Success story: how a former drug addict became a millionaire in the USA

After the ninth overdose, the paramedics desperately tried to save the life of Khalil Rafati. He came to himself only after doctors used a defibrillator.

Air force tells the success story of Khalil Rafati, a descendant of the Jews.

In 2003, he was 33, he lived on the streets of Los Angeles. He sat on cocaine, weighed 49 kg, and his skin was covered with sores.

“I was arrested so often that I don’t even remember how many times it was. I was a drug addict and I was in so much pain that I couldn’t sleep,” says Khalil.

He tried to quit many times, but only after the 9th overdose he finally realized that it was time to change his life if he wanted to live at all. Khalil spent 4 months in a rehabilitation center - and since then he has never taken drugs again.

Starting a new life, Khalil not only forgot about drugs, but succeeded so much that he became a millionaire and owner of his own business in California.

His health food company is called Sunlife Organics.

The company's annual sales amount to more than $6 million. Products are sold in 6 cafe bars - these include juices and its own clothing line.

In addition, sales are made through the company's website, and expansion is planned to include 10 more retail outlets in the United States and Japan.

Now Khalil is 46 years old, and he has a private jet. Without exaggeration, it can be said that he has come a long way since he spent the night in cardboard boxes on the streets.

The story of Khalil may well become a plot for a Hollywood film.

He was born in the Midwest, in Ohio, to a Polish Jewish mother and a Muslim father.

His childhood was not easy: he dropped out of school without receiving any education, and very soon was arrested for the first time for vandalism and shoplifting.

At 1992, when he turned 21 a year, Khalil moved to Los Angeles, dreaming of becoming a movie star.

His acting career did not start, but he began to play in local music groups, and earned a living by washing cars. He washed cars for Elizabeth Taylor, Jeff Bridges and guitarist Guns N 'Roses Slash

However, he soon became addicted to drugs, and his life went out of control. In the end, he ended up spending the night on the streets and earning a new dose by selling drugs.

But after the fatal 9 overdose, his life changed for the better. Coming out of the rehab, he began working on several jobs at once.

He worked in a rehabilitation center in Malibu, washed cars, walked dogs and worked as a gardener.

“I managed to save some money by working 7 days a week, 16 hours a day,” says Khalil.

And after meeting with an old friend from Ohio, Khalila seized the idea of ​​making her own juices from fruits and vegetables.

“He was a bit of a hippie, telling me about vitamins, organic foods, superfoods (a term not accepted by nutritionists, but denoting foods that are good for health, mostly plant-based). At the time, I clung to everything that could make me feel better,” Khalil recalls.

At 2007, he rented a house and opened his own rehab Riviera Recoverywhose clients were willing to pay $ 10 thousand per month.

For the patients of his rehabilitation center, Khalil invented his own fruit mix called “Wolverine”: it consisted of banana, crushed tubers of the Peruvian poppy plant, royal jelly and pollen.

Very soon, the fame of this drink went far beyond the limits of the rehab, and people began to call and ask if you could just buy this drink.

Realizing that the demand for it is large enough, in 2011, along with his best friend and his girlfriend Khalil founded the company Sunlife Organic.

Using only its own funds, the company opened the first store in Malibu. Khalil says it was a real success: in the very first year, sales were $ 1 million.

Today, the company employs more than 6 people in 200 cafe-bars. And besides juices, they now sell healthy food and clothing - T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Rob Nazara, analyst at the New York office Deutsche Bank, believes that Khalil’s story is the story of a man with a strong character.

“No matter your education or professional experience, success is determined by grit, determination and ambition,” he says.

But Sunlife Organics Khalil continues to work in a rehabilitation center and owns his own yoga studio in Malibu.

He even had time to write an autobiography entitled “I Forgot to Die,” published in 2015.

“I don’t consider myself super smart. But I have a thirst for life, and if I decide to take on something, I give it my all,” says Khalil.

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