One Click from Dead

When I was much younger and a lot dumber, I handed a pistol to a girl I was trying to impress. (Grave mistake #1)

It was a Smith & Wesson 457. Compact. Chambered in .45 ACP. I loved that gun.

I thought it was unloaded because I removed the magazine and cleared the chamber… at least, I thought I did.

You see, everything happened so fast that I assumed it was unloaded… so when she asked to hold it, I just handed it to her. (Grave mistake #2)

But instead of giving it to her the right way, I continued my string of grave mistakes - we’re up to #3 with this one - by handing it to her with the barrel pointed straight at my chest.

The instant she grabbed the grip, BAM, the hammer dropped. The firing pin slammed forward as it was supposed to.

We both froze.

She went pale and began visibly shaking. My stomach dropped, and I felt faint.

The gun didn’t fire. But it could have. And if it had, I wouldn’t be writing this.

I Shouldn’t Be Alive

I broke every rule of firearm safety.

I wasn’t thinking about safety at all in that moment. I was thinking about looking cool and wanted to impress her.

• I assumed the gun was safe

• I pointed it at my own body

• I handed it to someone without knowing their experience

• I let ego and carelessness override discipline

And I almost paid for it with my life. The only reason I didn’t pay dearly was habit.

Somewhere along the line, I built a habit of checking the chamber every time.

I don’t remember doing it, though. I must have because I wouldn’t be here otherwise, but I don’t remember doing it.

That habit saved me. Not because I was smart or experienced, but because I had practiced one small behavior enough that it became automatic.

That single detail was the only reason I’m still alive.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Because it’s never the big mistake that destroys you, it’s the small thing you didn’t double-check.

In life. In business. And especially in wealth.

Wealth Is a Gun You Think Is Unloaded

Everyone thinks they’re fine until they’re not.

• The job you assumed would always be there… gone

• The market you thought would rebound… didn’t

• The one client paying most of your bills… disappears

That’s when people get wiped out. Not because they didn’t care. But because they didn’t build with a structure.

They skipped the small stuff. They trusted assumptions. They never stress-tested the system.

That’s why in Moonshot Minute, I obsess over the small stuff.

We don’t just chase more income, we structure it. We don’t just invest, we build buffers. We don’t try to time the markets, we protect our capital.

Why?

Because when things go sideways—and they always do—the only thing that saves you is the detail you didn’t skip.

Billion Dollar Mistake

One unchecked assumption. That’s all it took to vaporize a $1.5 billion company.

GT Advanced Technologies thought they had it made.

In late 2013 and into 2014, they entered into a massive $578 million prepayment agreement with Apple to supply sapphire glass for iPhones. Wall Street cheered. The CEO smiled. Investors piled in.

And GTAT made the fatal mistake that takes down empires:

They assumed the check would always clear.

They scaled up fast and built massive production facilities. Poured hundreds of millions into equipment. All of it bankrolled on one belief:

That Apple would keep paying.

But Apple didn’t.

When the tech giant canceled the deal in 2014, Apple withheld a critical $139 million payment tied to production milestones.

While not officially labeled the "final" installment, it was a vital cash injection GTAT depended on to stay solvent.

Apple cited GTAT's failure to meet key production goals as justification but regardless of the reason, the damage had been done.

GTAT filed for bankruptcy within seven days.

The ripple effect? Over 1,000 people lost their jobs. Investors were wiped out. Shareholders filed lawsuits.

It wasn’t just a blind assumption that Apple would keep paying and stick to the deal, it was a failure to meet the expectations that assumption created.

GTAT banked everything on Apple and scaled recklessly based on that confidence. But when they couldn’t deliver, Apple pulled the plug. Ultimately, it wasn’t just the reliance on one client that doomed them, but also building with no margin for failure.

Assumptions may start the downfall, but it's the absence of contingency that seals your fate.

If a billion-dollar company can go down from skipping the details, what does that mean for the rest of us?

This is the difference between gambling and building.

And it’s why I pound the table on stress-testing your system before the hammer drops.

This Week’s Action Step

Pick one area of your finances you’ve made assumptions about.

Maybe it’s your income. Maybe it’s your investments. Maybe it’s your liquidity.

Ask yourself: If this fails tomorrow, what’s the backup?

Don’t guess. Don’t hope. Build the backup.

You don’t need to overhaul your system this week. You just need to reinforce one weak point before it fails. Then reinforce the next one… and the next one. Get into the habit of doing this on some sort of monthly schedule. Or weekly if you can manage.

That’s how wealth survives.

Not because you did everything right, but because you never got lazy with the details.

Double D

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