Something Out Of Nothing – Michael Santos
SUMMARY
Michael Santos, who spent 26 years in prison and is now a multi-millionaire, says that all he had was hope when he had no liberty.
On this episode, he shares tips you can apply in your daily life to achieve success even if you think you have nothing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Regardless of where we are today, we can always take steps to build a better tomorrow.Success begins with a vision and a plan, then executing that plan every single day.
When you think you have nothing, remember that you still have hope.
You have to create a plan to convert nothingness to abundance.
Write out your values and goals.
Create a schedule for what you have to do the next month and the next year.
After reading a book, answer these questions:
- Why did you read that book?
- What did you learn from reading that book?
- How can reading that book contribute to your success?
Find mentors and bring them into your life.
Proactively ask for support and utilize your community.
TRANSCRIPTION: SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING – MICHAEL SANTOS
Luis Congdon
How do you create something out of nothing?
This is a fantastic episode where we’re going to be talking with Michael Santos who spent 26 years in prison, incarcerated, came out, is now a multi-millionaire, has several degrees, and is someone who is making a big deep impact.
The tips and tricks he shares with us about creating a great mindset to make something out of nothing. This is something all of us can apply here at Thriving Launch.
Kamala Chambers
Today’s guest is an author and a successful business owner, Michael Santos.
He emerged after 26 consecutive years in prison of every security level. He was able to make something out of nothing. Now, he teaches others how to overcome struggles and prepare their lives for more success.
Luis Congdon
All right, Thriving launchers, we’re here with Michael Santos.
It’s my privilege and honor to bring on someone who I consider a friend and someone I admire.
Without further ado, are you ready to launch Michael?
Michael Santos
Let’s rocket ship off!
Luis Congdon
Awesome.
It’s great to have you here. You have an incredible story of taking adversity, being knocked down, owning up to your creations, and then, creating something out of nothing.
As you said in your book, you did this to yourself, and you found a way to take responsibility still and then, create something out of nothing.
Thriving Launchers, today, we want to talk about how to take life when you don’t have anything going for you and still create something out of nothing like Michael has.
I want to start by talking a little bit about Michael’s story. You guys may already know Michael Santos and that he went to prison for 26 years. He spent his 20’s and 30’s in prison.
So Michael, what is one of the biggest lessons that you pulled out of spending 26 years incarcerated to build something out of nothing?
Michael Santos
First of all, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to The Thriving Launch program. I think you guys are doing excellent work, and I know a lot of your listeners are aspiring entrepreneurs, people who want to build great businesses.
It’s Possible Build Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
The one lesson I learned translates from my life to anybody’s life.
Michael Santos
In my case, I started inside. I got that message when I was at the long-end of a lengthy prison term. I had no idea what it was going to be like, but I did know that I was going to emerge successfully.
Kamala Chambers
I’d love to hear a little bit more about the nothing because we’re going to talk about creating something out of nothing.
Where was it for you? What was it like for you? I know it was a long time that you were incarcerated. But, what was it like for you to have nothing while you’re locked up and start to reach out for a bigger dream?
Michael Santos
Yeah. I think we’ve got to put that nothing into context.
Hope is all you need To Create Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
Certainly, I was a locked inside of a cell. I only had what was in my immediate environment, which was four concrete walls. Guards were passing me food through a slot in a door. I had a lack of liberty but what I did have Kamala, was hope.
I always had a vision of how I was going to emerge from this journey and create something out of nothing. I knew I’d made some awful decisions during the recklessness of youth. I was 20 years old when I began trafficking and cocaine, and when my judge sentenced me to 45 years in federal prison, I didn’t have any idea what it meant.
But I did know how I was going to emerge from that. I had a vision that I would come back to society, be able to put on a suit and tie, walk into any audience and nobody would know I served the day in prison unless I told them. That vision of building something out of nothing guided me through the jail journey.
Create A Plan To Make Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
Then, I had to create a plan. And that was, how was I going to convert something out of nothing that some people would describe. That’s the lack of liberty and all material possessions. Then, turn that into a life of abundance.
