Lessons From a Long Shot
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.
Audio: Ariza Music Productions
Transcript: 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 School tutor says, you should maybe work with your hands, because not everybody's meant to do what they want to do. I said, Screw you! So, I started a business the day after I graduated high school, I failed miserably. Two weeks later, it didn't work out. But then I decided, Okay, I'll go to City College for six months, practice psychology, acting, entrepreneurship and business. And within six months, I did standup comedy when I was 19, my first, and I brought a lot of people there. I said, if I could do this, I could do this …which is really big in the late 80s. And then six months after that, I became the number one nightclub promoter in my age bracket in Los Angeles. That was when I stepped into AWS and my story where I open the floodgates. I became an actor, my first role was playing Dirk Diggler in the Dirk Diggler story, which became Boogie Nights, which I appear in as well, I became a filmmaker, did a lot of documentaries, that some of the biggest promotional events in Hollywood for movies like the Batman movie 89, which is a 4000 person event, and I left my nightclub business, then I said, I'm gonna be a filmmaker, an actor, and I made an award winning short film that got bought by HBO and I almost got close to a movie deal for one of my screenplays. But then nothing, no deal. Two years of development, how I'm broke, I'm in debt, no more nightclub business! So, then I said, I'm going to make my own movie screw Hollywood. I'm gonna make a movie that they don't want to make because they want to make this gambling casino movie, which I did. I did it underground gambling Centre in LA when I was a promoter. So, I wrote a screenplay about what they want to do, but it just fell through. So, I was making movies nobody wants to make, but I was dead broke. So, I started a company, the company I have now, and I started it when in debt. I was breaking and I didn't have any money. Within six months, made half a million dollars and was able to produce a movie called Love Hollywood Style with Faye Dunaway, Andy Dick and Coolio and acting, producing, directing it. Basically, it almost bottomed out my business and I made the movie successful for what it was. But then I said, I'm going to choose my opportunity over passion, and I grew this business, and I kept with that business. And it made over $100 million since and I said if I'm ever going to do a podcast, it's going to be about somebody that shows the ebb and flow of failure and success…I am closely related to psychology, personal development, which I became heavily involved in when I was in my early 20s. And really exploited, passion and opportunity, success, and failure. That's why I do a podcast called Long Shot Leaders.
Marlana: love it. Let me ask you this, when people come at you and they give you all kinds of excuses as to why they can't do this or can't do that, what would you say to those people based on your story?
Michael: Well, yeah, cuz that's my creed. There is no excuse, you're lucky to be alive. my dad was put in an orphanage when he was like eight years old, and he ran away from the orphanage. So, he was homeless, he slipped that alleyway in second St, Mark's on Lower East Side. And you'd hear that story all the time, so, my first knee jerk reaction towards that, forgive me, it's just Pavlov's conditioning. For me is like, there's no excuse, I can't, it's hard to hear an excuse. Because, I should be dead, three times over, I shouldn't be alive, but I don't want to be tendentious - to use that fancy word, for other people, want to be open minded to see for every scenario. So, it's important for me to be fluid, but I do say that my first intuition is, look! You got to gravitate towards pick up your bootstraps. There's got to be a way because where time plus effort equals into critical mass. There's got to be inevitable, somewhat a modicum of success that you can build upon. That's my philosophy.
Marlana: What's your thoughts on seizing opportunity versus creating opportunity?
Michael: Well, you can, it doesn't really matter. I like to hit the Zen Buddhists things like, ones a Buddhist wearing white, one wearing black, they both jump off of 100 story building, which one hits the ground? First? What difference does it make if you facilitate your own opportunity, or opportunity comes in…? It depends on what your broad, you step back for scope, whatever your broad concept is of success. And you step way back, and you say, what's going to get me from point A to point Z, the quickest way for my ultimate goal is that congruent? Or am I just telling myself, I really want to do this, but there's cognitive dissidence, that like is going adverse to that? It really doesn't matter to me, whether something comes along, you're ‘but I facilitated all this success in one area’. It's like, Wait, something just came along, that's going to meet your end goal? What difference does it make, just go for that? So, I follow your opportunity, but long as it meets the end goal, but you got to be clear on your scope first.
Marlana: Yeah. And I know that you have a 10 point recipe that sets you up for success. So
Michael: you looked at that? I don't think anybody looks at that.
Marlana: I look at everything.
