"Some journeys take us far from home. Some adventures lead us to our destiny." - C.S. Lewis

Revealing The Patterns

Understanding my story has revealed a series of critical events that have taken place and a pattern of roles that I've played throughout my life. Without question, there are startling contradictions and dramatic twists in these events and roles, which I have both accepted and appreciated.

I have realized that life is about evolution and transformation; therefore, although some events are incredibly messy, and roles are contradictions and odd, over time, it has all prepared me to discover and execute my mission in life. When spread out over a page and examined, events and roles that were once previously viewed as random and pointless are now seen as meaningful, purposeful, and ordained.

1987-92 | Smithsonian (Science & Technology)

When I was 11, I moved to Reston VA, a quiet suburb outside of Washington DC. I would always take the metro into DC to visit National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of Natural History during this time. Additionally, I would spend hours learning about aviation and science, building rockets and model planes, and pulling apart electronics to understand how they worked.

1992-93 | Marine Corp Aviator (Technology & Racism)

While attending the Virginia Military Institute I was a biology major and NROTC Marine Corps Option Cadet. I wanted to fly jets but failed my eye exam due to an astigmatism. Discouraged, I chose to focus on biology and the possible pursuit of a career in dentistry.

Also during my time at VMI, I lived through the evil of racism past and present. As a Rat, who happened to be Black, I experienced the humiliation and shame of having to participate in the reenactment of the Corp of Cadets Confederate participation in the Battle of New Market. Everyday, I was greeted by statues of men who fought to keep my ancestors enslaved. I felt the hand of rage when a White roommate told me that it was possible that his great-grandfather owned my great-grandfather. And I sat in helplessness when 6 White men, who were friends of my roommate, judge me guilty of threatening a fellow cadet and kicked me out of school because I verbally reacted in anger towards my roommate after his racist statement.

1994| Spring Break (Racism & Injustice)

During Black Spring break in Daytona Beach, Florida, a White Police Officer from South Carolina decided to weaponize his 2000 lbs horse for crowd control. In one swift move, he thrust his horse towards a group of Black college students. I was one of those students. In an attempt to protect myself, I pushed back at the horse. Moments later, the police officer grabbed me and screamed, “you don’t touch my Mother f****** horse!” Five hours later, I found myself in the general population of the Volusia County Jail wearing an orange jumpsuit and bunking with a man who committed severe drug trafficking crimes. Although the charges of Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer were eventually dropped, the impact of the arrest will hunt me during many points of my professional life.

1997-98 | High School Teacher (Science, Children & Education)

After graduating from college, I had to figure out what to do with my life because I decided to put off attending dental school. As a result, I started teaching science at a high school in Detroit, Michigan. During my time there, I learned that I loved teaching and that low-income students didn't have the level of access and support as their higher-income counterparts. I ultimately left teaching due to poor pay and conditions but always felt as if I would return to education at some point in life.

1998-99 | Management Trainee Program (Business)

I was always curious about how businesses worked. After teaching, I accepted a job as a management trainee at a local Detroit company. The program placed me in every department within the company. I became proficient in the financial department, operations, creative services, HR, customer service, sales and

warehousing. This insight fueled my fascination with business and sparked my desire to one day start my own company. Also, during this time, I decided to take a second swing at dental school.

1999- 2000 | Dental School (Science)

While preparing to attend dental school, I was accepted into a pre-enrollment fellowship program at the University of Michigan.

2003 | Crazy Billy (Technology)

In 2003, I meet a crazy but super smart programmer named Billy. He would spend hours talking about programming and how web-based technology would change businesses. As a result of these conversations, and watching him build his own products, I became fascinated with how programming gave someone the ability to cheaply and rapidly build a new service and business.

2003 | Minority Report (Technology)

While watching the science-fiction thriller Minority Report, I noticed how the billboards in the movie personalized their messages according to the people near them. I realized a correlation between the film and how a mobile phone could allow this very same concept to work [everyone had one in their pocket, it contained information, and you could use it to capture a person's location]. This realization was the spark that catapulted me into my founding three startup technology companies.

2009-13 | Tech Startup Life (Technology & Business)

In 2009, I started a company called Gotootie, a location-based text messaging service that allowed you to communicate and leave messages for people in your current location. A few years later, we pivoted into Doccaster, a location-based document-sharing service that allowed people at conventions to share electronic documents, such as presentations and brochures.

This company's success helped us get accepted by the number 3 technology startup accelerator in the world,  DreamIT Ventures. After leaving DreamIT, we pivoted the company into a Constant Insight product, which allowed companies like CBS Interactive to build personalized profiles using a person's email address.

2011 | Sierra Leone Africa (Children & Social Justice)

As a result of some faith-based changes in 2011, I took off to Sierra Leone, Africa for a month to work with children orphaned during the Sierra Leone Civil War. While in the country, I witnessed the massive amounts of social inequities that resulted from the war and the terrible impact that it had on the most venerable [orphans, widows, and the poor]. After my visit, I knew that I had to discover a concept using the skills and gifts that I had been given to help fight injustice against children.

2012-14 | Fern Creek Coding Volunteer Project (Technology, Education, Social Justice & Children)

The Fern Creek Coding Program was a volunteer initiative that I founded at a local elementary school in Orlando, Florida. The goal was to teach a group of 14 gifted 5th graders how to code. During the first few sessions, I noticed that the students showed low enthusiasm for the opportunity to learn how to code. As I tried to solve this problem, I realized that 80% of the students came from low-income families, and 20% were homeless. As a result, I determined that many of them were uninterested in the long-term value proposition of coding because the majority were preoccupied with immediate life concerns and conditions, such as lack of food, shelter, and stability.

Growing up in Detroit, I identified with the complex dynamics that impacted the students. As a result, I asked each of them to write a story about their thoughts and feelings as a way of helping them cope with the emotional fallout