Episode #391: Get Rich and Die Trying with John Roa

At the age of twenty-six, John Roa founded a tech-consulting and design firm, ÄKTA, that he sold for a fortune to Salesforce.

His account of his rise from a self-described below-average student, to becoming a poster boy for the ambitious, successful young entrepreneur, to nearly destroying himself in the process is the subject of his book, A Practical Way to Get Rich . . . and Die Trying.

Roa's twenty-year-long journey from being dead-broke to wealth he never imagined is an absurd and often comical story of talent, luck, risk, rapidly changing technology, larger-than-life personalities, sex, gambling, and excessive alcohol and drug consumption.

We covered lots of ground in this conversation, including:

- How Roa went from a six-figure debt to multi-millionaire before the age of 30

- The toxic lifestyle he lead while building his company, AKTA

- The psychotic breakdown he experienced, which forced him to sell his company

- And the lessons learned along the way about business and life

Listeners of this show will know that I am an advocate for balance, and Roa’s tale serves as a cautionary one that I hope entrepreneurs listening to this will learn from.

With that, I bring you the one and only, John Roa.

Show Notes:

● Get the book: https://amzn.to/3572aa6

● Twitter: @johnroa

● Instagram: @johnroa

● Web: roa.com

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Future Squared: futuresquared.xyz