A TRUE STORY OF RESILIENCE, FREEDOM & WELLNESS
From a French Village to Bali.
The unfiltered story of a man who chose freedom when everyone told him not to — and spent 35 years proving them wrong.
NOURUL & ERIC DEPP — INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT’S TEAM
CHAPTER ONE
The Boy Who Was Never Supposed to Make It
SAINT-DIÉ-DES-VOSGES, FRANCE — WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
I was born in August 1965 in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges — a small village of 30,000 people in the mountains of eastern France. Most of the world has never heard of it. And most people who grew up there never left.
We were not a wealthy family. What we were was hardworking — to a degree that most people today would find almost impossible to imagine.
My father held three jobs simultaneously for over twenty years. He was awake at 4am every morning to deliver newspapers — building his route from 100 clients to over 800 — before heading to his day job as an accounting assistant. Then, from 8pm to midnight, he was back on his motorbike delivering leaflets. My mother worked alongside him every step of the way.
“They never complained. They never stopped. They simply worked — and in doing so, they planted something inside me that would take decades to fully understand.”
Until age eleven, I attended a Catholic school run by priests. I was small, and my name became the subject of playground jokes. I learned early what it felt like to be underestimated. I also learned that the only dignified answer was to keep moving forward.
In secondary school, the system twice tried to redirect me towards practical trades. Twice my family appealed. Twice the decision was reversed. I was not a remarkable student. But I was consistent, and I was stubborn. By fourteen, I was distributing newspapers myself at 5:30am before school.
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WHERE THE JOURNEY BEGAN — HUMBLE BEGINNINGS AND THE FIRST CAR EARNED
CHAPTER TWO
The World Opens — And a Small Ad Changes Everything
After my baccalaureate, I enrolled in a private school in Strasbourg to study international commerce. A three-month internship in New York City at age nineteen cracked something wide open in me. I saw a world with no ceiling. Ambition had no postal code.
I returned, locked myself in a room for three weeks, and revised two years of coursework. I passed. My parents had sacrificed to pay for that school. Failing them was simply not something I was willing to do.
At twenty-one, I moved to London with almost nothing — sleeping on a friend’s floor, surviving by selling menswear at Cecil Gee on the high street. It humbled me completely. Military service followed, where I rose to sergeant. Then a Marketing diploma, including a year at the University of San Francisco.
Returning to France, I stopped in a new city looking for summer work. That is when I saw it — a small classified advertisement speaking about entrepreneurship and travel. I attended the meeting. It was a Herbalife presentation.
I had no money and no experience. I registered for $100 — not because I was certain, but because I was open. And in that small act of openness, my entire life changed direction.
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WITH MARK HUGHES — FRANCE 1990 AND ITALY 1993. THE FOUNDER WHO CHANGED EVERYTHING.
THE ACTUAL DREAM BOARD — WRITTEN YEARS BEFORE IT BECAME REALITY
CHAPTER THREE
Everyone Laughed. Then the Results Came.
When Herbalife officially launched in France in October 1990, I was in that room. And I made a decision that almost everyone around me thought was reckless.
My friends questioned me. My relatives were sceptical. Some laughed outright. You have a BAC+4, you speak four languages — why throw all of that away on a supplements company?
“The doubt was there. I won’t pretend it wasn’t. But underneath it was something stronger — a vision I couldn’t explain to anyone, and a burning need to prove it to myself.”
The products had worked on my mother, my father, and a university friend. Real results on people I loved. In my first six days, sixteen people bought the products. I earned $420.
Nine months later, still part-time, I was earning $2,000 a month. On the 1st of August 1991, I went full time. No boss. Freedom. Travel. Money was the tool — never the master.
PORTUGAL 1991 — FULL OF ENERGY AND BELIEF
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$100 Where It Started |
6 Days to First $420 |
13+ Countries Lived In |
35+ Years of Freedom |
142 People at 3 Diamond |
CHAPTER FOUR
Knocked Down. Every Single Time. And Then —
What followed was not a smooth journey. It was something far more honest — and far more instructive than any polished success story.
