The Life After Prison: Before, During and After (Mental Health Event)

[Music] this is a this is a discussion about before during an after prison but I think it's really important for people to get to know you so pmer I'm going to ask you tell us a little bit about you who you were before prison I really wasn't a bad student in school um I gravitated towards literature and arts but I was fairly decent in all of my subjects up until fifth grade um I started slacking it it wasn't the work wasn't hard I just I just started slacking like I wasn't studying as hard and I went from being an AB student to a c student at best and my teachers along with my parents thought it was best that I repeat the fifth grade to close the gaps before moving on in sixth grade and that really devastated me because now all the fourth graders were in fifth grade with me and the fifth graders was in sixth grade laughing at me so I stopped going to school I started hanging in the Streets On the Block all day every day and at some point I got addicted to drugs and violence this was in 19 1977 I was 11 years old when I was 12 someone shot me with a 12 G shotgun when I was 14 I was sitting in dys for murder when I was 16 I was bound over as an adult and when I was 17 I was serving a life sentence in WF and so there no particular words for the crime that I committed but a long list of behavior patterns brought me to that point and some way in between trying to figure out who I was or wanted to be I started aiming for the wrong star I wanted to be respected in the streets because that's where it mattered to me at the time so to make it to make us a long story short the crime revolved around me acting out the behavior of who I thought I wanted to be Middle School Charles thank you for that [Music] I read a bit about this um I'm so pleased that there are so many talented writers and thinkers Among Us and yours is a this is really moving short direct clear plain and simple love this talk about a bit more about your story because I'm seeing I'm hearing some themes yeah I was also a good student um I was in advanced classes I was honor student until going into the seventh grade um my father left home I was told I was the man of the house and I didn't know what that was me seventh grade seventh grade so then um the school I wanted to go to where my sisters went burnt down and then uh my parents just sent me to the wood H and it was a different environment it was more about trying to survive the de you know you get on the bus and um you go to the back of the bus cuz that's where all the cool people sit and there' be somebody on the bus with no jeans on no sneakers cuz somebody robed it so it became more about trying to survive that that experience and then my Palmer said you know I started thinking about who did I want to be because now in the man at the house there's not as much money going on and my older cousins are street so I gravitated to them as a father figure which was tough because my father was a police officer for 35 years so trying to hang with my cousins and learning what they had to learn my father wasn't as present and then I was still uh a smart kid I picked up things very very fast so I picked up the street life very very fast and the people that was teaching me taught me that everything uh that happens respond with violence it's the quickest way to get to a plateau whether you're against somebody friends if you try to reason with somebody um you always don't get the results that you want but if you hit them in the head of a baseball bat you're going to automatically get and you're in this and now you're in the life and you have to do things you have to supress your um your conscience your morals that your parents tried to teach you when you were young because the only thing that you're dealing with is violence violent people and then you know I got into the drug trade when I was 14 I went from 14 to 26 became successful at it of course you did entrepreneurship yes a lot of great skills yeah everything that you uh need an entrepreneurship you can find it in the drug for and then you know my crime occurred it was a a cold case and you know I got picked up by the fed's first guys in my neighborhood implicated me and it was a crime that I didn't commit but when you're in that life it becomes easier for the prosecutors and them to throw you away because they figur you're not going to do anything with your life anyway I want to get to that I want to hear about you so we've got a lot of stuff happening in middle school take us back to your before hello good morning my name is they call me Dr which is like a nickname for me um thank you guys for being here and you two gentlemen I'd like to take my hat off to you because you guys deal with a lot of trauma and I see you and hear you and um know you guys deserve a lot of respect for overcoming what you did me it was a totally different story I my parents immigrated from Haiti in 84 in 83 and they brought me over in ' 84 I always had my father in my life my mother in my life always really good at school in fact that's what brought me to Boston was Boston L and I end up doing really well and um After High School I you know I had an identity so I went to college down south instead of going to like one of the more prestigious universities that accepted me and after that I came out I I have my son who's here who's um going into his junior year of college right now I had him right I graduated in that that spring he was born on my birth like two days after my birthday that November and my mother was on her Mission um she does a lot of um what do you call that when those missionary people that goes overseas and stuff my mother was doing that because I was raised in a financially stable family my my mother owned restaurants properties you know I I can't I can't ever