Where we start in life doesn’t have to determine where we’ll end up.
Few people understand this better than Freddie Figgers. Shortly after giving birth, Freddie’s mother abandoned him, leaving him in a dumpster. But he didn’t let his rough beginning define him. In fact, Freddie has become an incredible role model for success at 33 years old.
At 2 days old, Freddie was adopted by Nathan and Betty Figgers, whose love and support made all the difference for him growing up. Freddie had a knack for tinkering from a young age, and proved to be surprisingly intelligent. At 9, he received his first computer. It didn’t work, but that didn’t discourage Freddie. He had it up and running after fixing it himself, and went on to nab his first job as a computer technician at 12.
At 15, Freddie started his own cloud computing services. The idea came to him when an Alabama car dealership lost all their customer files after a tornado hit. To prevent it from happening again, Freddie helped them back up their information on a remote server… from his own backyard.
One of Freddie’s proudest innovations, though, was the special shoe he created for his father. Nathan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease during Freddie’s childhood. As his memory began to fail Freddie came up with a brilliant way to keep him safe. He created a device to insert into Nathan’s shoe that would serve as both a GPS tracker and a two-way communicator.
The money he made selling that invention helped him start Figgers Communications, a telecommunications firm now valued at over $62 million.