Who could imagine that it would take forty years to finish writing and move on to the next phase of marketing a series of books around the globe to fulfil my childhood dream?
MAY 04, 2025
I arrived in Austin in 1984 with $640 to my name, living in a school bus I built after working through college in 1981. I had left on an escapade in my bus, dreaming of writing the great American novel and publishing one day. Then I learned how the publishing industry was controlled and censored, and in my twenties, I decided to make a million dollars and self-publish my works, market them, and, naively, write literature one day. Now I near 70 and reach that point that my books are readied for print, the words written, and a great life lived fully to base a story on that can help others achieve the high plateaus of success that come from following their dreams, passions, and doing the work it takes to manifest your goals in life. Are you free to chase your passions? If not, focus, believe in yourself, and do the work it takes to make your dreams come true.
It is up to you, and you must believe in yourself to succeed. I never imagined this was possible as a crippled poor kid. Still, miracles happen daily, and you are one of them, just waiting to blossom into an amazing human being who can thrive and lead others to a healthy, happy life. Here is a primer on how to do that. Start by believing in your potential to do great things.
I had no friends, family, job lined up, or way to do it. Still, I had a dream, passion, and with a motorcycle in tow atop a Dodge pickup truck, I snuck into the state on July 4th, 1984, with expired tags by two years, no insurance, inspections, and one foot longer than was legal with my truck in tow. From there, many stories over the years, but I made my first million on paper by 35, only to learn it was nothing once cashed out, and by then, my son Adam Brad Kittel was 5 years old, and I was caught up in making more millions. My East Austin career revitalized the French Place area from its low point due to crime and boarded-up houses closing in. I was one of the homeowners who forced back the Bloods, Crypts, and other groups franchising from California to Texas.
For over a decade, I was a real estate broker under the moniker Discovery Investments Inner City Home Brokers. I made my first million buying and fixing up the worst houses in my area, the 78722 zip code. I bought the condemned, boarded-up, and dangerous properties that no one else would touch for as little as $5,000 and sold them for $47,000-$67,000 in the 1980s, which would now sell for $670,000 for the same house. I was accused of gentrifying the neighborhood because the prices went up as the crime went down, and the remodeled and updated houses on the street inspired other residents to fix up their homes, too. I called that the “Jones Effect” as it was basically keeping up with the Joneses syndrome.
I specialized in classic old houses, which I fixed up, rented, and resold once I figured out that was a way to make millions. I also created the Discovery Incubator, the largest cybercafe in the USA, in I996, which was too early in the technology game to be profitable or viable for a few months. Then the Dot Com Boom hit, and by then, I had moved to Gonzales, Texas, to create the largest Architectural Antiques business in the USA: Discovery Architectural Antiques, which was on This Old House and other TV shows during my reign there.
Much of the story included going on to create Tiny Texas Houses, which is known around the world for the 95% Pure Salvage Building ethos, which has proven to be more than an idea, but a concept that could solve many problems for housing the many who need and want tinier, affordable houses that last for a lifetime.
Salvage, Texas, is an intentional village model for nature and people built on an industrial waste dump. It is meant to be an example of that intentional community concept with organic living, grounding, home schooling, healthy living as a group that can support each other as Wii travel the world to share this incredible health at later ages is possible.
I prove by example now at 70 in October, that men reach their peak at 66-78 years old, something unimaginable at 30 for me. I am in far better physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual condition at this great age, and finally, I am ready to market the books I have written. I type at 150 wpm and hope to begin marketing and traveling around the world and use ten million dollars worth of salvage materials I collected for building 300 tiny houses as a means of paying for publishing and traveling by expensing off all travels and lectures to help others using the profits from salvaging hundreds of homes and buildings when I was in my fifties. This means it will enable millions of others to benefit from this ethos and the Pure Salvage Outposts I hope to help create in towns everywhere I can reach. Salvaged materials can create incredible future careers and homes for millions of people… my mission is still ahead in this short lifetime.
This is part of the books that I am working on while figuring out where the people will come from to carry on the functions of sorting and selling the millions of dollars in materials that are stored in warehouses ready to build without imports, toxins, plastics, and with the longevity of houses that are still standing a hundred years after being built in Austin, Texas where I learned to respect these parts.
