The greatness is already in them. Someone has to unlock it.

I repeated the 10th grade. I could not read at grade level, and most of the adults around me had already written the ending to my story.

Basketball carried me further than anyone expected. I played professionally in Luxembourg, in Turkey, and across South America. Then I came home to New York City and went back into the same school system that almost lost me.

I spent years as a dean, a district administrator, and eventually a Deputy Superintendent for NYC public schools, helping shape the My Brother's Keeper initiative and training the educators who stand in front of our kids every day.

In my first year running Prolific Consulting Services full time, I closed $534K in work with schools and districts. Not because of a pitch deck. Because I know what it feels like to be the kid nobody bet on.