Ambassador of Hope (eBook)

Turning Poverty and Prison into a Purpose-Driven Life

Andre Norman (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
200 Seiten
Lioncrest Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-5445-0722-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Andre Norman's early life put him on a path to prison. Raised in poverty and surrounded by dysfunction, Andre gravitated to his neighborhood gang. His choices there led to time in juvenile detention, and eventually a maximum-security prison, with sentences totaling over 100 years. During that time, Andre became one of the most dangerous gang leaders in the Massachusetts prison system. Then came the epiphany. Just before Andre was to be crowned 'King of the Prison,' he had a realization-that he was about to become the 'King of Nowhere.' He decided that there had to be a way out. He chose to seek success through education, setting his sights on what others said was impossible-attending Harvard University. Now, as the Ambassador of Hope, Andre leverages his unique experiences to deliver a message of inclusivity and positive change. Whether you work in the boardroom or the mail room, if you need that 'second voice' of inspiration to be the change you seek, Andre will help you discover and achieve your purpose in life.

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Andre Norman's early life put him on a path to prison. Raised in poverty and surrounded by dysfunction, Andre gravitated to his neighborhood gang. His choices there led to time in juvenile detention, and eventually a maximum-security prison, with sentences totaling over 100 years. During that time, Andre became one of the most dangerous gang leaders in the Massachusetts prison system. Then came the epiphany. Just before Andre was to be crowned "e;King of the Prison,"e; he had a realization-that he was about to become the "e;King of Nowhere."e; He decided that there had to be a way out. He chose to seek success through education, setting his sights on what others said was impossible-attending Harvard University. Now, as the Ambassador of Hope, Andre leverages his unique experiences to deliver a message of inclusivity and positive change. Whether you work in the boardroom or the mail room, if you need that "e;second voice"e; of inspiration to be the change you seek, Andre will help you discover and achieve your purpose in life.

Textauszug

Introduction

I was being held at MCI-Walpole, a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts, having just been transferred there from federal prison a few months before. I had been in federal custody for two-and-a-half years because, quite simply, the state of Massachusetts couldn’t control me. I was too much to deal with. So, they sent me to federal prison in the hopes that I would perish—that I’d be raped, killed, or both.

Instead, I dominated the federal system. I committed too many violent acts to name or count and was kicked out of nine different states. Eventually, the federal system threw their hands up and sent me back to Massachusetts.

Returning there was the equivalent of sending a college kid to middle school. I was so far ahead of everyone—mainly the staff—in terms of what it took for me to run that prison. It was almost unfair. It certainly wasn’t fair for the other inmates. The minute I came back, I put my gang together and we took over—the drugs, the extortion, the prison wine, the gambling—all of it. I rolled with my crew. Wherever I went, they went. Whatever I told them to do, they did. Everyone knew it. It was no secret.

Coming back to Massachusetts, I had no property of any kind, so I went on a robbery spree. I beat down ten different prisoners and took everything they had. That landed me a stint in what was called solitary confinement, which was a shock to me. When I had been in Walpole three years prior, nobody cared if a prisoner got beaten or robbed—if someone couldn’t hold onto their own belongings, then they didn’t deserve to have them. Turns out the game had changed. The then-associate warden pulled me into his office and explained it to me. Because I didn’t know the new rules, he let me back into general population with the other prisoners.

Some few days later, I found myself sitting in my cell on a Saturday afternoon, bored and hungry. I decided I would go get something to eat.

I walked out of my cell. I walked down to the gate and I gave the correctional officer (CO) a nod. He opened the gate—I had no pass—and I walked down the hallway to yet another gate. I gave the guard there the same nod as the CO as I walked right past him. Then I walked past two more gates to get to central control, all with no one stopping me.

Central control was essentially a bubble encased in glass and steel. It held computers and camera banks so the guards could monitor everything within the prison walls. From there, they control any and all doors in the prison, especially to places like the kitchen where they didn’t want troublemakers—particularly prisoners like me—to get ahold of knives or spices or anything else that can be used to hurt someone.

Another head nod to a guard in central control got me past the gate toward the kitchen. No one was allowed in the kitchen itself who isn’t on staff at the prison, and there was a large steel door with a small slot to look through if someone is on the other side. I banged on the door and the CO guarding the kitchen slid the slot open and saw it was me.

He opened the door.

Everyone in the kitchen gave me some form of salute, because the boss—me—was there. I told one of the cooks to make a burger, fries, and a milkshake for me. I stood back and watched while everyone stopped what they were doing to clear space on the grill to make my food.

That’s when some guy in a white coat stepped to me.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my kitchen?” he asked me. “You’re not even dressed properly. Where is your uniform?”

