BIO: Pierre Rogers is a founder and author based in Irvine, California. After his first company collapsed, resulting in federal prison and $1.6M in personal debt, he rebuilt from less than zero—launching a new company.
STORY: Pierre hired his best friend as CFO, ignored repeated warnings from his own team, and watched that one decision spiral into a PPP fraud scandal, a federal indictment, and 18 months behind bars.
LEARNING: What you tolerate in the people you lead says more about your judgment than anything you say or do yourself.
"What you tolerate says more about you than what you say or what you do."
Pierre Rogers
Pierre Rogers is a founder and author based in Irvine, California. After his first company's collapse ended in federal prison and $1.6M of personal debt, he rebuilt from less than zero—launching a new company and writing Built by Failures, where he publishes weekly, unedited chapters of his own recovery alongside case studies of famous comebacks like Robert Downey Jr., Martha Stewart, and Tina Turner.
Worst investment ever
Pierre's worst investment wasn't a stock or a property; it was trusting his best friend as CFO. He founded Yahyn, a software startup designed to let small and mid-sized vineyards sell directly to consumers across the US, a niche complicated by strict alcohol distribution regulations. Pierre invested his capital and reputation into the company. Then he made the biggest mistake of his life; he hired his best friend as CFO, believing that they shared the same values and goals.
They didn't. The CFO routinely showed up late, missed meetings unprepared, used substances during work hours, and went unresponsive for days at a time. Pierre's team members approached him individually to flag the pattern, at real risk to themselves, since criticizing the founder's best friend could easily have cost them their jobs. Pierre dismissed the warnings because personal loyalty clouded his judgment.
This behavior escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when his friend overstated the number of employees to receive money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). His CFO's fraudulent activity led to a federal investigation, the failure of his business, and Pierre's indictment. That fraud triggered a federal investigation, the company's collapse, and Pierre's own indictment. He takes full ownership: he hired the person, tolerated the behavior, and failed to supervise closely enough to catch it before it became a criminal case that sent him to federal prison for 18 months.
Lessons learned
- What you tolerate in the people around you, especially in a leadership role, says more about your own judgment than anything you say.
- A bad hire in a leadership role can cost your company, your reputation, and more.
- If you reinforce negative cognitive biases, you'll see negative things in the world. Try to practice positive self-talk often.
- Make an active choice to focus on the positive things that matter to you, and the things that you can control. Say no to self-pity.
- Structure and daily habits—a five-minute nightly log tracking diet, exercise, and a simple self-score—can rebuild discipline and mental clarity even in the worst circumstances.
Andrew's takeaways
- Before you sign important things, slow down because once you put your name on it, it's done.
- When hiring people, try to find people whose values align with yours because misjudging a person's values, not just their skill, can cost you more than money.
Actionable advice
Develop a simple daily habit of tracking your own signals-mood, focus, energy-to uncover patterns that influence your judgment and decisions over time. He says that the same structure works just as well for evaluating a business or a hire: track the small signals daily. Patterns that are invisible day to day become obvious in hindsight.
If you're bringing a friend or family member into a leadership role in your business, agree in advance on how you'll raise and handle performance issues, so the relationship doesn't override professional judgment later.
Pierre's recommendations
Pierre recommends his own project, Built By Failures, where he publishes weekly, unfiltered chapters of his recovery.
No. 1 goal for the next 12 months
Pierre's number one goal for the next 12 months is to build a stronger, better-equipped sales team for his new company, so it can scale its reach into more enterprise accounts.
Parting words
"If you're going through hell, keep going.”
Pierre Rogers
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