Perseverance: What I’ve Learned Through Pain, Purpose, and Building DOMINAIT

By Jason Criddle

Perseverance: What I’ve Learned Through Pain

I Never Thought I’d Be Here

If someone told me ten years ago that I’d be writing this from a hospital bed, I would have laughed. I’ve spent my life building companies, helping entrepreneurs, publishing books, and mentoring founders. I’ve built brands, launched AI systems and SaaS systems, and trained sales teams. But I never expected to be 42 years old and living in a hospital, fighting for my life for months at a time.

 

This is my third month in a row here. Three months of surgeries, complications, and pain. Three months of having surgeons reach into my intestines, cutting out dead tissue just to keep me alive. Three months of dehydration, 100 plus blood withdrawals, and losing grip on my mental state. Three whole months of trying to stay alive.

 

And yet… I’ve learned more about life, leadership, and perseverance in these walls than I ever did in any boardroom or meeting.

Strength: The Kind You Don’t See Until You Have To

Pain has a way of showing you who you really are. I never imagined I could endure this much. There were moments I wanted to give up. Not just because of the physical agony, but because of the mental toll that comes with it. Separation from your family. The hundreds of activities we enjoy on a daily basis and having no access to the experiences that make me feel like myself.

 

You trade daily trips to the gym and hitting personal records for managing to get in 100 steps without passing out. When I would be competing for a Strongman trophy at some meet during the fall… well, that was given up for making a successful poop in the toilet this week.

 

When you’re lying in a hospital bed for weeks, staring at the ceiling, you start to question everything. Your faith, your purpose, your strength. But you also start to rebuild them.

 

I learned that real strength isn’t about how much you can lift or how many hours you can work. It’s about what you can endure without losing yourself. It’s about getting up every day. Even when you don’t want to. It’s about saying, “Not today Satan. I’m not done yet.”

 

I’m not done yet. I still have so much to do.

 

My ileostomy reversal surgery is just days away now, and it feels like more than a procedure. It’s a symbol that makes the closing of one chapter and the start of another. A second chance at life.

Letting Go: Pivoting When Something Is Broken

These last few months have also taught me how to let go.

 

As entrepreneurs, we’re wired to fix things and keep pushing. To refuse to stop. But sometimes what’s broken can’t be fixed in its current form. You have to pivot. You have to stop forcing the old way to work and start creating something new.

 

That realization has changed everything about how I build technology. It’s also a lesson I’ve embedded deep inside Ryker, the AI core of DOMINAIT.ai. What took 3 years of work crashed in an hour from my hospital bed. I was forced to think differently.

 

Ryker doesn’t just execute commands; he adapts. He knows when to pause, rethink, and rebuild. Because that’s what real intelligence does. It doesn’t just fight… it learns. What people call AI today mimics. What real intelligence is, is the ability to grow and learn from your mistakes.

 

Letting go isn’t failure. It’s wisdom. It’s what allows you to start again. The choice to grow stronger, smarter, and more aligned with your purpose is not one many can make.

The Medical Industry Is Broken

If you spend enough time in a hospital, you start to see the cracks. Not just in the walls, but in the system itself. The medical industry, as it stands today, is broken. 

 

I’ve seen doctors who truly care, and I’ve seen others who’ve stopped seeing patients as people. I’ve watched nurses burned out by understaffing, and administrators who care more about billing codes than lives. I had to tell a doctor in the emergency to stop talking and teach her a lesson in empathy and communication. Why?

 

Because she sent me home sick twice in the past for not listening. She literally overlooked scans for months where my surgeon saw issues that were killing me. Why? Because she had too much pride to work outside of the box she put herself and her colleagues into. 

 

And you know what? I am going to punish her legally for it. But I digress.

 

I’ve learned firsthand that insurance companies have become the cartels of modern healthcare. Controlling access, dictating treatments, and leaving patients with nowhere to turn.

 

There are millions of people out there suffering because of a system designed to profit from sickness instead of supporting healing.

 

That’s why one of my next missions is clear: accountability.

 

Through Jason Criddle & Associates, we’re building an advocacy division. One that will hold doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies responsible for how they treat patients.

 

Because patients need advocates. They need leaders who understand business, law, and negotiation who are willing to fight when they can’t.

 

This advocacy work won’t just stop with healthcare. I also plan to hold property owners and apartment management companies accountable when they mistreat tenants, hide maintenance issues, or put families in unsafe conditions… as they have done mine in the past.

 

Accountability shouldn’t be a luxury. It should be the standard by which businesses operate, or they shouldn’t be in business.

Faith and Acceptance

This journey has also brought me back to something I lost along the way: my faith.

 

There were nights I didn’t know if I’d wake up the next morning. Times I questioned why this was happening to me. Why someone who’s helped thousands of people build their dreams was now confined to a hospital bed. I’ve had “the talk” with my family and legal team more times than anyone should. I’ve hugged and kissed my kids goodbye, not knowing if I would see them again. Not once, but many times. It’s taken a toll on all of us.

 

But somewhere along the way, I realized something: this was always part of my path.