I created a plan that would help me get there, and my plan was to be thinking about people like you, and people in your audience. That’s taking myself outside of my problems and started thinking about, “What would a law abiding contributing citizens expect from me?” That’s what gave me the plan.
That plan was to focus on educating myself, on contributing to society, and on building a support network. If I could execute that plan, as the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into months, months turning to years, and the years turn into decades, I believe that I would land on my feet and come back strong. That’s what carried me through 26 calendar years in federal prison.
Luis Congdon
One of the first things that I got from your stories is that you created a plan, a schedule for yourself, and vision. It’s vision to support the desire to execute even though you were in prison.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been watching a television show about prisons. It just seems like a place where dreams are continually being crushed, and the people around you are not typically people who are visionaries. Most of them tend to be individuals who are like, “I’ve been here. My father’s been here and my dad’s father too. This is what we do. I’m going to come back. There’s no hope.” Or, “I’m going to stay here for the rest of my life. Life is meaningless.”
You’re around a lot of people that don’t have a lot of hope, and then the prison itself is made as a place to squash or compress you. So it’s very hard for you to grow and build something out of nothing.
I’m curious. How do you develop a vision during that time to make something out of nothing and then create a schedule for yourself? A lot of us can benefit from hearing from your perspective.
We have the freedoms that you didn’t, and yet, most of us are still not creating that vision or goal.
Michael Santos
I don’t know that it’s so different Luis. There are a lot of entrepreneurs, business people, sales people out here that I meet that strike me as they’re in a bit of a prison themselves where they are facing rejection consistently.
They face rejection whether they are trying to raise funding, get a new account, overcome the struggle of figuring out how to create a new product. Many times that can be like a prison, and it can stop somebody from making something out of nothing and moving forward.
You’re right that we need to have a schedule because it’s all just about work. It’s about creating a systematic plan that’s going to get us through.
Write Out And Understand Your Goals To Build Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
What worked for me to create something out of nothing was writing out my values and my goals and having an understanding of how my goals had to authenticate my commitment to those values.
It was those two steps of articulating the values by which I want to live and the goals that I want to achieve. Those were like the prerequisites that would allow me to create these types of accountability metrics. My vision was I wanted to emerge from prison. Then, I knew how much time I had to get there. In my case, there was a lot of time. A lot of time standing.
I couldn’t comprehend what it would mean to serve 26 years in prison. I had a 45-year sentence, but as long as I avoided disciplinary infractions in prison, I knew I could satisfy in 26 years.
I was only 23 years old when I went in. I didn’t have any frame of reference of what it meant to serve 26 years inside of that box, so I distilled it down to 10 years.
Have A Schedule When Creating Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
What am I going to achieve in 10 years? I knew that within a decade, I wanted to have my first university degree. I wanted to publish something, and I wanted to find ten people to become a part of my support network. And if I could do that, that would catapult me to new goals.
Because I knew where I wanted to be in 10 years, I could just reverse engineer it. And so, where do I have to be in five? What do I have to do next year within this first year to get there in five years?
If I knew what I have to do next year, what do I have to do next month? Then, the next six months, and the next three months, and the next one month, and what do I have to do tomorrow? That’s what helped me create this accountability logs that kept me on the path of creating something out of nothing. I was always working toward the vision that I had of emerging successfully.
Luis Congdon
Michael, one of the things I’m curious about is a prison to me strikes me as a place where not a lot of wholesome people tend to be at. There are not a lot of individuals who have the vision that you’re creating or a desire to make something out of nothing.
I think a lot of the people do have incredible desires and maybe they’re incredibly judged by society not only their doings but of familial inheritance. They’re judged because of the roots that they come from. They’ve inherited a certain way of being, and a particular way of being judged by society, and they’ve ended up in this place.
I wonder. How did you create for yourself the mindset to say, “I’m not going to be like the people here. I’m going to be something different.”
How did you put your mind to it to everyday focus towards that achievement despite the fact that a lot of the people around you were not trying to achieve the same thing?
