Greg: What is going on, everyone? It’s Greg here from Project Unbroken. Today, we’re going to be talking about the topic how I went from being a broke heroin addict to a multimillionaire. Now, I almost didn’t shoot this video because I don’t love the title. I don’t want people to think I’m bragging about the financial success I’ve had. But after talking to my partner Matt, he’s made me realize that this is something that could get Project Unbroken a lot of attention where it could, in the end, help a lot of people who are struggling specifically with addiction, but really any struggle in life. We think what we share can help people.
I decided to do the video. I’d much rather this video be about how I went from being unhappy to happy, an unhappy heroin addict to being truly healthy and happy. But I’ve come from an online marketing background. I understand that’s just not going to get as much attention. Just to give you an inside look of the title, it is what it is because that’s what’s going to get the most attention. We’re going to be also talking a lot about happiness and health because that’s, I think, even more important than the money thing. We’ll get into that all of those as well.
Let’s get started. I’ll give you a very short version. You get more on Project Unbroken about me if you want. Normal upbringing, middle class family, played a lot of sports, very active, very healthy, a little bit of drinking and smoking in high school. When I got out of high school, smoked more, drank more, gotten to pills. Eventually it led to heroin. I’ve gotten into a heroin addiction for a few years. Ended up getting on methadone to get off the heroin which is just as bad in some people’s eyes and probably even harder to get off. Then eventually I got off the methadone and I’ve been off that for about almost five years now. In that time of course I’ve built a very successful business, a couple of different businesses, but one that’s very successful. Others I’m working on.
How did I do it? Well, one of the big things that I changed was my mindset and the way that I look at things. When I was coming out of my heroin addiction, I was on the methadone, I think I felt bad for myself. It was a pity party. Poor me. Going back, actually, in 05/06, as I was getting into my addiction, I actually started a business as well, an online business. It started doing pretty well. I made a couple of hundred grand. I was getting pretty successful and then of course my addiction took over and went through all the money of course and fell out of the business.
The big thing that changed for me was my mindset. Again, I stopped feeling bad for myself and I stopped throwing a pity party. I realized that I’m the one that needs to start making changes and I’ll get deeper into this. It all happened, I remember the specific moment, when I found out my son was on the way. He’s now six years old. He just turned six a few days ago. Happy birthday to Bryson. This happened about six and a half, seven years ago where this major light bulb moment happened.
I found out my son was on the way and I said, “Okay. I need to start analyzing my life because I’m not happy.” I’m about to bring a child into the world and I’m not going to bring him into a shit storm. Let me analyze my life. Let me take a deeper look and let’s find out what I don’t like about my life that’s going on right now. The first thing I identified that I did not like about my life was I was on methadone still. I was on 105 milligrams. I was taking it every day. I wasn’t using drugs but methadone makes you feel like a zombie. You don’t feel great on it. It’s just not healthy.
It’s not something that I would want around my child. I don’t want him to know I’m on it. I don’t want him to know anything about that life. I don’t want him to see anything like that. I don’t like that I’m on the methadone so I need a plan in place to get off this shit and I need to implement that plan. I went and talked to my counselor. Again I was on 105 milligrams and I put a plan in place where I was going to come off a milligram a week. It took me about two years to detox. I put the plan in place. I implemented the plan. I got off the methadone. That was the number thing that I identified I didn’t like about my life. I don’t like being on this methadone shit. I want to get off it.
Number two, now we’re going to start talking about the money thing, I didn’t like living from paycheck to paycheck, struggling with money. It’s just because of my personality. To me, I never really cared about making millions. Making as much money as I could, that’s not my goal. My thing when I looked at problems in my life, making the money had to do with getting rid of problems that not having money caused. I think that’s the key point. Not having money causes a lot of stress and unhappiness in my life so I need to make enough money to take care of those problems. For me, I don’t give a shit about making millions of dollars. That’s not it. I care about being happy and I know that I’m unhappy when I’m constantly worrying. That’s just the way I am. I’m a deep thinker. I think ahead. I’m a planner. When I have to live paycheck to paycheck and worry about, especially when I have a son on the way, what if something happens to him and I can’t afford it? I think ahead like that.
Day by day I’m just not happy. I’m constantly worrying. What would get rid of this worry? More money. I don’t need to make millions of dollars but I ended up doing that. I need to make enough money where this is not a problem. I put my plan back in place. I need to start figuring out how to make more money.
