GOGUY
GoGuy Freddie Figgers
An Unforeseen Future: How This Once-Abandoned Baby Boy Who Was Left Out with the Garbage Grew Up to Become One VERY Wealthy Entrepreneur
GoGirl Worldwide Magazine is proud to introduce our long-awaited GoGuy Spotlight Series. With each issue, we're (virtually) rolling out the Pink Carpet and shining our famous pink spotlight on a super special, go-getting GoGuy who is making remarkable strides in business, while profoundly making a difference in the lives of others. We want the world to know these amazing men are worthy of some VIP, GoGirl style attention. This month, we're "head-over-high-heels" honored to showcase the unforgettable, untold story of Freddie Figgers, also known as "Dumpster Baby." Read on to find out how this technology-tinkering teen with a fate seemingly stacked against him, grew up to become one of the world's most influential entrepreneurs and innovative inventors - all with a heart of pure gold.
In 1989, only days old, a beautiful newborn baby boy was left alone alongside a dirty dumpster in a rural, desolate area of Florida's panhandle. Spotted by a passerby - and good Samaritan - the abandoned infant was thankfully taken to a nearby hospital where he was treated for minor injuries and later placed in foster care. After two days, Nathan and Betty Figgers of Quincy, Florida took the recovering child into their loving home and adopted him as their own. They named him Freddie.
Getting Past the Past
Teased, bullied, and ridiculed as a little boy, Freddie was ruthlessly taunted with the nickname "Dumpster Boy" given to him by his cruel classmates. Unsure why he was being dubbed with such a mean-spirited moniker, Freddie's adoptive parents found themselves forced to come clean and finally reveal his "story." Embarrassed, and understandably so, Freddie would eventually learn to quell the pain of his past and look forward to the future. When he was nine years old, his father came home from work and surprised little Freddie with a used Macintosh computer he had purchased for a paltry twenty-five dollars. Freddie would spend all his free time tinkering and tampering with the elusive machine, taking it apart and putting it back together again piece by piece, while also learning how to install ports and drives and all stuff-techie. He still has the antiquated Apple apparatus to this day and sees it as a symbol of inspiration that "started it all," sparking his life-long, insatiable interest in technology. By age 12, when most pubescent boys were delivering newspapers on very early Saturday mornings, Freddie was toiling away as a working professional computer technician, repairing machines, building and re-building devices and boasted an impressive roster of computer-owning clients. At age 15, Freddie began a ground-breaking cloud-computing company – before anyone knew what a "cloud" was besides the white fluffy stuff we see when we look up into the sky.
Left by the Trash to Teen Tycoon
Who had time for college? Certainly not Freddie, as the young entrepreneur decided to forego the four years of secondary schooling to attend to his burgeoning businesses. And, the trade-off paid off. It was around this time that his father Nathan was unexpectedly diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Freddie ingeniously figured out a clever way to keep track of his father's increasingly meandering episodes by building a shoe with a built-in GPS tracker and two-way connector. "I could pick up the phone and say, 'Hey Dad, where are you at?' and he doesn't' have to do ANYTHING but lean down and talk directly into his shoe and I can track his location," Figgers told the media. "That program was very successful, and I had a company reach out to me out of Kansas and they bought the program from me for $2.2 million dollars." A year later, Freddie used the money he made from that sale to start Figgers Communication. By 24, he had successfully built and designed 80 custom software programs.
Now 30, Freddie is at the helm of a $62 million-dollar tech company, Figgers Communication, that he founded when he was still a teen tinkering with neighbors' computers. The self-starting mogul is also a brilliant innovator who holds four patents worldwide. Although Figgers' technologically-based enterprises mostly conduct business by selling his sophisticated smartphones and consumer-friendly data plans, Figgers' goal is to eventually fully integrate tech with healthcare and safety. In a step toward making his ambitious aspiration a reality, he recently developed a wireless blood glucose monitor for diabetics that allows patients to effortlessly download and share their blood sugar information through Bluetooth technology. Figgers is currently creating a game-changing service similar to his "smart shoe" technology that would help families stay in touch with loved ones experiencing homelessness and other adversities. "That could be me on the streets – I could have been homeless or dead if I hadn't been found by the dumpster after I was born," he tells The Washington Post.
A GoGuy Gives Back BIG
From "Dumpster Baby" to Million Dollar Dude, the unlikely multi-millionaire is forever inspired by his devoted, selfless parents and is an active role model in his community. Under the Figgers Foundation, Freddie sponsors a myriad of youth programs, offers college scholarships to promising university hopefuls in their senior year of high school, pays the bills of many senior citizens, saves homes facing foreclosure, and regularly contributes to natural disaster relief efforts around the globe. "I believe turning caring into action, and if I see a problem, I find a solution to deliver an impact to change someone's life," says Figgers. "I'm going to impact this world and change today for a better tomorrow because money is nothing but a tool, but with that tool, we can impact and change everyday people's lives with opportunities."
When Freddie entered adulthood, he learned his biological mother was a drug-addicted prostitute. He has never met her and states he has no desire to. While he holds no animus or resentment toward his natural mother or his unfortunate first days, Figgers admits he is content with the endless showering of love and support his adoptive parents bestowed upon him from "day two." Today, Freddie resides in Parkland, Florida and is the founder and CEO of privately held telecommunications company Figgers Wireless. He's married to attorney Natalie Figgers, with whom he shares raising their child, Rose, 2.
In the indelible words of esteemed author Brian Tracy, "It doesn't matter where you came from; all that matters is where you're heading."
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