In 2010, I launched my first successful Federal Government contracting company. It has been honored on both the INC 500 Fastest Growing Companies List and the Washington Technology Fast 50 List. After six years of near-vertical growth, I sold my company for 8-figures, achieving no-kidding financial independence. Since then, I have been a co-owner of multiple contracting companies in this industry that have also achieved successful exit strategies.

My success is largely attributable to the lessons I learned during my unsuccessful business launch in 2003 and my marginally successful launch in 2006. Along this journey, I cleared a path through the Federal Government startup minefield by stepping on almost every mine. Now, I am sharing this path to help others achieve their dreams.

As the son of an enlisted sailor, my father’s advice both inspired me to apply and helped me to graduate from the US Naval Academy as a commissioned officer. Like my father propelled me beyond his successes, I wish to do the same for my sons. I want my sons to forego the years of struggling that I persevered to not only become a successful entrepreneur should they choose, but more importantly, to live life unafraid.

After selling my first company, I decided to put pen to paper to document my “fatherly advice” for my four Wimmer Boys. While writing my hard learned lessons, I thought about how much it could have helped the younger me. This is when I faced a moral dilemma.

I’m a very private person, and the articles in this publication frequently peak through a window into my life that I’d never voluntarily share with anyone outside of my family. However, I thought that perhaps The Entrepreneurial Times, with its odd humor and questionable grammar, might be able to change the trajectory of just one person’s life. Is it worth the discomfort that I’d feel by so openly sharing my personal thoughts and feelings to help a stranger?

I then remembered the advice I gave two of my sons after they won a large robotics competition while in elementary school. They were walking on air until they realized just how few schools had after-school robotics clubs. My sons realized they had an opportunity to learn robotics while many kids didn’t.

I explained to my sons they should never be selfish with their opportunities. My sons believed their old man and launched a nonprofit organization to “share” their knowledge by sponsoring after-school robotics programs in underserved elementary schools. Of course, I helped them with some of the business aspects of the nonprofit organization. However, my hands weren’t the ones trembling while performing robotics demonstrations in front of hundreds of studentsduring school assemblies. It was their hands. If my sons could be that brave, then they deserve more from their father.

I have been given more opportunities than I have ever deserved, so this is my very modest attempt to help others achieve entrepreneurial success. More importantly, this is my humble way to help others pursue their dreams. Now, my hands are trembling.