The life of an entrepreneur in cannabis is no walk in the park. Although today it might be, it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows for BigMike, one of the world’s biggest marijuana growers and entrepreneurs.

In fact, it was barely sunshine and rainbows. From intense getaways from the feds to a shocking near-death experience, BigMike has seen it all.

His legendary tale begins in the secret 500 sq. foot grow room, which, after decades of run-ins with the law and relocating, has developed into a 9-figure-a-year company that growers are definitely familiar with, Advanced Nutrients.

BigMike was born in Portland, Oregon, with multiple learning disabilities, including OCD, ADD, and Dyslexia. His father died as a teenager, and his alcoholic drug-addicted mother recently passed away.

Adversity was sitting on his doorstep, so he promised himself that his past, learning disabilities, and family issues would not define his future. BigMike steered away from selling his soul to 40-hour work weeks and sticking with the status quo. Thus, he launched a lawn fertilizing company when he was 19.

At age 23, in 1983, two of Mike’s friends introduced him to their space with a small indoor garden. From there, they built a 500 sq. foot grow room for marijuana where BigMike was running his lawn company, but there was one issue; the room wasn’t properly ventilated, and the crop died within a day.

After a few successful crops, he started raking in the cash. Mike eventually sold the lawn fertilizer company and stumbled upon The Sea of Green Method.

BigMike set up an entire house solely for growing cannabis. He harvested 13 pounds of it, prompting him to start a second grow house. However, they took place in upper-class neighborhoods.

So, BigMike had to act the part. He was a 25-year-old looking to rent multi-million dollar properties, so he set up a fake identity.

Using a real birth certificate, driver’s license, and passport under a fake name, he came up with the story of being a trust fund baby and deeply researched how rich people carried themselves and interacted with others. All of this in hopes that he could conceal his grow spaces.

For the most part, it worked. However, cannabis being an incredibly risky business, BigMike moved his grows every twelve to eighteen months.

Wanting to find the best places to grow cannabis, BigMike got his pilot’s license, a small Cessna 172, an Ultralight, and a GPS unit. He was quite literally flying around the country, scoping out the perfect spots to grow his weed.

By the late 80s, he was netting roughly $300,000 a year after partner payouts and expenses. His business was booming, and with that came peering eyes from law enforcement. The clever and determined man he is began getting one step ahead of the cops at all times.

BigMike eventually started monitoring police scanners and would tune into local and federal law enforcement frequencies. He would record, monitor, and decode the encrypted conversations and finally managed to eavesdrop on phone calls between officers. Mind you; this is all in the early 90s.

It didn’t take long for him to learn the names of all the local narcotic officers. Not to mention learning how to ram cars, do j-turns, and flip a car around in case he ever needed to get away in a dash. One evening, BigMike ordered his team to flee the grounds after hearing a dispatcher sending out cars to the grow space.

“They’re running, they’re running,” yelled a voice from the scanner. Just as the cops were closing in, a group of 20 cars with law enforcement offers got even closer. After his team ran through a cornfield and escaped into the darkness, they managed to get away.

Eventually, Mike moved to Canada in hopes of continuing his operations. Living in Canada under a new identity, he got a new pilot’s license under that identity.

He hit it off with the flying instructor, and the two decided to launch a seed-selling business called Laughing Moon Seed Company. It didn’t take long for them to start growing together while teaming up with two older hippies to start growing weed outdoors. Mike and his flying instructor would manage the grows while working with the two hippies in the fields. They managed to pump out 300-400 pounds a week.

After more run-ins with the law and RCMP, BigMike noticed that he was never satisfied with the nutrients he was receiving for his plants. After years of research and trial and error, BigMike developed a fertilizer strictly for cannabis, prompting him to launch the world’s first complete cannabis growing system, Advanced Nutrients.

Not only did he launch the company for his personal grows but to help fellow growers produce plants they could celebrate.

BigMike was happy. He had fallen in love and gotten married while his business was doing better than ever. Having trust in his wife, Mike told her everything about his fake identity and thought she had the right to know.

Well, that backfired. His wife dropped the ball and told her friends all about who Mike really was, which eventually got back to the authorities. His lawyer rang him and was straight to the point; he was going to be arrested.

BigMike was pulling out of his driveway one morning when police slapped cuffs on his wrists, denying him bail on the assumption that he was a flight risk. They stripped away the ring on Mike’s wife’s finger after arguing that it was bought with drug money.

Turns out, the government had no proof of BigMike breaking cannabis laws. But, four years later, he opens his front door and is instantly handcuffed, thrown into the back of a car, and taken to the border. Since authorities had failed to provide proof of his operations four years ago, they decided to kidnap him and send him back to the United States.

Leaving behind his family, friends, partners, and business, a devasted BigMike moved to Washington, then to California, and started learning the ins and outs of doing business, marketing, and making a positive impact.

This was around the time that BigMike committed himself to empower the lives of growers everywhere. Today, he still believes that being tossed from Canada was a blessing in disguise and one of the best things that could have happened for him and his business.

Life was good. BigMike developed Advanced Nutrients to bring in over $100 million a year while he became the technical advisor for the TV series Weeds and the films Leaves of Grass and Pineapple Express.

Back at Advanced Nutrients, BigMike put together a team of over 24 PhDs to engineer precision nutrients for cannabis that emphasize yield, flavor, and quality. Proud of his medical-grade cannabis, free of toxins and heavy metals, BigMike broke a record and became the first person to yield over two pounds per 1000-watt light.

Advanced Nutrients was more successful than ever. BigMike was thriving until it almost came crumbling down in 2011 when he completely flatlined while undergoing an operation.

BigMike was dead on the operating table. Thankfully, doctors revived him, and he realized a shift in his life after waking up. BigMike felt inclined to help humanity on a deeper level.

Since dying and reviving on the operating table, BigMike has spent his time making a positive impact not just on the lives of cannabis growers and the weed community but the world.

Below are just a few of the philanthropic endeavors Advanced Nutrients has undertaken in recent years:

• Donating nutrients to Archie’s Acres, a charity that helps ease the pain and suffering of injured war veterans
• Constructing classrooms in Uganda
• Lending seed money to future entrepreneurs in developing countries
• Donating millions of dollars worth of nutrients to the world’s sick, needy, and dying people
• Donating to the Marijuana Policy Project
• Building a grow room for CannaMoms, enabling children with epilepsy and cancer to have access to the medicine they need

Advanced Nutrients aside, BigMike lived in Bulgaria in 2012 and was pained by the country’s oppression and poverty. Thus, he launched the non-profit organization Holiday Heroes to support Bulgarian families in need.

Besides Advanced Nutrients, the most profitable cannabis company, BigMike has launched other businesses in our special industry.

He recently launched the world’s first hemp-specific fertilizer for hemp CBD production and yield called Advanced Hemp.

If there’s any weed we’re dying to smoke, it’s BigMike’s. Luckily, he also launched his line of cannabis called BigMike’s Blends, specializing in proprietary cannabinoid-terpene profiles for maximum precision and consistency.

Finally, BigMike also created his own reality television show called Next Marijuana Millionaire, which sees entrepreneurs competing for $1,000,000 cash and funding for their marijuana business in partnership with BigMike.

If it’s not clear yet, BigMike is the most successful, charismatic, determined, and generous cannabis entrepreneur worldwide. Chances are, you’ve benefitted from something BigMike has achieved, whether you’re a cannabis grower or consumer.

BigMike’s story is one for the books, and it’s not over yet. For more information about BigMike, visit his website at therealbigmike.com.