I know that I’ve flourished more when I tend to put myself in spaces where I might not be the smartest guy in the room. Then what happens is I become way more educated. I might be the last man in the race, but because everyone else is running faster than me, I tend to run even more quickly than I’ve ever done before. But the challenge that you have is you’re trying to be in many ways, your leader.
Michael Santos
I found leadership was in reading.
I would read stories of successful people, and I would strive to emulate the characteristics that they have. That doesn’t stop in prison. I still do that today.
Methodical Step Of Making Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
When I was in prison, I would read incessantly, and I had a very methodical way of reading where every time I’d read a book, I would force myself to write a book report. The book report would answer three questions.
The first segment of the book report would talk about why I read this book. It would force me to read in a deliberate matter to make sure I’m reading books that have a very clear relationship to what I want to become.
Then the second question I would ask of every book report was what I learned from reading this book. It would force me to write out specifically the takeaways I got from this story.
And then, finally, I would write an answer this question, which was, how having read this book will contribute to my success upon release.
That methodical step accumulated hundreds of these book reports and that I could later use those book reports as currency when I was trying to make a sale on why other people should believe in me. I could show them, “Making something out of nothing is not all about happy talk. It’s about efforts, and this is who I have learned from, and this is tangible evidence that you can see I have learned from this people. This is how I’m going to apply these principles to my life.”
As I said, it not only got me through a prison. It got me onto success when I got out of jail. I had the same passion for succeeding when I got out of prison. I distinctly remember leaving prison and telling my wife, “Within five years, I’ll control more than a million dollars’ worth of assets, and build from there.”
It was those same principles that took me from getting out of prison, making something out of nothing, and creating successful ventures that could sustain my family and allow me to contribute positively to the world and to the people I care about.
Kamala Chambers
I would love to hear from you what one tip you would give to people who don’t have a lot going on right now or feel like they don’t have a lot going on, and want to get the next level of success is. What’s something that you would tell them that they could start doing right away to build something out of nothing?
Michael Santos
Great question.
I just recently read this book about Elon Musk, or I should say I listen to it. I listen to books while I’m running. These are principles of success in making something out of nothing, and I would have honed on this when I was in prison. I still do it today.
Find Mentors To Help You Build Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
Elon started in Canada and America. When he got into college, one of the things he and his brother did was they would write letters to 50 of the people they most wanted to meet. They’d explain to them why they admire them, what they would like to learn from them, and just ask for an opportunity for a 15 or a 20-minute meeting.
That’s the same thing that I did in prison. I had to find mentors and bring them into my life. I’d have to write to people I didn’t know and persuade them why their knowledge was so valuable to me. Then, I asked them for some one-on-one time whether it was a letter, a phone call, or a visit as Elon Musk did.
Well, that catapulted Elon Musk into building several ventures that have gone on to changing the world. It changed my life in prison and helped me make something out of nothing.
Michael Santos
I know your stories, and it’s very inspiring. From what I’ve read about both of you, you’ve both have had that challenge where you’ve been stuck in a tight situation but yet, you found a way to overcome.
I think there’s enormous value in listening to Thriving Launch and listening to your story because people can learn from you.
Luis Congdon
I love that tip you just gave, and it’s something I utilized when I was homeless at one point in my life in my late 20’s.
I was trying to find a way to turn my life around, and I knew that I couldn’t be employed anymore. For me, to help them make their dreams was tough for me and then I ended up becoming homeless and was very lost. I got very down on myself. Then I created a plan because someone suggested to me, “You should start interviewing people who you admire, and who had achieved what you want to achieve.” That’s how podcasting started for me.
I think that’s a great tip that you have there and I think that everybody should do that. I believe that it’s very brilliant. Podcasting is one of the ways that I’ve taken that tip that you talked about and utilize in my life, and it changed things dramatically.
Turn The Pain Into A Gift To Create Something Out Of Nothing.
