John Malott spent 18 months in detention as a teenager after a felony conviction, isolated and despairing. At 17, a former motorcycle gang member working as a counselor in rehab gave him Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, a moment Malott calls both curse and blessing that started his turn toward self-improvement.
So then 15, hit with a felony, 18 months you said?
Yeah, 18 months in detention.
Okay, so what, like mentally, I guess going in, did it kind of feel hopeless at that point, or were you like, or did you feel like you could survive the 18 months? Like, I'll get through this.
During that, that part, it just, that was just what we did. It was interesting because detention center was filled with my friends, so it was, I hate to even say it, it was like kind of a social deal without any girls. That's, that was the worst part of the whole deal. I don't like this part, especially when you're a teenager. Um, so that's, that sucked. Um, but it just, that was kind of the path, you know what I mean? So it wasn't until the drug problem, it wasn't until 17. Yeah. And I would say it was the blessing and the curse, worst thing ever happened to me and the best thing ever happened to me, because I ended up in this drug rehab. I was locked in this facility because there were circumstances, you know, that were around that particular incident. Okay. And I met a former outlaw motorcycle gang member who was the counselor there. It was the first time that someone looked like me, acted like me, but had knowledge. Like, he wasn't preaching to me like, you got to do this, you know what I mean? Everyone was always talking like— back then it seemed like grown-ups were just a bunch of dickheads.
Yeah.
And this was the first guy who was like, like me. And I was like, okay, I'll listen to this dude. And he was the one who turned me on to personal development. And he was like, because I'm like, okay, how do you get out? I don't know how you get out of this mess. And he said, well, let me tell you. He said, business. And I'm like, business? I said, I'm not, you know, I'm not a business guy. And he was the guy who gave me the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. Oh yeah. And that was the beginning for me. And, and I wasn't quite there, of course, but that seed was planted there that I could be more than what I was.
Okay.
That there really was another route for me. Gotcha. So that's when things started to go into motion.
