On April 18, a user on X made a thread about Mike Black, captioned, “He’s a millionaire who went homeless as a social experiment. His goal? Prove that anyone can make $1 million in 12 months with just a phone.”
However, Mike Black said the opposite. In the thread, he was portrayed as a millionaire who wanted to prove that anyone can make $1M (approximately Php 58 million) in 12 months. He also became aware that he had been featured on many news platforms and learned that people were hating on it.
“None of this is true, none of this in this title is true. This entire tweet was written by AI. All these stuff… majority of these stuff and this is inaccurate,” he stated on the video he posted on his official account on X.
Basically, the thread that went viral is about Mike’s bold move to start from scratch and earn million dollars in 12 months. For this project, he drained his bank, stored his belongings, cut off his connections, and went homeless.
He started his journey with posts on social media stating that he will work for free in exchange for a place to crash into. He started doing logistics, acting as a middleman for the seller and the buyer through Facebook. He then became a freelancer which helped him earn extra income and envisioned building a marketing agency.
In 2020, @theMikeBlack1 made a bold move.
He drained his bank account to zero, left his 7-figure business, and went homeless.
All to prove that anyone can come back from rock bottom and inspire others. He publicly committed to the challenge. pic.twitter.com/lXH9PtByri
— EDDIE CHENG (@ecomEddie) April 18, 2024
The early days tested Mike's resolve. He slept on benches, battling hunger and doubt.
But he knew this was bigger than him—it was about showing others what's possible.
Failure wasn't an option. Mike had to find a way, no matter how hard it got. pic.twitter.com/hXa2JMd7jC
— EDDIE CHENG (@ecomEddie) April 18, 2024
However, he found out that his dad has cancer, and they approached the project differently. Later, in the last 2 months of the project, Mike found out that he had 2 autoimmune diseases and a tumor on his hip. He decided to end the project and to focus on his health. According to the user’s thread, he still made $65K out of it, but Mike stated that he had been putting in a lot of time and money on the project and it came to a point that he was no longer enjoying the filming.
Upon learning how his “Million Dollar Comeback” project was told on the platform, he made a video explaining the reason behind it. Mike posted a video and wrote:
“My response to everyone learning about me and the project I started 3 years ago called million dollar comeback… Spoiler alert this project had nothing to do with homelessness and it’s 2024… you shouldn’t blindly believe a headline you read.”
My response to everyone learning about me and the project I started 3 years ago called million dollar comeback…
Spoiler alert this project had nothing to do with homelessness and it’s 2024… you shouldn’t blindly believe a headline you read. pic.twitter.com/xo2EOLMUGo
— Mike Black (@theMikeBlack1) April 21, 2024
According to him, the project was created to help and inspire many people who were starting over after being hit by the pandemic. Like those who got laid off from their jobs and those who wanted to create a business. Supposedly he just wanted to write a tweet or write about it but he decided to do it for real because he wanted to take direct action. Furthermore, he explained that it’s really not about making millions, but about reinventing yourself, perseverance, and hardships.
“You got hypnotized if you just believe this and immediately reacted to this,” he stated. “It’s not about homelessness, it’s about helping people,” he reiterated.
He also pointed out that Eddie Cheng, the user who authored the tweet might have been a “person who twists things on social media to become viral.” He said he was happy because he got exposure, but they did not receive hate from the public until the user featured them and portrayed them in a different light.
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