Escape From Rock Bottom: The Path to Regaining Momentum

Summary Overview: What Exactly is “Rock Bottom?”

Rock bottom, as I define it, isn’t simply when bad things happen to you; it’s the point where you can no longer lie to yourself. Specifically, rock bottom is always a situation YOU created through your own poor choices.

For me, this manifested in multiple ways: spiraling into substance abuse, committing felonies by taking out millions in fraudulent pandemic loans, and reaching a point where I didn’t want to be alive. The arrest, media coverage, and subsequent fallout with friends, family, and investors forced a brutal reckoning with reality.

The Universal Truth About Friendship

One of the most profound lessons I learned from rock bottom is discovering who your real friends are. As the great Charles Bukowski put it: “if you want to find out who your real friends are, get a jail sentence.” 

I talk about keeping an open mind and not expecting too much of others, but above all, what you discover is that real friendships are forged in the lows and chaos of life, and not during sunny days.

The Path Out: Discipline Over Everything

While the advice may sound simple, I emphasize it’s the most effective: sleep, diet, and exercise form the foundation of mental health. Specifically, nothing will do more for you than getting up at 4 or 5 AM, immediately crushing yourself in the gym, then going to watch the sun rise and say good morning to The Man. Nature and gratitude go a long way. This isn’t a weekend fix; it requires three to six months of consistent daily practice before these habits take root and transform your mental state.

I compare this routine to paying a debt that comes due every single day. These early morning hours are sacred, and the ritual of showing up for yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually creates the clarity needed to handle whatever life throws at you. Having implemented this routine while navigating federal prosecution and rebuilding shattered relationships, I can attest that after establishing these habits, bad days started to become increasingly rare. But there’s no doubt that if you want a clear, serene mind, the payment is due every single day.

Dealing With Broken Relationships

When relationships break, whether it’s your fault or not, the hardest lesson is acceptance. I learned this painfully while trying to salvage connections that were already lost, comparing it to trying to put out a fire while someone pours gasoline on it. The key is recognizing when a bridge has burned and letting it go, even when that means accepting 100% responsibility for being the one who destroyed what formerly existed.

I also challenge the common instinct to neglect friendships in favor of career and family. While jobs, money, social status, and even romantic relationships can disappear, loyal friends represent something more permanent and valuable. Readers of Blind Spots will recall this maxim: “Loyal friends are worth more than money, and anyone who disagrees doesn’t have either of the two.” 

Reframing Regret

Rather than dwelling on past mistakes, I offer a powerful reframe: whatever flaw or weakness led you to make that mistake was going to surface eventually. The inevitability of regret, to put a phrase to it. God, or the universe, will keep teaching you the same lessons until you learn them. The key is to use misfortune to identify and fix what’s broken inside you, then move forward as a better person.

This applies particularly to broken relationships. Instead of trying to repair what has been destroyed, just extract the lessons and apply them to your next relationship. Great men throughout history, I note, repeatedly distinguish themselves by their ability to turn misfortune to their advantage. Everything is a test and everything is an opportunity for self-improvement.

Guilt, Shame, and Cowardice

I discuss the difference between guilt (about something you did) and shame (about who you are), with shame running much deeper. While guilt can be addressed through accountability, shame requires more painful and prolonged effort to overcome. However, both emotions can become powerful motivators rather than anchors if you learn to harness them properly.

The most pernicious form of guilt and shame comes, surprisingly, not from what you said or did, but from what you DIDN’T say or do. Cowardice – as in, failing to have difficult conversations, not standing up when needed, not doing the hard thing – creates wounds that never fully heal. These regrets have now become my motivation to always choose the hard path, embrace difficult conversations, and act on my instincts rather than shrinking from fear.

The Philosophy of Hard Choices

This crystallizes in a simple framework: easy choices lead to a hard life, while hard choices lead to an easy life. My path of easy choices was about avoiding confrontation, seeking escape through substances, and taking shortcuts. This created a catastrophically hard life.

Now, by consistently making hard choices daily (waking up early, maintaining discipline, having tough conversations), life has become easier. Those four words carry a lot of weight in keeping your head about you: “Hard Choices, Easy Life.”

The Power of Momentum

For those currently at rock bottom, I offer this encouragement: once you start climbing out, the momentum creates an incredibly powerful energy. I can identify someone who has been broken and rebuilt just by reading their words, even if I haven’t met them or can’t see their face. There’s an unmistakable aura that comes from having been to hell and back.

My final advice is radical: do not make changes gradually. Pick a date, then change EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE. Disappear from the world for three to six months while implementing new habits and routines. Do what you have to do to pay your bills, but otherwise withdraw and rebuild in solitude. After that period of transformation, you’ll emerge viewing the world differently, having outgrown old patterns and relationships that no longer serve you.

This video ultimately argues that transcendence comes through suffering, and that the only truth in life is found in pain. While this sounds bleak, my message is ultimately hopeful: rock bottom is not the end, but the foundation from which you can rebuild back ten times tougher. As the quote goes: “When the storm rips you to pieces, you have to decide how to put yourself back together again.”

***

🎥 Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7GzLCvpmdA

***

The video is also posted on my Instagram, separated into two parts. 

If the message resonates with you, please feel free to share with anyone who might need the same reminder: that no matter how bad things get, you must KEEP SHOWING UP TO LIFE.

The floor is no place for a champion.