Michael: I'm not a personal development person that makes money off of that, I'm an entrepreneur, but I put that that's what I, I said, I'm gonna put something together that, that is successful for me. And the first thing is scope., that's the first thing I put on there, I believe, right? And to understand the whole, who you are, what you want, why you want that, the total five why's and then implement that, Why is that? and then understand your situation first because can't go anywhere? Unless you know where, you understand why you're going,
Marlana: What about changing where you are being… let me put it this way, being open to changes and morphing into something because I know somebody had said to me once be rigid on the goal but flexible on the method. Right? Do you believe that?
Michael: I have a wonderful metaphor for that actually. It reminds me of standup comedy., which I've done off and on for, since I was 19. And the most important thing Greg Dean who's been on my show will tell you is one of the foremost like greatest comedy, standup comedian coaches in the world. The most important thing when doing standup comedy is that you want to learn your set, you want to know what you're going to talk about, you want to know the objectives, you want to get so comfortable with the subject matter, and use pictures, sounds and feelings to get attached to it emotionally. But the most important thing, when you performing to an audience, whether you and I, as podcast, people, the most important thing an act is the rapport with the audience, the band, a loop of what we're communicating with each other, that's the most important thing. So, what was the metaphor for? Rigid on your goal, but flexible on your vision.… So would you drop all the material, you learn it, set it, and then forget it and drop all the material. And then, realize that look at something else comes along, can't be so rigid. The rapport, the audience is most probably in sound, how do you have to be willing to take everything in a different direction, because the most important thing is the end goal, which is to make people, have that bandha loop, the most important thing with your goal is that end result. So, anything that you have to be hone your craft, another great metaphor is like Bruce Lee be like water, your bottle could be ice, it could be fluid, be fluid to be ready for anything. But that doesn't mean that, I'm not going to do any work, I'm not going to like to prepare, you got to prepare and prepare hard, so then you could forget, so you're ready for whatever can happen. Whatever you need to be,
Marlana: how difficult is standup comedy,
Michael: it is extremely difficult. It's like one of the most difficult things you could ever do. Because it's like being an athlete, anybody can imagine, but focus on you walk on a stage. If you're just starting out, there could be over 100 people, and you don't have any instruments…anything other than you and a microphone, and it is your job to get lpm (laugh per minutes), X amount, at least maybe three laughs per minute. And you need to be able to get those people to emotionally trigger into laughter in a succession that will get this and also keep a rapport. It's extremely difficult but that's the technical part of it. You just need to do your reps. So, it's seven days a week if you want to be the best, if you want to dabble fine, but then you're going to screw up and be careful because the great is great in comedy, but the worst is much better when you bomb. So, I was terrified not to prepare and then actually be in the moment. It's really difficult.
Marlana: How has humor helped or supported you throughout your journey?
Michael: There's a lot of pain, a lot of comedians, not all of them I guess Seinfeld, maybe he's well adjusted, but most of us are just poor sad sacks that have gone through a lot of pain. So, when you talk about the relationship between laughter and when you first got people to laugh and why you got laughed, every comedian will have a knee jerk reaction of tears in the end if they're honest with themselves and I'm no different. So, the relationship is my first bit of success, my way to survive, my way to talk myself out of fights. I've never been in a lot of fights, I've had aggression myself, but I've never really picked on me because I've been on both ends of the spectrum. I mean, it's a tool that when your girlfriend's cheat on, your dad doesn't show up, or you get beat with a wooden hanger, or whatever it is, things that traumatize, you choose that, and you know what it works because it's called an NLP (neuro linguistic programming). You can now reframe, you got to be careful with comedy. When I got heavily involved in person development, I had a coach when I was in my 20s and everything was a joke trigger response for premise punch line. And she goes Whoa! Whoa! Wait! you gotta be careful what you're focusing on because your focus, your physiology, and your words are going to the triad of emotions, are going to determine a metastasize a certain result. So, I said wagon better invents something like the third eye a comedy to realize what I'm saying, something or doing something that I have a trigger says my guts a joke is premise punchline. You can't always believe everything, but it really helps you to reframe kidding me. Comedians helps them to reframe a situation. And now it gives it a new meaning and it's not pain.
Marlana: But you went on to do a lot with a lot of big names and things in Hollywood. So how did you make those connections? Because I know, a friend of mine says, nobody steps on to the roof. You always get there by a ladder. So how did you start to make those connections?
