According to Mike “Tate” Tetreault, your circumstances don’t define you.

No matter how bad things get, no one has to fall victim to circumstance. If you reframe your mindset, you can shape your own destiny. For Mike “Tate” Tetreault, fighting against a background that should have set him up for failure only motivated him to prove that impossible was not an option.

As a sophomore in high school, Tate suffered a severe neck injury working out at Planet Fitness when a workout machine fell on his head. The severe nausea and pain were too much to bear, so Tate missed the opportunity to go to college. But he didn’t let this stop him from making something of himself. He looked for answers in the medical community, and interned on FM radio. “[Mindset is] extremely important. If you have the wrong mindset, get ready to go nowhere… You have to be willing to put everything on your back with no help. Also, treating failure as a learning lesson instead of a loss will take you a long way,” says Mike “Tate” Tetreault.

Being successful was never a question for Tate. To obtain financial freedom, he knew he wanted multiple streams of income. So, he operates his real estate business, The Tate Team, where he works with more than 20 agents speaking over a dozen languages to meet all of their clients’ needs. Through the connections Tate made working in radio, he also became an artist manager, directly managing @test410 an imprint of Future’s Freebandz.

Tate is proof that persistence pays off. Even after a successful surgery in 2014 to prevent further damage to his neck, he still experiences nerve pain to this day. But he refuses to let it stop him. He lives life fearing nothing because he has stared death in the face. “Don’t base your life around fear. If something bad happens in your life, you either deal with it or you don’t. The ones who deal with it keep going,” says Mike “Tate” Tetreault.

To turn his vision into reality, Tate stays hungry. He wants to be known as one of the best negotiators and managers of all time. To grab a piece of every pie, Tate has his future set on becoming a sports agent, as well.

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