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How a Juice Company Founder Recovered from Heroin Overdose and Jail to Start an Empire

Khalil Rafati intentionally overdosed on heroin in 2001. The next year, he was shot at while using drugs. He suffered stints of homelessness and jail time. Finally, in 2003, Rafati says he “finally reached the bottom of all bottoms.”

“There was no more digging left to do; all of my shovels were broken. I was done,” he tells the New York Times.

Rafati, now the successful founder of SunLife Organics, a juice company in California frequented by Anthony Kiedis, David Duchovny and other celebrities, recounted his journey from drug addiction to success in his book, I Forgot to Die.

He started by founding a sober living house in Malibu in 2007, called Riviera Recovery. It was there that he crafted SunLife’s signature smoothie, the Wolverine — a date and banana blend with maca, bee pollen and royal jelly.

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