A man who was incarcerated 19 times before age 20 tells people in Black neighborhoods to stop the hustler mindset and pursue legitimate work instead. He argues criminal activity destroys families and communities, and calls for a 2021 commitment to lawful entrepreneurship like lawn care or hair services.
Chapters
Hey, let me say something to all you hustlers out there that thinks that the only way you can have something in life and be successful and prosperous is to do something criminal or to take something from somebody, like robbing or jacking or taking somebody's car or taking someone's purse or shoplifting or going to someone's house and holding them hostage. Whatever it is that you do that is criminal, I want you to understand that that's not the only way that you can survive or make money or make a living or have something good and nice. I think you need to do something that you probably haven't done before. I think you need to search internally. I think you need to take a look at yourself in the mirror and realize that there are gifts and potentials and things that you have that you can use as an ability to make you wealth. Even if it's just starting your own lawn service or going into some type of a hair business so that you can cut hair or do hair, whatever the case is, you don't have to be criminal. You don't have to be a thug. You don't have to think like a hustler, live like You know what? That kind of thinking led me to 19 times of being incarcerated in jail and 3 different times in prison before I was 20 years of age. I understand what it's like to feel like you grew up in the hood and in the ghetto and no one's going to give you anything, and you've been to jail and you have a criminal record, you're an ex-convict, or you was raised up in the project and you never had anything, and you're just trying to take care of you and yours. I get it. But you know what? At the same time, you are throwing your life away. You are hurting yourself. You are hurting your family. You are hurting your children. You could end up in jail, or worse, you can end up dead. So I feel like that in this new year, 2021, that you need to do something that you haven't done before. Challenge yourself to think outside the box. Challenge yourself to get a job. If you got a job and that's not sufficient, get another job. Work a full-time job and a part-time job, or 2 full-time jobs. But do what you got to do to keep yourself here in this world. You know why that's so important? Because in today's time, man, people are dropping dead like flies. And you know what I've come to find out? That you haven't lived yet until you're able to maximize your potential. If you die before you're able to live the life of your dreams, then you failed you. And people know that you have gifts, and people know that you're special, and people know that you are uniquely created and that you're different. But yet you got to know that about yourself. Man, listen, my brothers, don't throw your life away. Don't throw your family away. Don't grow up in prison. Let's break the generational curses, especially in the Black neighborhood and in the Black culture, where we feel like that the only way for us to have something is that we gotta take it or get it illegally. Man, listen, I'm glad I beat that attitude. I'm glad I beat that mentality. And my wish for you in 2021 is that you would do the same thing and that you will be here to raise up your children,
