JR Rivas has always lived life with some tough obstacles. He took all the motivation from being poor and not having water and used it to create the successful career he has today. JR grew up in New York with his sister and single mother who worked as a waitress and never made more than $23,000 a year. Growing up in such a low income household created many hardships for JR in his youth. One of the most notable struggles was when he was 13 and he was without water for 6 months so he had to shower at friends houses and wherever else he could. It was at this point in his life where he swore that he would grow up and escape poverty. As he aged he kept this motivation with him and instead of going to college he jumped straight into the life insurance business.

After realizing that he was not very good at sales he created  the plan to save up $10,000 to purchase a business and then enrolled in a class at H&R Block in order to learn to do taxes. Due to JR being the only person enrolled, the class was cancelled which prompted him to get a job at liberty tax. After a season at Liberty Tax he gained enough knowledge and experience so he purchased the franchise at age 18. He immediately began remodeling and creating a presentable building in the middle of a rough neighborhood. After taking ownership of the franchise he grew the business by sixty percent within the first year. Liberty Tax was impressed by his accomplishment and invited him to New York City to ring the closing bell at the Nasdaq live on CNBC. 

His success did not slow down. He bought an additional 3 franchises and after owning them for a year and growing them by 17 percent he decided to sell them and move down south. After moving he purchased another office and was also offered a job at the Liberty Tax corporate office as a seasonal salesman. He enjoyed the experience of this job very much but he knew that he was meant to be an entrepreneur and not work at a corporate office. After leaving Liberty Tax he also sold his remaining office and after lots of support from the people around him, he started his podcast. He used his podcast to interview many different industry experts. Eventually he decided to move into creating social media ads for small businesses and he found great success in that field. His services were so successful that he turned it into a product so that specific clients could learn to create and manage their advertisements. After only a month of this new business he had already earned $30,000. As unbelievable as it may have seemed, JR’s hard work and dedication paid off for him and he had achieved his goal. He was no longer in poverty and was now able to travel and live life. JR was motivated by the money but in the end it was the ability to help people transform his life that made it all worth it.