My Life Beginnings

My life started in the ghetto of Roxbury, Massachusetts, a mile away from the drug-infested neighborhood where Bobby Brown came up. My father left our family when I was one. My mother had five children, one of whom died in early childhood. My mother struggled every day to feed us—I'm sure many times not feeding herself. A lot of our food and Christmas toys came from the government.

My Mother's Efforts and My Education

Despite all her struggles, my mother did everything in her power to give me an academic edge. After I won the Boston Mayor's Award for academics when I graduated from the sixth grade, my mother colluded with a white family to put me on an academic and cultural Rocketship. This was the point where I had to begin to navigate my path mostly on my own, as my mother's knowledge and experience regarding my new world was very limited. All I could do was to try to hold on.

My Journey and Career

I attended the University of Massachusetts and a computer electronics class at Benjamin Franklin Institute, where IBM hired me. After 20 years in the world of high technology, I became disillusioned with corporate life and moved with my family to Costa Rica, where I had the pleasure of meeting a man named Dr. Deepak Chopra, who contacted me and invited my wife and I to join him at his private lunch with the presidential candidate of Costa Rica during his one-day conference.

My Return and Reflection

How? People always ask me: Why, after 17 years, did you return from the paradise of Costa Rica to the U.S.? This is my true story.