Ryan Blair didn't have much of a choice when he was forced to join a local gang in his seedy Torrance, California neighborhood. You're on one side of the street or the other, the logic went, and Blair chose as most 13-year-olds would: He fell in line to keep himself and his family alive.
The high-school dropout's rocky home life provided little comfort--his biological father had recently abandoned the family--and prison soon seemed inevitable as his crimes, from burglary to drug dealing, grew more severe. Though he insists he never killed anyone, he confesses that murder was a common assignment for most members.
But when Blair's mother began dating Robert Hunt, a wealthy entrepreneur she would later marry, the troubled teen saw a way out of the life he never wanted.
"When my stepfather offered me another shot, in a different neighborhood, I thought that it was an opportunity given to me by God," says Blair. "I had to get out of that environment."
Hunt moved the family to an upper-class suburb, and eventually became a father figure to Blair. The businessman was the first to tell Blair he believed in him, and gave the teen the confidence and the means to change his own life--with strings attached.
Hunt offered Blair an entry-level job at one of his companies, so long as he agreed to return to high school and earn his GED. Blair took the deal.
Motivated by Hunt's successes as a real-estate developer, Blair aspired to build an empire of his own despite his upbringing, which might have deterred others in the same situation.
"I wanted to earn the respect of the people in my stepfather's life," says Blair. "I saw him as a very rich man who created his own fortune, and even though he's smarter than me, I thought that I could do the same."
Thanks to an unbending work ethic and a proficiency in technology, it took all of 3 years for Blair to rise to vice president of Logix Development. By then, Blair had also founded his own company, a computer repair service. The business faltered during the dotcom bubble, but Blair kept on, driven by the fact that, for him, there had always been tougher times.
"No matter what I did then, things would never be as bad as they were when I lived in a gang and was pressured to make bad decisions," he says.
He followed his first failed venture with a second. This one--SkyPipeline, a broadband service provider--was a tad more successful: The startup sold for $25 million in 2004, making Blair a millionaire at age 25.
The money went to his head. "This one time, I leased an expensive car and my stepdad got so mad at me," Blair says. "He said to me, ‘Ryan, I could buy a house for the amount that you're paying for that car.' "
Blair realized that he didn't want to lose the life he had fought so hard to earn. So in 2005, as his bank account neared zero, he co-founded ViSalus, a brand that markets weight-loss products. The company's initial success was balanced by huge deficits when the recession struck in 2008. Blair invested the last of his fortune to steer ViSalus back from bankruptcy.
Now 36, Blair has begun to branch out into other ventures: He just wrapped a nationwide book tour touting his autobiography, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain, and this week he'll debut a documentary based on his storied rise from gang member to business tycoon. (Watch the film at www.ntldocumentary.com.)
Though his stepfather's influence is still "all around" him, Blair is now inspired by another man: his 4-year-old son, Reagan, who was diagnosed with autism in 2011.
"My priorities don't involve me anymore," Blair admits. "The only thing that matters to me is my son, and my company is how I provide for him. Everything I do doesn't matter unless I give him a platform to be all that he can be." All of the proceeds from Nothing to Lose will be donated to organizations that support people with autism.
Much like his success in business, Blair draws his approach to fatherhood from Hunt, and intends to teach Reagan the same lessons his stepdad imparted to him: Work hard, share your prosperity with others, and never give up--especially when you have nothing to lose.
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