Ryan Blair – How A Gangster Became A Millionaire


This is just another story about how you can get anything you desire if you are fully dedicated to it. This is the story of a bad kid, who becomes a multimillionaire, founding his own company. This is a story about a guy who hasn’t even finished high school, and at the same time, he writes a book that reaches a top place on the best sellers list of the New York Times.

Ryan Blair

Ryan Blair

A picture from his blog: http://ryanblair.com



Ryan Blair was born on the 14th of July, 1977, in Southern California. He had a tough childhood, his father was far from the best, he was addicted to meth and treated the young Ryan violently. Maybe this, maybe something else was the reason why Blair suffered from attention deficit disorder, and as you may suggest, he was not an exemplary schoolboy. He was not coping well with studying and he dropped out of school when he was in the 9th grade. When he was 13, his dad left the family, and at 14, Ryan joined a gang and left home, too. Since then, his life started going down. He got into trouble and was arrested several times. After the last one, he found himself sitting in a cage in jail, facing a 4 years sentence. At an age in which most of the boys start chasing girls and thinking of what college they want to go to, Blair was a prisoner. This was the time when the young guy hit the bottom. Eventually, all his problems made him realize that he was going nowhere this way. And not only did he change, but also he learned form his mistakes. When he became 18, his mother had a relationship with a real-estate businessman, who gave Ryan’s first job and became his mentor. He worked with him for a while and in the meanwhile, he decided to start his first company – a computer support firm called 24/7 Tech. In the following years, he had another 6 successful startups like SkyPipeline.

In 2005, Ryan co-founded and became the CEO of ViSalus Sciences, a multilevel marketing company manufacturing and selling weight loss and nutritional

supplement products. Over the years, he managed to save the company from bankruptcy and grow the business to half a billion dollars empire. He became one of the entrepreneurs of the year of Ernst & Young in 2012. In 2013 he finished his book Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur, in which he writes about his life and how he got to where he is now. His catching story quickly made the book a bestseller. Ryan has also made a documentary about his life called Nothing To Lose, which can be viewed online here: ntldocumentary.com

Today, Bryan lives with his son in Los Angeles. He has a nice house and a decent life, the fruits of his fight with life.

In addition to his career success, Ryan has also moved fairly deeply into the philanthropic arena. In 2012, he co-founded the ‘WillPower Foundation’ with Asim Akhil to support organizations and individuals striving to make a social, emotional, and economic impact. Ryan also frequently hosts events and appears on television talk shows to share his lessons and inspirations with a broader audience.

Today, Ryan Blair continues to break barriers and build meaningful businesses. With his infectious enthusiasm, unstoppable drive, and powerful story of transformation, he is by far one of the greatest success stories of our time.

Ryan Blair is one of the examples of a successful entrepreneur rising from humble beginnings to become the founder of companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars.