William Jones - Invidious

6 years ago, I lost 😞 everything….

I still remember the week it happened.

My two biggest clients walked away almost overnight.
Revenue gone.
Security gone.
Stability gone.

And to make it worse it was the week of my birthday.

I had already bought $7,000 in plane tickets to take my family to the Philippines.
No refunds.
No backup savings.
No plan B.

Three car payments.
$1,600 rent.
Three kids.
A family depending on me.

And I remember sitting there thinking:

“What the f*ck. Why me?”

In that moment it felt like everything I had built was collapsing.

And then my wife said something that stopped me in my tracks:

“Trust our Lord.”

No fear.
No panic.
Just faith.

So we got on the plane.

Not because we were fine…
but because sometimes when life strips you down God is clearing the foundation.

We packed what we had.
And I mean everything we could carry.

I even put my desktop computer inside a suitcase, the same one in the picture.

And on the flight over, something happened.

The suitcase got crushed.
The PC was mangled.
Damaged.
Barely usable.

Just like my financial situation.

That computer was the last “tool” I thought I had.
And even that broke.

But looking back…

God didn’t break it to hurt me.
He broke it to rebuild ME.

When we arrived in the Philippines, my mother-in-law could tell instantly something was wrong.

I told her what happened.

Her response?

“We have a house here. A van. Food. A farm.
What more do you need?
Why worry?
Trust our Lord.”

Now when I say “house,” I mean a tiny 600 sq ft cement box.
When I say “van,” I mean hanging-on-by-a-thread.

It wasn’t comfort.
But it was home.
And home was enough.

Then life got humbling.

We opened a laundry shop.
I was literally picking up and delivering laundry just to get by.

And I’m not ashamed to say this:

There were days I cut hair for ₱50 ($1) just to buy food.

I had $700/month in tiny SEO clients.
Barely covering electricity, rice, and water.

But I wasn’t being punished.

I was being prepared.

Then one night, inside a Facebook group, I connected with John Signe.

He gave me my first VA contract 160 hours a month for $800.

Now imagine this:

A foreigner in the Philippines.
Working graveyard shift.
11 PM to 7 AM.
As a Virtual Assistant.

That’s when everything inside me changed.

I realized:

It’s not about the work.
It’s who you become through the work.

It’s why today,
my loyalty to my Filipino team
is not marketing, not branding, not strategy.

It’s gratitude.
It’s personal.
It’s family.

Piece by piece, I rebuilt.

Helping clients.
Teaching SEO.
Hiring VAs.
Training teams.

And that laundry-shop, VA-shift, broke-PC-in-a-suitcase season…

became the foundation of:

Rank Fortress.

A business built on:
Faith before fear.
Purpose before ego.
People before profit.

Here’s the truth I learned the hard way:

Rock bottom isn’t where God abandons you.
Rock bottom is where He meets you.

Losing everything didn’t destroy me.
It refined me.

So if you’re in your WTF chapter right now?

Hear me:

Your setback is not your ending.
It’s your assignment.
Trust the planner of the plan.

The comeback is already in motion.

If you’re in the middle of your “everything is falling apart” season…
You’re not being buried.
You’re being planted. 🌱