After everything that had happened the next step was figuring out whether my spine could actually be repaired. So I started seeing specialists. Neurosurgeons. Orthopaedic surgeons. Spinal specialists. Every appointment felt exactly the same. They would review the scans, look at the damage and explain the same thing in slightly different words. Without life threatening surgery there was a high chance I would never function properly again. Something about that answer never sat right with me....

A lot of people ask me what it was actually like when I damaged my spine. The truth is it was one of the hardest periods of my life. Not only did I lose feeling in my legs. I developed a condition called Cauda Equina Syndrome which, for any non medical professionals reading this, means you lose the ability to go to the bathroom by yourself. So sit with that for a moment. Before the injury you are a relentless savage. Building businesses with nothing but sheer force and stubbornness....

For the first six months of our construction expansion I worked 100 hours a week. No breaks. No days off. No exceptions. On the tools all day. Plastering, carpentry, building decks, running jobs. Then home to work on the business. Three hours sleep and straight back into it. I used to think this was heroic. That "no one works harder than me" meant something. That the grind itself was the point and that made me special. Then my body gave out. I herniated the L4 L5 disc and sequestered the L5...