00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:14
Now listen to this part of the story. Yeah. So let's go backwards a little bit. Let's go to 13 when I had my first drink and I realized, oh my God, there is all the courage and beauty and smarts and everything that I didn't think I had. I mean, I do now, duh. But, I, I, I did like, I was just like, I was, I an only child of a single mom?

00:00:22:16 - 00:00:45:27
Didn't know my father raised, you know, spending summers with my grandparents. Complete misfit. Didn't know where I fit in. Completely unhappy with life. And I had a drink, and I was like, oh, what the heck is this? It didn't begin a journey of alcohol is it began a journey of, like, curiosity. Later on come high school, I started getting high a little bit.

00:00:45:29 - 00:01:09:27
And, by my senior year, I was full into, like, let's get drunk and let's get high. All the time. I got sober when I was 17 years old. Brighton High School, I think I had a contract with some German facility in Minnesota back then. Like, let's see how many kids we can pump through the we are sober homeroom in my high school, which was, you know, like, I barely have those today.

00:01:09:29 - 00:01:29:16
But 35, 40 years ago, that was actually a thing. In 1986, I got sober two and a half years, didn't know why. Went to meetings, hung out with friends. Found myself hanging out with people who were sober. But we were, like, breaking into cars and stealing shit and just doing everything we could possibly do wrong.

00:01:29:16 - 00:01:59:17
I got I got arrested, I went to jail. I got five years probation for a felony. I went back out drinking again and violated my probation. Got another felony, which in New York state makes me a predicate felon. 35 years ago, I was sitting in a jail cell facing ten and a half to 15 years and with family that would not take my phone call with friends that were, you know, they don't want to come bring me money or anything because they're going to if they if they get near the courthouse, they're going to get arrested for something they've done.

00:01:59:20 - 00:02:24:27
I, I was facing ten after 15 years, I got myself out of jail on bond. By a miracle, I, I, the story goes like this because the founders journey really doesn't matter. This is really the only one that does. I was sitting in this jail cell. I knew what I was facing, and I talked to a, good faith minister that day, and at the end of the day, gave me a Bible.

00:02:24:27 - 00:02:48:09
I read the book of Matthew, and my takeaway from that was pray for somebody else. And all I did at that time, my grandfather just turned 80. All I did that night was save this prayer. Hey, let my grandfather live long enough so he can see me do something with my life. And then I went to bed, and the next morning, a guy showed up on my floor who wasn't supposed to be in that part of the jail, wasn't supposed to be on our floor.

00:02:48:09 - 00:03:14:09
But I had met him once before, and he's a career criminal with great ties to a bail bondsman. And in 72 hours, his mom came and bailed me out, and I ran and hid at a treatment facility. And I stayed at this treatment facility for two and a half years. 60 days of inpatient, six months at a halfway house, collecting welfare, living on congregate care level two, I think it was called.

00:03:14:12 - 00:03:35:10
And then I moved into a apartment called Supportive Living with two other peeps and got my associates degree after avoiding going to court for all this time. Postpone, postpone, postpone, postpone. Actually, we lied to them in the first 60 days and said they wouldn't let me out, but I could have. But New York State doesn't know its left brain from its right brain, so it was kind of a fun game.

00:03:35:10 - 00:04:02:12
Boy, two and a half years in, I sober associates degree relationship with my parents friends. Sponsor sponsor is internship at Smith Barney think or Shearson Lehman Brothers. Thank you, Laurie Van Dusen for that. And just, you know, thank you, mom and dad for, you know, having faith in me and coming around. And I met my dad while I was getting sober, at 20 and all kinds of cool things happened.

00:04:02:12 - 00:04:28:29
And I went to the judge, and I had to plead guilty. In this plea of guilty as a predicate felony carries a minimum one year in jail, which meant I'm going away for six months, two and a half years sober, living my dream. And I got to go back to jail. And I went and I pled, pled my you know, I, you know, I shared who was with me and pled guilty.

00:04:28:29 - 00:04:53:10
And Judge Dipasquale, he said, Mr. Kaplan, I think the transcript goes something like this. I hear you on your plea of guilty. Clearly, the person standing in front of me today is not the same person that committed these crimes. Therefore, I can not hold you accountable. And I have no decision other than to dismiss this case.

00:04:53:12 - 00:05:16:23
And that was the day that I got a second chance at life. A third chance, a fourth, my last chance at life. And from that moment on, it's been let's fucking go, you know, giddy up. Probably started that day. It's such a crazy story, Chris, because again, knowing where we met you was about ten ago. 12 years ago now you're like.

00:05:16:23 - 00:05:39:07
And into the golden years of Christo, like, right, right. And you're right. You're building. You're building Chris and company. It's, you know, it's cranking. And you know, Peter referenced here, man. And I, we promised between the three of us before we got into we wouldn't start, you know, get like deep into Iron Man stories and stuff. But but really it became this like pivotal thing for the three of us.

00:05:39:08 - 00:06:09:01
It's actually a big component of my journey to me. Connection, the opposite of addiction is about sobriety. The opposite of addiction is not abstinence. The opposite of addiction is not willpower. To me, the opposite of addiction is connection. And Greg and I met on a random phone call when he was when you were looking for a bib to run the Boston Marathon, raise their shit ton of money for the organization that I got you a bib for.

00:06:09:01 - 00:06:38:07
I think it was, liver foundation. And, yeah, you know, we trained, you came to Boston and and we did some training for that. We ran the marathon together and like, this connection formed and absolutely forever grateful for that because that this whole journey is about connecting. My first core value is real relationships. Connections matter.