Richard Vietor was built to Die On Empty, not broke but exhausted from living. His story of resilience, transformation, and human capacity to forge a strong mind and restore a broken body while he overcame challenges to pursue life is inspiring. However he values his journey to heal his heart, nurture his soul and redefine his life after his tragedy as more meaningful. He lives with passion and purpose, relentlessly sharing his grace and gratitude.
Born into a typical big family, Richard’s early years were filled with fond memories of his parents’ love and attention and the adventurous traits they instilled. The sudden loss of his father when Richard was just five years old marked the first turbulent chapter in his life. Left to navigate a world soon filled with poverty, crime, drugs, abandonment and dysfunction, Richard grew up in an environment rife with abuse and challenges that formed the basis of his toughness and tested his resolve.
Despite these hardships, Richard’s unyielding determination emerged early in life when his insecurities and fear drove him to fight back with anger. He embraced self-reliance, hard work and found solace in dreaming for, and chasing a better future. By his mid teenage years, Richard was living independently, supporting himself, excelling in school while playing sports and living an adventurous life, all of which laid the groundwork for achievements despite insurmountable odds. He was forced to deal with adulting as a child, long before his peers and thrived in pursuit of financial security yet was a very damaged, insecure little boy inside. His hardened heart was rarely able to give or receive love openly, which facilitated a lifetime of empty, unhealthy and dysfunctional relationships. After years of work to improve his financial security and fueled by his desire to “break the chain of dysfunction” for his daughter Nicole, life once again offered tragedies that he would turn into triumphs.
On July 4, 2000, a diving accident left Richard dying on a hospital table a number of times for weeks on end. He was paralyzed from the neck down, dependent on a ventilator, pacemaker, and gutted like a fish while restricted by a halo and facing an uncertain and helpless future. With no family and only the support of his teenage daughter and friends, Richard found himself physically helpless, emotionally devastated yet mentally resolute, always optimistic and determined to overcome. Trapped in his thoughts, he couldn’t talk or move and his only means to communicate was blinking. Once for yes, twice for no and flutter meant “ask me a question”. The accident could have been a devastating endpoint but instead was his new beginning. Disregarding and rejecting the grim prognosis of doctors, he committed to a grueling recovery process, turning his physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual resilience into tools for transformation. Through sheer grit, a refusal to accept failure and unyielding optimism, Richard defied medical expectations, regained mobility to walk and not only function but thrive. His journey to do more with less took years of relentless hard work, unreasonable risks and uncompromising effort. Now he leverages those strengths to continue pushing boundaries.
Richard’s success extends far beyond the paralysis they said he never would overcome and his relentless pursuit of optimal health that defies his age and injury now. His pursuit of education led to earning an undergraduate degree from Pepperdine and an MBA from the University of Southern California all accomplished at night as a working, very involved single father, the latter degree finished while paralyzed in a wheelchair and struggling to hold a pencil. He welcomed risks and started ventures that allowed him to create financial security while facilitating his developing addiction to hard things. From starting and growing businesses, designing and constructing homes, to contributing and starting nonprofits and charities while mentoring others, he has always taken the path less traveled. Richard’s entrepreneurial spirit has been a driving force to feel alive and fueled his ability to succeed.
His life philosophy to “Die on Empty – not broke but exhausted from having spent every ounce of energy taking calculated risks, pursuing unrealistic dreams with grace, gratitude, passion and purpose” is lived in everything he does. He is now centered on paying his lessons and blessings forward and hoping to inspire people to spend their time living, loving, risking and dreaming. Finding and implementing his own principles and standards for living with integrity, authenticity, and purposeful action led to his current endeavors.
As a father, Richard considers Nicole his greatest achievement and source of inspiration. When he was a very young man, she became his “why”, enabling his how and compelling him to do physically and mentally hard things constantly. Never accepting failure, just learning lessons and doing whatever it took to overcome developed into an optimistic mindset that grew with every new win. Their unique bond and unconventional relationship formed the cornerstone of his early life’s journey, fueling his drive to face adversity and create the life that we all hope and dream to achieve. Together, they have shared countless hardships turned adventures, from chasing calculated risks, to achieve unrealistic dreams that showcase both of their abilities to be defined by limitations. He views her success and achievements and the life they both live as one of his crowning achievements yet is still very driven to do more. He loves hearing her encouragement to slow down and start spending her inheritance but instead is more motivated to speed up, take risks, do unconventional things while he chases his dream to pay his unique life lessons forward.
In recent years, Richard has dedicated himself to the concept of spiritual faith, while spreading love and kindness to give back all his good fortune and blessings. Not inherently religious, Richard finds value in Christian principles and is focused on living as a good man should. This journey enabled him to learn and grow while developing so much love, support and a newfound compassion for himself and others. In his words, “I didn’t love myself so I could never understand how to love others”. His new “why,” fed his desire to do more with less physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually is fueled by endless opportunities. After years of personal work to heal and live more authentically as a healthy, initiated masculine man, Richard solidified his desire to spread life’s true meaning of not dying with regrets.
Richard’s legacy is one of courage, authenticity, resilience, transformation and the idea that difficulty happens for us and not to us. The belief that pain is temporary but quitting lasts forever. “We should never quit or accept failure, just learn, grow and keep pushing forward”. Viewing setbacks and disappointments as learning opportunities and steppingstones to find new paths to achieve. The concept that we can’t control what happens to us but we all have the ability to respond to every difficult situation in the moment and choose to pursue a new or better outcome. He has quietly lived his beliefs and been humble about sharing his journey but is seeing the power of exposing the life he has lived.
Internally Richard thinks of himself as invincible, an extremely disciplined, prideful, arrogant, hardheaded and unbreakable ass, built to overcome and achieve. Externally he is all about being humble and kind while sharing love and compassion. This, he believes is how good men should live. He thrives in chaotic environments where most people see obstacles and challenges, he is driven to find solutions and opportunities. He has been molded by experiences to seek out challenges and bet on himself despite fear and uncertainty, in turn, he is uniquely qualified to inspire countless others to reframe their mindset and battle for more.
Compelled to help others find their potential, overcome hardships, do hard things, believe in themselves and thrive in life.