Personal Email I want Everyone to See

I wanted to share an email conversation I had today. I get a lot of emails from supporters every day, but this conversation has a message and theme I wanted to share with others. The general theme is that you always have to move forward in life, and optimism always pays off. I've always been amazed at how some people will look at what a child has done before the age of 18 and use that to define what they can do for the rest of their lives. If you really think about it, any 25 year old garbage man who studies 6 hours a day for the next 10 years could be a college professor. What happens is that the mistakes of our past can be a cancer that spreads to our future, keeping us from ever reaching our goals.

For example, I had a friend who was 28 and always complained about how he'd wasted his life. He felt that if he'd only gone to college, he'd have a better job and be in a better position. I told him that he should drop everything and go to school. He didn't. Instead, he chose to continue complaining and doing nothing.

5 years later, he was 33. Still complaining. I told him that if he had started going to school when he first brought the issue to me at the age of 28, he'd have a masters degree by now. I told him that he should pick up his sh*t and get moving down his educational path. He did nothing. He chose to keep complaining.

5 years later, my friend was 38. His life had not changed since he was 28. I told him that if he had started going to school at 28, he would have a bachelors degree, a masters, and either a PhD, JD, or MD degree by now. But instead, he was 38 years old, working on the same job that he had at 28. His depression over wasting the past had become a cancer that caused him to waste his future.

My friend is now 46 years old. Nothing has changed. He still complains. He still argues about how he is just as smart as his friends who went to college, and how he should be in a better place. I agree with him, he is every bit as smart as my students at Syracuse University. The difference is that they are in school and he is not.

Don't let your past be a cancer to your future. You made some mistakes, get over it and get crackin. Life is too short for BS.

My email conversation with the young man is below. I hope this helps someone.




I am a 26yr old african american male and I am a very BIG fan of yours of just recently being exposed to you.
I read up on your blog about music and the responsibility that Lil Wayne has that he isnt taking. I totally agree with you and I believe that he should use his voice and star power to ignite the intellect of our youth. Tupac did it, he made you think and was not afraid to speak out about the social injustice in America. I'm no scholar, nor GED grad for that matter...but I know what is right & whats wrong. My lack of proper schooling if you will, allows so many to look down on me and at the same time I am answering questions that even they do not know. My motivation for self-education is not in money, but to survive in this messed up economy. I know the streets, and I know the ins and outs of formal business. The thing now a day is that no one wants to do what they have to do to make it, and embarrassingly enough...I was (am) one of those people. I wonder what type of difference would be made if I obtained a GED? The satisfaction of personal achievement would suffice to some extent, but would that be enough to survive? I was presented with obstacles in my youth that allowed me to lose focus of my goals, another "broken home" story.

I would like to acknowledge you as a positive light that gives me hope of what a GED could do for me.. So many times in the past I sulked and moaned about what I didnt have, and not what I do have. I made excuses, but I know that I have it in me.. Thank you for succeeding where I have not, and for that I applaud you. My diligence is of importance when it comes to exceeding expectations, and in my own right I believe that I have managed pretty well with the circumstances that was given. Thank you, for representing for Brothers without the voices.

You are the man, but then again.....you already know that.



Here is my response



Thanks for the kind words brother. Here are my thoughts:

1) Yes, I am the man, and so are you. You are no different from me, we just have differences in some of our choices and our ages. If you work hard every single day, you can be right where I am when you are 37 like me.

2) Yes, the GED is critical....get that damn thing no matter what it takes. Then, go to college or community college, then get a masters, and then get a law degree, MD or PhD. I promise - if you study 4 - 5 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, you can be a damn neurosurgeon. Don't let where you are determine where you can go, it's just a matter of picking up the damn book and reading it.

3) Never be negative. Never look down. Never look back. You are a young man and how you spend the next 50 years is up to you. It would be a waste to allow the first few years of your young life to determine all the rest of the years you still have left. You are early in the game brother, study hard, every single day, like your life depended on it. That's what I do.

Good luck man, nice to meet you.

B