say I was ever in your shoes gentleman so I would never fake like I was my parents were always doing good and if they didn't do good um they never allowed me and my brothers to know that because they figured out a way to make it good and my my parents raised us always together always go to church we went to church four or five times a week so you know it was it was a lot of church it was a lot of other things so I always had that support and i' never forget when my mother was in um Bahamas doing missionary work and my son was born and she came she flew into Atlanta I had my son in Atlanta because I went to college in Georgia and she flew into the airport and you know she's Haitian so every culture has their way of doing their paternity test or what so she did hers in the car and and after she did she's like oh no that that is your son do not play and she looked at me she said hey I'm about to get back on this plane this is what's going to happen you going to take care of your blood because we don't let blood suffer in this and she kissed me and said I love you and then she got back on playing about now I had to figure out how I'm going to take care of this young gentleman that I had so I set out on a plan and my mother um I started working but you know when you get a job out of college you have a kid the mother's used to a certain lifestyle and whatnot so I had to figure something out and then figuring that out I got into real estate and when I got into real estate my first year you know I was supposed to go to law school so I was studying for my elsat while I was working real estate and and um I never forget the moment um I sat down with my accountant to pay taxes you know my first year I did six figures low six figures so then my second year I almost hit seven figures and my father and me were so tight you know he's currently he's transitioned to other to another existence now and I never forget the accountant looked at me he's an accountant out of well and he said I'm me tell you something you keep stressing this law school stuff he said you see these numbers right here not too many people make those numbers so I would suggest you you have a gift you have a gift you understand you understand the way the process works in business so if you had that gift use it use it and keep using it to help yourself and your family and he was like you don't need law school and after I did that I sat down with my father my father looked at it it was his dream for me to be coming in to and he looked at he looked at me I said do I have your blessing not to go to law school he looked at it he said well yeah you got my blessing you know and it's I never look back and then in ' 08 I um they asked me to go against one of my attorneys which was my parents attorney since I was a kid to tell a story on him which I knew nothing about so I and that's how I caught my charge and I took him to trial thinking the system works was I surprised right so my mother was there with me the whole time and um that's what it was before before jail you know thank you so so different stories you all end up there um Palmer I want to go back to to you so you enter uh the system rule talk about your mental state a bit and how you how you grew a bit uh going through that I want when you first got there give us your impressions and then I want to hear about what did you do to find hope so um that's a it's a two prong part to that first I have to acknowledge that I was in denial really about my crime and I I can explain like this I I often wanted to [Music] believe that my crime was an accident because I knew in my heart I didn't arrive at any sing planning to kill anyone in my mind I thought that I could pull off one big Bluff of violence and all the drugs on the Block would be handed to me I mean I seen it done that way so many times I thought that was the way it would happen for me but I knew or I should have known that because I was going somewhere to commit a bad act that a bad act can happen and a bad act did happen and for that I'm responsible and so now to answer your question when I arrived at walport made it how old again Palmer how old are you at this time I'm 16 years old going on 17 different brain I turned 17 in wall but it made it possible for me to experience the fear that I put my Victim through um when I got there Walo was moving faster than the world that I created in my own mind which got me there in the first place it was no feeling of being respected for what I had done just the reality that what I thought I was living for was really a myth and that all of a sudden everything became real the way wpo ran was like a jungle it was a place where all the bad guys I had ever heard about had all come together I had no clout no status I was a nobody and in the beginning I never got a chance to think about what I had done because surviving alone was overwhelming I allowed the situation of wallo to manipulate me leading me to believe that I had to renew my reputation in this new Jungle will be counted out every day someone was being assaulted someone constantly setting a stage of who would run things into the next challenge meanwhile new things were entering my life like race riots prior to wo I've never experienced a race riot before but all of this was being brought to me in the monsterous way that's a lot for a 16-year-old kid child you write about this in your book about the code when you're walking in keep yourself don't sh chair don't look up don't know anyone talk a bit about how you transitioned in well when I went uh to prison I was 26 I had been in the street for a while and i' never been in jail before I've never been before I got my charge I had never been in jail for more than 3 hours cuz you know I had enough money to pay people soon as I got arrested you know sometimes I was out at the police