The story of Mike Lindell's road to success is not one you hear very often. This self-made multi-millionaire built an empire off of pillows and become an infomerical superstar.
And he did it while being addicted to crack cocaine.
"People say all the time that's one of the biggest miracles ever," Lindell told CNBC.
Lindell's rags to riches (to almost back to rags) story has a happy ending, but it's the long strange trip he's taken to get that happy ending that's helped keep him sober over the last eight years.
After a series of half-baked business ideas, Lindell came up with the idea of MyPillow after having a dream about a pillow that would hold its shape. Eventually, after making several different prototypes, he borrowed $15,000 to set up a kiosk at a mall during the Christmas shopping season. He didn't sell much then, but a man who ran a local home show in Minneapolis invited him to come to his next show.
The rest, as they say, is history.
During his frantic beginnings, Lindell's cocaine addiction was kept at bay. But after he began using crack-cocaine, he lost his marriage, his house, and very nearly his business.
It was only after a drug dealer refused to sell to him, that Lindell began getting help. At one point, his dealer said that he would take a photo of him to publish in a future book.
Lindell told Jane Wells that it took another ten months of his drug addiction before he hit bottom.
After getting help, Lindell threw himself back into his MyPillow business and began attracting attention as a high energy pitchman for his pillows in Infomercials.
Check out the full story of this self-made multi-millionaire in Jane's interview here.