Growing Up Without a Safety Net & Learning to Stand for What’s Right w/ Dave Mclaren

After losing his sister to cancer, his father to abandonment, and his mother to addiction, Dave McLaren grew up without stability, protection, or a safety net. By his mid-teens, he was living out of his car — navigating life without financial support, guidance, or a backup plan.

In this episode of More Than 10 Words, Dave shares what it meant to grow up fast in a world where survival often pushed people toward choices with lifelong consequences. Caught in what he calls the “16 to 18 age purgatory,” he watched the people around him turn to crime just to get by — and made a defining decision early on: doing the wrong thing was never an option.

This conversation explores how growing up without a safety net shaped Dave’s sense of responsibility, integrity, and purpose — and how having no Plan B became the foundation for a life built on doing the right thing and fighting for people who can’t fight for themselves.

This is a story about how success can emerge when integrity, belief, and having nowhere else to go become the only path forward.