Troy has experienced a lot of difficulty…even tragedy in his life. Starting out in Oklahoma as a young boy, he was ridiculed, bullied, and made fun of; he never felt like he belonged. From Oklahoma, he moved to a small lakeside community called Lago Vista outside of Austin, Texas.
The community was pretty affluent, but Troy and his siblings were not. His parents made pretty good money, which enabled them to live in Lago, but they preferred not to spend their money on their children. Schoolkids made fun of Troy because he didn’t wear nice clothes or Nikes or Reeboks like the other kids. This took a toll on his self-esteem.
One year, while attending a Christian youth camp, Highland Lakes Baptist Encampment, a counselor helped Troy learn about having faith in a God. Understanding God’s love for each of his children helped him overcome his feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
“My childhood was very difficult. I never felt like I belonged. But it made me sensitive to others’ feelings. I had so much pain and hurt growing up, but when one of my youth counselors helped me understand my true worth, I realized counseling and helping others was something I wanted to do with my life.”
With the confidence of becoming a Christian, Troy had begun making real friends for the first time. He was actually becoming popular in school—every young person’s desire. But then his parents divorced.
“My parents divorced after my 10th-grade year, and then my mom, sister, brother, and I moved back to Oklahoma City to live with my grandma. I was finally making friends and fitting in, but then I had to move away.”
TRAGEDY
While studying youth ministry at Oklahoma Baptist University, he became the summer youth director at the Lago Vista church he grew up in. It was then that he met his first wife.
After a few years of dating, they got married. Troy ran a successful painting contracting business in Texas for many years. Then, they moved to Colorado to be closer to his wife’s family. While in Colorado, he started and ran an award-winning interior design business.
After 5 years of marriage, they welcomed their first daughter into the world. Then tragedy struck. 3 weeks to the day after his daughter was born, they found a cancerous tumor the size of a grapefruit in his wife’s brain.
They were devastated. After 6 years of fighting the cancer with many different types of traditional and experimental treatments, his wife passed away.
After his wife’s passing, Troy was approached by the pastor for whom he had been the summer youth director. The pastor shared with him how to teach and counsel people to invest with no risk. Troy knew immediately he had discovered his passion, which led him to his fulfilling career in financial counseling.