I looked him square in the face and asked him, “Who the fuck are you?”

He commenced to screaming at me, “I’m the Food Services administrator, and I’ve got this culinary degree, and I’ve run that restaurant, and you’re in my kitchen, and this isn’t right.” At that point, not only was I looking at him like he’s crazy, but so was everyone else around him. Finally, he says, “I’m going to ask you again—who are you?”

There was a song—“Regulate” by Warren G. and Nate Dogg—that was hot at the time, and for some reason, it popped into my head.

“I’m the regulator,” I told him.

“Is that right?” he asked. “And what do you regulate?”

“I regulate whether you go home or not,” I said.

When I said it, the color drained out of his face and he asked me what I meant. I told him:

“I could kill you on the spot and that would be that. If I do that, your wife and kids lose a husband and a father. I’m not entertaining your trying to be loud. You ain’t tough like that, so let’s not be tough. Let’s talk like men.”

He looked around the room and saw that no one was reacting to what I’d said—that I’d threatened to kill him, and no one said a word. No one did anything.

“After ten years of being locked up for killing you,” I continued, “they’ll let me back into gen pop. I’ll still be in prison, and you’ll still be dead. Then I will walk back into this same fucking kitchen, through that same damn door, and I will tell them to make me a hamburger, and that’s just how it’s going to be. There’s really only one question: do I get my hamburger today, or do I get it in ten years? I’m a patient man, so it’s your choice.”

He stood there, paralyzed. Nothing in his training had ever prepared him for someone like me. He’d never encountered an inmate in full control, which is exactly what I was. The other inmates and staff looked at him like he’d just smacked Mike Tyson and not one of them was going to help stop that ass whipping.

On his hip was his radio with an orange panic button. If he hit it, all the guards would come running and save him. I could see his mind spinning behind his eyes, making calculations. Could they get there before I killed him? Even if they saved him, then what? He’d have to deal with me the next day. While his hand hovered over that radio, I made calculations of my own. Then he made his decision.

He slowly walked over to that grill. He leaned over to the inmate making my burger and said:

“Hey, John. Make him two.”

Then he looked back at me and smiled. After that, he walked back into his office and sat down. I can’t be sure, but I’m willing to bet his next move was to call his wife, both of them asking themselves what kind of job he’d gotten himself into. Meanwhile, I took my hamburgers, my fries, and my shake back to my cell, and I ate like a king.

Because that’s what I was.

Alone in a Crowd

But what was I the king of?

I was surrounded by people who would do everything and anything I said. It didn’t matter if they were prisoners or officers: my word was executed upon no matter what. I did whatever I wanted without fear of punishment, because even if punishment came, it only meant that I stayed longer in the kingdom I ruled.

Yet that food administrator who I threatened, whose life I held in my hands because of the power I had? At the end of the day, he got to walk out of those prison walls. He got to go through the big fence out front and go home to his family—people that loved and cared about him. Even with my food cooked especially for me, surrounded by people who treated my word as law, I returned to my cell alone, never to know any other life but that one.

It wasn’t until I had a life-changing epiphany that I realized that I ruled over nothing. What did all that mean if I had nowhere to go and no one to share it with—there was no one who cared about me or respected me that didn’t do it out of fear, or because they had something to gain.

I’ll share that story with you, along with many others. Mine is a tale of poverty, violence, and imprisonment that eventually ends in redemption and a life worth living. It is a story of a man who went from having no hope, to becoming an ambassador of it for countless others—from individuals who fought through life just like me, to some of the richest and most powerful people in the world.

This book is intended to offer you medicine for what ails you—to be a source of inspiration for you when you feel crushed under the weight of the world. That’s not to say that what you’ll read here offers any kind of quick fix. When your doctor prescribes you an antibiotic to be taken for thirty days, do you stop at day twenty? True, you don’t feel sick anymore with only ten days left. Why not stop there?

If you’re going to fix your situation, you have to be in this for the duration. You can take no shorts if you hope to find resolution. You will see that my journey not only took resiliency, but the willingness to accept help from others. If you are open to accepting my help—offered through my story—I will be there with you each step of the way, as long as you make the commitment to stay the course.

If you can do that, then that’s what this book will be for you—a promise to be the voice you need to guide you along your path. I’ll share with you the often-painful stories of my childhood and adolescence that, while likely very different from the life you might have led up until your current situation, will provide you with insight into your own challenges so that we might make progress towards a solution.

I tell you this as a man who went from poverty and prison to speaking on stage at the London Business School—a corporate...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 25.2.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
• ISBN-10: 1-5445-0722-4 / 1544507224
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5445-0722-4 / 9781544507224