Luis Congdon
One of the things I want to ask you know is you have this turning point that I think is incredible for you guys, Thriving Launchers to hear about. I believe and it’s something that Dr. Venus talked about as well is taking your pain and turning that pain into a product, a course. You can turn that pain sinto gift in the form of alchemy, and into something that can help other people and assist them to get through it faster.
Now, you have a podcast, products, and books. You’re working with judges and all sorts of government officials. You’re trying to help transform the prison system and give courses that help people who are incarcerated to create something out of nothing like you had. I’d like to hear a little bit about that.
Michael Santos
I got out of prison, and I knew that I had a couple of challenges to face. I was 49 years old when I finished my prison sentence. I knew that’s only 11 years away until you’re 60 and I came out to society with a 000 credit score. So I knew I would have to build and accelerate success.
I told my wife I was going to focus on my career, but at the same time, I wanted to create products and services that would help people in prison emerge successfully. And so, I took the same path.
One of the things I say is that I never ask anybody to do anything that I didn’t do and not still doing. So I documented the effort, and then I put into a package that would describe how this methodical step of articulating values and setting clear goals. Then, once you’ve done those two things following a principle path.
Utilize the Internet To Build Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
In my course, it’s called The Straight-A Guide. I talk about the importance of having the right attitude, aspiration, the importance of taking action, holding yourself accountable, becoming aware, celebrating every achievement and then, expressing appreciation by sowing the seeds. So those others could do the same thing, and that’s what makes you authentic. That’s, in a nutshell, the course that I teach. So I had to create it in a digital matter.
What do you do next?
That means I have to learn how to use Adobe products like InDesign so I can create courses.
Proactively Ask For Support When Making Something Out Of Nothing
Michael Santos
Then, I learned a lot from you and your excellent programs on how to podcast. I would record stories of other people who emerged successfully. Then, I would use all of those as sales tools.
I would go to government officials, and I would be able to point it to them. They could tune into iTunes if they wanted to and listen to any of several hundred interviews I did with people who emerged successfully, and I just made the case.
If you present these stories to people in prison, more people are going to have the hope and believe that they too can make something out of nothing.
If people have the hope, they can find the way themselves and recognize how the decisions they are making today have a direct influence on their prospects for success tomorrow.
Luis Congdon
One of the amazing things to hear about you is how you utilized the internet to make something out of nothing. You would message me and say, “Hey Luis. Do you have a few minutes? Can you teach me how to do this or that?” I know you were doing that with all sorts of people to educate yourself.
You came out very empowered, very proactive, and asking for help and support. That’s something that I always preach. If you guys follow me on Facebook or my emails, that’s something that I talk about a lot. Proactively ask for support and utilize your community when creating something out of nothing. That’s something that you did.
Create Something Out Of Nothing And Give It To Others
Luis Congdon
One of the other things you’ve done is you educated yourself and surrounded yourself with really successful people. A huge win, which is something that I watch you go through is taking your podcast. And now, it’s something that people in some prisons syndicate in the prisons and people can listen to.
I was on your show, and I know that episode went out to some of the prisons you worked with. It’s amazing to hear the work you’re doing and that you created when you had nothing. You’ve created something that is now a real value, and real wealth and giving a lot to the world.
Michael Santos
Yeah. And then, I love to go into the prisons.
Build Something Out Of Nothing And Inspire Others
Michael Santos
Like last week, I was inside of a prison in Victorville California. I had an opportunity to influence. You’re talking to a thousand people who are living without hope. But by having gone through it and shared these stories with people, you can see their eyes light up and see them start seeing possibilities for themselves for success. It’s not only when they come home from prison but while they’re in jail as well and that’s very fulfilling.
Kamala Chambers
We’ve been here with Michael Santos talking about how to build something out of nothing.
It’s been fantastic. All the tips that Michael has shared or things we can go out and apply right away, I just encourage you to take this all into your hearts today and look at the ways you can build something out of nothing and achieve greater success in your life.
Thank you so much for tuning in and keep thriving.
So grateful to Luis and Kamala for their awesome work in spreading awareness. I’m honored to be included in their program.
So fantastic to have you on the show!