station for the cop day back on the de and I felt that that was always going to be my experience I equated money with you can do anything you want but when like pal said when you get to prison prison is real there's no you know I just happened to be in the street long enough that I knew a lot of people when I got there so a lot of people um you know coming in and out of prison when I was on the street you hear about different people hear about the stories of what you're supposed to do and what you're not supposed to do but when I got there you know there was you know older dudes from my neighborhood that was already there that knew me from the street you know and I was always somebody that I was always my family I didn't want of um you know I wasn't a bully I wasn't a troublemaker but if somebody pushed me I would take your father than they thought I was going to take it and it was based on my fear because I was like if I don't show everybody that this is not I'm not going to be a victim then they make you a victim so when you get to prison it's like I knew so many people and I was like you know you get there and you're like oh this where this dude been for the last 10 years when I haven't seen him so it was more like a elementary school middle school high school reunion and but with a different level of seriousness like again violence in prison solves a lot if you cut somebody in line you're going to get your head SM if you sit at the wrong table something can happen to you so there's rules that that um are implemented by the inmates amongst each other that you try to just get through every day you know mind your business my thing was I don't gamble I don't do I don't and you talk about that in here that's part of a way of keeping yourself safe keep yourself out of situations because when you're in the street you can kind of see stuff about to happen you know if you owe somebody and mostly that I've seen that happen is somebody owes somebody in prison because your family told you that they were going to send you money at a particular time but you don't realize a lot of times that your family is outside living life so if they were going to send you some money but then their car got told they had to pay $200 to get the car off so now they can't send you no money but you can't go to the guy that you owe and said I don't have that money because now he's like oh now you're faking so now something can happen so I always kept my mind on if you don't put yourself in situations then things don't happen so it's a different mindset when you walk in AR how about for you um with the jungle it's a very different Community with pretty severe rules what was it like for you well for me um I was I don't know I was in the Fed so it was a little bit different um when I got there they put us in County with the guys who were the murderers the The Killers the whatever um and there was it's it's funny because when I walked in there I had four guys whose mothers were my tenants so they they kind of knew me so they treated me like the money and in prison if you're known as the money everybody try to do favors everybody try to do nice things to S you a good grace you know because they know like if they have a problem you can help them out or what not so that was kind of good but then um you know I'm 20 28 29 27 no no 08 I was 20 28 mom um sorry it's my mother that's like my right hand thank you mom um so you got to I've never had a situation quite similar to that because I was married I had a successful business you know and I had passive them come I I was living the American dream be real and it was it was like a surreal dream that was Happ you ever read a book in the the the movies playing in your head while you're reading the book and everything the words of the authors jumping out and formulating images in your head and but you know you're but it's like you're not there but you feel as if though you're there because the words are so vivid and the picture is so vivid in your head I felt like that's what I was going through at that moment and then there were people who antagonized me you know oh you really got that money put $1,000 on my bcks or then there was the guys who came over like oh he's not no Street dude but he black hey run his pocket you know try to but the thing was I didn't need to interact with them so a lot of situations I avoided because one I didn't need to interact with them because my mind was getting home from the moment I got in there my whole concept was I got to get home I had my son whose graduation was coming up and I was telling the attorney hey man whatever you got to put up do it I promise him I'm going to be his graduation I have to be there and um it never involved like me getting involved with them so every time they try to give a little push or TR sucking me or whatever this is in County I never went for it locked my door whatever I had to do when I got to prison I was in Club Fed like I'm not going to say oh I I was there with like the mo like everybody that was head of an indictment that you seen on the news I was there with them you know and the worst thing that could happen Was a Race RI and I was there I spoke Spanish I spoke English I spoke CR so I could basically maneuver through everybody I communicate communication was a nation so I was really in a I wasn't really in a bad predicament to I felt in dangered you know but I felt danger was there but I stayed away like okay I'm to myself definitely a different place Charles when you got there and I want to hear from Palmer 2 um what was your innate coping mechanism was it was it your faith was it working out what what was it this a stressful place what in terms of to keep yourself on a level playe mentally what was it um it was definitely my faith I um went to Vacation Bible School and stuff like that with my mom