I built my business in France, flew to Los Angeles to meet Mark Hughes, and returned with a vision burning inside me. By mid-1992, my team generated $20,000 a month. Then my ego got ahead of my skills. The business contracted sharply. So I started again.
I moved to Milan, Italy — barely speaking the language — in the middle of winter. Cold calls from a telephone booth on the street, my breath visible in the freezing air. At night I returned to the cheapest hotel I could afford, sometimes hoping someone would invite me for the weekend so I could check out on Friday and return Monday. Every franc counted.
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BUILDING ITALY FROM ZERO — THE TEAM THAT GREW, THEN COLLAPSED OVERNIGHT IN JULY 1993
Within eight months I had built the sixth-largest organisation in Italy — monthly team turnover reaching $180,000. At twenty-seven, I was earning over $14,000 a month.
“Then in July 1993, overnight, it fell apart. The press turned on Herbalife. My team went from energised to frightened in a matter of days.”
Those were the darkest questions I had faced, alone at night: Were my friends right? Is it over? Will I have to go back to France and find a job? But the story of Mark Hughes facing the same attacks in the USA — and surviving — became my anchor. If I built it once, I can build it again.
WITH JIM ROHN — THE MENTOR WHOSE WORDS BECAME MY ANCHOR THROUGH EVERY STORM
And so it continued. Brazil — business exploding at launch in 1994, only for the government to attack through the press that December. Venezuela. Back to Italy. France. Each time, the same answer: start again.
BRAZIL 1994 — PRESENTING TO THE FIRST TEAM BEFORE IT ALL COLLAPSED
🇮🇹 Italy
🇧🇷 Brazil
🇻🇪 Venezuela
🇧🇪 Belgium
🇹🇭 Thailand
🇮🇩 Indonesia
🇮🇳 India
🇸🇬 Singapore
🇲🇾 Malaysia
🇰🇭 Cambodia
🇮🇩 Bali
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ALWAYS MOVING — RIO, PORTUGAL, BANGKOK 1995. SURVIVAL MODE WAS VERY REAL.
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INDONESIA 1998. WITH THE MAASAI — THE WORLD IS ONE COMMUNITY.
I was never technically broke. But I lived in survival mode many more times than I will admit to most people. I was always generous — paying for dinners, giving gifts — then quietly asking myself alone: how exactly am I going to cover this credit card at the end of the month? I always found the answer. I never accumulated debt. But the tension was real. The struggle was real. I just never let it show — because vision must always be larger than circumstance.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Summit — 0.01% of the Entire World
The cumulative work across France, Italy, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Belgium and beyond had quietly built a global organisation. In 2004, it earned me one of the highest ranks in Herbalife history: President’s Team. Fewer than 0.01% of all distributors globally had reached this level.
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PRESIDENT’S TEAM RECOGNITION IN THAILAND. MARK HUGHES BONUS AWARD — LISBON.
INDIA 2017 — OVER 100 PEOPLE. THE COUNTRY THAT ONCE GAVE ME CULTURE SHOCK BECAME MY LARGEST MARKET.
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THE LEADERS WHO BUILT INDIA WITH ME — A LEGACY THAT WILL LAST FOR GENERATIONS
KUALA LUMPUR — BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH WELLNESS AND FITNESS
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CAMBODIA — MY STRONGEST INCOME MARKET. VIETNAM — ALWAYS ANOTHER NEW BEGINNING.
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THAILAND TEAM. CHARLOTTE CONVENTION CENTER USA WITH NOURUL.
I moved to Singapore in 2004, then Malaysia in 2006 — deepening my personal development: five seminars with T. Harv Eker, Tony Robbins, at minimum one book per month on leadership, mindset, and human potential.
“And then, in September 2009, at a dinner in Kuala Lumpur, I met the woman I had already written about on my dream board two years before we were introduced.”
Noorulhuda Wahab and I married in Kuala Lumpur in 2012. In 2013 Zachary arrived. In 2015 Raphael. In 2019, our daughter Isabella completed the family — exactly as I had envisioned since 2007.
During Covid, when much of the world went into fear, our business accelerated. Those years carried us to what fewer than 142 people in the entire world have achieved: 3 Diamond President’s Team, in a company doing nearly $8 billion in annual sales.
