Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Dash.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Michael. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I grew up back east in NJ, the son of an entrepreneur. After attending the University of Maryland, I went to New York City and worked my way up in the recruiting industry.
After building a four million dollar book of business, an opportunity presented itself to do some side projects for E*TRADE financial out of state. After staffing over 1000 employees for E*TRADE in one year throughout the country including Salt Lake City, Utah, I was approached to leave my current job and start a new recruiting company focused on technology in Utah.
I saw the opportunity and took the leap moving to Utah knowing only one person in the entire state. After building the company for five years with revenues of $5.5 million a year, I bought out my business partner’s shares of the company. Six years later having lost passion for the business, I decided to sell the company. Having dealt with several different addictions this entire time, including gambling, cocaine, and Adderall, I decided to shift my efforts and focus on working with entrepreneurs and business leaders dealing with addiction or addictive behaviors.
Being a member of several entrepreneur organizations across the world, I have witnessed first hand how addiction has affected entrepreneurs in business and life. This is why I wanted to get my story out and wrote a book to be released in June called Chasing the High.
I also started a series called F.A.T.E. From Addict To Entrepreneur where I interview former addicts who are now successful entrepreneurs and write articles for Thrive Global and Medium. Currently, I am working on a platform to work hands-on with leaders who are struggling with addictions in their life which will be released soon.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a road filled with highs and many lows, a struggle between personal turmoil and keeping everyone around me happy.
Due to my addictive patterns and having been introduced to gambling at the age of 10 years old, I was always Chasing The High. After a 20-year gambling addiction, I was able to get clean in June of 2005. Throughout my career and life, other addictions took a hold of me. While working in NYC, I had an 8-year cocaine addition which I participated in every weekend. I was a functioning addict because I was fortunate to only participate in these activities on the weekends, but they would control and destroy every weekend I had.
After realizing I was out of control, I was able to quit over eight years ago when I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to open up my company. After building the company up for over five years and buying out my business partner, we entered what would turn into a 6-year lawsuit when I alleged breach of contract. This legal matter was the biggest mistake of my career.
Even though I was convinced she violated our agreement, it was an emotional decision and my ego that fueled the lawsuit. This went on for over six years and cost me over $1,000,000 mostly in legal fees. There were extremely hard lessons learned throughout this time which was also inflamed by an Adderall addiction.
Fortunately, I settled the legal matter and sold the business within one week of each other in June 2018 and am taking all the mistakes, lessons and knowledge I have to help others who may have traveled a similar path. For more information on Michael’s book launch of Chasing The High, An Entrepreneur’s Mindset Through Addiction, Lawsuits And His Journey To The Edge, please sign up for release updates at michaelgdash.com/book.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about F.A.T.E. From Addict To Entrepreneur – what should we know?
Currently, I am about to release my first book Chasing the High about my personal journey through addiction, entrepreneurship, the mistakes made along the way, how I found FLOW and how it changed my life and all the lessons learned.
I am also building a platform called F.A.T.E. – From Addict To Entrepreneur which will be a program to work with entrepreneurs and other leaders who are dealing with addiction or addictive behaviors that are affecting them personally, as leaders, spouses, family members, and human beings.
After suffering through addiction challenges and turning to various activities and substances to escape the mounting responsibilities of running a business, I started to see similar patterns with other entrepreneurs in different communities. Having lived this first hand for over 20 years and been to anonymous programs, therapists, etc.
I am focused on designing a platform for others to have easier access for support. I have suffered by not taking the proper time to show myself love and treat myself with the proper attention required to be at the top of my game and be the best leader and mentor for others.
I believe I am uniquely qualified to provide support to others as I have been in the depths of darkness and climbed out to see the light of hope, living life on my terms and positively impacting others along the way.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Perseverance and resilience. There are going to be ups and downs in business and life. I always would tell my employees that in the good times, it’s never as good as it seems and in the challenging times, it’s never as bad as it seems, but when you get knocked down, you have two choices.
Get back up or take your ball and go home. I chose to get back up and persevere through the tough times because there are always lessons to learn that will make you a better leader in the future. The road to success is always under construction.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.michaelgdash.com
- Phone: 9175845734
- Email: michael@michaelgdash.com
- Instagram: @mdash1
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.dash1
- Twitter: @mgdvip
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgdash/
Image Credit:
Chris Lampkins
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