When I first met Shane Houston, you were still a teenager weren’t you? Can you describe a little bit of what your life was like then?
Yeah, before First Steps To Success I was 18, in college and working part time in a grocery store. I was in debt, obviously student loans. But also, I was given a truck and for some reason I decided to take out a loan and buy another car so I had a car debt also. I was literally living paycheck to paycheck from that grocery store and, I remember, it’d be the day I got paid and I would be waiting on it because I had no money in the bank because I had just wasted all of it on entertainment and the cafeteria at the college.

Wow, is that how you were raised?
I don’t remember my mom getting any paychecks, I just remember there not being a lot of money.

You were working part time, going to college, complaining about not having any money. And you finally got the wakeup call at First Steps To Success. What happened?
After my first event I can remember just applying one specific strategy I learned that you taught at that event. I was actually able to pay off my student loans and my car loan while I was still in school full time and working part time at that same grocery store. Same amount of money I was making before that I used to blow on entertainment.

You paid off your debt on the same job and income, where before you never had any money. How long did it take you to pay off your debt?
While I was in school… I was in school for 2 years so within that time.

So now you’re a business man. You started a painting company and you have a part time business, tell us what that looks like.
Well I started my painting business when I was 20, so I’ve had it for 5 years now. I have never paid for advertising, just used a lot of the strategies that I’ve learned from you. There was one time I got a little too comfortable, got kind of proud and you know I’m still young. I thought I was doing pretty good so I stopped attending events. A friend convinced me to go back to one in 2012 and two and half months after that event I had generated $20K… which was almost my entire income from that business the year before when I thought I was doing fine.

There was an opportunity for you to be making $20K in a short time span, did you just not see the opportunity before or did you not have the skills to do it?
I think both.

What happened next?
Actually this year is my first time having an employee with me full-time. And I’ve been negotiating deals with contractors and am on track to double my income this year. But I also have my part time home business, only about 5 hours a week. And I was able to generate $9,705 in my first month.

I had surgery and was bed ridden for a month in September, 2013. So obviously I couldn’t paint. I had no income from there. I hired people out to paint and I think I made $50 from my business that month. But I got your script books and other trainings and made another $9,000 just lying in bed.

You’re now 25, doing well financially, not putting yourself in debt. What do you say to that 18 year old who maybe grew up like you? Raised by a single mom, working at a grocery store, going to school…
Don’t look at everything around you and be comfortable where you are. There really is so much more out there. Sometimes we can’t see it because we’re so engulfed with where we are. But I can’t imagine where’d I’d be if I hadn’t stepped out. I didn’t even want to go to my first First Steps To Success. My mom made me!

What’s the future look like for you?
I want to invest in real estate is my goal, so just trying to stock away as much cash to invest.

Are you dating? Single?
Hah, I am dating. She’ll be with me at the next event.