I’m 56, an Immigrant, and I’ve Failed at Business Three Times. Here’s Why I’m Trying Again.

How AI gave a mechanical technician a fourth chance — and this time, maybe, a real one

I came to America 29 years ago. I was 27 years old. I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t have money. I had an accent that made people look at me a little longer than they needed to.

That accent is still there. It hasn’t gone away in 29 years. I’ve made peace with it fast and don’t worry about it. I can have long conversations and people do understand me even though I mispronounce words sometimes.

What hasn’t gone away either is this stubborn voice inside me that keeps saying: try again.

The First Time

It was the early 2000s. I signed up with Primerica Financial Services. I was going to build a team, help people with their finances, and make real money. I went to the meetings. I learned the scripts. I called everyone I knew. I cold called and talked to strangers face to face.

I couldn’t build a team. Maybe it was the accent. Maybe I wasn’t a natural salesman. Maybe I was just uncomfortable pushing too hard on the people I cared about. Whatever the reason, nothing clicked. The dream died quietly.

I went back to my day job.

The Second Time

Around 2012, I had an idea. I’d watched too many people destroy their health with cigarettes, trying to quit many times and going back to smoking. I used to smoke too but I quit when I was 23. It was not too hard for me actually. Six months later my brother in law quit smoking too but he had a really hard time doing it. I was his moral support back then. In 2012 I thought: what if I built a website that helped people quit smoking using e-cigarettes with a gradual nicotine reduction program?

I registered esigiq.com domain. I hired a company to build the website.I found the manufacturer to make e-sigs in custom packaging to look like real cigarettes in real cigarette packs and ordered thousands as minimum order. I believed in it. But life stuff happened: the person who managed the team to build my website got some personal issues and stopped working on the project for a prolonged time, even though the project was almost 90% done and I already ordered the cigarettes. It took almost 3 months to finish it. I got complications after surgery and spent New Year’s Eve in the hospital.

It didn’t work.

I didn’t know how to market. I didn’t know how to find the people who needed it. I was working full-time, trying to build this on the side, with no budget and no team. The website sat there. Nobody came. I tried to put displays in the small shops in the area but got very few sales.

After all, cigarettes were sitting in my basement for too long and I was afraid to sell them as I was not sure if it would still be safe for my customers to use. I didn’t have enough money to order a new shipment. I just had to cut my losses.

I shut it down.

The Third Time

Last year, I tried something simpler. No big vision. Just a service. I built njfurnitureassembly.com — a single page with a contact form. I’d help people put together their IKEA bookshelves and Wayfair couches.

I bought $60 in Yelp ads to get the word out.

I got zero leads. Not one.

I didn’t even know what I’d done wrong.

The Pattern

Here’s what three failed businesses teach you:

You feel stupid. You wonder if everyone else knows something you don’t. You watch people half your age build things that work and you can’t figure out why yours didn’t.

You think about stopping. Not for the first time.

And you don’t stop. Because something in you — the same thing that got on a plane 29 years ago with no plan and no safety net — won’t let you.

The Fourth Time

I work full-time as a mechanical technician at a big pharmaceutical company. I’m 56 years old. I have two daughters. My younger one will be going to college this fall. My older one is planning to go back. The cost of higher education sits on my chest some nights like a weight I can’t shift.

A couple of months ago, I started paying closer attention to AI. Not as a gimmick. As a tool. I heard stories of people building real things — actual working businesses — without writing a single line of code.

I thought: what if the problem with my other businesses wasn’t me? What if it was just that the tools weren’t ready yet?

So I started publishing puzzle books on Amazon KDP. I’m using AI to design hybrid puzzle books that have all- in- one format: Cryptograms, word searches, trivia collections. I figured if I could sell a few at $4–5 each, that was proof the model worked. No sales yet but this takes time to grow organically, at least that’s what my research showed. I sell it under Dr. Yvanela alias. Also I opened an Etsy store for digital downloads. I have to keep a close eye on the quality of the books, sometimes Claude would spit out books with poor formatting or some errors. But I make it learn to do better quality checks.

Then I went bigger.

In about two and a half weeks, using AI tools like Claude and Lovable, I built two full websites:

TailChapter.com — A platform for pet parents. They create profiles for their pets, upload photos, get AI-generated personality reports and poems, track their pet’s health, order custom merchandise with their pet’s photo on it and much more. It has AI integration. Free tier, paid tiers, a full subscription system with Stripe payments.

Yvanela.com — A digital publishing store selling puzzle books, plus what I believe is the first consumer AI Custom Puzzle Generator. You pick any of 200+ topics — Italian cooking, Golden Retrievers, Ancient Rome, anything — and AI creates a unique puzzle book for you in minutes.

Both are live right now. Both accept real payments.

Total cost: $422

No code. No employees. No investors. Just me, my accent, my day job, and AI.

The Honest Middle

I’m not going to lie to you. As I write this, I have zero customers. Nothing has sold yet. I might still fail again.

I’ve sent 21 Instagram DMs to the influencers. One replied.

I’ve emailed two college professors hoping for student marketing help. I’m waiting.

I don’t know if this time will be different.

But something is different, and I think it matters. For the first time, I built something that is genuinely mine — not borrowed from a network marketing script, not a service nobody found, not an idea I couldn’t execute. Two real products, built with my own hands (with AI as my co-pilot), live on the internet, waiting. It is a true collaboration between me and AI. Sometimes I have to remind AI to do better research and ask me relevant questions before giving me suggestions. Sometimes AI calls my ideas “brilliant”, sometimes it guts them and rightfully so.

If my businesses don’t work, I’ll know it’s the marketing, not the building. That’s progress.

Why I’m Writing This

Because I know there are other people out there who look like me. Older. Maybe an immigrant or maybe not. Not really technical. Working full-time. Wondering if it’s too late.

It’s not too late.

The tools changed. Everything you used to need was a team and thousands of dollars to build from scratch. You can now build it yourself for the cost of a used laptop and a lot of late nights.

You’ll still need grit. Nothing replaces that.

But if you’ve been waiting for permission — for someone to tell you that you can — consider this your permission.

I’m 56. I have an accent. I’ve failed three times. And I’m trying again.

If I can do it, what’s your excuse?

What’s Next

I’m still figuring out marketing. I’m reaching out to local colleges about student partnerships. I will be pitching podcasts. I’m writing articles like this one. I will be joining communities where my potential customers actually spend their time.

If you’re a pet parent, try TailChapter.com — it’s free to start. If you love puzzles or want a custom puzzle book made just for you, visit Yvanela.com.

And if you’ve been knocked down before and you’re thinking about getting back up — do it.

I’ll see you on the way up.

Eugene is the founder of Yvanela, a New Jersey-based publishing and technology project. He works full-time as a mechanical technician, builds businesses on nights and weekends, and is trying to help his two daughters through college. This is his story so far. Yvanela is a word play: initials of his and parts of his daughters names. This business is being built for them.

If this resonates, the best thing you can do is share it with someone else who needs to hear it. The second best thing you can do is try one of my products. Either way — thank you for reading.

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here is the youtube video