Only hours after he was born in 1989, Freddie Figgers was put near a dumpster in a rural area in Florida’s Panhandle.
One passerby found him alone and stressed out and called the police right away. The baby was put into hospital with minimal injuries and stayed there for 2 days.
Then, they transferred him to a foster home. The couple who fostered him, Nathan and Betty Figgers from Quincy, already had a daughter.
Shortly after Fredie started living with the family of three, which often took in foster children, they decided to adopt this one.
It Wasn’t Easy Being Called the Dumpster Baby, Recalls Freddie
In elementary school, Freddie explains how other children often bullied him and nicknamed him the ‘dumpster baby’ when they found out he was abandoned at a dumpster site.
Freddie who’s now 30 and a successful businessman notes that this often happened because it was a rural area and everybody learned about his story.
His parents told him the whole truth when he grew a bit older. As a child, he thought about it a lot and says he also felt embarrassed.
How Did Freddie Become the Man He Is Today?
Freddie’s life changed when his father bought a broken 1989 Macintosh computer at a thrift shop for $25. He set the computer at the kitchen table to tinker with it-his was a maintenance worker at the Florida State University at the time.
And, he also thought it would help keep Freddie out of trouble. He was right-the boy took it apart and put it back together a couple of times; he figured it that he could also power it on after installing components from an old radio.
Freddie still keeps his first computer-he says this is what sparked his interest for technology. He got so good at computers that at the age of 13, the city of Quincy hired him to assist them in computer repair.
At the age of 15, he actually launched his own company Figgers Computers and fixed computers in the living room of his parents and helped clients to store data on the servers he made.
Freddie was a fast learner and a self-starter; an amazing combination. And, after he built his own cloud database, he made a decision to skip college.
However, today, he says he wouldn’t recommend his path to everyone, despite working for him.
When he was 17, he had 150 clients with need for websites and storage for files. The big break came after several years, in 2012 when he was 23.
He sold a GPS tracker program to a company in Kansas for staggering $2.2 million.
Because his father developed Alzheimer’s and frequently wandered off, Freddie made a device that he could put into his shoes and thus, ease the tracking. Also, the device would talk to him through the shoe.
Sadly, shortly after Freddie launched Figgers Communications from the money he got from the program he sold, in 2014, his father Nathan died.
Freddie recalls how hard it was to watch his father decline and this stays with you. But, he’s always been immensely grateful to his father and mother who didn’t let his circumstances define who he really is.
Freddie Today: A Successful Entrepreneur
Figgers, a resident of Parkland, founded Figgers Wireless-a telecommunications company that was worth more than $62 in 2017.
He also has the Figgers Foundation through which he donates to multiple causes, especially for relief after natural disasters, college scholarships for students, and assistance with school supplies for teachers.
Freddie explains that the best thing a person can do is to influence another one positively. He credits his parents for believing in him and allowing him to pursue creative computer jobs.
He also learned that his birth mother was a prostitute with a drug addiction and he hasn’t met her until this day. He also says he has no desire to do it.
He is thankful for his adoptive parents who provided love and a future. They were the ones who created a better place in this world for him and now this is everything he wants to do for others.
He is married with Natlie, an attorney, with whom they have a daughter Rose who’s 2.
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