Prison

I’m a blessed man. For 17 years, I’ve been a Certified Master Business Coach and have helped hundreds of entrepreneurs, start-ups, executives, and business owners grow and improve their personal and professional lives. I’ve worked with clients in 16 countries and have friends and colleagues worldwide.

Those blessings have also allowed me to spend time with some of my passions. In 2015, I wrote A LIFE BEST LIVED: A Story of Life, Death, and Second Chances. It is the story of circumstances that led to my near death. From that experience, I understood that everyone gets a second chance. While most people sit around and wait for someone to give them that second chance, I learned that we all can provide ourselves with a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, and more. We have that ability.

My book somehow ended up in a Prison library, where three inmates read it and then wrote to me about how it changed their lives. I answered back, and the next thing I knew, I was being asked to come to the prison and speak to these and other men.

Since that first meeting, I have returned to that prison every sixty days. I now do a workshop from 8:30 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon. I work exclusively with men in Maximum Security. I usually have 35 or so men in every session where we talk about personal and professional development. In many of these sessions, over half of the men I speak with are “in” for life sentences.

And I am amazed at every session.

I let the men vote on the focus of our next workshop. We’ve done time management, communication skills, public speaking, leadership development, and GOALS.

I was most surprised when they wanted a full-on, in-your-face goal-setting session. Understand that one of my most challenging tasks as a Master Business Coach is getting clients to set thoughtful and meaningful written goals.

Yet, I have a group of incarcerated men who want a session on goals. I asked an inmate I greatly respect and consider a friend, “Why Goals?” Here was his very pointed and severe answer. He said, “Coach, you have two choices when you’re in here. One, you can always remain the knucklehead that got you in here in the first place. Or you can choose to become passionate about changing and improving yourself. That’s why we want to learn about goals.”

So, as you know, this man has been incarcerated for 38 years. During his incarceration, he read over 2,000 books, received certifications in over 15 personal improvement disciplines, and earned a Ph. D in Spiritual Counseling. His favorite line is always, “I don’t do time. I make time work for me.” He helps other men improve, change, and be better people, hoping that someday, upon reentry to society, they can make up lost time, contribute to improving others, and pay forward the time lost.

Through our goals-setting workshop, many have begun to dream again. For the first time in years, and with some for the first time, they have a vision of the future, even if they have no hope of being released. With this vision, they will help others inside become better people, sometimes changing and saving lives.

I recently spoke to one of my “students,” who is getting out in the next 30 days. Since our GOALS discussion, he has set solid written goals, has a vision, and has written a business plan to apply once he is released.

I am inspired to see these incarcerated men apply our discussions and focus on self-improvement when sometimes I see free men who won’t even try. I sometimes wonder who is really in prison: the man on the inside who is developing hopes, dreams, and vision or the guy on the outside who doesn’t care.