October 1. Michael Lindell. Mike made one infomercial and grew his company from 5 employees to 500 in a span of 40 days. By 2020, he had 1500 employees and has sold 27 million pillows.
Mike looks terrific in an infomercial. But his life hasn’t been a smooth ride. Here’s his story.
Feed an addiction, and you will be tied to it. Call on the Lord, and be freed.
For a long time, Mike was really good at failing.
He quit college, the grocer fired him, and he tried selling pigs, but the hog market collapsed. He bought a lunch wagon and gave away sandwiches—for a week.
Then he found his niche and owned a bar for 13 years—and he became an alcoholic.
Plagued by years of poor sleep, he bought an expensive pillow on the supposition that if he spent more money for a good pillow, he would get a better night’s sleep. But the lack-of-sleep problem had less to do with a bad pillow and more to do with the fact that Mike was an addict—alcohol, cocaine, crack cocaine, work.
Then one night, during a short stint of sleep, he had a dream. Mike insisted that God had given him a dream about how to design the best pillow in the world. Furthermore, the product and the company were just a platform and a vehicle from God that would one day give him the means to help others out of their addictions.
He borrowed $15,000 to start MyPillow®. A friend suggested he sell them at a kiosk during the Christmas shopping season, and he sold 80 pillows. But then Mike hit bottom.
In December 2008, a functioning addict, Mike went on a 14-day work binge. No sleep for two weeks.
He visited one of his drug dealers, who told him he had put the word out to cut Mike off. At about 2:30 that morning, Mike hit the streets to score another fix. He waved a $100 bill around to buy $5 worth of drugs. No deal.
He went home and found two other dealers waiting to give him the same message. One of them grabbed Mike’s phone and took his picture—sunken red eyes, disheveled dirty hair, and gray skin. He looked like one of the walking dead. The dealers told Mike they were going to see to it that if he died, he would die honest.
“Let me tell you … addictions are hard work. … You’re hiding it from everyone, you’re lying about it all the time, and [you’re doing all that] just so you can go feed your addiction,” Mike said.
Mike lied to his wife, he lied to his son, he lied to himself, and he was less than honest with some Mafia loan sharks. He lost everything, but he found grace.
“I had one prayer that night [in January 2009]. ‘God, I want to wake up in the morning and never have the desire again.’”
“Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory” (Ps 50:15 NLT).
The next morning, he woke up to a new life. No craving, no addiction, just an answered prayer.
Mike became a millionaire selling the pillow he invented, but he understood that riches in this world are worthless without eternal life. He hadn’t always known how to help others, but he finally realized that’s what he could do. But he came to understand that passion alone is not enough. That he needed to act on what he said he believed.
“My passion has always been to help people. What a blessing it has been for me to see my dream become a reality.”
These days Mike spends his time and money helping the hopeless. He invested $1 million to help produce Unplanned—a film based on the true story of a woman in the abortion industry. That’s a dream come true.
“For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” (Isaiah 64:4 NLT).
What is it that troubles you or ties you down? Feed an addiction, and you will be tied to it. Call on the Lord, and be freed.
Wells, Jane. “How this entrepreneur went from a crack addict to a self-made multimillionaire.” Updated January 24, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/20/how-mypillow-founder-went-from-crack-addict-to-self-made-millionaire.html.
Lindell, Michael. My Pillow. Accessed July 11, 2020. https://www.mypillow.com.
Story read by: Chuck Stecker
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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