when I was younger so I went back to that cuz I was trying to figure out what happened to me how did I how did I allow myself to be manipulated into this life that meant so much to me and I just tried to you know I went to a lot of progr programs um I started running programs um I did a lot of writing I got into the law library started trying to figure out what happened to me yeah you immersed yourself in that Library yeah I I was in the law library at least four times a week you know working out and just trying to figure out what happened and you know keeping my faith you know I call home like probably every 10 days and my mother would just be like oh y I'm just praying for you you know stuff like that so I just cut my facei strong what did your faith look like in in prison was it organized was it you was it how how did your how did your faith work while you're s while you sitting there yeah I prayed every night I'm a Christian so I prayed every night and um I just realized that you know that I'm I'm more than what they tried to make me out and then when I took stock in myself and how much power I had that I had a mass in the street and I was started thinking what if I what if I just did that in a positive way so I started like you know I would write motions and stuff for guys I would teach guys how to read you know I would I just immersed myself into a teacher role and you know anybody that came to me for help you know I would try to help them as best I could but you know if somebody was like you know pushing a little bit too much I'd be like yo spread your hustle yes you know cuz I don't mind giving somebody something but sometimes when you when people aren't used to you being nice to them they try to take advantage of it the world is filled with givers and they're filled with takers so you have to be able to give But realize when somebody is a full-time taker if Christianity was easy everybody be doing flawlessly yes right that's that's the core Palmer what was it like for you you're a terrified kid mentally what did you do how did you get through that first bit of time well at first I tried to go to all the programs they was ran by mostly the prisoners uh it was like a small Resort that best served those in the group so to speak nevertheless I went to many of them but not really learning anything because it was no paying attention factor had it been perhaps I would not have pretended for years that I could read or write when I couldn't I learned how to read by way of a good friend who's here today Mr Raymond Gaines who not only taught me how to read but in time he made it possible for me to realize that Not only was I in prison but I was there for the taken of someone's life so I had to work very hard to change my life the best way I can answer your question is to say that not being able to read fluently closed a lot of doors for me but open that many more setbacks um but after I learned how to read it became even more difficult you got to remember I'm growing up in prison I'm a 17y old kid faced with a the events of adulthood in prison and I wasn't learning how to grow up I was forced to grow up and that took a long time yeah but what helped me was being um taught by system it's it's it's like someone recording your life um it's very slick when someone records your life even if it's the wrong record being made is just imagine that you're out here and no matter where you are you always have some type of standard to live up to but if you're not careful those standards can be created for you the same thing started to happen with me when the caseworker was sit across from the smile and say things like wow you're a very serious guy and then I have a big brown folder building up this who whole new reputation about me that as soon as I hear it I know it's a bit lit Twisted in the wrong light yet the caseworkers are like small grap Vines themselves they for whatever reason are reporting to all the other staff who share with all the other other prisoners unknown to you what you're about it was times when I wanted to say to them that's not what I did that report didn't happen like that and by the way that fight wasn't because I was a tough kid it was because I was afraid and felt like I had to do something but by the time I realized that I didn't like what was being said about me by the time I grew up in a place that was meant to stop my growth I was stuck with with li inside of those big brown folders it got so beyond me that I couldn't even know things about myself I couldn't get a copy of what was in them files without filing a long list of Corey forms to be approved only then did I realized that something was wrong at that moment I realized that doc stopped recording me as being a person and I became what was on paper your number pmer what did you uh when you first learned to read what was what was your favorite thing to read well I I've always been a student metaphysics and so I would I would I would read a lot of books that was abstract um there wasn't you can learn if if you read the same book that I read we would both get something different from it it was an indirect conversation and I learned how to think outside of the box right and I and I learned a lot of spirituality stuff when I started you know just being in space and you know um reading about stars and you know clouds and cubulous clouds and you know things like that I just became it just opened up a A Whole New Horizon for me you know and I I never really the best book that I ever remember reading was Ernest Holmes and the name of the book is the science of the mind and then again it was metaphysics so intellectual curiosity helped with that sort of Health you mentioned some programs um Palmer did you I want to ask all three of you what are the kind of things just from your mental state what are the kind of