“I asked my dad one time I was like Hey like how do you define success and this was years after my injury. My dad said that success is defined by how high you bounce back from Rock Bottom and that that really stuck with me cuz he was like you know you hit rock bottom and you fucking bounce back higher than anybody could have imagined.”

Define Success As How High You Bounce Back From Rock Bottom

Years after being paralyzed at 19, Ryan asked his dad how he defined success. The answer reframed his entire approach: success isn't avoiding the bottom, it's the height of the bounce back, a mindset Ryan carried through four years of near-bankruptcy into building a $100M business.