to go to college, and I got momentum. By the time I was 25, I owned Dean Collision Center, Dean Towing, Dean Auto Sales. I I had 25 apartments and I was buying land, fixing houses and flipping all by 25 years old. I had retired my parents at that age. I had built the most expensive house in my little town. I was doing unbelievable. No one in my family had ever done anything like that. The first big scary thing was my sister sat me down to reinforce the story I told you. She said, Dean, stop it. I'm so grateful you take care of mom and dad. You've retired them, but stop dreaming. This is not your line of— you're gonna lose everything. You're gonna go broke. Then I decided to go into an industry on selling what I know. Selling my experience. It was the scariest thing in my life because part of me is like, you're throwing away everything. But I realized I knew in my soul that I was meant for something more. If I would have listened to the voice that seemed more reasonable, I'd still be in that town. That wasn't meant for me.