2019 MARK HUGHES BONUS AWARD — NOURUL & ERIC DEPP, EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT’S TEAM
None of the people who laughed at my choice in 1990 are laughing now. They are still working to make life happen. I retired seven years ago. I am simply grateful — and I genuinely believe I deserve everything I have built, because of every sacrifice I made and every time I refused to stop.
CHAPTER SIX
Bali — Not a Dream. A Vision That Came True.
In September 2021, my family and I moved to Bali. I had written this on my dream board in 2005. Your thoughts, consistently held, genuinely become your reality.
MY HOME AND LIFE TODAY — BALI
THE FAMILY I ENVISIONED SINCE 2007 — ZACHARY, RAPHAEL, ISABELLA AND NOURUL IN BALI
My days begin with meditation and quiet gratitude. Then the gym — because at almost 61, the body is something I treat with the same seriousness I give to business. Breakfast on the patio. Reading. Cooking — years learning from Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella.
I drop the children at school. I bring them home. I am present. That is the freedom no salary can buy.
Sunset can happen on a Tuesday. A beach afternoon on a Wednesday. There is no concept of “waiting for the weekend” when the week belongs entirely to you. This is not surviving. This is living.
My weight and health have been in balance for 36 years. I track my blood results every year since age 45. My discipline around nutrition, fitness, and mental health has grown sharper as I have grown older — not weaker.
When I look at friends my age today, I see overweight bodies, chronic health problems, exhausted minds, and schedules with no room for joy. I say this not with judgement — but with sorrow. Because it did not have to be this way for them. And it does not have to be this way for you.
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PARIS · SYDNEY · VENICE · TAJ MAHAL · GRAND CANYON · MEXICO · MADRID · WASHINGTON DC · LAS VEGAS
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, NEW YORK — THE WORLD BELONGS TO THOSE WHO BUILD THEIR FREEDOM
CHAPTER SEVEN
Why I Came Back — After Seven Years of Retirement
The honest answer is this: I feel responsible. The global wellness industry is approaching $7 trillion — growing faster than at any point in history. People are exhausted. Disconnected from their health. Overwhelmed by modern life.
“I am not coming back because I need money. I am coming back because I know something — after 35 years — that most people are still searching for. And I am not willing to keep it to myself.”
HERBALIFE SUMMIT — “LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE.” THE 3 DIAMOND MOMENT.
There is one more level above where I stand: Chairman’s Club — 5 Diamond. Fewer than 79 people in the entire world have reached it. And the most powerful reason: this business is hereditary. What I build now belongs to Zachary, Raphael, and Isabella. One decision. Five more years. And my family never needs to worry about financial security again — for generations.
I am almost 61. I feel healthier, more energised, and more purposeful than I have felt in decades. This is not the end of my story. This is the beginning of its final — and most meaningful — chapter.
A MESSAGE — FOR YOU
If Any Part of This Feels Familiar…
Maybe you are not making cold calls from a telephone booth in Milan in winter. But perhaps you know what it feels like to be underestimated. To work hard and still feel like you are not moving forward. To look at the life you want and wonder if you are simply not the kind of person it happens for.
I am here to share three and a half decades of real experience — the good, the bad, the terrifying, and the extraordinary — with anyone who is ready to listen.
→ Wellness — because your health is the foundation of everything
→ Healthy nutrition — because small daily choices compound over decades
→ Active lifestyle — because energy is not given, it is built
→ Mindset — because vision must always be larger than circumstances
→ Consistency — because the world rewards those who simply refuse to stop
→ Entrepreneurship — because working for yourself is not a risk, it is a right
“If a young man from a village of 30,000 people in France could build a global life of freedom, wellness, travel, and purpose starting with $100 and no experience — what is possible for you?”
Let’s talk. Let’s see if what I have built can help you build something too.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Are You Ready?
The wellness industry is booming. The timing has never been better. I am ready to share everything I know with the right people.
No pressure. No obligation. Just a conversation that might change everything.
© Eric Depp — YestoWellness | yestowellnessasia@gmail.com | WhatsApp: +60173380208 | yestowellness.blog
Wellness for the Mind and the Body 