My Story
July 27, 2026. Boston.
I was in the middle of my morning workout. Twelve days earlier, we'd closed the sale of the company I'd spent six years building. Three days earlier, I'd landed in Boston to see family. For the first time in years, nothing was urgent.
Then my heart stopped.
My sister, an ER nurse, started CPR on the spot while my daughter, my niece and my mom watched. Fifteen first responders worked on me. My heart didn't beat for more than fifteen minutes. They shocked me ten times on the way to the hospital.
I shouldn't be here to write this. But I am. And I've had to answer a question most people never face:
What was I building all of it for?
How I got here
Michael Jasilewicz jr
Founder · Speaker · Author
I joined the U.S. Air Force at 17. By the time I left I'd been named Airman of the Year, and I'd learned the thing that has carried me ever since: show up, own it, finish the mission.
Then Las Vegas. I learned the restaurant business across three states, then launched my first venture connecting the city's restaurants, clubs and hotels. That grew into nearly a decade of founding and running hospitality and entertainment businesses. By 30 I had a company worth millions, a front-row seat to the celebrity world, and a life that looked incredible from the outside.
Inside, I was running on empty. My health broke down. My engagement ended. I collapsed. That was the first time I learned that success sends a bill.
So I rebuilt, and I did it differently. I advised companies in the U.S. and Europe. I ran a $20M, 300-person operation and trained leaders across more than 60 locations. I wrote a book, Duck Medicine and Priorities of the Family Man.
In 2020 I took on the hardest build of my life: COO of a manufacturing startup, run from Prague, seven time zones from the factory, in the middle of a global pandemic. Six years later we sold it. It didn't end the way anyone planned. But it was done.
And I was finally taking care of myself. Meditation every morning. Weights, cardio, beach volleyball, golf. A stress test every year. I watched my heart closely. And it stopped anyway, halfway through a workout.
WHAT FIFTEEN MINUTES CHANGED
I wasn't afraid. I'm still not. I'd done the work to make peace with death long before that morning, and it turns out the work was real.
What changed is how I show up. I'm more present. I slow down and actually take in where I am and who I'm with. I appreciate my family more than I ever have. I have more faith in how things unfold.
The ambition is still there. The appetite for things is gone.
WHERE I AM NOW
I live in Prague and spend a lot of my time in the U.S. I'm building again, with more intention and less noise. And I'm telling this story to anyone who needs to hear it before their own ordinary morning.
Along the way:
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U.S. Air Force, Airman of the Year
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UMass Lowell
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Restaurateur of the Year
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25 years building companies in the U.S. and Europe
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Author, Duck Medicine and Priorities of the Family Man