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Just over 30 years old, CJ McMahon has already built the kind of resume that might take others a lifetime to assemble. He has built businesses, acquired millions of dollars in assets, become a champion bowhunter and created ATMInvestors.com, a company focused on acquiring established, cash-flowing ATM businesses. Soon, he plans to release his first book, The Art of Acquisitions.
But ask McMahon what he is most proud of, and the answer has little to do with money.
“I’m proud that I kept going,” he says.
That simple statement may explain McMahon better than any balance sheet ever could.
Growing up in a small town without much money, McMahon knew early that he wanted a different future. There was no single breakthrough moment. Instead, there was a gradual realization that changed the direction of his life.
“If I wanted a different life, nobody was going to build it for me,” he says.
He dropped out of college and became consumed with learning business firsthand. The education was often expensive. Of the six businesses McMahon has built, four failed.
Rather than allowing those failures to define him, he studied them.
“Those failures probably taught me more than the successful ones ever could,” he says.
Eventually, that persistence helped lead him toward an industry many entrepreneurs might overlook: ATMs. McMahon saw an established business model producing tangible cash flow, but also recognized a gap between people interested in owning cash-flowing businesses and those who knew how to acquire and operate them.
Source / Photo Credit: ATMInvestors.com
ATMInvestors.com was created to bridge that divide. The company acquires existing ATM businesses with operating histories and locations already in place, conducts due diligence, structures acquisitions and handles ongoing operations.
“We’re in the business of acquiring existing cash flow and building the infrastructure around it so that investors can own something tangible and understand exactly where their money is going,” McMahon explains.
Yet his understanding of wealth has changed dramatically along the way. Money, he says, stopped being primarily about possessions and became about “freedom, security, opportunity, and the ability to impact other people’s lives.”
That last purpose became especially important after McMahon experienced a battle that could not be solved through another acquisition or a longer workday.
After developing unexplained physical symptoms, including heart palpitations and an episode that sent him to the emergency room with an extremely elevated heart rate, McMahon began searching for answers. He was eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease and endured a period in which his health deteriorated so severely that he was bedridden for nearly a year.
For someone accustomed to attacking problems through effort, illness forced him to rethink what strength actually means.
“I used to think resilience was just about being tough — putting your head down, working harder, and refusing to quit,” he says. “Now I think resilience is much deeper than that.”
He worked with doctors, underwent treatment, changed aspects of his lifestyle and explored different therapies. Recovery was not instantaneous. It was a process that required him to continue believing even when he did not know what came next.
“Sometimes resilience is continuing to believe when you don’t have answers yet,” McMahon says. “Sometimes it’s accepting that you can’t control everything. Sometimes it’s getting up and fighting again when you’re exhausted from fighting.”
Those experiences helped inspire McMahon and his fiancée, Sydney, to create Joy In The Fight, a nonprofit built around helping individuals and families facing some of life’s most difficult moments.
Source / Photo Credit: ATMInvestors.com
The organization steps in when medical crises and other devastating circumstances collide with everyday financial realities. Through money raised by the charity, including tens of thousands of dollars to date, the goal is to deploy support quickly so families can spend less energy worrying about bills and more time being present with the people they love.
“You never really know what someone is fighting behind closed doors,” McMahon says.
Joy In The Fight is designed to provide help in different forms depending on the circumstances — from direct financial assistance to fulfilling a need or creating an experience for someone going through an extraordinarily difficult season. The foundation also encourages people to nominate individuals or families who may need support.
The organization’s name reflects a lesson McMahon learned through his own darkest periods.
“You don’t have to pretend the fight isn’t hard to still find joy in the middle of it.”
McMahon is now trying to carry that philosophy into another form of giving back: sharing what he has learned in business. His upcoming book, The Art of Acquisitions, challenges the assumption that entrepreneurship must begin with creating a company from nothing.
The book covers identifying existing businesses, evaluating opportunities, understanding cash flow, negotiating and financing acquisitions, structuring transactions and creating value after a purchase. But beneath the mechanics is a message McMahon believes applies far beyond business.
“You don’t need to come from money or have everything figured out before you start,” he says. “You need to be willing to learn, take calculated risks, make mistakes, and keep moving.”
His own shorthand for that philosophy is even simpler: “Outwork failure.”
For McMahon, it does not mean believing hard work guarantees every desired outcome. It means refusing to allow failure to have the final word. His faith has strengthened that perspective, particularly the message in 1 Peter 1:6–7 about trials refining faith like gold. Looking backward, he believes some of his most painful seasons were also responsible for shaping who he became.
That evolution has influenced his definition of what it means to be a good man.
“A good man keeps his word. He takes responsibility when he’s wrong. He protects and provides for the people he loves. He treats people with respect regardless of what they can do for him,” McMahon says.
Most importantly, he rejects the idea that ambition and compassion somehow conflict.
“You can be ambitious and still be generous. You can be strong and still have empathy. You can pursue success while understanding that your success creates a responsibility to help other people.”
For all he has accumulated before turning 31, McMahon says his greatest achievement is not an asset, company or financial milestone.
It is “the person I’ve had to become through all of it.”
His story is ultimately one of transformation — from growing up without much money to building wealth, from repeated business failures to successful acquisitions, and from facing a debilitating illness to helping other families navigate their own fights.
“I don’t believe the goal of life is simply to accumulate as much money or success as possible,” McMahon says. “I want to build things that matter, take care of the people I love, create opportunities for others, give back, and hopefully leave people better than I found them.”
He is still building, still learning and still fighting.
And perhaps that is the most inspiring part of his story: McMahon does not consider himself a finished product.
“I think some of the most meaningful chapters are still ahead.”
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