things that um programs uh and things that maybe the prison did I'm going to ask you plenty about this but did they do anything well in terms of programs is there anything worthwhile that you look forward to while you were there not for me so when I when I try to go some of the programs they had um and what were some of them P what were they like all of them anger management emotional awarness alternative to violence and I'll give you an example in one of these programs anger management it was a student from um um Emerson College and and I kind of got offended because I realized that she didn't understand what anger was she was up there trying to get a grade like it was a part of her hands on um you know part of her curriculum for her to pass her grade and so I was frustrated and I cuz I really needed help at this time you know I I was I was a lost kid and it's one thing when you have life it's another thing when someone take it from you a sidewalk is different for me grass a leaf on a tree that's different for me you know I I seen it and then it was toen from me I did 7 and 1/2 years straight and I'm luckily to be out through God's mercy that's right I had a slew of people in the community helped me get out right I I wasn't supposed to get out and I was being bad in the prison catching cases and the stuff like that and so go back to your question I'm sorry for digressing no you're answering but but the go back but to go back to your question I asked this lady who was teaching anger management class what was anger and she couldn't explain to me she said it was a feeling and I said what what's the feeling and she said it was the emotion and I said what's the emotion and she couldn't describe to me what anger was at his lowest de denominator and so she tried to really reverse psychology and say you tell me what anger is and I said anger is a indicator let letting you know that something bad happened to you and so the message behind that is anger is never the problem it's your response to anger so you can get angry you can study for a test and really hard and not pass the test and get angry but that could be a motivator for you to study harder and pass the test so when when I realized that it was all right to feel what I was feeling that's right but I had to learn how to respond to it and you're that much older were there any programs Charles that that you took advantage of whether they were mental health or other programs in the prison yeah um the two that that stood out for me was one called men's work um it was taught by a guy who was sort of a hippie type guy this guy named Blaze and what was it and what was what he did was he had us go back to our childhood and he said um what was the biggest uh trauma that you suffered in your childhood and you know they went around the class and he said um cuz mine was nine when my father left and he said write a letter to your 9-year-old self what you would what you would want to tell him or what you wish your father would have said to him and that was liberated yes and then he he said but write a letter to your father telling him what you wish he would have did but don't send just to get those feelings out and that one was good and another one was Father's group um some they call a young father's group father cuz I had a son um when I went to prison my son was five and I was um a single parents you know his mother was there but we um we broke up and I wanted my son to be with me and then unknowingly I did the same thing to my son and my father so I had to deal with that so you had these programs at least these programs yeah and it taught me how to be a better father taught me how to deal with my emotions because when you're inside and you have a child and you're not with insire as mother it becomes difficult for the communication because you know you're going to call that particular time you set that up but you're still learning that life on the outside doesn't happen like when you're inside everything is regimented you know you're going to eat at this time you know you're going to lights out at this time you know everything is structured but life on the outside is a structural so if I was supposed to call at 7 and I call and nobody picks up the phone now I'm pissed because I'm like you know that I'm going to call at seven and learning how to uh verbally lash out when you feel disappointed ER what did you do when you were in any kind of programs that you found useful helpful well to be honest when I got there they um they made me a tutor for people um who were trying to pass the G and I worked in the library and did L of running when I say a lot of running like every day I'd get up I'd run for at least 40 minutes at least because you know I was I played Sports all my life so that was my kind of ability to cope with things I never I grew up in a religious household but I was always more of a critical thinker um programs when I got the prison I'm not even to lie to you I looked at it I said I don't want to doal because like they said like you know I'm Analytical in way if I look at something and and I see it doesn't make sense or I don't see the true the energy the right intentions behind it I just don't want to do it because it's it's a recipe for chaos at some point especially when you're there with a bunch of individuals there was there was one particular guy his name was aim he was my first student and tutoring for GED big big big guy from Philly and he was the head of the Muslim car which is like the a gang and like they call it a gang but it's a religious organization for men who follow Islam but they call it a gang because they Ru together they do their whatever they want to do together and I I remember I was helping him with with like his GD this is like his fifth time trying to take it to pass it and the effect if you do not have