 

I wasn’t meant to avoid this. I was meant to go through it and to learn from it, grow through it, and come out stronger on the other side so I could help others do the same. It was ALWAYS going to happen this way.

 

I’ve learned to stop fighting life and start flowing with it. Fighting creates stress, resistance, and pain. Acceptance brings peace, clarity, and purpose.

 

I’m not here to fight battles. I’m here to lead through them. And so are you. Whatever you are facing, you are facing it to become better from it.

 

Every hardship I’ve faced has made me better. Not just as a person, but as a builder, as a leader, and as someone who believes in humanity’s potential.

Reawakening Purpose

Through all this, I’ve been reminded why I do what I do.

 

I’ve never been driven by money. I’ve been driven by impact and by watching others succeed because I chose not to give up when the people I try to help may.

 

At Jason Criddle & Associates, we’ve helped hundreds of founders launch their dreams. We’ve written books, trained sales teams, and built SaaS companies from the ground up.

 

We don’t build companies just to make profits. We build them to make people better and empower founders to find their purpose and pursue it relentlessly. To have more time with their families instead of filling their time with being busy.

 

Our work on DOMINAIT.ai is an extension of that mission. Ryker isn’t just an AI system; he’s a teacher. A guide. A digital extension of everything I’ve learned through decades of business, philosophy, and experience. And now, as I prepare to leave this hospital, I know my purpose has grown even bigger.

 

I’m not coming out of this to go back to business as usual. I’m coming out of this to change the world.

DOMINAIT, Carbon, and What’s Next

DOMINAIT.ai continues to evolve into the world’s first post-AGI infrastructure. My system designed to help founders, businesses, and communities harness AI the way it was meant to be used: intelligently, intuitively, and independently.

 

Every lesson I’ve learned here is about strength, letting go, faith, and accountability. It has all found its way into Ryker’s logic.

 

But that’s not all we’re building.

 

We’re also developing The Carbon App (under DownloadCarbon.com) alongside Shazaib Khan, an incredible visionary from the automotive world.

 

Carbon will bring the car community together in ways that have never been done before… connecting track owners, vendors, and enthusiasts in one unified ecosystem. It’s not built by AI. It’s built by people.  By the same team that’s been coding, designing, and creating software by hand for over a decade. By my same team that built SmartrCommerce, SmartrHoldings, and SmartrMarketing.

 

Soon, we’ll also be launching our advocacy wing, focused on protecting and empowering everyday people… tenants, patients, entrepreneurs, and families who need real representation and leadership in industries that have lost their humanity.

Perseverance in the Face of Pain

When I look back at these last few months, I don’t see tragedy. I see transformation.

 

This pain has stripped away my ego, my comfort, and my illusions. It has left behind something pure. My purpose.

 

I’ve learned that perseverance isn’t just about pushing forward when things get tough. It’s about staying soft when the world gets hard. It’s about keeping your heart open even when it’s easier to close it.

 

It’s about understanding that our success isn’t built in moments of victory. It’s forged in moments of pain.

 

If you’re reading this right now and you’re struggling; with your health, your business, your relationships, or your dreams… I want you to know something: you’re not broken.

 

You’re being reshaped. Refined. Strengthened. You’re being given a chance to become better. To find God. To fulfill your purpose. To overcome.

 

Your pain has purpose. So do you.

Helping the Millions, Not the Few

I used to measure my impact by the number of businesses I helped. Now I measure it by the number of lives I’ll change.

 

The next chapter of my life isn’t just about scaling companies or building AI systems, it’s about building systems that help people win at every day life.

 

We’re going to help tenants who’ve been silenced by abusive landlords. We’re going to help patients who’ve been mistreated by insurance companies and incompetent caregivers. We’re going to help founders who’ve been taken advantage of by “AI builders” delivering broken code and false promises.

 

I’ve seen enough systems that don’t care. It’s time to build systems that do.

Perseverance: The Real Definition of Success

To me, perseverance means refusing to surrender your purpose no matter what happens to your body, your business, or your circumstances. You cannot let tough times break you. You absolutely must stay true to who you are even when everything around you falls apart.

 

That’s why I’ll never stop building. I’ll never stop creating. I’ll never stop fighting for the people who can’t fight for themselves. Because that’s what Jason Criddle & Associates stands for. That’s what DOMINAIT was built to represent. That’s what I was born to do.

This Is Only the Beginning

Soon, I’ll be out of this hospital. And when I walk out those doors, it won’t be as the same man who came in. It will be as someone reborn. Someone stronger, calmer, and more determined than ever.

 

I’ve faced death and found faith. I’ve faced pain and found peace. I’ve faced loss and found purpose. This is not the end of my journey. It’s the beginning of the most important one yet.

 

DOMINAIT.ai will continue to grow. Jason Criddle & Associates will continue to build. Carbon will continue to connect. And our advocacy wing will continue to fight. The world is about to see what perseverance really looks like.

 

Because after everything I’ve been through…

I’m still here. And I’m not done yet.

 

— Jason Criddle