It's Never Too Late to Turn Your Life Around (ft. Brandon Novak)

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Podcast

Mark Manson

Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2024

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Brandon Novak showed all the signs of becoming a highly successful, rebellious young man. He was a professional skateboarder in his early teens, rubbing elbows with the likes of Bucky Lasek and Tony Hawk. In his late teens and twenties, he was a regular on world-famous TV shows like Viva La Bam and Jackass.

But drugs and alcohol were always lurking in the shadows for Novak, and he soon fell head-first into the dark trap of his addictions. He endured bouts of homelessness, committed every petty crime you could imagine, and even resorted to sex work to feed his addictions.

The stats would suggest Brandon Novak shouldn’t be sober right now. He probably shouldn’t even be alive. But not only is he alive with 9 years of sobriety under his belt, he’s found a deep and meaningful purpose in his life, running his own rehab centers and taking care of his elderly mother.

This is the hilarious and heartening story of how Brandon Novak turned it all around. And trust me, if he can do it, so can anyone else.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It took Brandon Novak approximately three minutes to find a reason to take off his pants in my podcast studio.
0:06.4	And once he had a reason, he did not hesitate to oblige.
0:09.5	Famously known as Nooty Novak by his jackass co-stars, Brandon was a skateboarding prodigy who went on the
0:15.6	star on some of MTV's most iconic shows in the 2000s. You've likely known him for falling
0:20.8	down skateboard ramps or shitting himself in one of the jackass movies.
0:24.4	But Brandon may also have one of the most incredible redemption arcs that I've ever come across in my life.
0:30.6	An alcoholic and intense drug addict since a teenager, Novak blew through millions of dollars
0:36.3	shooting dope to the point where he became homeless and had to resort the sex work to get his
0:41.2	next fix. Novak spent his 19th, 20th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 27th, 28th, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, and 35th birthdays, either in jail or in rehab.
0:55.1	And after dozens of overdoses, his friends and family all wrote him off for dead.
0:59.4	His mother went as far as to buy a plot at a local cemetery in preparation for his death.
1:04.3	Yet somehow he's still alive, he's lucid, and he's sober.
1:08.2	And not only that, he's reinvented himself as a New York Times best-selling author, a motivational speaker, and a certified intervention
1:15.1	specialist.
1:16.1	He has co-founded the Redemption Treatment Center for Attics and a series of sober recovery homes that
1:21.0	are called Novak's house. But Brandon's incredible story of
1:24.0	recovery aside we talk about more than addiction. We get into all sorts of topics
1:28.1	including why love is not enough if you truly want to help someone struggling in
1:32.2	your life.
1:33.0	Why resentment is at the root of all self-destruction,
1:36.0	how persistence can actually backfire
1:38.0	and a surprising link between Brandon's skateboarding accomplishments
	...

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