You don’t often get to share your story with others, one that can change lives.

I’m here to talk about how marijuana helped me overcome the biggest battle of my youth. It stretches beyond growing, beyond business, beyond my book “Three A Light.”

Putting out “Three A Light” has been a significant milestone in my career, but it’s also opened opportunities to show others my perspective — one going far deeper than just being a “ganjapreneur.”

I was raised by young parents, with a brother and sister who were very close in age to myself. Looking back, I had an amazing childhood. Except, I began having seizures at the age of 14 and was later diagnosed with Epilepsy shortly thereafter. The doctors began by putting me on a handful of medications. None of them were very effective at controlling my seizures, except for Depakote.

In saying that, as a teenage boy, I couldn’t go through with taking Depakote daily. It had terrible side effects of weight gain, hair loss and long-term liver issues. For anyone, especially a kid, it’s a major confidence shaker.

After a few years, I was dealing with even further weight gain despite a very active lifestyle. Then, a couple years later, I began dealing with hair loss. This impacted me in an intensely negative way. I knew I was strong, but couldn’t adjust my life to fit the ramifications of a particular medication — so I began working towards a new solution.

I discovered marijuana around the age of 16 using it more recreationally than medically (as any teenager does). Fortunately, the first thing I noticed was smoking marijuana allowed me to free my mind of stress  — one of the largest triggers for a seizure. It wasn’t until I tried CBD (Cannabidiol) that I was able to truly balance my Epilepsy without the use of Western medicine.

I steadily began to replace Depakote with marijuana.

Through everyday practice, I started to focus on a balanced lifestyle through good sleep, low stress, exercise, a healthy diet and a regimen of CBD. Everything from the research to the intake, it all brought me back to who I was before, and kept me there. CBD became the solution; an effective treatment for managing my seizures and keeping my health up for the long run. It’s why I say marijuana saved my life.

It was roughly a decade ago when I became really interested in cultivating cannabis. When I look back on my business ventures, I can’t help but think about my father, who worked his butt off during my childhood and still does today. He started and sold a handful of companies throughout my youth and taught me that there is no substitution for hard work. You should also know I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. My great-great-great grandfather walked hand-in-hand with Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Carnegie. He was an amazing man and was in charge of the entire Northern Pacific Railroad.

Considering all the men before me achieved great milestones throughout their lives, I feel I have big shoes to fill. I’ve always wanted to build on something bigger that would positively impact the world. I didn’t know what that was at first, yet with the legalization of marijuana, I began to think that the new emerging market could be the best place to achieve this.

With heavy research, development of my process, networking and getting to know others in the industry, I realized that there were major holes — I se them as avenues for opportunity. One of the biggest: There wasn’t a book available that made cannabis growing easy and user-friendly. After working for many years perfecting our process in the garden, I thought this would be a great vehicle to inspire change and encourage the industry to be more accepted by the masses.

“Three A Light” is an all-inclusive look into our growing process, enabling growers of any rank to grow at least 3 pounds per light. Coming up with this insanely effective process really lead my career in the right direction. On the personal end, I had set many of my close friends up with a manual and offered help to teach them how to grow cannabis for themselves.

But this book is for a greater cause, much larger than myself. Anyone that wants to change the world is going to make something that they can share with anyone, something that will truly make a difference. But we don’t always know what needs to be changed. The moment I discovered marijuana as a cure was the day I knew that the way most people think about this plant has to be different. It’s almost difficult to put into words how, based on my experience with epilepsy and helping others in that realm, this reigns true.

I’m sharing my story (and “Three A Light”) to move the cannabis industry to a more politically and publicly acceptable viewpoint, and to be the key player that helps make that happen.