Millionaire goes homeless to show anyone can make $1 million from scratch — it went as expected

The influencer economy has inspired young people across the globe to become content creators instead of sticking to the nine-to-five work culture. In July 2020, popular YouTuber Mike Black gave up his wealthy lifestyle to conduct a daring social experiment that sought to demonstrate that everyone could earn $1 million every year. However, his initiative, which he called the 'Million Dollar Comeback Challenge,' rapidly took a wrong turn and he had to abandon it after just 10 months. The objective of the challenge was to start a new company from scratch and take it to a million-dollar valuation. Black also updated his followers about the challenge on his YouTube channel.

At the start of his challenge, Black completely cut ties with his network and left his home behind. In one of his videos, he shared how his first task was to find a place to sleep without paying, by offering work in return. He made his breakthrough when a stranger gave him a free space to sleep in his van. With this arrangement, he was able to kickstart his challenge by concentrating on purchasing and reselling furniture for a profit. In addition, he took on other jobs including delivery and telemarketing, as reported by Ladbible. The next step was to decide what business he wanted to start, but Black's experiment sadly failed due to several setbacks.

In one of his videos, the YouTuber opened up about the reasons behind his decision to end the experiment two months earlier than planned. He announced, "I have officially decided to end the project early. Now, as much as it hurts me to do this, especially with just two months left, I feel like it's the right thing to do. I've been dealing with a lot of things personally, and recently, something's happened that has really pushed me over the edge." He added, "We have been through a lot together. We laughed and cried together. We walked miles together and spent late nights in the office, working super hard when no one else was watching. I seriously can't thank you all enough for the most amazing support that I could ever ask for."

He went on to reveal that his health had worsened so significantly that he had no option but to put his well-being first. As reported by Scoop Upworthy, Black shared that he was battling two autoimmune diseases, which brought on persistent fatigue and joint pain. As reported by The Mirror, he said, "My personal health has declined to the point where I really need to start taking care of it. Throughout the entire project, we haven't shared it with you, but I've been in and out of the doctor's office.” He also added, “Health and Family were much more important than the challenge so I decided to stop the whole project. We should always remember to help those in need because it could be the opportunity that they need."

Meanwhile, just four months into the challenge, he had yet another significant setback that completely turned his world upside down. It was his father's stage four colon cancer diagnosis. Black felt conflicted as his father started chemotherapy, wondering if he should carry on with the experiment. With the 'Million Dollar Comeback Challenge,' he had earned $64,000 before he decided to call it quits. He considers the project a success even if he ended it early since he thinks it demonstrated that anyone could restart their life from nothing.