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‘duct tape & baling wire is a modern-day Horatio Alger story that details the struggles of life as an entrepreneur and WHAT IT TAKES TO GROW a street stand in Brooklyn into a nationally recognized business.   

My narrative unfolds as I’m hiding from the Mob as a young boy after my dad tried to rob a bank in order to pay back a gambling debt, or hunting submarines from the deck of a guided missile frigate as a Naval Officer.  You’re right there with me for the journey as we’re strapped into a Navy jet tumbling out of the sky at 8,000’ a minute or walking up to a small Brooklyn shop in the morning wondering if we’ll find a seizure notice.

I achieved the success I had dreamed about, was honored by my industry, and featured in the NY Times, ABC News, Science Channel, Backpacker Magazine to name a few, but was then caught off guard as my world suddenly collapsed.  I lost everything and was forced to consider bankruptcy.  Filled with a mixture of defeat and defiance I waged a seemingly Quixotic one man war against the multi-billion dollar student loan industry and did the impossible, I won!

This precedent setting case was covered by the Wall Street Journal, NBC News, The ABA Journal, Forbes, Yahoo News, and more.  The case is on appeal and will likely make news again as it heads towards the Supreme Court.  This is the story of how I got there.  How a former Naval Officer with an advanced degree and the founder of a million dollar company, ended up in bankruptcy. 

‘Duct Tape & Baling Wire’ dispels the myth about who suffers under the current heavy handed, very one sided, student loan system.  My story shatters the straw man debtor that the banks have created, the mythical avocado toast eating barista with a degree in Sanskrit from a pricy east coast private liberal arts college.  I did everything I was supposed to, played by the rules, and still found myself in bankruptcy court. 

So many of our fellow citizens are suffering under the ever increasing weight of student loan debt and that suffering has only increased given the added weight of the pandemic.  My hope for this book is that it helps to shine a light at the end of the tunnel for those currently lost in the darkness and provides some insight into who really declares bankruptcy looking for a second chance.