David started living after a doctor told him he might have only two weeks left.

Most men never get a wake-up call that brutal. But the way David responded to it reveals a blueprint anyone can use to escape the wrong path much earlier. In this edition, you’ll see how a near-death moment rewired his relationship with time, money, and risk. And you’ll learn the principles that turned a broke architect into a disciplined trader with complete control over his life.

By the end, you’ll understand why most people stay stuck for decades and how to break that pattern today.

David spent almost ten years studying architecture, convinced it would unlock a stable, respectable future.

He was living in Los Angeles, surrounded by ambitious peers, prestigious schools, and the belief that a master’s degree guaranteed success. But beneath the surface, the numbers told a different story. His student debt towered over him. His first jobs paid barely enough to justify the time invested. And every senior architect he met looked exhausted, overworked, and trapped in the same system he was about to enter. He wasn’t lazy. He wasn’t confused. He simply never questioned the path laid out for him. Until life did it for him. A five-centimeter brain tumor appeared out of nowhere. Doctors told him he might have two weeks to live. In one moment, time stopped. In the next, it became the most precious thing he owned.

This is where the story starts, right on the edge between the life he built and the life he almost lost.

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Surviving the surgery didn’t just save his life.

It shattered an illusion he had lived under for decades. Before the tumor, he treated time like a renewable resource. He took on loans casually. He assumed life would work itself out. After the tumor, he understood the truth. Time is limited. Debt is a chain. And drifting is the fastest way to waste a lifetime. Back in his architecture program, he saw it with new eyes. He watched classmates rack up loans with no idea what they were buying. He saw how saturated the field had become, how graduates were earning thirty dollars an hour after years of sacrifice. He saw the rat race he had been sleepwalking toward. Something inside him snapped. He wasn’t going to spend the next forty years drawing staircases for someone else.

This realization pushed him toward the one thing that scared him and fascinated him at the same time: trading.

David didn’t transition gently. He went all in.

He rented a cheap office, sleeping on the floor, and studying twenty hours a day. While his friends chose “normal” careers, he obsessively analyzed filings and market behavior. The market tested him relentlessly. He grew $5,000 to $16,000, then lost $11,000 in a day. Another year, after building momentum, he lost $19,000—nearly his whole net worth. He survived by keeping accounts small, managing risks like oxygen, and refusing to quit even when losses made him sick. His hardest lesson came when a short position blew up—he was down $150,000. After exiting the trade just before the stock soared from $22 to $250 per share, he realized discipline is essential for survival in trading. He kept learning and refining his strategy.

Gradually, everything compounded: skills, experience, emotional control, income, and freedom followed.

Years later, David isn’t just a trader.

He’s a mentor, an author, and a founder who teaches others what he had to learn the hard way. He built Friendly Bear University so people don’t waste three or four years drowning in noise. He teaches why the first account should be two thousand dollars and no more. He explains why beginners blow up. He shows the role of AI in research, how to ask it the right questions, and how to extract insight instead of outsourcing decision-making. And he drills in the truth no one wants to hear. You can learn from someone else’s wake-up call or wait for life to deliver your own. But one way or another, the moment will come. The question is whether you’re prepared. His story is not about trading. It’s about taking ownership of your life before circumstances force you to do so. It’s about having the courage to leave the wrong ladder.

It’s about building freedom through skill, not luck.

1) Start with a two thousand dollar account and keep it there for six months.

A two thousand dollar margin account gives you real market exposure without risking financial damage. It’s the safest way to learn how to trade under pressure while protecting yourself from catastrophic losses.

2) Study more than you trade and practice two or three times a week.

Small, consistent reps build emotional control. Combine tiny trades with daily study and you give yourself the foundation every successful trader relies on.

3) Learn from someone verified instead of trying to figure everything out alone.

A proven mentor removes the noise, gives you a clear structure, and prevents the early mistakes that wipe out most beginners before they understand what happened.

4) Use AI as a research assistant, not as your decision maker.

AI can scan filings, flag dilution, check convertibles, analyze lockups, and surface hidden risks in seconds. But judgment stays with you. AI enhances your edge only if you already understand what you’re looking at.

5) Expect losses and use proven frameworks to avoid catastrophic ones.

Early losses are tuition. Catastrophic losses are avoidable. The difference is risk size and discipline. If you want his full frameworks for managing risk, sizing positions, and staying alive long enough to grow, his book Short Selling Master breaks it down step by step.

Talk soon,

Roman