When your average 14-year-old American boy goes on a trip with his dad, chances are he ends up in a sports stadium cheering on his heroes, at the lake reeling in fish, or hiking a quiet trail miles from the city. But Rafferty Pendery was not your average teen, and his father’s “vacation” destination wasn’t one you would find on anyone’s travel wish list. Driven by his father’s passion for criminal and drug rehabilitation using a program called Criminon, young Rafferty would regularly find himself at his father’s side, inside a cartel-run, drug-infested Mexican prison surrounded by inmates with two-decade-long addictions. Their work involved navigating dangerous conditions, including violent resistance from drug cartels – his father was targeted twice for assassination – all in the name of helping the most hardened and lost recover their self-respect and become drug-free.
For Rafferty, helping others became a driving purpose at a young age, forged by the transformed lives he witnessed in those prison walls: “A guy who’s a hitman for the cartel goes through the whole program, and then he’s helping get other guys through the program. It’s pretty amazing to see.” Knowing he played a real part in turning lives around became the foundational motivation that guides him today — shaping not only his work as a successful businessman, but his life as a husband.
His path to adult success was also driven by a headstrong entrepreneurial attitude that could be a blessing or a curse: “I was great at ramming my head into things, Rafferty recalls. “I just would go and ram it over and over and over again.” That tenacity showed up early. At just 11, he launched his first venture: custom skateboarding t-shirts. He hired an artist for the design and pitched his mother as his initial investor. Her terms were strict — he had to earn the capital. “I did the dishes what felt like 10 billion times, cleaned the house, washed the car, everything.” After negotiating a deal with a local screen printer, he had 100 shirts made, sold them for $25 each, and made a cool $2,500. Not yet understanding how to reinvest his profits, he admits he spent the entire fortune on “candy and skateboards.”
He kept learning, in and out of school, focusing his studies on what he felt would be most useful to him, prioritizing application over theory. He cites his study of a Scientology children’s communication course at age five as a perfect example of learning useful life skills. As a young student, he found studying rewarding because he learned the fundamentals of how to study, a subject he believes schools too often omit from the curriculum. Drawing on his experience, he says, “When you’re young, and you know how to study, you don’t back off from duplicating information.” He credits a children’s course on the Technology of Study with helping him study effectively and teach himself new skills. It also had a profound effect on his schooling, testing out of high school at 14: “I finished school pretty early. I learned how to study when I was young, so that helped.” This only accelerated his thirst for more self-taught learning: “I’m gonna teach myself how to build websites ’cause I know how to study.”
Armed with his new study skills, young Rafferty threw himself into his next challenge: mastering web development. Realizing a custom site would boost his t-shirt sales — but finding commercial design fees expensive — he bet on himself. “I pulled up existing websites, inspected the code, learned what it meant, and figured it out like that,” he explains. After devouring two books to fill in the gaps, his confidence surged. He was done with t-shirts; he was ready to become a professional web developer.
Seeing his ambition, Rafferty’s father agreed to help him secure his first real client—a local dentist. But there was a catch: his father would make the introduction, but Rafferty had to handle the pitch and close the deal alone. Sitting across from the dentist without a formal plan, the 14-year-old leaned into pure confidence: “Look, I’ll build you a site. Here’s what it’s gonna do, and here’s how it’s gonna work.” To Rafferty’s surprise, the dentist didn’t dismiss the idea. He simply looked at him and asked, “How much?” Having never priced a professional site before, Rafferty blurted out the first large number that came to mind: “$5,000.” The dentist agreed without hesitation—and just like that, Rafferty had landed his first real client.
Almost a decade later, when Rafferty’s web development skills were much more advanced, he returned to the dentist and asked to rebuild it for free because it had become outdated. But to his surprise, the dentist turned him down. Dated look and all, the site was still bringing in patients—and the dentist loved it just the way it was.
Rafferty’s fast learning and adaptability soon opened the door to an out-of-this-world opportunity: joining the crew of a Mars research project in the Mojave Desert. Before long, the former web developer was guiding a hot-air balloon over the desert’s baked, red-dirt surface. Working alongside a specialized team, he used aerial thermal imaging to map cave openings that could help guide future Mars rovers. When he jumped in to help NASA’s media crew set up cameras, his technical versatility stood out—earning him an invitation to join subsequent research expeditions.
