In Baltimore, limits are built into the system. Your zip code can predict your life span, your income, your shot at opportunity. No one had to tell me I had limits—I lived them. In the cracked sidewalks I walked to school. In the jobs folks said I’d never reach. In the way survival left little room for dreaming.

At 19, I entered an electrical apprenticeship that changed everything. It wasn’t just a trade—it was a blueprint. A way to navigate past barriers that weren’t of my own making. I wrote The Apprenticeship That Saved My Life because too many young people are still boxed in by invisible lines and low expectations.

Leadership means tearing down those boundaries—not just helping people beat the odds, but changing the odds entirely. That’s how we make limits irrelevant.