The story behind TASR
I built
the thing
I couldn't
find
I'm Christopher Wells. I went under, and I climbed back out — with help. TASR is what I wish had existed when I was in the dark. No fantasy. No guru act. Just the honest thing I couldn't find when I needed it.
01 — The twenty years
For over twenty years I worked a job I was good at and couldn't stand. Long hours. A negative environment. I stayed so long I forgot there was supposed to be anything else — it was just what I was used to.
I gave everything to work, because work was the one place I still felt valuable. I earned the money and let my wife handle the rest of our life.
Work was the one place I still felt valuable.
02 — The coping
To cope, I drank. It's how I got to sleep. How I forgot the day I'd just had, so I could get up and do it all again.
I stopped seeing friends. I pulled away from my family. I went into a dark place and I lived there — in limbo, stuck somewhere I didn't believe there was a way out of. I ate a lot of shit to keep that job, and told myself that was just the price.
03 — The bottom
Then I was fired. The one thing I had — the thing I'd sacrificed my health, my marriage, and my time with my kids for — was gone. And I shut down completely.
When you lose the thing your whole identity is built on, you don't know where to turn. I went over it on a loop: what did I do wrong, how could I have changed it. That kind of rumination is a dangerous place, and the longer you stay in it, the harder it is to climb out.
I had a mental break. I needed help.
What got me out wasn't toughness.
04 — The turn
What got me out wasn't toughness. My wife, Kathy, was beside me the whole way. I needed therapy and medication to get balanced again, and I'm not ashamed to say that — it's the truth. I had to stop drinking and start facing reality, because reality shows up whether you acknowledge it or not.
Then I had to take honest inventory. How much money did we have. How long could we last without my income. What could we cut today. How I was going to work on my head, starting now.
It wasn't overnight. I looked hard at the pillars holding my life up and picked one to work on first, instead of trying to fix everything at once. I didn't wait for the perfect next job — I took something to hold us over while I built a real plan.
05 — The why
Here's what I learned: most of us don't evaluate our lives until we already have a problem. And we're men — we don't always know when we have one, and we won't admit it. That was me for two decades.
When I was in the dark, I went looking for something honest to hold onto. I couldn't find it. So I built it.
Who I
actually
am
I'm Christopher Wells. I live in the Princeton, New Jersey area with my wife, Kathy — who built TASR with me — and our three kids. I coach my kids' soccer. I've spent twenty-plus years in IT and the car business, and I currently run finance for a dealership group.
I'm not a guru, and I'm not a therapist. I'm a regular guy who went under and climbed back out — with help — and built the thing I wish had existed.
You don't have to hit the bottom first.
If you're where I was — fine on paper, hollow underneath, telling yourself this is just how it is — this is for you. You don't have to wait for it to fall apart. You can take stock now.