Michael: I think your journey starts with making friends, that's why I do a podcast, that's why I'm connection driven. That's why I want to be a standup comedian. I didn't have a lot of friends because I was feeling alienated. So, I start doing parties in high school, I start doing standup comedy, I do a nightclub. Once I start doing a nightclub, then things really change because you're running for president without the education. You meet 1000s of people seven nights a week, seven days a week, you have a full force; and that really opened up for me to meet a lot of people. The way I got to meet some of the biggest people in Hollywood is my love for calves. So, I see this girl, I don't know who she is. I said, “you have great calves”. I just love the girl with great developed calves. So, my wife also has good calves. So, she says thank you, and she just brushes me off, finds out that she kind of liked me, so two months later, she pursued me and called me got my number that we started dating, and I didn't know who her dad was. But her dad was Peter Guber, who was just finishing up the final touches on Rain Man producing Rain Man, which he won the Academy Award for that year as Best Picture. And he was also preparing to do the Batman movie in 1989, which became the biggest blockbuster and he's one of the, as partners, John Peters, Barbra Streisand's ex-husband. And so, I read, I walked into this situation, and I grew up in a wealthy neighborhood as a poor kid. So, I was used to that even in Encino. That's where I grew up. But walking into Bel Air, Peter Guber, who was voted the most powerful man in Hollywood. And I walked into that, that's what happened, everything kind of changed., I ended up getting a lot of doors open, I've never been on private Learjet got to do that. So, a couple of times, go to Aspen, and, and just see a warm part of the world. So, I meet people. And that changed my life and also got me to see how a really, truly successful person does what they do, and see how they operate and see how they think. So, I got to do the Batman movie. That was my idea to do a big promotion because I was a nightclub promoter. So, let's do that. And there's a great story behind that because John Peterson was kind of like me, he felt like an outsider. He and I teamed up in Aspen with this concept to do a Batman a big party, big event for the Batman movie. That's why I met Paul Thomas Anderson, because his girlfriend was Jody Gruber, and my girlfriend was Elizabeth Gruber. Then he kept saying, I want your hilarious, I want to put you as a short film concept, I have to play Dirk Diggler in the Diggler story. And that became Boogie Nights, which I appeared in and, and so, that was you put yourself out there. I wasn't phony, I was a person operated with integrity. I think people have power always like that, and that just came natural to me, as to where I didn't try to pull a lot out of people, and sometimes to the detriment sometimes not enough, but that's part of my big journey. And then I've always really appreciated the quality relationships, I've met a lot of powerful people that I've not friends with, just because they're powerful, but I've met a lot. The people I hold on to appreciate me, and I appreciate them because integrity and honesty which is the antithesis of Hollywood culture, sometimes not Hollywood, the places great, so where I was born, but the culture is a little different. So that's my encapsulated concept on meeting people of power and…the relationships.
Marlana: But I find it interesting because your kind of didn't take no for an answer with the movie that you wanted to make. So, you are now, and you created a company to fund this movie. So, talk to us a little bit more about this company that you have
Michael: People say it's tarps. We sell tarps and so where in the world you sell tarps. It's so random. So Well, my dad was in a tool business in the late 60s, and then he decided to leave that to a business. It was fledgling. He had a partner named Alan Smith, and he says, I'm leaving, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna sell these calculators, they become really small, and then the late early 70s, it's a fascinating thing. So, he moved up to Canada without Canadian dollar, same American dollar and others opportunity and he did this mail, or a campaign was like the Internet back then mail order, only four to six weeks. You don't get the product, and it became huge. He made millions of dollars, like $3 million was within 16 months, which is an astronomical amount like literally 70s for him, and then it failed. Then that person that was his top business partner in the 60s started another tool business in the 70s called harbor freight. And I saw this, which if people don't know harbor freight, it's got like 400 locations around the world, and they're a multibillion dollar company. My dad and him had nothing together, and my dad went through a crazy lifestyle. Smutty was like the turtle and my dad was like the hair. And why did I pick tars? Because my dad when he got arrested for white check fraud? No, when I was in high school, I saw this homeless again, he's living in a van, outside of the house in Encino, and he always says, I'm gonna bounce back. And he had these ideas of a celebration, where's Why did you sell this, and that's the business that I failed in. And I try, and after high school, and I said, if I want to do something on the internet, and I want to make money for my movie, but I want something that's going to be important, that people can use, something that's used, something I don't know, something that's like… and I was looking at his catalogue that Harbor Freight had, and I saw the tortoise and the hare situation, and I knew that the richer, the niches and this isn't the riches. And I said, I wish they'd be more romantic, but the reason why it's targeted, because when I was a nightclub promoter, also I used to let people get in for half price for the canned food for the homeless, as a tarps, I could feel, I could get, give it to the homeless, I can do,, we help out with tragedies, they're simple, they can be used for a lot of things. I'm an outdoor kind of guy, I could see this being a romantic product and turning into something else. I just chose that and it worked. Within that first year, I was able to donate 1000 tarps for the homeless, that law mission, we haven't done every year, we're doing it this year. And it just turned out to be a product that I felt like would be better than just selling a drill bed, or a widget that doesn't have anything else behind it. That is not a vehicle, I tried to understand scope and what something could turn into and it's taken a long time, but we are launching a product that is going to be like an outdoor product next year, November 1, 2022. A product a hopefully will define this industry the same way they like Yeti defined the cooler and take us to another level. So that's what we're working on with that.
