John Malott spent six months isolated after rehab because old friends were "kryptonite" pulling him back to drugs. He argues environment shapes everything: toxic people undo recovery, while the conventional job is modern slavery. Both speakers say you need a shock, like hitting bottom, to force real change.
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So did you kind of— did you like change environment? Like, did you move? Or like, what was— as soon as you get out, what happens next there?
Uh, for— when I got out, yeah, I was— I didn't— I disappeared.
Okay.
You couldn't find me for probably 6 months. Um, I was— you couldn't get a hold of me.
Yeah.
I knew because the same thing happened when I left drug rehab for the first time. I was clean for 9 months. Coming out of drug rehab.
Yeah.
And how'd I do that? I stayed the hell away from everybody.
Yep.
The only way for me, because as soon as I got back around my associations, you just get sucked back into it, man.
Yeah.
So, you know, when you— what do they say, you know, if you hang around 5 people that—
yeah, you're the average of the 5.
Yeah, you're the average of 5 people you hang out with the most. And that's— yeah, I just kept getting sucked back in. And, you know, I knew it was, it was kryptonite for me because it was fun, man. You know, yeah, we had great times until it turned, you know, it always turned at some point.
No, definitely. I think that like environment is just so crazily important, man. I think most people don't just realize that like if it's a good environment, it can take you just so far, and then vice versa, it can take you the complete other way.
I cannot be around people with bad energy. I can't, because I know, I know what it's doing to me. And, and for whatever reason, I'm like a, uh, what the hell you call, like a conduit, man.
You know, yeah, I'm very similar.
Yeah, it's just so— I, I just, I avoid it quick.
Definitely. Yeah, that— I actually had to do a similar thing. I, I wasn't doing as, as hard of things as you. Your story is better, um, but—
or worse, depending on how you look at it.
Oh yeah, yeah, good point. But like, it was just, I needed like a different environment. So for me, that's like Miami. But like, where I grew up— and I think it's almost for anybody, just like your high school friends, even if it's not like hardcore drugs, it's just like getting out of that, you know, the 18 years that you spent, that normal routine, like you need like a shock or something like to get out of there and just find your own path. Because if not, you'll just stay there because that's all you know.
So no doubt, that was me. I needed a shot. Well, you know, arrest, drug problem, all that. That's what it took to shake me.
Yeah, definitely.
It's, and it's crazy that it, it took that much when I look back at it. But then again, man, I'm like, you know, now I feel blessed, you know, that that happened. And for me, I had to hit rock bottom before I could start climbing, before I could start moving up. I feel bad for a lot of people that, you know, they get their education, they get a nice job, and then they're frustrated their whole lives.
Yeah.
So I was frustrated for, you know, a small period.
Intense, but short.
Yeah, it was intense, but it was still relatively short. I see people that just are miserable. you know, their whole lives, you know. And yeah, they got something called the fucking rat race that they're in, you know. It's like they live for the weekends, you know. They got 2 days to, you know, and then Sunday they're shot because they party Saturday night or whatever. It just doesn't— it just seems like a pretty miserable—
me too. Yeah, I couldn't do it, man.
Like, I—
it— for me, it was, uh, I was actually in San Diego before moving here, and I was just starting the business, and I was just thinking to myself, I was like, it got to a point where I would have rather lived outside. And, you know, San Diego, living outside is not that bad. I suppose. But I was like, I'd rather be homeless than to have like a corporate job. And once that really clicked in for me, then I was just like full speed ahead. Like, and I didn't know what I was doing, but I was just like, I'll figure it out because that is— I like, I'm not doing that. So once you're free, man.
Yeah. You know, and, and that's, you know, it was, uh, Harriet Tubman said she would have freed more slaves had they only known they were slaves. So when I think about that, it's not different. It's not different. You got so many people, they, I mean, it's a different type of slavery. They're miserable as hell. They feel trapped. They wake up, they're gonna wake up tomorrow morning to an alarm clock. They're gonna go to a place they can't stand, hang out with people you know they don't like, and they don't like them, 'cause when they walk past the, you know, when you walk past the water cooler, they stop talking 'cause they're talking about you. And when they're gone, you talk about them, and you got this cycle of brown-nosing, all these different terms we have. And they do this for what, 30 years, 40 years? Then they go greet at, Walmart, and then you die. I mean, that's basically the program. And it just, it's hard if you start to look at it, man. It's like, I would, like you said, homeless is extreme. Yeah, but in San Diego, shit, get a tent.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was like, it ain't that bad. It's nice. Never rains. Like, this is perfect for homeless. Like, get a book and, you know, yeah.