More millionaires are made from salvaging and fixing old houses than any other business in America. I hope to share this with others so they can thrive in hard times. This is the path to success for those willing to work and use imagination and loopholes to master the matrix. If you are considering that path to riches, I suggest starting small and working your way up, as there can be many surprises when you are remodeling a home that some think should have been torn down.
The objective for my next decade will be to share the path and means for others to follow and create homes from the remnants of those that can not be saved and must be torn down. Salvaging the parts of the many houses that are no longer servicable will open the door for millions of people to build homes without buying anything from a big box store but the screws, nails, and other parts that can not be found through salvaging other structures. It is much easier than people seem to think and far more profitable than nearly any other business someone can get into for a small amount of upfront investment.
Success with Salvage: A Short Book on the Pure Salvage Living Renaissance.
Tiny Texas Houses and Pure Salvage Living…
3 years ago · 9 likes · 4 comments · Tiny Texas Houses Newsletter
I have written articles on how to find houses, bid on salvage rights, and get the materials to build excellent tiny houses as alternatives to the big box houses that most are forced to buy because of a lack of other options. Tiny houses are a great path to financial freedom, rather than being indebted for life for a house with an enormous maintenance cost that worsens over the years due to the poor quality of construction. This path to self-destruction of our financial situation has been taught to people through the media, selling everyone on having a bigger house than their parents or their peers did. The illusion that materialism brings happiness has taken over most people, as if a big house or fancy car defines success. It does not work that way, but so many are trapped in the matrix of materialism that they can not break away or even imagine living a simpler life.
If you want to alter course and simplify your life, get healthier and more youthful as you shed the stress and burdens of servicing debts for things that do not make you stronger or better, and change your life. You can alter the course of your life by studying what you could do to downsize and eliminate the things that do not make your life better the next day. Stop the bad habits that destroy your healthy body or financial status. STOP the addictions to sugars, alcohol, or other things you put into your body that cause it to get fat, unhealthy, and age faster than you should. Become the example for children, demonstrating how incredible we can be as elders in a society that once considered us a burden on society instead of the leaders and assets that must be honored and cared for to keep a society intact.
If not, the family unity dies along with the unity in a community. Honoring and respecting our elders for their contribution to our world is essential, but so are the consequences of not contributing or caring for others in your community. Without a common bond, a unity that benefits all those in a society, people will suffer, be left out of the benefits that come from community, and rather than be an asset, they become a liability for the others who did their part, the work to make a community great.
Are you part of a community, or are you outside of society, mostly isolated in an apartment or home and using the TV for companionship? Many are caught up in the internet for their social network, not face-to-face relationships with people, causing our society to become detached from face-to-face interactions, which are essential for a balanced life. The need for this is growing as people suffer from the isolation that results from the detachment from living as opposed to vicariously experiencing life by watching others play sports, do the things that people want to do but get to lazy or lack the willpower to actually go out and do it instead of watch it be done. Sadly, many people sit on a couch or chair and get fat, unhealthy, and develop health issues due to a lack of physical activity and overeating foods full of sugars, toxins, and poisons that cause them to age faster and suffer sicknesses due to their diets.
Wake up if you are sleeping through a wonderful life and not experiencing the best part of it, being active and chasing the passions, the dreams you had as a child. Never stop being a youthful being growing stronger toward maturity at 66-78 instead of aging out early and dying in pain. Be strong with intention, eating well, getting your exercise, and living in a tiny house that lets you have the free time to live life instead of work and worry about servicing a debtload for crap you did not need to buy, eat, or wear on your body so you could think you are cool, part of the click you want to be accepted by. Be the example others will look at and want to emulate for all the benefits, and show the kids growing up that it is possible to be incredible instead of forgettable, and regretting your actions throughout your youth.
Savor the days of your life as treasure for your memories, your adulthood that will be incredible if you take care during your youth and honor your vessel, your body that Spirit occupies while on this planet. You are a miracle walking and can do miracles while alive, but you should know that your behavior determines your future health, wealth, and decisions. In contrast, youth will decide if you genuinely enjoy the latter half of your life, which I believe is far better than the beginning. The first fifty years are just the time it takes to grow into an adult, much to my dismay, for I thought I was an adult at thirty. Indeed, it is our nature to think we are mature early in life and know everything before we actually learn what we must to finally understand the meaning of our life, if we are lucky enough to learn it, and then follow it to a successful end.