The following year, Rafferty rejoined the team at Pavilion Lake in British Columbia to study microbialites — rare, rock-like structures built by microbes that mirror Earth’s oldest fossils and offer clues for spotting ancient life on Mars. While assisting with video work, he spotted a problem: heavy academic jargon was losing the scientists’ audience. Applying his understanding of Study Technology — that learning breaks down when people hit unfamiliar vocabulary — Rafferty pitched a new approach.
He started with a helpful question, “When you get people who approve a budget, is it a scientist or is it somebody else?” The answer was what he expected: “No, it’s generally somebody else.” His follow-up, and their answer, made his point: “Cool. And do they understand these really big scientific papers?” The reply: “Not, not usually.’”
His pitch was simple: create simple videos that replaced dense vocabulary with clear, easy-to-understand language without losing the underlying scientific truth. That way, they could make their research instantly accessible to everyday people and key funders alike. Their response was enthusiastic: “Great idea!”
Yet despite his growing list of successes, Rafferty’s first major business venture revealed the dark side of his relentless drive—showing how that headstrong attitude could quickly become a curse. Building on his background in tech, he launched a software and web development company. He poured everything into it, working 20-hour days, seven days a week, and rapidly hiring staff. But his expenses outpaced revenue, and the brutal schedule crippled his personal life and health. “I used to bring my laptop on dates,” Rafferty admits. “I gained over 100 pounds in a short period and had crazy high blood pressure. I couldn’t even get life insurance.” To make matters worse, despite the round-the-clock misery and health risks, he was taking home just $1,000 a month.
The turning point came when Rafferty finally abandoned his habit of relying on brute force. “I started to study and apply myself a lot more,” he says, “and realized that my natural instinct wasn’t always right.” He discovered he had become his company’s biggest bottleneck—every single decision had to run through him. “I was persistent to a fault, even when the data showed me something different.” To break the cycle, Rafferty stopped answering every tactical question himself. Instead, he codified his knowledge into standardized operating procedures, training materials, and clear processes, empowering his team to solve problems independently. Soon, production smoothed out, growth exploded, and revenue multiplied. The transformation was so profound that Rafferty was able to hire a new CEO to run the company—freeing him to take his hard-won lessons and build his next big venture.
Through all his business ups and downs, one constant kept him grounded. Despite his old habit of bringing a laptop on dates, he met the woman who would become his wife. Through the endless hours, high stress, and grueling turnarounds, she stood by him. “She stayed with me. God love her,” Rafferty smiles. He credits their strong marriage not to random luck, but to the practical communication tools they both learned in Scientology—a foundation of stability that kept him centered as he prepared for his biggest business venture yet.
As with any great venture, his next undertaking began with a real-world problem. Home break-ins were surging across Canada, leaving homeowners desperate for protection. Rafferty helped launch a security business specializing in heavy-duty window films designed to stop forced entry. Having learned the hard way about the perils of disorganized scaling, he built the company on documented systems and structured training from day one. While competitors relied on brief two-day orientations—often complaining that blue-collar workers were lazy—Rafferty developed a rigorous six-and-a-half-week apprenticeship model that requires technicians to master over 100 practice installations before stepping into the field. His technicians thrived: “They loved it because they know what to do. They know how to handle every scenario that comes up, and our retention rate is very high.” This well-trained service team brought happy customers, rapid growth, and profitability: “We went from nothing to 20 full-time technicians and $15 million a year in 10 months.”
Noticing the rapid growth and success of his companies, other business owners began reaching out to learn from him: “How did you do that? How did you make that jump?” As questions multiplied, casual conversations turned into organized meetings, then formal business workshops, some paid and many donated. Demand grew. “So I started flying around the world doing seminars and helping people.” He added, “In the last 12 years I’ve done probably 650 seminars in person and online.”
Today, Rafferty is twenty-plus years into a loving relationship with his wife and having a “blast” serving as CEO for his group of companies. Through every chapter–whether mentoring inmates in Mexican prisons, creating videos for NASA, building successful businesses, or delivering executive workshops, his life remains anchored in a single, simple purpose. “I wanna help people. That’s what I care about.” When asked for his secret to building a winning business, a happy marriage, and a fulfilling life, his answer is direct: “Scientology is a cheat code for how I win at life. How do you have a great relationship? How do you have a business that wins? How are you generally happy? Scientology.”
Colin Taufer
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