Homeless Heroin Addict Gets Clean And Becomes A Millionaire

If we never experienced low points in our lives we wouldn't know what a high point felt like. In order to get back up, you have to get knocked down first. One man found himself sinking further and further in life and didn't see a way out... until someone showed him a side of life that would not only save him but would allow him to help others too. Sometimes the best way to lift yourself up is by doing something for others first, and that's exactly what he did.

Thirteen years ago Khalil Rafati was at rock bottom.

He was homeless and a heroin addict.

He was staying on Skid Row in Los Angeles and weighed 106 lb.

He originally moved to LA in the 1990s to sell cars, but soon found himself dealing drugs.

From there he became addicted to heroin himself.

In 2001 he tried to overdose at a house party. 

Two years after that he was in jail.

Once he got out, he found himself on the streets.

"I'd finally reached the bottoms of all bottoms," he said.

"There was no more digging left to do, all of my shovels were broken. I was done."

He decided to turn his life around and get clean.

He had also joined Riviera Recovery, a transitional living facility for drug addicts and alcoholics in Malibu.

But what really helped him was when a friend showed him juicing and super foods.

He started making smoothies and bringing them to the patients and staff at the facility.

“It was meant to rejuvenate and strengthen the patients and give them some much-needed strength."

"Lethargy in sobriety is pretty brutal, especially if you're coming off a long run with hard-core drugs."

Word got out about his great smoothies and soon residents from all over Malibu were showing up to try them.

Khalil saw how much the patients were benefiting from the smoothies and how much people loved them.

He knew what he needed to do.

So, along with his girlfriend and $50,000 in gold coins he had stashed from gambling, he opened up his first juice bar and called it SunLife Organics.

Now Khalil has his chain in six locations in Los Angeles.

His motto is to love, heal, and inspire, and he is doing just that with his memoir, I Forgot To Die.

He has risen from rock bottom to now being a millionaire, and he makes a point to only hire people who were once like him.

“Right from the start he was trying to better my life," said employee Cache Coelho who was addicted to OxyContin. 

“He pushes us very hard in a father-like sense … especially the ones he believes in.”

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