Marlana: I love that. It started off as a way to fund the movie, but it really turned into this whole heart centric thing. In a lot of ways.
Michael: Yeah. The funny thing about that is like, when those hurricanes came along, there was like big hurricanes and 2004. And then Katrina came along in 2005. And I was three years into that business, too., and I bought out the United States and like, other jobbers that do what I did on product, because Florida came along and said, We need like a multimillion dollar order. And I was able to take care of that. And then next year, I was like a blue roof guy. And have I covered all of Katrina, with tarps. So, then the next year, they started calling me, like Hurricane Mike, which I thought was silly, because I'm like Happy Gilmore. I'm like, can you make that in the movie? He's like, can you take that like hockey that golf guy off and put a hockey guy on? I'm like, I want to be an actor or filmmaker, still, I'm trying to fight this thing., but my overall goal when I was a kid is I wanted to be the calculator kid. So, I thought, You know what? I'm not the calculator kid. But maybe I could be a hurricane Mike and so, pay for movies. And I could still do, a consolation prize. And that was kind of like a fun romantic story about that, that scenario.
Marlana: Love it. And so let me ask you this, then. You are known for being hurricane Mike has wanted to be known for movies. So how do you build that? That brand?
Michael: it's tough. I don't know if it's possible in this day and age, but you have to just be a comfort with your own lane. So right now I'm an entrepreneur. I'm doing standup comedy game because I have to, I've left filmmaking for a long time. Because my girls wanted to leave, I left and I moved out to Georgetown, Texas 11 years ago, and I raise my girls, and that's a priority for my scope, right, priority family. That's the conflict. Because there's choices you have to make where you can't do enough that now they're getting older, like 15 and 12 and a half and, like, Dad, I'm going to see friends and I could see what's happening and it's like, alright, Mike, let's start a podcast. Let's start with that, let's make sure the business is priority number one, because that's what's makes you money. That's what can pay for possibly another film one day. And so, I just leave it open. I don't let you know the nobody really thinks well, Schwarzenegger that's a terrible name for an actor's like, well, you know what, he owned it and he did pretty well., and I used to have all these thoughts and how to, a society feels about what you're doing now. And why are you doing that? And because I'm only five, seven, because I have a Jewish last name Stein. I was like, I can't be an actor, I need my dinner. Oh! Pacino that's a name for an actor silly thing! I'm only 5’7” I can't be successful. Okay, all that because number one Jeff Bezos 5’7”, same height as me. Schwarzenegger with a name like that anybody can have, be successful. And it doesn't make sense, like, Stop Stein, that I'm Jewish people. It's like, you know what, I can't be…Albert Einstein was, so, if you're gonna play ****, you might as well believe some *** in the positive direction. So, to answer your question, that has come into my psyche a long time ago. And as you get older, it's like, Hollywood only wants young people, it's like, I don't care, I can't get involved anymore, with like, what people think you just have to create your own lane. And I'm going to continue to be the entrepreneur, I always want to be, starting to do stand up again, I got this podcast, and I'm probably going to do a film about a year and a half from now because the product launch is going to make a lot of money. And I have to concentrate on that first. And I might just take some coin and then just say, what do an independent film, and start, you know that up again, and I don't care about the rules.
Marlana: So, what would be your advice to anybody who has a dream? doesn't think that they can do it? Or they don't believe enough in themselves? Or any of that, but what would you tell them?
