He made it, and so can you. The dream itself attracted the unique lessons he needed to learn. He had to be willing to be uncomfortable long enough to push through. In fact he probably invested his life savings - but you don't need to. For example, take a look at a typical franchise operation.
People buy a franchise to take advantage of someone else's groundwork.
The franchise supplies a proven marketing system and you usually supply most or all of your life savings. Most franchises succeed precisely because people invest too much into it. They put themselves into a position where they can't afford to fail. On the downside, you never totally own a franchise. Usually they want part of the action in the form of residual income.