“This is a story of how I started with absolutely nothing and made over $3 billion,” explains Bob Parsons about Fire In The Hole! “It is honest, hilarious, outrageous and raw,” he promises.
The book explains the business decisions that would eventually make him one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth of $3.6 billion according to the Forbes 400 2023 list of the richest people in America.
Parsons grew up in the 1950s in a blue-collar, working-class neighbourhood in East Baltimore. His parents were inveterate gamblers and his early years were marked by hardship and financial struggle. This caused him to vow that if he were ever to have a family of his own, they would want for nothing.
The book covers his harrowing tour of combat duty in Vietnam as a US Marine – he is a recipient of the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, and Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry – his mother’s mental illness and his father’s struggles; his own battles with PTSD resulting from both his childhood and war traumas, and his quest to find new treatments for himself and others who suffer from this affliction.
His first business venture was Parsons Technology, a software company he started in his basement in 1984 after teaching himself how to write computer programs. Ten years later he sold the company for $64 million, by which time the firm had nearly one thousand employees, $100 million in annual revenue and three million customers.
Three years later, he started GoDaddy. In 2011, he sold a majority stake in GoDaddy in a deal that valued the company at $2.3 billion.
A keen golfer, Bob Parsons founded Parsons Xtreme Golf in 2013 with the aim of “producing the world’s best golf clubs”. PXG’s website states that “Parsons demanded of his designers what most golfers dream about: a sexy set of golf irons that look like blades, launch higher, go farther, feel softer and have a sweet spot the size of Texas and that ‘PXG clubs have to feel like butter and the difference has to be noticeable’." From this, the company has expanded in other types of golf equipment and accessories.
In 2012, he and his wife, Renee, established The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation to reach low-income and under-served populations, marginalized communities, and causes often overlooked or underfunded by mainstream philanthropy. The Foundation focuses on the areas of youth and education, health and home, military and first responders, and the American dream. Since inception, the foundation has donated more than $300 million to 96 charities.
Fire In The Hole! The Untold Story of My Traumatic Life and Explosive Success by Bob Parsons is published Forefront Books at a RRP $29 and is available from all major booksellers, such as Amazon.
