Money isn’t the primary reason or an excuse for doing or not doing something in your life.

My guest today knows that from experience after a rough road that made him suicidal before landing him on top of the world.

Michael Isom is the founder of Vault AIS, and lives a raw, real, relevant and ruthlessly committed life.

But it wasn’t always that way for him.

At age 22, Michael stumbled into a job selling some of the first cell phones on the market, and made more in his first month doing that than he ever had in a year up until that point.

And the money just kept coming.

Six years later, he started a business with one of my favorite podcast guests of all-time: New York Times bestselling author Garrett Gunderson.  

After a rough patch caused by the death of two business partners in a plane crash, Garrett and Michael parted ways.

That’s when Michael fell prey to a major myth in the financial industry: that high risk creates high returns.

When he did that, he lost $4 million in a bad investment.

Worse than that, though, he lost his best asset. His best investment.

He started to lose himself.

He shut down his three offices, fired his 16 employees and lived off savings for the next two and a half years.

Those years, he said, were a blur of alcohol and cycling to numb the pain and keep him from coming to grips with what he had done.

His family left him, telling him to get clean, and he ended up with a gun his mouth, crying and screaming at God for answers.

Since then, he’s learned that the best investment, your #1 asset, is you.

And if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of the people you love.

If you feel any of the pain of letting yourself go—whether because of a bad investment or for other reasons, you need to listen to Michael’s story of redemption. You’re not alone, Lions.

If you feel like no one understands your situation, you need to hear what Michael has to say about mindset.

And if you want to hear the moving story of how Michael bounced back from suicidal to on top of the world, click play in the player above to get started.

Listen to this episode to hear me talk with Michael Isom about getting on top of the world after wanting to end it all and more:

• Offroad racing from a world champion’s point of view.
• The plane crash that pushed Michael toward losing $4 million and nearly losing himself.
• A piece of bad financial advice that nearly everyone believes.
• How not to act when you lose $4 million.
• Giving yourself permission to be real and raw.
• The amazing God-given moment that kept Michael from taking his own life.
• Maintaining control over your best assets and investments.
• How to create value for others through your experiences.
• Michael’s personal journey from rock bottom to on top of the world.
• Why reminding others with similar belief systems is important.
• The rules financial institutions use to get rich that you should use, too.

Books and resources mentioned in this episode:

Some of the following links are affiliate links. If you click through and purchase Lions Pride Academy may get a small commission.

• “Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life,” by Byron Katie
• The Work website.
• “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High,” by Kerry Patterson
• “Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior,” by Kerry Patterson
• “The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results,” by Gary Keller

Get Michael Isom’s book, co-authored by New York Times bestselling author Garrett Gunderson, for free:

• To get a free digital copy of “What Would the Rockefellers Do?: How the Wealthy Get and Stay That Way … and How You Can Too”, text 801-396-7211 with “Free WWRD” as the subject. Listeners of this episode can also get a free hard copy shipped to them for only the price of shipping.

 How to contact Michael Isom:

• Website