Faisal's remarkable success in business is closely aligned with the success he enjoys as a daily meeting-maker in Alcoholics Anonymous. For over 16 years, he has worked his Program from the middle of the herd with ongoing service commitments to his AA club and continuous sponsorship of other men. Though he functioned with the disease for years and built an outstanding business, alcohol and cocaine abuse dogged him on his road to personal ruin. Along the way he added workaholism to the toxic mix, which made him oblivious to the needs of his family and friends. But it was the fear of not getting what he wanted and/or losing what he had that drove his frantic desire to succeed. By the time Faisal hit the rooms of AA at the age of 37, he was finally ready to concede to his family and his innermost self, that he was indeed an alcoholic in desperate need of help.

Faisal’s story begins with a Pakistani boy raised in a strong, good family whose religious convictions forbade the use of alcohol. His family moved to Beirut when he was 3. After a civil war broke out in Lebanon, Faisal was sent to an elite boarding school in England from ages 7-18. There he encountered, but learned how to overcome, the prejudice leveled at him by students whose aristocratic parents were as absent as his. By the time he was 18, he was ready to shed the image of second-class citizen imposed on him at school. He came to the United States where he attended college and really learned to drink. After college, he founded a company and set out to slay the business world. His familial role and duties as the oldest son created additional pressure on his ceaseless, yet anxious drive to succeed. Unfortunately, alcohol, and later drugs, hitched along on that drive and started the slow, but steady decline. Lost weekends and benders, on top of 16-hour workdays eventually exacted a terrible toll on his life and he found himself in jeopardy of losing his wife and kids. After seriously contemplating suicide, enough was enough for Faisal and he crossed the threshold of the last house on the block, AA. He’s been sober since.

There’s a lot more to Faisal’s story that will enthrall you for the next 70 minutes. I invite you to settle into another excellent episode of AA Recovery Interviews with my friend and AA brother, Faisal N.

Check out Howard’s Big Book Podcast, the complete unabridged audio version of the First and Second Editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Big Book Podcast is an engaging cover-to-cover, word-for-word reading of all 11 chapters and Personal Stories, many of which were left out of the Third and Fourth Editions. Follow us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Or listen on https://bigbookpodcast.com

If you’ve enjoyed my AA Recovery Interviews series and my Big Book podcast, have a listen to Lost Stories of the Big Book, 30 Original Stories Missing from the 3rd and 4th Editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s an engaging audiobook I narrated to bring these stories to life for AA members who’ve never seen them. These timeless testimonials were originally cut to make room for newer stories in the 3rd and 4th Editions. But their vitally important messages of hope are as meaningful today as when they were first published. Many listeners will hear these stories for the first time. Lost Stories of the Big Book is available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. It’s also available as a Kindle book and in paperback from Amazon if you’d like to read along with the audio.

[Disclaimer: AA Recovery Interviews podcast strictly adheres to AA’s 12 Traditions and all General Service Office guidelines for safe-guarding anonymity on-line. I pay all podcast production costs and no one receives financial gain from the show. AA Recovery Interviews and my guests do not speak for or represent AA at-large. This podcast is simply my way of giving back to AA that which has been so freely given to me. -Howard L.]