your GED or your high school diploma you have to keep going till you get it they will not allow you they'll put you in segregation if you don't if you don't go and get it so I remember teaching them something I was teaching them some the multiplication table and I remember this method that my mom taught me and I remember my dad tried to teach it to me and he couldn't and my father believ in corporal punishment like he'll hit you and hit you hit you so I remember my mom did and I try to use it with him and he's like he said young BL how old are you I said um I'm 30 he go well you know I'm 50 something years old man and he started telling me about his life I was like yeah that sounds good but listen I got to help you past this so pay attention to what I'm saying to you oh you really think you could tell me I said no no no no they asked me to help you and I'mma help you then I found out he didn't know how to read so that was another barrier that caused his frustration his anger and he he he focused all that on me to a to blow it out out and he didn't know how to do it properly and I realized as I'm looking at him and he's talking that gangster talking he thinking he's intimidating me and I'm looking at him and I'm like oh okay I shouldn't even be here I shouldn't be here that's god well I'm not religious I'm like that's my message I shouldn't even be here dealing with this stuff because I got to find those who want help not those who they just give me to help out you got to want to help first so after that day you know I kept the cool whatever after that day and never again I told the people at the T place look I understand it's to help people but this ain't for me because my communication skills are not good enough to get the message across to these people they'll be wasting their time and my time and that's what I did I kept my book my mind into you guys ever heard of um Frederick nii he's a philosopher I love him so I just read a lot of books about him that he's written I wrote I I read so much about nii um thear you know those were where I kept my mind those were the places I kept my mind and I did some metaphysical studies and stuff that's where I kept my mind and I study Johnny Diamond I don't know if you guys know him okay he's the head of Chase City Bank oh sure J yeah I I studied a lot of his moves cuz I said I I used to always say like look I'm going be I'm going to be at that level to where he knows who I am and he he calls me so we'll be in the same network that was my that was I love all right working on it I want to talk about after prison we talked about before during and after Palmer what's it like being back and the greatest unfair question but I got to ask it anyway in the interested time tell me about the greatest challenge about being home first I got you so um first I want to acknowledge some some people my mom my wife Kathy Senator Diane Wilkerson State Rep glor Fox city council Chuck Tana city council philis Aya Professor Bill Owens brother Gregory Davis Miss Eva Clark I really I want to really really thank them for their divine intervention and helping me get a second chance in life outside of prison I feel that my history and institutional growth to serve as a great asset to those transitioning into the community since my release in 2007 I've experienced firsthand some of the challenges face when reintegrating into society following incarceration in recognizing those hurdles I along with my great friend best friend brother and and business partner Mr Jonathan Kirkland sitting right here we [Applause] established 1555 Destiny design is a company whose mission is to really take on two critical areas of needs employment and housing and through a holistic and comprehensive approach we are both committed and dedicated to Breaking the pycho recidivism that's right by offering our support to those on the path towards Rehabilitation Palmer how can they get in touch with you website easiest way how do they get in touch with you website but the easiest way is doing my phone cell [Music] phone [phone] and it's 1515 15 1555 Destiny design what's the 1555 okay so this is we we we this is all strategic 1555 so when we was toen from Africa and brought over here as slaves in 1555 John Hawkins who was a pirate hijacked the ship ship that we was on and the name of the ship was called The Good Ship Jesus and we was brought over here to the maricus in his aisles and so today we have the ability to design our own destiny hence 1555 Destiny design every entreprene got a great story behind my name I'm so glad that's George that's trifect Charles tell us a bit more about you after you're home um when I was leaving prison my re-entry counselor told me to just get a job at a fast food place or a car wash keep my head down and stay out of to and I was like she doesn't know that she know you're a writer she know you're a thinker no she didn't know that but she didn't know I made thousands of dollars every week so I'm not going to come out here and you know make $9 an hour because I wouldn't be happy so I came home when I was in prison I did a lot of reading on real estate because I love money you know money is access it's not just power it's access so I was like I have to study how do I get the money that I was accustomed to but then they don't come and take it all away if you get CAU up so I learned that I learned uh communication and when I left I went to the halfway house and because the parole board said they wanted me to see what drugs did to my community and I already I told him I didn't want to go cuz I already knew what it did but I was in there and these guys came in and they had to go to detox for 3 days and then they came back and they said okay if anybody has to go to work you know you can leave so these guys was just told us that they were sleeping in Boston Common got