I was recently asked by a 26-year-old man, who’s 4 and a half years sober with no education, what I would do if I was in his shoes.

I told him point-blank, “You’re in such a great place and don’t even realize it.”

Think about it, he has absolutely NOTHING to lose, with no expectations. He’s starting from 0, anything he does is going to be a win.

I’m a 10th-grade dropout and got sober when I was almost 22 years old (you can read more about my own battle with addiction here).

I told him that the hardest part is figuring out what you want to do with your life. For me, it was helping other people on their path to recovery.

In order for me to do so, I had to learn how to create a sober living house, which eventually scaled into New England’s largest addiction treatment center.

In all honesty, this young man has a greater advantage than I did. When I was teaching myself, I had to go to the library and use the Dewey Decimal System.

He, on the other hand, is just a Google search away from learning anything he wants to.

As I always say, college is an experience, the information learned is literally free.

I told him to figure out what he wants to do with his life, figure out how he’s going to make money doing it, and then educate himself until he’s a master at it.