Michael: I would say that, get out of your own way. There's an old saying, I have, my daughter's get embarrassed. I said…she was my oldest sister, but I was like, well, and I coined this a long time ago, sometimes it's more embarrassing to be embarrassed by what you feel is embarrassing. And you got to get out of who cares about failure, there's no time to waste, there's no time to give yourself, you reframe the stories that you want, and get out of your own way. And just do, get scope, understand what your idea is, what you want, and then start to strategize, and don't care about the rules. I'm not saying not to be cognizant of like things like, I'm gonna try to cast Carrot Top,, and in a dramatic film, that I want to win the Academy Award. But, what you never know, the juxtaposition of him doing that, and he comes out with his real name. And then there's the dynamics of that, it's like, holy ***, it was an amount, You can't get rules anymore until, don't get the rules for yourself. That's what I would say is like reframe, and mind you try your trial logic, trial, you're truly triad of emotions, which is your physiology, your focus, and your words, everything begins with that, right? Because you get these notions in your head. And then the pattern said, you start to get physiology of failure, you start to focus on the failure, you start your words, internally, in the words you say to yourself, even if it's a joke, you got to be careful, because that's the spark that starts the journey. And if you don't mind on how you carry yourself, what you focus on, and the words you say, internally and externally, you need to get that recipe prepared first, after scope, and understand how to model that and work that in your nervous system, like a muscle every day, and trigger that to make sure it's like, oh to failure, no problem. I'm gonna change my physiology, change my focus right now. I'm changing my words. That's what this means,. And the last thing I'll say about that is, there's an old personal development analogy, when you're a race car driver, and tell race car drivers, when you're skidding towards a wall, automatically, you want to look at the wall to see where you're going. It's like no, no, the first thing you do they tell a race car driver, you're skidding toward that wall as look to where you want to go immediately before even like worried about your hands, trigger your eyeballs to find the track. And then your hands will automatically start to turn into the track. So, focus on where you want to go first.
Marlana: Love that. And with that, Mike, I just have four final questions for you. The first one is what's the best piece of advice you're ever given?
Michael: And you sent this to me in the pregame, right? I was like, and as soon as sounds so trite, because other people ask us, but there’s more behind it. So, once again, one of the most influential people that I met when I was younger Peter Goober, I'm at a restaurant and they liked me. They said, What can we do for you? What do you want to do? And I said, Well, I'm promoting nightclubs. He goes, Well, what you want to do is you want to own the nightclub? I said, Well, you're right. So, I'm trying to do that. He goes, try to do that? And at this point, very strong. There was a pencil on the table, and he goes there he can ask question, like, move that pencil. I move it. He goes, Did you try to do that or just Do it? And I said, Okay! Yoda, I said, I was like angry as a kid, I was like this ****, or you're just toying with me like a cat on a piece of yarn, because you're so successful. And I'm just a little guy, and, but it made perfect sense, because what's behind that is, once it's like Neo in the Matrix, he sees the matrix that's like, holy ***. Once I know how to do X, Y, and Z, sometimes you just, if you don't want to work out, use your mind, just walk to the gym, you just turn on whether it's a video or something and make it work, you just do it. You don't think, you just have to do it sometimes. And it's the muscle part of that. So that was the best advice I ever got. Because once I started understanding, okay, that's intellectual knowledge, as he told me, the physical knowledge, taking that to my nervous system and applying it to make sure like, just do it. That’s the Nike saying, that's the difference, the work behind that concept. So that was the best advice I ever got. Because it sticks to me ever whenever I feel like procrastination sets in or I'm not going to follow through with action.
Marlana: Show us this one thing on your bucket list
Michael: There’s so much money you can make, there’s so much accomplishments you can get, I think I’ll be an entrepreneur forever, but things will be an altimate goal towards the days down and I think I will be the old guy after I’ve done, even movies. I will end where I started and I won’t be just in the United States, this is an old guy that was done stand up comedy, and people all around the states will be like “who is that crazy old dude” That’s the guy who did stand up comedy, and for me that’s my bucket list.
Marlana: So, when the toys company finally gets around to make an action figure of you, what two accessories will it come with?
Michael: That question is so difficult, that’s a great question by the way. I’d think it would pull a string, there’s a couple of things. It would be an action figure that’s really highper, you could kick it, you can beat it, you can just beat the crap out of it and its okay with you, and it just keeps on getting back up, you know its fun, something like that.
Marlana: And the last one, how do people find you?
Michael: Just go to longshotleaders.com. If you have a longshot story of anything, you know if you just have a good longshot story, we gonna meet somebody that became homeless when he was twelve years, and now he is a manager of a business at twenty four years, to me that’s like really a longshot story, so anything, contact us at longshotleader.com and you’ll find my email, social media and everything else.
Marlana: Thank you so much for being here.
Michael: My pleasure, thank you so much.