Poverty-spent childhood in a rural area of Oklahoma here. I'm also a convicted felon. Never had perfect marks in high school. No one in my family ever went to college except me.
A mentor saved my life. She opened my eyes to the world outside of Oklahoma, and I had so much anger saved up inside of me that it fuels me even today. I've spent the last couple decades building startups and have made millions doing it.
Now I'm 35 and I run an online communications school that helps thousands of young people with a focus on mentorship.
Standard tests are the wrong approach. Find mentors.
Felon here. Like the article describes, my father was arrested and jailed, and his father before him. Many of my family have spent time in prison. When I turned 18, I also shared the same experience. Less than a year in min security prison.
Now I'm 35, moved away from my troubled youth, and have made millions of dollars building startups.
A few points:
- To this day, I am terrified to speak to police or any authority figures. I sweat every time I pass through passport control when my wife and I go to Europe every summer.
- I can't break my "guarded" way of thinking, that everyone is out to get me, that I need to take what I can when I have the chance because the chance won't come around again. I am never relaxed.
- I have a 4 year old and not a day goes by that I don't spend working with him to provide things I never had. The fact that I can afford to send him to piano lessons or that we can afford to live in the "rich" part of town makes me emotional.
- I lost every part of my childhood. My parents are ghosts and my friends from then are long sense forgotten. Some people go back to their home town to feel nostalgic, but all I do is feel anger. I am angry every day.
- Many people are afraid to take risks for their careers, but as an ex-convict who spent over a year as a homeless person, I feel no fear. Moving across the country when I have no money, sleeping at my desk to launch a product due the next day, giving a speech in front of 1000 people, or aggressively gunning for a better company is nothing compared to begging someone for their half eaten sandwich. That's true fear.
Even the ones who escape a criminal family never really escape.