Knives, cloud, doors, and the Door.
The knife guy.
Started at Cutco at twenty. Seller, field trainer, assistant manager, manager, regional manager. Built his first business in Corpus Christi in his early twenties, wrote a thirty thousand dollar check for marketing, interviewed thousands of people, and hired hundreds of sellers, sixty to a hundred active at any given time. A P&L in his own hands before most people finish college.
Enterprise tech: the climb.
Fourteen years in enterprise technology; ten years and one month at Rackspace, six rungs from lead generator to Sales Director. His normal role identity was acquisition sales. Nearly all of the annual business associated with his progression came from brand-new customers signed from zero. New logos were handed to install base after closing, and renewals remained with support. During approximately 2008 to 2009, Rackspace's Team Fit model created one bounded exception in which a combined acquisition and install-base crew worked a small amount of existing-customer business. His scope progressed from individual contributor, to a five-person team, to two teams, and eventually to leadership of a 60-person acquisition sales organization.
As Sales Director, Abel's LinkedIn career record states that monthly recurring revenue target and attainment grew from $180K to $480K in two years, with twenty consecutive months over 100% attainment. At its peak, the organization booked approximately $480,000 in net-new monthly recurring revenue each month. Sustained over a year, that production pace represents approximately $69 million in annualized recurring revenue. Rackspace was known for Fanatical Support and long-standing customer relationships, many of which continued for years. The $69 million figure describes the annualized pace of new recurring business produced, not cash collected in a single year.
At Rackspace, Abel worked in managed cloud and sold solutions involving technology partners including Amazon Web Services. Later, as Regional Sales Director at Connectria, he worked inside an organization distinguished by IBM Power Systems, including IBM i and AIX. Amazon Web Services and IBM were technology partners and platforms, not Abel's employers.
"I learned to lead the revenue number. But I did not learn to read the whole P&L."
Real estate: from single family houses to commercial real estate, then the fall.
From 2008 to 2018, Abel bought eight single family houses, one at a time. He then moved into commercial real estate, led more than fifteen acquisitions, and built to a share of roughly fifteen hundred doors. He raised equity, acquired properties, managed the portfolio, and answered to investors. Then the market turned, and he lost nearly all of it. The losses affected Abel, his family, and investors.
The full story of the rise, the loss, and the rebuilding is told in The Open Door. Read The Open Door, $19.99 →
"I met the Lord at the bottom in a way I never met Him at the top."
Under the Doctrine.
Rebuilt under God. Wrote The Open Door: fourteen chapters on faith, artificial intelligence, and who sits at the head of the table, drawn from twenty eight years of life and experience, with AI helping him shape his spoken and written words into the finished book. Founded 5 Talents to help owners build practical AI operating capabilities with human judgment, responsibility, and governance at the center.