A man who went viral after making himself homeless during the Coronavirus pandemic has explained why he did it.
During Covid-19, people around the world were faced with terrifying uncertainty as the world around them shut down indefinitely. Aware that people around him were now struggling, businessman and YouTuber Mike Black decided to see if he would be able to rebuild his life from zero.
Embarking on a journey called ‘Million Dollar Comeback’, Black drained his bank account to zero, put his business on hold, and left his home to see whether or not he could make $1,000,000 (£802k) within a year – beginning with just a mobile phone and the clothes he was wearing.
Businessman Mike Black wanted to see if he could start over from scratch (Youtube/Mike Black)
“I wanted to do this to help people,” he later said of the project. “That was the goal of the entire project, not just tell people ‘here’s what I would do if I was starting over’, f**king do it. Show people with action.”
So, what happened?
Black’s project ended after just 10 months, with the business owner forced to cut his journey short after experiencing health issues. However, he was able to make around $64,000 (£52.7k) during the process after flipping furniture on Craigslist, reinvesting the money to get a laptop and securing various marketing gigs before making an e-commerce business of his own.
The business owner would also suffer numerous setbacks during the 10 months, including the devastating news that his father had been diagnosed with stage four cancer.
The content creator went on to make (Youtube/Mike Black)
Why did Mike Black do the ‘Million Dollar Comeback’ challenge?
Black’s project would later resurface on the internet in 2024, after a thread claiming his experiment was to prove ‘anyone can make $1M in 12 months with just a phone’ went viral across social media.
Naturally Black went on to receive backlash online as his challenge reached more and more people, with many branding his actions insensitive to the challenges that homeless people face on a day-to-day basis.
The backlash led Black to make a follow-up video explaining why he decided to do the project and clarifying that it wasn’t a social experiment to see if anyone could go from being homeless to a millionaire.
“It had nothing to do with homelessness,” he said in the video, explaining that he wanted to prove it was possible for people to reinvent themselves.
Responding specifically to the comments that claimed that he’d said anyone could go from being homeless to a millionaire in a year, he added: “None of this is true. If you go through my content I don’t say things like ‘anyone can make a million dollars’… especially in 12 months. There’s a lot of inaccuracies here.”
A man who made himself homeless to try and prove he could make $1 million (£802k) in 12 months cancelled the social experiment early, despite having two months remaining.
Millionaire Mike Black announced he had ended his project, titled Million Dollar Comeback, after beginning it in 2020 during the pandemic.
Mike stepped away from his seven-figure business, started sleeping on benches, cleared out his bank account and said goodbye to his family in an attempt to prove that he could make a ‘comeback’ in 12 months.
He committed to the challenge in a bid to inspire others and show how you can go from ‘nothing to something’.
Mike Black cancelled his project, Million Dollar Comeback, a bit earlier than anticipated. (Youtube/Mike Black)
Mike documented his journey on Youtube, but he announcing he’d ended the project early.
In a video titled ‘I’m Ending the Project Early’, he addressed his subscribers and admitted cancelling the experiment was ‘the right thing to do’.
“I have officially decided to end the project early,” the Youtuber announced. “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.”
He went on to add: “I’ve been dealing with a lot of things personally, and recently something’s happened that has really pushed me over the edge.
“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.”
Black had set out to prove that he could make $1 million in 12 months. (YouTube/Mike Black)
He went on to reveal he suffers from two autoimmune diseases, including one which attacks the joints and causes ‘chronic fatigue’.
“A lot of what’s come to light for me is what truly matters, health and gratitude,” he said.
Mike also said he wanted to solely focusing on his health going forward, and had also been experiencing some hard times in his personal life.
The millionaire told fans his dad’s health was declining and he’d also fallen out of love with filming, admitting sometimes it felt like a ‘chore’.
Admitting he had had the ‘worst six months of his life’, Black said he needed to put himself first and focus on what was important.
He did, however, manage to make $65,000 (£52,000), which is still an impressive feat despite not finishing the entire social experiment.