Now, luckily for me, I had the previous experience with an online business but you don’t need that. All you need is to realize the opportunity that we have today. We have an opportunity with the internet that has never been here before. We had the best opportunity that’s ever existed. You have the opportunity to get on a computer with an internet connection and reach three billion people, not only that, but you have the opportunity to build a business with virtually no investment.
20 years ago, you had to buy a building or rent a building. You had to stock. You had to get all your inventory. You had to worry about employees. Then, on top of that, you had limited traffic. It’s just who’s in that area. Now, your traffic is unlimited. You have as much traffic as you want. You can reach three billion people. You can start your business. You don’t need a building. You can start your business with time. You can invest your time. That’s a side note where I realized that and I realized the opportunity of the internet and I started putting my plan in place.
My normal schedule before, I realized this, I’ve realized that before I said I need to change this, was I would get up at 3:30. I would go to my morning day job at 4:00 a.m., worked until noon. Now, I just come home and fuck around. I was lazy. I would just lay on the couch, watch TV and do nothing. I’m like, “All right. I have the time.” Even if I didn’t, I would have done it anyways because I was unhappy. When you want to change something, you got to be willing to do whatever it takes. You got to be willing to sacrifice temporarily for long-term success.
That brings me to another point that I realized that I learned from my addiction. It’s something also you can learn from my … You don’t have to go through a heroin addiction to learn this. I learned that instant gratification does not pay off in most cases. What do I mean by that? What I learned in my drug use is that I was falling victim to instant gratification. I would sniff the heroin. I would feel great for an hour and then I would start going down. I would not feel good for a long time if I didn’t use. Go back to using the heroin, up, I feel good for an hour. Then I don’t feel good for long time. It’s ruining my fucking life. That’s instant gratification. Yeah, you feel good for an hour. Then you ruin your life. Is that trade off worth it? Is it worth it to feel good for an hour here and there, to start ruining your life? Absolutely not.
But, as people, especially in today’s world where everything is instant, you got on demand movies, you got fast food everywhere, people want what they want now. You got to be aware of that. You got to be aware that usually the things that would satisfy you right in this moment isn’t what’s going to help you long term. That’s something big that my drug addiction taught me even more so than I may have known before was that instant gratification does not pay off.
Would it have been easier to go home from my job and sit on the couch and just do nothing? Of course. Sitting on the couch would have felt great at the time. But, long term, I’m still in this cycle of not being happy because the problems of not having the money is causing and everything else. I’m going to sacrifice. I’m going to get off my ass. I’m going to put in the work and that’s what I did. I would get home from my job at about 12:30 in the afternoon. I would work until 9:00 at night. All day, all night, I would work. The days I didn’t work, I’d be working all day, all night and I started building my business. I stopped feeling sorry for myself. I realized that instant gratification doesn’t pay off and I started putting in the work. Within a year, I made over a million dollars.
Now, my previous experience with internet, when I was started in 05/06, I worked for a good year, a year and a half, maybe even two years where I made nothing. I put in a whole lot of time before so that working a year and making over a million dollars may not be typical, but it doesn’t matter. I would put in 5 to 10 years of work to set up the whole rest of my life if I had to. That’s a small sacrifice. It’s sacrificing a small amount for a longer term goal. Really I wasn’t unhappy when I was sacrificing because I enjoyed the work because I knew in my head that it was progressing my goal of being happy and that goal was to make more money to eliminate the problems that not having money was causing.
Again, it’s really important to understand it was never about making a lot. I don’t give a shit about making a lot of money. I give a shit about making money to get rid of problems that not having money causes. It’s a big difference. I don’t buy nice shit. I walk around everywhere in pajama pants and slippers. Anyone that knows me knows that’s the truth. My whole wardrobe is probably under a thousand dollars so I don’t care about the money. I don’t buy nice things. I don’t flash my money. It’s not about that. It’s about the security and getting rid of problems that not having money creates.
That’s really the base of what I did. I changed my mindset and I put in the work and I realized that instant gratification does not pay off. It really doesn’t. That goes with everything. Of course you want to find a balance in life but it really does go with everything. A candy bar would be great right now but I know that in an hour I’m going to sugar crash and start feeling grumpy. Is it worth it? You got to decide that. You got to be the person that decides where your balance is. That’s another thing. You got to consider that everyone is different. Life is a balancing act.
When I built my business, I made other sacrifices. You got to analyze your life and see where you want what. One of the things that I sacrificed was personal relationships. I don’t have a lot of close friends. But for me, I’m an introvert, I don’t need a lot of close friends. It works for me. I’m okay with staying home by myself building my business and only having a couple close friends. I’m okay with that because I’m an introvert.
Maybe you’re an extrovert who needs a whole lot of friends. You need a whole lot of lose friends. That’s great. If that’s what makes you happy, you need to focus on that. Put your work into that. Who gives a shit about the money? Maybe not having the money stuff, maybe that doesn’t stress you out. That’s not your problem. If your problem is that I don’t have enough close friends because you’re extrovert, you need more friends, put your time into going out, meeting more people and building relationships. This isn’t about making a ton of money. I know that maybe now the title of the video is a little deceiving but really in the end it’s about being happy. For some people, having a whole bunch of close friendships is what makes them happy.
The big secret that I did was I analyzed my life. I found out what was making me unhappy and I put plans in place to change those things, that I implemented the plan. The big part of implementing is constantly reminding myself that instant gratification does not pay off. Although you rather maybe be out with a friend this night. I’d rather be watching my favorite show at this point. It’s not going to help me long term. Let me make this short-term sacrifice to benefit long term. That’s one of the big things I realized.
Also, another big thing. Once I got my business in order, I realized that I wasn’t happy about my health. I didn’t like the way I look. I didn’t necessarily like the way I felt. The money problems were starting to go. The methadone was going. That was good. But now I got to start analyzing more. I don’t like where my health is. Luckily I ran to Matt who’s my partner on Project Unbroken and he has a gym. He got me in there and I started transforming my health.
Let me show you some pictures. Just to give you an idea. This picture was when I was on methadone. This is what I looked like pretty much on heroin. I’m 5’5″, 180 pounds and this picture I’m 5’5″ still. I’ve been trying to grow for the past 15 years. It’s not happening. Obviously I’m still 5’5″ in this picture and I’m about 150 pounds, about 30 pounds less but a big, obviously, difference in muscle tone and all that. That’s physical transformation. That’s what’s possible. Anything is possible. That’s what I want you to understand here.
What’s even more impressive that you can’t see is what the change that went on here in this picture to right here. You guys can’t see it, but this brain on this side thinks totally different than this brain on this side. This is a highly improved brain. My old brain looks like this. My new brain looks like this. That was a process also of changing my diet, working out and getting my health in order. That’s one of the big things that I’ve also changed is my health. I realized once I got rid of the methadone and I got my business in order, I realized I didn’t like where I was at with my health. Guess what? I fucking put in the work and I changed my health. I was in the gym busting my ass every day. I kept it up. I kept that consistency going.
Yeah, there’s mornings where I woke up and I didn’t want to go but once you get to the gym, you put in the sacrifice, then you got the long-term benefit. It’ll be easier to sit in bed. But what does sitting in bed going to do for me long term? Nothing. That’s the way that I consistently look at stuff. Something that really drug addiction again taught me a lot about, instant gratification usually not a good thing. Excuse me.
Actually just to show you, here’s after six months even. For those of you who are maybe out of shape, unhappy with how you look, how you feel, this is what’s possible in just six months. I didn’t even change my diet at that point. This is just working out. If I changed my diet at the same time, the transformation could have been even greater. I just didn’t start my diet stuff until later on, maybe a couple year in. For anyone who’s maybe out of shape, unhealthy, not happy with the way they look or feel, you can see results very quickly if you just show up every day. That’s very important to understand.
Hopefully this video was inspirational to you. I want you guys to understand that anything is possible. Also realize the opportunity is out there. If you’re more into the money thing, then I’m obviously more into the health and happiness. You can see that. But if you’re more into the money thing for whatever reason, you got to understand the opportunity that’s in front of you with the internet. You got the chance to reach three billion people and the opportunity to start a business with virtually no money if you want. Of course if you invest money into online businesses, it can make it easier but you can do it with very little to no investment. You can. It’s just going to take a lot more time. You got to find that balance there.
I hope you all enjoyed this video. Again, projectunbroken.com if you want more information about us. Facebook, projectunbroken.com, or facebook.com/projectunbroken. I just start our Instagram as well, instagram.com/projectunbroken. We talk a lot about addiction. But we’re also going to be talking a lot about health and getting out of struggles. A lot of this stuff for addiction correlates to getting out of a struggle which is really important for happiness in the long term.
I hope you all enjoyed this video. Please comment. Let me know what you think. Did I do a good job? I didn’t plan this video out. I have no plan. I just ran it. Hopefully it was good and hopefully it could help you in some way. I would love to hear your feedback and I will see you all soon.
