My Superhero Origin Story – A Better Lemonade Stand

I almost missed it.

Last week, at 9pm on September 11, I was putting my daughter to bed when I realized—it was A Better Lemonade Stand’s birthday.

12 years old.

September 11th is actually the anniversary of many major events in my life, both good and bad.

It was exactly a year prior on September 11th, 2011, that I was laid off from my first career out of college, and it set of a chain of events that has dictated my life ever since.

The Layoffs

I was out in Vancouver, Canada, and for 5 years, I had been working for a local chain of entertainment complexes (Similar to Dave & Busters) and golf & country clubs.

I made my way up the chain pretty quickly, managing the marketing and operations for several locations with a few hundred employees.

However, in the years I was there, we faced increasing financial pressures.

The owner was a reclusive rich man who was buying up rich man things (Country Clubs) and was overextending himself.

By 2010, the financial pressure of his purchases became too much. The owner tasked the Vice President of the company with cutting costs significantly, and it was decided that this cost cutting would mostly come from layoffs.

The VP tapped me to assist in the layoffs.

Mind you, I was incredibly young at this time and had no idea what I was really doing, but the VP was also a mentor to me, and this was his way of throwing me into the fire and giving me a real-life business experience I would likely never normally get to experience.

And so it began—a slaughterfest.

We began laying off dozens of employees, starting with junior positions and quickly escalating to senior departments – management, operations, accounting, and marketing.

I had no say in who was getting cut, but here I was, as a 25-year-old kid, telling people twice my age they were being laid off.

The dread and guilt consumed me with every conversation.

The process wasn’t quick either. As the owner faced more and more financial pressure, the cuts continued over months.

Walking the grounds, you wondered what everyone was thinking about you. When they talked to you, were they just acting extra nice because they were afraid for their job?

Spoiler alert, they were.

At one point, both the VP and myself questioned if we should even eat at our own restaurant facilities anymore for fear of being poisoned.

As we slowly came to the end of all the cuts we could make without shutting down the businesses completely, I started to feel uneasy and mostly defeated from the experience. We were a company with a barebones staff, nervous employees, a diminished brand & product, and continued financial pressures.

The Turning Point

Then, one evening, I received the text from the VP that I instantly knew was going to change my life: “Richard, can we meet tomorrow?”

It was my turn.

The next day, September 11, 2011, I met with the VP to get a taste of the very same medicine I had helped dish out to over 100 others in the months prior.

While I can’t say I was happy, it felt like a definitive end to a very interesting chapter and exhausting few months in my life.

A New Path

In the weeks after being laid off, I purchased The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, which would set off the next chapter in my life.

I read the book cover to cover in a few nights and remember thinking with such clarity that this was my future.

I wanted to build my own business and be in charge of my own destiny.

Inspired by the book, I spent the next year building small ecommerce businesses—learning how to choose winning products, negotiating with suppliers in China, importing products into Canada, setting up an online store, and online marketing.

The Birth of A Better Lemonade Stand

Ironically, it was exactly a year later, on September 11th, 2012, that I registered abetterlemonadestand.com—mostly as a space to distill my thoughts, ideas, and experiences in ecommerce.

It’s wild that the one decision to start writing about my thoughts and experiences would change the course of the rest of my life.

Only a year and a half after I started blogging, A Better Lemonade Stand caught the attention of Shopify, and I joined the Growth team, helping them grow the Shopify blog from 200k to 2 million visitors during my tenure and experiencing the once in a lifetime opportunity of participating in a tech IPO.

As much as I loved Shopify, the product, and the people I worked with, I left Shopify just a year and a half later to pursue entrepreneurship full time and to continue charting my own path.

From Defeat to Determination

September 11th has always been a symbolic day for me—a day of both great losses and even greater beginnings. From losing my job and questioning my purpose to launching A Better Lemonade Stand and finding my passion again, each September 11th has nudged me closer to who I’m meant to be.

It’s a reminder that success doesn’t come without setbacks. In fact, those setbacks are what give the highs their meaning.

For me, this was never just about building businesses—it’s about building myself through the businesses I create, the risks I take, the lessons I learn, and who I become along the way.

Over the past decade, I’ve weathered storms that tested my resilience and experienced highs I never imagined. But the one constant through it all? My commitment to growth. Whether I’m helping someone launch their first product, navigating new digital landscapes, or creating a space where fellow entrepreneurs can thrive, I’ve always been driven by a desire to create something bigger than myself.

And that’s why, even after all this time, I’m still here. I’m still creating. I’m still learning. And I’m still showing up for that next chapter 12 years later.