Michael Stein Abadak Inc. Stein Media

Michael Stein was diagnosed with a “learning disability” when he was a child.  He is now the founder & CEO of Abadak Inc.  Michael started the company while he was a broke filmmaker and nearly homeless. Since then the company has made over 100 million dollars. 

He has been a writer, director, producer, actor, comedian, worked with academy award winners and some of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry. 

He continues to build his company Abadak which is the leading tarps supplier in the USA and has donated over a one hundred thousand tarps to the homeless.  Michael is the host of the podcast Long Shot Leaders.  The podcast features the stories of high achievers that have overcome high odds and reached success.

https://longshotleaders.com (https://longshotleaders.com)

www.marlanasemenza.com Audio : Ariza Music Productions Transcription : Vision In Word

Marlana: Michael Stein is a long shot, who went on to work with some of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry and built his company Abadak to over $100 million. He is also the host of the podcast Long Shot Leaders. Welcome, Michael.

Michael: Glad to be here. Thank you so much.

Marlana: So first of all, tell us why would you consider yourself a long shot?

Michael: I come from a long line of long shots. My grandmother escaped the Russian concentration camps on the way to America. My dad was in New York homeless street kid, became a multimillionaire, only to become homeless again. And he never finished eighth grade and I was born premature, all kinds of health issues. I had ADHD; they didn't know what it was back then. I was sent to the hospital a couple of times; I couldn't figure out what's wrong with me. I was put in a school … for special needs kids. I just really had a lot of issues, and you grow up with that, my mom who has an interesting sense of humor who was struggling with a crazy marriage with my dad always, I was the youngest in the family. She joke around say, "my son, he's the youngest. He’s, my dessert. I drank, I ran up and down the stairs, I smoked, I..., but he survived." So, Mom, you don't have to tell everybody, just tell me…ranch or blue cheese with the meal, but that's what I grew up with. Hearing like you're lucky to be alive. I had to sleep in the same room with my grandmother until I was nine years old because my dad made all that money and lost it, but we grew up in Encino. It was a big house, but I was the youngest. So…I’d hear that story about her being a Holocaust survivor, and waking up in the morning, that's what I used to hear as my bedtime story and waking up alarm clock. So, you grew up with this appreciation of like you're lucky to be alive. This is what how it is for other people, and I really didn't find any success until I got two people laughing at me as a kid, I'd laugh, I'd make fun of things, and I was a hyper kid. So other than that, I was just a basket case. I never felt like there was anything like I was when I wasn't winning. So then one day, I see the movie Rocky, like most American kids, and I was 11 years old. I said, "here's a guy like me, he doesn't succeed a lot. He keeps on trying, he's not smart, or people think he's not smart." But the one difference between Rocky and myself is that he was physically fit, and I was not. So, I said, "I'm gonna make fitness my thing" And five years later, I just went hyper focused on that, like the person does. I became a physical fitness trainer when I was 16, and I said, "this *** can work. if I really do something, I see the ebb and flow of failure and success at an early age." Then I became president in a school leadership program and I said, "I'm going to be an entrepreneur like my dad was, I'm going to graduate high school, and I'm going to become successful." So, I said, I'm gonna be an entrepreneur, actor, and comedian. And my High