up and left so I was like what job they got so when they came back I asked them and they said if they were Coors and they I said how much do you make at the time I was working um at chipot as the lead cook and they said well we make $34 an hour so I said okay how do I do that so I went down there make a long story short I got into what they call the mill right it's a local 1121 and now I build and maintain power plants upet to me that when I came home none of my friends who had been out there for 17 years could give me a job yeah so I've reached I've been doing uh the union thing for nine years I've been performing on some big projects like you know multiple hundred million dollar projects and now I reached a status in the union where I can say I want this guy in WoW um it's been tough because a lot of guys um you have to deal with a lot of jealousy because you know they weren't as focused so when you come home and you're like laser focused cuz like P said everything out here you're like they actually gave me another chance so a lot of guys get jealous but I still you know if guys come to me I tell them if you can clean a shower in the joint for a dollar a day can go make this $100 a day on Saturday $100 an hour you just got to be able to pass a drug test and have a drive place and I and an imagination yes and I've been able to put on um at least four people but I've also had failures because people can't pass the drug people don't want to stop smoking me so then you know all I can tell them all I'm going to do is give you an opportunity you have to walk through the door great first when you were out I know cuz cuz we met in part uh once you were out but talk about what happened when you out um when I was out before I even came home I'm not going to lie to you I already have my plan I said look I'm not going to there's a statement that goes if you plan to fail I mean if you fail the plan you plan to fail so I'm really strategic and everything that I do and everything that I get involved with so I already had a plan when I came home I had a plan to start um in the health care business and when I told my mother I never forget um I was telling my mother cuz you know my mom's my bouncing boy you know I bounce ideas off of her my mother's like my right hand like Bonnie and Clyde like people I don't have I've never had good luck with women so the woman that's always going to true to me my grandmother and my mother so what I do is I'm sitting in in the house every day tell my mom yeah Mom we going to do this we going to do that and she's like oh baby okay okay that's what mothers do you do you and you know the crazy thing is my mother my mother like it's something about a mother's push and a man that I see it and and I've always had respect for it because my mother I'll tell her I'm about to do this and then she'll push me out there and be like yeah would you say again and I'd have to man up and figure it out and my father he'd be like oh B but then he'll be like no no no let him go and she'll impart she'll be like that one to my cell if if that makes sense like at the moments that I feel like oh man this is getting kind of tough so I went for a job interview well my PO I told my PO look I'm about to start a company she said boy you went to jail for business man I do not want to hear this I'm like come on she's like she's said you better go get your a job I said work for who I can't I was like at 24 years old I have a million dollars you really think work with somebody are you out your mind and she was like well I got these handcuffs right now that's I like well you're right you're right you know that that changes Dynamics Rel so now I go I go and I look and I'm I start doing Uber but at the same time I'm waiting for my my probation to be finished soon as it's about to finish they call me they oh my PO sends me to MIT and they have this incubator and they're hiring people to collect um to collect um what do you call that um to collect trash right our job was well at the incubator they sent me to this place in Dorchester they said this company just got 20 million funding to collect trash from different grocery shops different businesses and organizations for what I don't know but whatever they were collecting for they bring it back to MIT and MIT would analyze the trash and then other stuff like that and I I looked at the lady I said hey um you know I'm good in sales right she says no I don't but I can give you a job for $22 an hour you know take it a leave and she said I said well you know what I know what I know what it brings when you bring in contract so I want a piece of the contract she called somebody called somebody else when she see me walk out she called me back oh no somebody told me you was a great sales person come back we we we'll discuss a commission based situation I was like all right and then one of the ladies heard me talk she said you know what I'm going to send you to this program at BC that's when I met Dr and and I started developing my ideas he's said Put it on paper do this do that do that and I was like okay cool I'll do it homework yes and I don't mind and I started pitching my idea at the final speech one of the Boston College Alum said look we have I have this um transportation detail that I need I need Supply and he was like you have to bring kids on my halfway house to court so they can go get tested and this and that I like well I could do that you know no problem and from there and taking my son to these nursing homes these different facilities pitching hey I have this Transportation come out man that's how I got my start I never look back look now we employ 30 people I have 22 vans [Music] m

Channel: The Life After Prison

Views: 16

Keywords: iMovie

Id: qiuLswYsD9M

Length: 51min 41sec (3101 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024