R.J. Mercer has survived a mass shooting, overcome homelessness, and clawed his way from rock bottom to financial freedom. He’s been a barista, an IT tech, a hotel manager, a power tool vendor, a social worker, and a corporate director—and every one of those roles taught him that no one’s coming to save you.

His work challenges everything broken about traditional self-help and pushes people to ask the hard questions that actually move their lives forward. Forget the clichés, forget the fluff—he’s not here to sugarcoat anything.

He’s here to wake you up.