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I ran away from home at the age of 16. Between the ages of 16 to 20 i mixed with the wrong friends/kids on the street. got in trouble with the law a lot.
My mom passed when i was 20 years old. knowing an african mother, i knew there was no way she was not disappointed by the way i was living. It hurts more than you can imaging to know that my mother, a woman i loved so much was disappointed in me when she died.
that same year (2000) i decided to flee to america. Yes FLEE. i arrived in los angeles with not a penny to my name, all i had was a brother that allowed me to stay in his apartment for 3 months.
After moving out of my brothers, i moved into a student hostel where i got a job as a desk clerk. i didn't get paid, i just traded this services for free rent, the rent was only $75 a week as there was three bunk beds and 6 people in a room that i shared with traveling student from europe and around the world. Soon after that, i got a job as a D.j in a local strip-club, a strip-club that didn't have a license or permit to operate as a club. I was working 2 says a week at the strip club for $100 a night. i did this for about 3 months until the law shut the place down.
i was back working in the hostel with no income, at times the only reason i had food to eat was because the foreign students in my room would hand me charity.
A few weeks later i walked into a boxing gym in los angeles, while training there one day, i noticed the mirrors and windows were dirty, i made the owner who is now a close friend an offer to clean the mirrors every night because the fighters would sweat on it a lot. he gave me $50 a week to do this, and thats how i survived for the better part of a year.
i decided to enter a field i had no training in or any idea what i was doing, i just watched the men and women who did it best do it, i copied everything they did and worked as hard as i could.
12 years later, im 32 years old and its new years eve. I have a career. pleased to say that i am one of the best in the world at what i do. I have a beautiful place i call home. I have most people's yearly income in my checking account, and im going to celebrate NYE with a $12,000 watch on my arm. how far i have come.
Off his Facebook, true inspiration.
My mom passed when i was 20 years old. knowing an african mother, i knew there was no way she was not disappointed by the way i was living. It hurts more than you can imaging to know that my mother, a woman i loved so much was disappointed in me when she died.
that same year (2000) i decided to flee to america. Yes FLEE. i arrived in los angeles with not a penny to my name, all i had was a brother that allowed me to stay in his apartment for 3 months.
After moving out of my brothers, i moved into a student hostel where i got a job as a desk clerk. i didn't get paid, i just traded this services for free rent, the rent was only $75 a week as there was three bunk beds and 6 people in a room that i shared with traveling student from europe and around the world. Soon after that, i got a job as a D.j in a local strip-club, a strip-club that didn't have a license or permit to operate as a club. I was working 2 says a week at the strip club for $100 a night. i did this for about 3 months until the law shut the place down.
i was back working in the hostel with no income, at times the only reason i had food to eat was because the foreign students in my room would hand me charity.
A few weeks later i walked into a boxing gym in los angeles, while training there one day, i noticed the mirrors and windows were dirty, i made the owner who is now a close friend an offer to clean the mirrors every night because the fighters would sweat on it a lot. he gave me $50 a week to do this, and thats how i survived for the better part of a year.
i decided to enter a field i had no training in or any idea what i was doing, i just watched the men and women who did it best do it, i copied everything they did and worked as hard as i could.
12 years later, im 32 years old and its new years eve. I have a career. pleased to say that i am one of the best in the world at what i do. I have a beautiful place i call home. I have most people's yearly income in my checking account, and im going to celebrate NYE with a $12,000 watch on my arm. how far i have come.
Off his Facebook, true inspiration.
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