Trace Latourette grew up surrounded by freedom.
His parents owned 17 acres outside Franklin, Tennessee, near the Natchez Trace Bridge, the place that inspired his name. Much of his childhood was spent in the woods, with school and football providing most of his opportunities to connect with people outside his family.
Then, at 16, Trace got his first car.
“I got that taste of freedom,” he remembers.
He wanted more of it.
Trace began pushing boundaries, staying out late and ignoring his parents’ rules. At the same time, he was working nearly full-time while still in high school. He was making his own money and increasingly believed he was ready to live on his own terms.
At 18, after his parents discovered marijuana in his room, Trace moved out and began living with someone he now recognizes wasn’t a good influence.
Soon, he was selling marijuana.
Things deteriorated quickly.
“People got jealous. People shot at me. It got dangerous.”
Eventually, Trace was arrested.
It would be easy to describe incarceration as the low point of his story. Trace sees it differently.
“Getting arrested might sound like rock bottom, but honestly, it saved my life.”
A Different Kind of Freedom
Trace spent seven months incarcerated.
While there, he told his caseworker he wanted to enter a program when he was released. He knew he needed guidance beyond what he had been willing to accept from his parents.
Eventually, he was court-ordered to 4:13 Strong.
But Trace is quick to make an important distinction.
He wanted to come.
He arrived weighing about 145 pounds after seven months of limited movement and poor nutrition. Then, only about 10 days after leaving a concrete jail cell, Trace found himself seven miles into the woods on a hike with 4:13 Strong.
The contrast was difficult to miss.
“You can’t touch grass while you’re in jail,” Trace said. “It’s all concrete.”
Suddenly, he was hiking through the woods, standing on a ridge and looking across a huge valley.
“It was such an eye-opener,” he said. “It showed me what I was missing.”
The experience affected him enough that he still returns to the same area to hike.
It also became an early picture of what 4:13 Strong could offer him: a chance to see beyond the walls that had defined his life.
Determined to Finish
Trace took the 40-Day Challenge seriously.
He watched other men leave the program, but he was determined to stay. He performed well in the classroom while pushing himself physically through running, hiking, kayaking and workouts.
His health began returning, too. By the time he graduated, Trace had gained approximately 55 pounds.
He was stronger.
But the more important changes weren’t measured on a scale.
At 4:13 Strong, Trace found men willing to invest in him.
He had inherited his father’s work ethic, but he says he needed other men to help him understand that building a successful life involved more than simply making money.
“They showed me work-life balance,” Trace said. “Different ways of thinking, all the core values of 4:13, and just really balancing life.”
Work. Discipline. Freedom.
In September 2023, Trace began working at Jolly Masonry.
He’s still there.
The work isn’t easy. His days can include mixing mortar and concrete, cutting materials, setting block for masons, correcting mistakes and working alongside a team to get the job done.
Ironically, the difficulty of the work was part of what attracted him to the company.
When Trace met Jolly Masonry representatives through 4:13 Strong, they didn’t make extravagant promises about where he could quickly advance.
They simply told him the truth.
“They laid it out straight,” Trace said. “You’re gonna start here.”
That’s what he wanted to hear.
“I want to know where I’m gonna start and where I can go.”
More than three years later, Trace continues to build his career there.
But one job isn’t enough to contain his drive.
Trace also operates his own side business, primarily helping people move and transporting vehicles with car haulers.
“If anybody says, ‘Where’s Trace?’ I’m definitely not in my room sleeping,” he said. “I’m somewhere doing something.”
Then he points out something that matters deeply to him.
“It’s all legit.”
The young man who once made money illegally is still every bit as driven to work and earn.
What’s changed is how he does it and what he’s building with it.
Building a Future
Financial freedom has become one of Trace’s biggest goals.
He budgets carefully, saves and invests for the future.
During his time at 4:13 Strong, Trace became the first man in his cohort to purchase a vehicle. In fact, he bought it before he had reached the program milestone that allowed him to drive it.
So the car sat on campus while Trace continued riding the bus to work.
Every day, he passed the vehicle he had already paid for and waited until he had earned the privilege to use it.
That discipline continued after graduation.
Trace now contributes to a Roth IRA and a 401(k), and he has set an ambitious goal of building his Roth IRA to $100,000 within five years.
His long-term goal is to retire by 55.
“I don’t want to work forever,” he said.
For someone who once associated freedom with staying out late, leaving home and doing whatever he wanted, freedom means something very different today.
It means savings.
It means legitimate income.
It means planning decades ahead.
It means having choices.
And it means building rather than simply surviving.
Coming Back to Serve
Trace’s connection to 4:13 Strong didn’t end when he graduated.
Today, he has moved back onto the 4:13 Strong campus and serves as an Assistant House Manager in Room 7, one of the graduate buildings.
It’s a very different role from the one he had when he first arrived.
Today, Trace is one of the men helping make the community work.
He faithfully helps drive men to and from their jobs. He makes grocery runs. He steps in when something needs to be done. And through the ordinary responsibilities of life on campus, he is demonstrating for other men what consistency, reliability and service look like.
The young man who once came to 4:13 Strong looking for direction is now helping provide it for others.
And the same drive that has helped Trace succeed at work and pursue financial freedom is increasingly being used in service to the men around him.
He isn’t simply building his own future anymore.
He’s helping the men coming behind him build theirs.
“This Is a Place for Potential”
When Trace talks about what made 4:13 Strong different, he doesn’t begin with employment.
He talks about people.
“There is so much sharp iron here,” he said.
He remembers looking around and realizing that many of the men investing in him were retired. They didn’t have to be there.
They chose to be there.
For a young man accustomed to watching his back, that created something he hadn’t experienced in a long time: space to stop and think.
“You can finally sit down and think about your future without watching your back 24/7,” Trace said. “You don’t have to protect anyone here. They’re protecting you.”
That safety gave Trace permission to focus on himself, not selfishly at the expense of others, but intentionally enough to decide what kind of man he wanted to become.
He believes that’s one of the greatest opportunities 4:13 Strong gives a man.
“This is a place where they want you to be selfish in the most positive way possible,” he said. “Focus on yourself. Become the best version of yourself.”
And today, there’s another layer to those words.
Trace once benefited from men who chose to show up, invest in him and help point him toward a different future.
Now he’s choosing to show up for others.
Trace knows firsthand that a man’s starting point doesn’t determine where he can finish.
He grew up on 17 acres in Franklin. Other men arrive at 4:13 Strong from very different circumstances.
To Trace, those differences don’t determine what’s possible.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from,” he said.
Once a man decides to change direction, he gets the opportunity to start writing something different.
“This is a whole new page.”
For Trace, the young man who once thought freedom meant having no one tell him what to do, that new page has brought an entirely different understanding of the word.
Freedom is no longer running from responsibility.
It’s having the ability to accept responsibility.
It’s building a future.
It’s being faithful with what’s been entrusted to you.
And increasingly, it’s using what you’ve learned to help another man find his way forward.
“This is a place for potential.”
September 8, 2026.