When most people think of success, they think of money, fame, or recognition. But after reading Jason Criddle’s recent SmartrLiving article, “Don’t Take Life for Granted,” I realized that true success is surviving what would break others. Not only that, but still choosing to build and make progress in environments and situations where others would just fail or fall and not get back up.
The story of Jason Criddle, founder of Jason Criddle & Associates, SmartrHoldings, DOMINAIT.ai, and The Carbon App, isn’t just a story about business. It’s a story about humanity, resilience, and unshakable purpose. Respect, gratitude, and relentlessness.
A Founder Who Built Through Pain
In his recent SmartLiving article, Jason shares an almost unimaginable journey of three months in the hospital, multiple surgeries, intestinal reconstruction, and the daily reality of living with an ileostomy bag. At one point, he went seven weeks without a bowel movement, and when it finally happened, he said it was one of the proudest moments of his life.
That may sound strange until you realize what he was saying. That gratitude changes everything, and facing death is a superpower.
“Most people will never know what it’s like to fight for your life,” Jason wrote. “To go septic, lose your mind in Hospital Delirium or Hallucinations, or not know if you’ll wake up the next day.”
Yet even during that nightmare, Jason never stopped building. He kept leading his companies, mentoring his developers and clients, and even holding in-person meetings from his hospital bed with monitors beeping and nurses coming and going. He continued to plan the DOMINAIT.ai and Carbon App launches for January 1st, while hooked up to IVs and enduring pain most of us couldn’t imagine.
This doesn’t seem to me to be ego or obsession, even though that’s what some people would call it. To me, it looks and feels like what purpose is supposed to be about.
When he says, “You can’t turn off life because things get hard,” it’s not motivational fluff. It’s his own truth.
The Work Never Stopped
During those months, he met with bankers, app developers, partners, and even a wealth manager from JP Morgan who brought him lunch and endured watching Jason perform a bag change. His business partner, Shaz Khan, continued Carbon meetings at the hospital. He coached through an entrepreneur pitch meeting for a women’s domestic abuse center in Ft. Worth, TX which was supposed to take place in person, but they allowed him to call in through Zoom, and was also a guest on 2 podcasts from the bed as well.
Porsche Club friends visited on a regular basis, one of his dear friends, an IBM engineer/pastor at a local church stopped by for prayer sessions twice a week, and he even began a relationship with a Microsoft-acquired founder who admired his persistence and some words of inspiration when he posted a comment online about unity between Republicans and Democrats. Stating, “we are Americans first.”
In one of the most striking moments, Jason said he had to dismiss his business partner mid-meeting so nurses could change his dressings. And then, as soon as they finished, he went right back to work. The meeting continued.
He didn’t stop because he couldn’t afford to. When you’re responsible for a company; when salaries, investments, and families depend on you… you don’t get the luxury of breaking down. You have to keep going.
He kept his projects alive because he had to. But more than that, because he wanted to.
“When you’ve built something people count on, you keep showing up.”
That line has stuck with me for days. It’s the kind of leadership that separates entrepreneurs from dreamers.
Death, Faith, and a Second Chance
Jason doesn’t romanticize his experience. He talks about it with brutal honesty. The pain, the fear, the feeling of looking in the mirror and not recognizing himself after losing 80 pounds of muscle. The loneliness of watching his son start to forget him after months apart.
He also shared something deeply personal… a moment where he says his late mother appeared to him in the hospital, inviting him to come to heaven with her. His response?
“I love you, Mom. But I’m not done yet.”
That kind of statement hits differently. It’s the mindset of a man who’s been stripped down to nothing and still refuses to quit.
Jason wrote, “The man who walked into the hospital died on the operating table. The man who survived came out different.”
You can feel the truth in that line. The surgeries didn’t just save his body. Everything that happened reshaped his soul. He said he came out of it grateful for pain, grateful for scars, and even grateful for the experience of almost dying.
Because once you’ve faced that, the fear of business failure feels insignificant.
From Perseverance to Purpose
Jason’s story is about survival and rediscovery. He doesn’t just talk about resilience as an idea. He embodies it.
He says he’s no longer chasing money or recognition. His new mission is to hold companies accountable. To advocate for patients, tenants, and consumers through Jason Criddle & Associates’ new advocacy division. He wants to make sure no one else gets mistreated the way he was by hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies.
And through all that, he’s still building DOMINAIT.ai… his AI platform that merges intelligence, automation, and humanity. A system that learns from human experience rather than replacing it.
If you’ve been following his articles on DOMINAIT.ai and SmartrLiving, you know this has been a recurring theme: his companies don’t build technology as much as they build technology with empathy.
He wrote in another DOMINAIT post:
- “The surgeries that saved me stripped away my ego, impatience, and tendency to take life for granted.”
- You can see that reflected in everything he’s creating now; from the Carbon App (a community platform for car enthusiasts) to the upcoming Ryker launch, which will serve as the humanized intelligence backbone of DOMINAIT.
- His projects aren’t merely companies anymore, but extensions of the philosophy that saved his life.
The Power of Work and Faith
Most people wouldn’t keep working after major surgeries. But Jason did.
And that’s what makes his story so compelling. He’s not telling people to grind through pain as much as he’s showing what it means to stay connected to your purpose even when life hurts.
He said something in that article that has become one of my favorite quotes of his:
“When life tests you, it’s not punishing you. It’s refining you.”
That sentence perfectly captures the balance of faith and discipline that runs through all of his work. From the start of his career in leadership and fitness, to now helping companies, people in their relationships, and building communities within his software systems. It’s more than just motivation. It’s wisdom born out of endurance.
Lessons for Entrepreneurs
There are lessons in Jason’s story for anyone chasing a dream:
- You don’t get to quit just because it hurts. Pain is part of progress.
- Health is the foundation of everything. Without it, success means nothing.
Faith and work go hand in hand. When you believe you still have a purpose, you’ll find the strength and tenacity you didn’t know you had.
Legacy matters. He wasn’t just fighting for his businesses… he was fighting for his family, his legacy, his son and daughter, and the sons and daughters of the people who believe in and work with him. I remember him starting a podcast from many years ago; (I’m paraphrasing)..
“Most people look for a paycheck. I spend my life looking to write the paychecks.
Legacy isn’t what we have. It’s what we leave. And most people die without leaving a legacy while a few of us pursue it.”
Jason’s story is proof that you can lose everything. Your health, your strength, even your sense of self, and still come back stronger if you choose to. If you tell your invitation to heaven that you still have work to do.
A Final Word… For Now
When I finished reading “Don’t Take Life for Granted,” I sat back and thought about how often we rush through life assuming there’s always more time. Jason’s story reminded me that there isn’t. Our time can end at any moment’s notice.
Every day matters. Every moment we have is an opportunity to create, connect, and build something lasting, even when most people waste their own time doing as little as possible.
He wrote, “It wasn’t punishment. It was preparation.”
That’s the line I’ll carry with me for the rest of my career.
Jason Criddle has never simply built companies. He builds movements. You can see it through his entire career. Just Google the guy. And through everything he’s endured, he’s shown what true leadership looks like: showing up, even when the world tells you not to. Even when your mom comes to take you home.
To read Jason’s full article, visit SmartrLiving.com, and follow his ongoing work at DOMINAIT.ai and DownloadCarbon.com.
